And we're off...

First time I've ever had a blog so bear with me as we get through the growing pains. This will hopefully be a place where I can show off my jewelry creations, my family and my ups and downs dealing with Lupus.

I've been making jewelry for more years then I care to admit. I've grown from simple beading to more complex metalsmithing techniques. I still like to create earrings and necklaces from semi-precious gemstones such as smokey quartz, chalcedony, topaz and peridots. I'm just taking that love of gemstones into a new era - a time when I can melt silver (hopefully not too much) and form bezels to hold these same cabochon cut stones.
Bezel setting for me is therapeutic. It takes my full concentration and if I get distracted at all I'm bound to make a mistake. My most common mistake is holding the torch in one place too long and melting a delicate portion of fine silver. Then again, doing any kind of jewelry making is therapeutic for me. It can be absolutely maddening at times but overall I really love it. I can totally space out and lose track of time for hours. Many times I've started in the early evening around 7pm and not looked up until well after midnight.

Lately though this has been a source of aggravation in more ways then one. I was recently (last week!!) diagnosed with Lupus. I've been dealing with muscle and joint pain along with headaches for over a year. Only recently had it gotten to the point where I needed to see a doctor to figure out what the heck was going on with me. I used to joke I had hypochondriac tendencies so I avoided complaining about it too much. Turns out it was something serious after all. I have an appointment with a specialist at the Cleveland Clinic coming up soon so I should know more by then. My mother has suffered from this same disorder for 20 years now - while I know what to expect for the most part it is still the unknown that frightens me most. My next post will be more about what led up to my diagnosis and where to go from here.