A different aspect of the work.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

Little man lying there on the right, helping with the work.

It's a different aspect of the work, actually, but one that takes up both time and resources as well as labor. Wings's vocation requires a lot of tools, a lot of equipment, and they all get used routinely. Sometimes even the expensive ones are not as well made as they should be. What he's doing there is filing down a specialized anvil, one that's designed with a ridged top attachment that allows for holding lengths of triangle wire in place so that the flat surfaces can be stamped without it moving all over the place and wrecking the pattern. But the manufacturer didn't finish its surface properly, and he got tired of dealing with working around that, so he got out one of his big industrial files and smoothed all the surfaces the way it should have been done before being sold commercially.

There's a lot of work in progress right now, and the new cuff is done, so I'll have that up in a while. It's . . . there aren't really words for it. Not for the work involved, and not for the power and beauty of the result. It really needs to be snapped up fast.

Meanwhile, my day today is already being disrupted, never mind all the work I have to get done both on here and off. The current impending disruption has me irritated for a bunch of reasons, not least of which is being treated like we're made of money when I can't even cover this week's and next week's ridiculously high expenses. Yesterday's blood draw set me back $260 cash on the spot, but I came home to an insta-e-mail advising that they would be billing me more (probably a LOT more) as the analyses are completed. I also need to come up with ~1,500 between now and next week for quarterly taxes and other bills, another ~$2,000 by the 21st for labs, biopsy, and path fees, and I've made exactly zero progress on any of it. I'm so far behind and I need to be able to work, but before I can focus on the labor, I need to cover bills, and I can't do it alone. I need to sell some of Wings's new work, but I can't make a sale to save my life, apparently.

The last two months have been hellaciously expensive, with all of the imaging and doctor's appointments I've had to pay for just to have them rule out something extremely nasty; what it IS has everyone stymied now, and it's likely going to cost even more to rule whatever that is in, but it has to be done. I'm also down 3-4 Patreon patrons since May 1st, which puts a BIG dent in what covers our monthly bills. And as of July 1st, I've had to stop posting every single day on Patreon, because I don't have the time and my health can't take it, so I expect to lose more. And my Patreon is what pays our utilities and other monthly bills, so, yes, I'm worried. I'm also exhausted after the last week, and barely functional, so here we are.

I'm skipping all the rest of it because I'm tired constantly, and frankly I don't have the focus right now for anything else. One thing: The mosquitoes are out in force now thanks to the rain, and as you know from the loss of Wings's nephew last year to West Nile, they can be deadly for folks like us. Wings has to spend an inordinate amount of time outdoors right now, and he needs to be able to take repellents with him that are not toxic, so I've added a bunch of them to the wishlist, and they are urgent, especially the 2nd and 4th items on the list. Links are here, but mostly? We need SALES, desperately:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are all the mosquito-prevention items, especially the portables and the patio-surface ones, because Wings can take them around the land with his as he works);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And if you've been contemplating a purchase? This would be a very, very good time to do it; I've got to make up this staggering outlay somehow. There's lots of fabulous new work, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.