Last Entry from Chicago and Workshop Update

(I'm just back from a weekend in Edinburgh, which is why there was a hiatus.)

The last day in Chicago was one of pure tourism. I woke up very early and as the show opened at 11 am and my airport shuttle was at 11.30 am, I thought that a walk around the area to see some more of the city would be in order.

Ironworkers amongst you might be interested to see this extraordinary cladding on what is now a "Target" shop:

Then it was back to the hotel, the airport and home. The flight home being one of the worst I have ever been on, what with the baby with vile hipster parents who thought it acceptable to ignore it's six-hour screaming session while they listened to their iPods or played games on their iPads, looking daggers at anyone who looked at them; plus the actual fisticuffs fight between the nasty, scrawny English sportswear-chav and the enromous ghetto-fabulous American woman...

I've not been entirely inactive since I returned. Following on from a discussion at SOFA, I decided to try my hand at a true "Gypsy Setting". I'm very comfortable with flush setting, but proper gypsy setting allows for the use of larger and shaped stones. Using a large nut I found in the street in Chicago, I thought I would turn it into a ring by using a lathe to remove the threads and cut it to size, then set it with garnets, rather like the nut ring I habitually wear but larger. This is what it looked like after I cut the seats and engraved the channel round it:

And this is it set:

Since I made the antlers for the belt-buckle, I've been putting them on everything. I was thinking that in keeping with the spirit of rebranding "Everything Everywhere" and "EE", I might rebrand as "AA" or "Antlers on Anything"! I've completed two antler pieces: