so i was awake with insomnia last night and i decided to see what
people thought about having a game competion. i had some ideas like
have a race where you have to hold a 10lb supply cataloge between
your knees while wearing slippery fabric trousers. or how about
blowing bubbles by dipping the head ring of an optivisor into soapy
water to see who can make thier bubble last the longest ? or my
favorite idea was make a slingshot out of your plier handles and a
rubber band to shoot.02 pointers at a target or each other ? how
about sticking used scalpel blades into cieling tiles from a sitting
position ? i am sure it would be a riot since we arent lumber jacks
we cant like saw trees in half and stuff like that - goo
Goo,
Your wildly crazy and I love it!
I don’t know if they still do it, but years ago at a SANG conference
I attended in Boston there was a competition for attendees: The “Saw,
File, Solder” contest; where group of 2-person teams would get up on
stage and build a basic flat band out of sheet in a timed race. The
1st team member sawed a strip off a brass sheet, filed the edges and
ends, then the 2nd team member wrapped it into a ring, soldered the
ends together and shaped it on a mandrel. It was fun, fast and not
without a few minor slip-ups such as when Richard Mawdsly (sp?) slit
his tongue on a backwardly installed saw blade while lubricating it!
Paul
Dear Goo,
so i was awake with insomnia last night and i decided to see what people thought about having a game competion.
You clearly have too much late night time on your hands. Try taking
a Benadril, maybe chased with a shot of whiskey, before bed time.
That’s what I do, so I can get to sleep past my DH’s snoring!
M’lou
Oh! Goo, you made me laugh out loud! I’m game for blowing bubbles
and the plier slingshot game…but then, I’ve a 5 year old and have
current experience with both (and interesting facts on such things
from our 19 year old that ought to help me place, if not win.)
But then, being jewelers, we ought to be able to use loupes to burn
messages onto metal…but that’s more of a summer game. 
Thanks. It’s been a bit of a long morning for a Saturday.
Kim
What about a “hunt the stone” race? 6.01 point diamonds are thrown
randomly on a floor. Each contestant is timed to see how fast they
can find all of the stones. TIme has to be limited of course,
otherwise, the contestants, like myself will be looking for one dang
stone off and on for months because it fell somewhere into the
bermuda triangle of the studio. Apparently everyone’s workspace has
one of those. Oooh…Or maybe finding the one little white gold or
sterling element in a vat of steel tumbling shot? Many of my bench
games involve hide and seek issues. Then of course there could be a
princess-cut emerald in a bezel setting contest…On your
marks…lol. Or maybe a non-paying customer chase game? Ok…
I’m on a roll now… more games are popping into my head.
Hmmm…Why not have a scavenger hunt in Tucson this year?
Hehehehe…thanks for the laugh Gu.
Lisa,( Just participated in my first live phone auction. Fast,
furious and expensive! I bought a painting.) Topanga CA USA
The "Saw, File, Solder" contest; where group of 2-person teams would get up on stage and build a basic flat band out of sheet in a timed race.
Oh, that sounds pretty interesting. It reminds me of the “Sheep to
Shawl” demonstrations at fiber festivals where teams take wool, card
it, spin it, weave it into a shawl.
Elaine
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com ™
Hard to Find Tools for Metal Clay
OK…first post. But I had to share one of my favorite bench
games. I do a lot of work for the Mel Fisher organization (treasure
ship Atocha). I mount lotsa coins and emeralds. Some of the emeralds
are minute to microscopic. I have had to lock my door and strip
search myself to find escapees on more than one occasion. And then,
there’s always the times when 2 jewelers, man and woman, (or not)
are both under the bench looking for an errant finding and the door
to the shop opens. But one of my favorites was once, after a long
day which included picking up spilt shot, as I left work to my
delight (I’m 50ishish) I noticed a man ogling my legs. Nice, I
thought. Til I got home and realized my knees were filthy! Oh well.
Girls? how many of you with daughters remember the first time it was
your kid, not you, that was getting the once over? I s’pose that
could go for guys too.
hmmmm…just reread what I wrote, though it is “G rated” it does
seem to have a theme. Sorry. Too much work I guess!!!
Lainie
lisa - i like that chasing down a nonpaying customer thing seems as
though there could be an element of embarassment and danger involved
goo
But one of my favorites was once, after a long day which included picking up spilt shot, as I left work to my delight (I'm 50ishish) I noticed a man ogling my legs. Nice, I thought. Til I got home and realized my knees were filthy!
Hilarious! Remember it used to be called “housemaid’s knees”?
“Jeweler’s knees” would seem appropriate. We do spend a lot of time
on them!
how many of you with daughters remember the first time it was your kid, not you, that was getting the once over?
Nah, it was too long ago… What got me more was the first few times
I got attention from some attractive young man, and realized
suddenly that he was treating me as though I were his Mom. Sigh. Ah,
well. My husband still seems to look at me the same ol’ way, thank
God! Thirtieth anniversary next spring.
On a more jewelry-related topic, there was the time I looked high
and low for an opal I had been setting… Eventually, a colleague
noticed it, stuck to my butt. I would NEVER have found it!
Noel
How about “The Best Musical Group”? I worked at a place once with
five other goldsmiths. We would play along with the stereo using
musical instruments developed from our tools. We had a percussionist
- quite talented too - that could effectively use anything within
reach, we had a guitarist that was pretty darn good at playing the
saw frame, and we all pitched in with various melodies using
high-speed handpieces, air gravers, flexshafts, oxygen cylinders,
mandrels, bench pans, whatever. I found out that if you pinch the tip
of your torch just right and play with the O2 knob you can make it
sound just like the old hand-under-the-arm-pit thing. It was quite
fun and taught us the value of finding multiple uses for our
different instruments - er - tools. (Yes, we were getting paid by
the hour, and no, the boss wasn’t around)
I kind of like the idea of “Find The Stone in the Bermuda Triangle”,
but I get too much of that already for it to be much fun. I find
myself stopping in my tracks virtually any time I see something shiny
on the ground. It is somewhat embarrassing to hear someone saying
"What’s he doing down there?" when, before I can stop myself, I stoop
down to investigate something that for all the world looks just like
a wax covered baguette under the apple bin at the super market.
Dave
How about flush cutter marksmanship? (snipping excess prong)
You not only get points for accuracy hitting the target, but bonus
points if it makes a perfect pitch “tink” and double bonus points if
you shoot it over your shoulder and can still find it!