Jay,
No, I'm not talking about Daniel Day Lewis' movie. I'm referring to my own left foot.
If I drop something big and bad like a knife or acid I try to be in
another room. Little expensive stones and I freeze listining for the
bounces
jeffD
Demand Designs
Analog/Digital Modelling & Goldsmithing
http://www.gmavt.net/~jdemand
APRONS, my friends, aprons! If you’re wearing an apron at the
workbench, it will catch what…80% or more of everything that falls
out of your hands and doesn’t end up in your lap tray. I find “my
uniform” (a fire-resistant cotton apron) catches most dropped stuff
that would have gone between my legs and onto the floor or down my
shirt.
The little folded seam at the apron’s bottom edge also catches small
parts that would have rolled off the apron and onto the floor. The
apron keeps me from losing stuff, keeps my pants and shirt much
cleaner, and prevents those small burn marks on my clothes from hot
dropped parts.
I designed the fire-resistant cotton apron many of the supply houses
carry, so I made sure it had the features that worked best for
jewelers.
Jay Whaley
Daniel,
I really do think there are “Everyman (and Everywoman) Olympics” in
our everyday lives, and you are my vote for a Gold Medal in the
Catsup Division!
If the supermarket has security tapes of you catching that catsup
bottle off your foot, that needs to be on Youtube, my friend. I’d
watch that!!
Bravo!
Jay Whaley
Concerning lost parts on the floor: If it involves a student, I will
often suggest they get the broom, and sweep VERY carefully around
and under their workbench, and remind them that these lost small
parts do, in fact, have legs. They could be anywhere in the whole
studio. In this way, with these suggestions, I can sometimes get much
of the studio swept for free, and will sometimes find another missing
part dropped days before…
Hey, it works for me!
Jay Whaley
I actually wrote a little “hum” (with acknowledgement to A.A. Milne)
for just this sort of thing:
It fell on the floor and now it's gone
Into the alternate universe.
It fell on the floor and now it's gone,
And all we can do is fuss and curse.
And fuss and curse, and fuss and curse.
And all we can do is fuss and curse.
And it doesn't get much worse!
Sorry, can’t remember the name of the tune, but you get the idea! 
Emie Stewart
Jane,
The way it works for me is, when a small, labor-intensive part you
are working on is dropped on the floor, it is seldom found until
AFTER you have re-created that missing part. Then the original
missing part is found while you are looking for the part you just
dropped. The just-dropped part will show up only after you’ve dropped
another part.
Isn’t that how it works?
Jay Whaley
As a jeweler/metalsmith I have two reactions:
When I drop something small, I slam my legs together, catching
whatever it is…
When I drop something hot, I instinctively spread my legs: better
the floor get burned than my tender bits.
One day I dropped a brand spankin’ new three square (triangle)
needle file. I treated it like a small object. That decision left me
with a left inner thigh harpooned, the file impaled at 90 degrees to
my thigh and quivering.
Should have let it drop…
Andy
The Posting of “My Left Foot” has to be the most amusing piece of
"work" I have read in ages. Thanks for bringing up the subject! I
love it!
I have had super laughs this morning with my coffee! BUT…I do
think I need to get one of those aprons that Micro Mark carries and
try to catch things before the reach the “virgin clutch”, with no
protection of the thighs…fortunately no stabs from files yet. But
the luck of 40 years could run out!
Orchidians Rock!
Rose Marie Christison
I quickly clasp my legs together and it usually works,
Hmmmmm. That usually works until it is the wrong object like a scribe
or something else sharp. (Just a report from someone with similar
reflexes and a recent slight limp. wink!)
J Collier Metalsmith
Thank YOU. I did not think i was the only one but when i relate what
the Problem is… I am responded to with disbelief! However… My
loosing things runs over to… a lost Check… written to me! or lost
$$. In a humorist view… It is all too frustrating. I am told… My
Art is Great… but my handling of the business part of the
Business… s ! Thanks Again!
Catching between the Thighs
Dont do this when you are soldering, I got two hugh blisters.
David Cruickshank (Australia)
Jane, I keep a flash light in my studio to find the stuff lost on
the floor. You scare me using a torch to look for stuff!!! I’d burn
the house down. And you are lucky to have a son who knows what he is
looking for!
Roxy
I didn’t think much about it, till I read this piece, but I know I
have instinctively kicked out to break the fall of pieces I have
dropped a lot of times over the years. Purely instinct by now.
When we set up our current shop the store owner’s wife picked a 12
inch suare stick down flooring material that really has a cushioning
effect, and risk of damage to dropped pieces and stones has become a
thing of the past.
Also a thing of the past now though, is my ability to instantly
locate an object that my flex shaft has grabbed and flung, by
listening to the clues of sound. The new flooring not only cushions
an object from damage, it makes no sound at all when an object
strikes it! Unintended consequences.
It is interesting how time sort of slows down as the fragile object
falls and spins toward the hard surface. I have often felt like there
is some unseen force or magic that guides my hand, foot or knees to
catch the object just in time. It surprises me because I was never
very good at baseball, at hitting or stopping grounders. But when
it’s a jewelry related something or other flying through the air it’s
like I have the reflexes of a cat and can catch anything. Then, after
the moment passes, I’ll get up and walk right into a cabinet or trip
over a box.
Mark
As one who habitually drops small items I am now in the process of
trying to train my left foot to do the catching. I spend an
inordinate amount of time crawling around my studio trying to
retrieve dropped items. Getting to the point where getting up again
is not as easy as it used to be. Gotta get that left foot trained. I
am going to set up a regular training routine.
Might also work on getting the right foot to do its part.
Alma
I drop many small pieces of metal, stones, beads, tools etc. If I
need it right away I try a light first, then a sweep to the light. I
go through my floor/bench sweepings in small batches with magnifier,
tweezers and light every so often. I keep meaning to turn up and
anchor a cuff on my bench aprons so that it will catch what my lap
doesn’t. Simple solution…why isn’t it in production?
Marianne Hunter
So, I was standing facing a work bench with my back close to a wall
when I dropped a tool, on bending down to retrieve the tool quickly
my backside hit the wall just hard enough to propel me head first
into the edge of the work bench whereupon I collapsed in a heap on
the floor. At that moment the phone rang and in my hast get up to
answer it I grazed my head against the overhanging table edge. I have
learnt to react slowly when things drop etc. especially in confined
spaces.
I find that is true. Of course if you make an extra part in the
beginning, it ends up as an extra…
Sorry to all those who pictured me crawling around under my bench
with a flaming torch better used for soldering and melting… just a
minor language difference… the English and Aussies still call that
battery operated light giving device you in the US name a flashlight
by the name ‘torch’ !! I keep both kinds of torch in the studio, and
have yet to confuse their uses. J
Jane Walker
I have a circular “brand” on my left forearm from a hot jump ring
that jumped down my sleeve, “tattoos” on my fingers from drilling
holes into them…but by far my most embarrassing scar is the burn
on my knee that resulted from dropping a relatively large piece of
hot silver on the floor at my feet, and then somehow managing to,
while trying to figure out where it had gone exactly, twisting around
on my little rolling chair with a lit torch in my hand and FALLING
OFF MY CHAIR ONTO THE HOT PIECE OF METAL! Imagine me, down on the
floor trying to keep my right hand holding the lit torch up,
realizing that I was burning the bejeezus out of my knee, and then
slowly disentangling myself from the situation. No, wait…don’t
imagine that…