Education and Fire Power

It's been a week with an education focus with a trip down to the midlands for some training for a job I'm doing. It was great to catch up with some friends from the school I used to teach at who made up for having to sit on a train for ten hours just to attend a three hour meeting!

I've also been preparing assignments and a short lesson as part of the PTLLS course. I felt nervous teaching a small group of lovely people for twenty minutes which seems a bit daft given I've managed to teach large groups of teenagers I've never met before!



My workbench has been a bit quiet with all this other work and I am awaiting the first delivery of recycled silver before I can crack on with new pieces. I have been fiddling with my blog layout and did manage a bit of a play with the copper foil a kind lady from the PTLLS course brought in for me. I made an absolute shambles of it but I now get how it works and think, combined with jeweller's silver solder, this has huge potential. The photo shows the light coming through the glass and deliberately silhouettes my messy soldering!

I've also come to the realisation that I need a bit more fire power at the bench and will be investing in a new torch to speed up the soldering process. My current torch is perfect for small jobs, it is quick and precise, however, on larger pieces I am struggling to get the even heat required. A more powerful torch may mean a move to the garage for safety reasons so now I just have to work out how to make the garage a more usable space. No electricity or windows poses the main challenge!