Since I wrote about summer camp in the last entry, why not vacations today? Summer also reminds me of past vacations when the children lived at home and the break from school was “our time”. I can’t help but wonder if some families are doing as we occasionally did by taking their vacation at home. When we did a home vacation, no one worked and I didn’t cook. (Was that the best part?) Since we moved reasonably often, home vacations gave us the opportunity to really explore the area in which we were living. One week while living in the Dallas area, we visited the Children’s Museum, Museum of Natural History and the Aquarium among other things. These were short relaxing jaunts and we had the time to enjoy each one without hurrying off to the next big adventure as was often the case on an out of town trip.

Yesterday, I thought about a jewelry vacation. It sounds like this could mean relaxing and taking a break from designing jewelry, but that wasn’t the case. I took a couple of pieces of jewelry on their little vacation. That term could be a misnomer since it was more like a road trip, but the pieces did go somewhere! As I’ve mentioned before, I like to wear my new designs to see if they will hang correctly, feel good and also to see if they get noticed. The bracelet shown here is made of copper that was torched and then polished. I added dangles on the jump rings linking each circle. Although I spent what seemed like an enormous amount of time filing and sanding this piece, it still developed a problem on its vacation. (This is not unlike some children – excluding mine, of course.) I noted a couple of spots that were still a bit rough when I used my wrist. It was good to locate these and fix them before marketing the piece.

The necklace in the photo also got a vacation yesterday. It is made of brass with copper and silver wire and copper chain. This one did well and only required a slight turning of the jump ring to be fit for human wearing.

I think these vacation-road trips work well even if the trip just takes the design piece around the house as I work. The trips can reveal any design or technique flaws and give me a chance to make things right.

Hmm . . is that what vacations do . . . reveal your need for relaxation and give you a chance to make things right with the family? I guess I’d better think about that and practice the latter a little even before our vacation. My husband might really appreciate that and It certainly couldn’t hurt!