Day Three~ Get Back to Work

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Welcome back for Day Three of the 31 Days of Vision series. It is my pleasure to share a cup of coffee and a peek into my world.
Today, I'm going back to work, or part of my work. I've been off for a few days now, more like a week. I'm trying to recover from last week's Homecoming football game (we lost) and the weekend of being busy and feeling poorly. OK so I mostly took time creating the 'button' to use with this series of blogs... Let's be honest.

My warm and fuzzy workroom, not here today

Today I wanted to show you one of my jobs. I have several at the moment. I am working in my "studio" today. I put that in quotation marks because it is just an ordinary workroom really. I can call it my studio if I want to, so there you have it. I actually have two workrooms which are totally different and kept totally separate now. I used to have one large room but once I started working on metal I split them up. Who knew I could get so messy!
So this is a picture of the sewing workroom. I sew and quilt and generally go to hide out in this one... It isn't where I'll be today... I have work to do in the other workroom.  It is a bit more fun really, I can't hide out in it, but I do enjoy making things... and this is the place to do it.
It is a mess, and this is an  older picture!! I can't show the whole room today, it is even messier than this! I love this space. It is nice and cozy and yet I have enough room for all the extra stuff I need... and well, it used to be my husband's office, then the kid's nursery, so it seems to hold memories...
So, lets get to work.
One of my jobs is to make  jewelry... and sculptures, beads, beadwork, and odds and ends. This is where I make the ideas come alive. There is never a dull moment here. I can tell you honestly that I never get bored. I do get tired. Very quickly. So what does this all have to do with vision?

beadwork I'm trying to finish

LOT and lots. Stop and think about how to cut a piece of metal. You need to be a bit accurate. You need to be a bit careful. and you need to be able to see what you are cutting. Straining your eyes makes you tired...
Ahah!
This is where I want to introduce you to my best friend in the world.  I should say friends... because I have several in each workroom.

 I use a lot of magnification. Every thing that I do has to be put under the glass or worked on with a set of additional glasses. I have quite the variety. This large one with the light under so it doesn't glare in my eyes.
The third hand with magnifier is wonderful, it can hold a piece that you are working on and magnify at the same time, and you can use it in conjunction with other glasses.

 here's a variety of glasses. they are all used at some time or another, the ones that have the most magnification are kept in their wrappers, I don't want any scratches or dust on the lenses.
Here are some that can clip onto your tools. Really handy if you are working with tiny little parts.

 I am a huge proponent of safety glasses. I have quite a few pair of them as well. I keep the slip on kind for doing easy stuff, usually like things that won't involve flying metal. Sometimes I use them for sawing, but only with care. It is easy to forget that you don't have really good protection and start another part of the project that might be dangerous. The ones with the wrap around are a bit more protective, but they aren't going to keep out fumes. I do have a pair of those, but I'll save them for later.

These are also very necessary to be able to work efficiently.  Lights. Good lighting is essential for those with low vision, like me. Direct light might help some, but for me, lighting that is behind me or above me is best, and not too glaring.  I like the light tree that you can adjust. I can have all or half of the lights on. I usually have them all pointing towards what I am working on, but at times, up in the air is good as well.
I've found that having  a lot of light can tire my eyes out, and sometimes even the heat off the magnifying glass light can make my eyes dry and feel tired. so I keep eye drops handy. Since I live in the desert, dry eyes are the leading eye problem.

4/0 and 6/0 jewelers saw blades

I do a lot of sawing on metal, all of it with a jewelers saw that takes blades that are pretty tiny. The 4/0 size that i use have 66 teeth per inch. I can't see them, I just know they are there by touch. Most people are that way. You run your fingers down the sides of the blade to find the teeth, or put it under the magnifying glass... The teeth face down when in the saw, so you have to make sure the blade is in with the teeth not only in the right direction, but actually facing outwards. I have actually put them in backwards and it does work... just kind of backwards. In my lazy, awkward way, I tried it out!

I hope you will join me again, Over the next few weeks, I'll go over a few of my other jobs, bring you along on some travel, football games, tennis matches, and maybe even bake some for you

A connector, ready to be cut.