Oils & Spoils

Last week, one of my friends approached me about making earrings for her daughter from some very special guitar picks – Taylor Swift guitar picks.

As I was showing Klaudya my array of guitar picks, the ones I bought several years ago with the intent to make earrings, she suggested I practice on them before working on the TS picks.  Well, duh.  Why didn’t I think of that?  I’m usually not a wing-it type of person.  All I can say is, I am so glad I took her advice.  I placed the punch too close to the top of the first pick and ended up with a nice half-circle from which no ear wire would ever hang.

I practiced on four more, two of which are not perfect, but good enough for me to make a pair for myself, and two of which became earrings for Klaudya.

Finally, I felt ready to tackle the TS picks.  All I had to do was punch a hole at the top of each one.  I should mention that one of Klaudya’s friends passed up the opportunity for fear of cracking the picks.  I placed the punch on the first one, eyeballed it with my magnifiers, and applied pressure. The punch went through, and I had to work the pick off the punch.  No cracks and no breaks. Same procedure and success with the second one.  I swear after each punch, I felt like I had just successfully detonated an explosive.  Big breath of relief.

Klaudya captured my working hands with her phone’s camera.  Hard to tell if I was working or shaking.

So, a few takeaways:

If it’s important, don’t wing it.

I’m a big fan of progression, not perfection, but sometimes it has to be perfect.  And well, practice makes perfect.

Remember all those wonderful guitar picks I bought eons ago with which to make earrings?  I already have a head start from my practice picks.  Practice picks that helped to make pickture perfect earrings.