So... The bloody thing is finally finished and I think I can safely say that I hate it. Don't get me wrong, I think it is pretty enough and I am at peace with the design aesthetic but I loathe its physical manifestation with the burning passion of a dying star. Two month's work and the bloody thing looks like something one could buy at a flea market stall in Chinatown. It does not remotely resemble eight weeks worth of work and considering it is almost one third of my metal allowance for the year it really should look a little more like a third of my year's work.

After having struggled from the beginning with it, trying to build the damn thing on Rhino (failing horribly at it too, despite expert help) and then even struggling to get a decent ingot that would roll out into enough metal to make two strips wide enough, thick enough and long enough to go round the wrist and not cut off the hand. The Thing, being two layers and and really heavy, ended up being a monster undertaking. First step was piercing out all the different patterns on the top layer of silver and getting them rounded and shaped and polished. Now, I can type that in three words but it was a process and a thoroughly rubbish process at that. I lost focus completely and started seeing it in my dreams and nightmares and not being able to concentrate on the accursed thing when actually at the bench. Needless to say, that took way longer than it should have and only after a truly staggering amount of faffing did it finally start to look like something. Once that was done, it was time to make the inner sleeve. Now, having made the outer sleeve in two parts, the original plan was to do the inner sleeve in one. This was not to be. Two halves it was and an ugly solder joint to keep it all together. By soldering the two halves together, this allowed me to make it round on the mandrel without it going skew.

Once it was circular, it was time to cut through one of the joints and put in the hinge. Using the tension of the stressed metal to hold the tubes in place having cut a groove into the side of the tube in which the edge of the plate will sit, they could then be soldered with out fear of them moving. They soldered eventually. After much compensating by heating the huge hunk of silver first to average out the times at which each component would reach flow-temperature, I had a hinge. This hinge was great. Even if I do say so myself. Sadly, I screwed it up with flying colours not a week later by tearing one of the joints out and trying to put it back together, it went skew and I had to take out the hinge and do it again. The problem now being that I had actually already put in the clasp  and now that lovely tension that was there the first time was now gone and this had nothing to hold the tubes in place.

More about that in a sec, the clasp was a debacle in its own right, after having repoussèed a very ornate 3-D version of the pattern that was used, in order to make the clasp a feature, it was blatantly obvious that it was a foul-up and that it was going to be too flimsy to hold such a large piece of jewellery together. Thus a new clasp had to be devised and one that would actually hold the huge thing together, without being a hideous mess. Fun times. So, a huge box clasp was made that would be it's own nightmare eventually as getting the damn thing to click became increasingly irritating.

Eventually, true to form, the hateful thing would click and then refuse to open again. The outside edge of my left thumb is still sore from trying to rip the thing open when it had decided that it's activities for the day were over. To my disgust, the thing was skew and that was why it was being so bloody recalcitrant and this meant fixing. Sadly, my "fixing" was more of a screw-up than an attempt to make anything work and the thing ended up going so pear-shaped that it could have sat in a fruit bowl with no one noticing. So. A new hinge. No tension. Bollocks. It was at this moment that the expert Idea-Fairy suggested that I rivet on a hinge. That solution was short lived and although it would fit in with the aesthetic, it gave it a feel of hardened industrial experience that I was not actually aiming for. Either way, the hinge was on, the clasp was in a mood to behave and now to put the whole thing together.

 Tracing out the outlines to allow the light to come through and a hint of flesh through the 100+grams of metal was going to be an Undertaking. With a capital "U". Either way, after marking, and cutting and getting it done, I could finally sort out the surface treatment (a voyage of discovery and pretty colours) and then attach the fret work. After nearly two dozen rivets and heaven knows how many curse words and sleepless nights, the thing was done.

Personal feelings of frustration and misery aside, I have had good feedback on some respects but to be entirely honest I am just really glad that it's behind me for now. Today was mid- year hand in and I can say that it was a bitter sweet relief to be able to just forget about the nightmare and stick it in a big brown envelope and sign it over to someone else. Maybe it will give them nightmares too. One never knows. Being two pieces behind according to my deadlines, thanks to the Hell-Manacle doesn't fill me with any joy either, so even though all the work thus far has been handed in, I'm still not free to go and drown myself in pillows and duvets. That is only in a week's time. Work on the next piece is already under-way and frankly, I'm just relived that it doesn't go on one's arm. The next plan is earrings, some heart-stopping chandeliers with delicate piercing and movement... See how that goes.