Thursday, October 22, 2009

Craft Scars: Bleeding For Your Art!

WARNING! The following stories are real, and not for the faint of heart!

We crafters are a brave bunch. Everyday we chance severed appendages, 3rd degree burns, and repeat trips to the E.R. for the love of making. After narrowly missing another very serious burn after a hot jewelry piece fell over in the kiln, I got to thinking about the hazards of our trade. That beautiful hand knit scarf or dazzling pierced silver pendant, might just literally be made from blood, sweat and tears…. Here are a few of our stories.

“the ugliest was when I was punching out circles of
copper for earrings late one night in the studio. I was holding the
punch block and part of my thumb got caught between the blocks,
pinching some of my skin. I hit the punch w. my hammer and totally
nailed my finger between the blocks. it was the biggest most throbbing puffy purple blood blister I ever saw. ugly. oh, ugly and hurty.” –Tigerlilly Shop

“Goriest for me would probably have to be splinter of silver wire deep
in my foot. Required actual surgery with anesthesia, four days
recuperating at home, and two weeks of going to work in stupid little
bedroom slippers.” -Atelier Beads

“ooooh! metal in my eye! took a chunk of white part out. no kidding.”
- Sweet Pepita

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ouch... we all should be careful I guess...

WendyK said...

I cut my finger open with a tree saw and required 7 stitches all for the want of cedar hooves for a centaur costume. It is a GREAT costume, though it nearly killed me. I also got several scald wounds form using a big pot of boiling water to form PVC pipe into a suitable shape for the skeleton support structure.

Jill Popowich Designs said...

Yikes! That made me squirm a little.

Fall 2011 said...

a CHUNK OF "WHITE PART"?!?! ugh, shannon, that's the grossest. you win. (wait, was this a contest or a prelude to Saw 6?)

tarabu said...

. . . and this is why my dork self wears safety glasses when I sew!

Not sexy, but safe.