The good and the bad.

I'm going to start with the bad.  About a week ago I posted about some fun kimono fabric pendants I was working on.  I got some awesome copper plated bezels and I added some really pretty showa era kimono fabric to them.  Right away I liked the colors and how the copper high lighted the vintage fabric so well.  

It normally takes a day or two for these pendants to completely dry and set up but this time it was taking much longer because of the dampness in the air from all the rain we've been having.  As each day was passing I was noticing a distinct darkness beginning to appear around the edges of the fabric.  At first it wasn't too bad and actually was adding a pretty antiqued feel to the pendants.  I should have known right away that this was a bad sign.

Here we are now about a week later and the pendants are a wash.  They have discolored so much that I can't sell them.  I don't know how much more the discoloring would have continued.  This photo was taken about one day after the discoloration started.  Two more days later and the pendant in the middle was dark all the way across and you could no longer tell it was flowers.  Huge lesson learned.  I think the delay in the glue drying caused the copper to begin to patina and stain the fabric.  Copper is a fickle metal to work with.  I think in the future I will use chiyogami paper in copper.

the weird blue tint shouldn't be there, middle one is the worst.

The good, well good but scary.  I got approval today for disk replacement in my neck.  I was so worried that insurance was not going to approve surgery without an appeal.  Surprise,  I guess after almost two years of pain, failed physical therapy and spinal epidurals they decided it was time.  I am so glad because I have gained about 30 pounds from the steroid treatments.  I don't think I could handle doing any more of those.

Facing this surgery is terrifying but at the same time I am relieved and looking forward to the surgery day so I can get back to being me.  I don't normally post about things this personal but it feels a little great to get it off my chest.  My surgeon and my regular physician both think I am an ideal candidate and that I will recover quickly.  I can't believe the expected down time is only a week.  Fingers crossed that I will actually recover that quickly.