Back at the clay table

You can probably tell when I get my creative mojo back. Things get a bit silent around here. And, in fact, if I hadn’t remembered at the last minute that today was Wednesday and I hadn’t blogged in a while, it probably would have been yet another day before I popped in here.

So, what have I been doing? Crochet hooks!

Working at the clay table is tough for me, because I have a tendency to hunch over my work, and that position is not too friendly for my right shoulder. I generally only have about two hours in me before it hurts enough that working is no longer enjoyable.

Because of this, I usually plan on making only six hooks per day. I can spend my two hours putting on the handles, and then rest my back and shoulders while they harden in the oven. Once the hooks are cooled off, I can spend another hour or so sanding the daylights out of the handles, and buffing them to a nice shine.

Six hooks is physically comfortable for me in a day.

This week I decided I would attempt to do eight hooks per day. I had thirteen custom orders I wanted to complete this week, which would mean I could do eight of them on Tuesday, and the other five plus three for the shop on Wednesday. Only that didn’t happen.

Oh, I put the handles on the first eight hooks, alright, and my shoulders were none-to-happy by the end of it. But later, instead of sanding and buffing those eight hooks, I decided to put handles on the other eight. My shoulder felt better by then (it generally does in just a short while). And then after supper, I did another eight! Only that last eight turned into ten when I had some leftover patterns I wanted to use. So altogether twenty-six.

I put handles on twenty-six hooks yesterday! That’s twenty more than my usual daily quota.

I was definitely sore after each session, but it’s so nice to have all of these hooks done now!

Well, not done done. They still all need to be sanded and buffed, and I suspect that’s another two or three hours of work, but that’s a job for tomorrow.

So if you ordered custom hooks from me, they are on schedule for shipping by this weekend! Yay!

If you did not order custom hooks from me and you are kicking yourself, go ahead and place an order. I’ve decided I’m up for one more marathon hook-making session if necessary. Just don’t wait because I won’t be in this mood for long…

If you miss that custom ordering window, those extra thirteen hooks will be showing up in the shop this week sometime.

Whew.