You might have spotted my Doctor Who obsession enthusiasm, well, I make quite a few Who and geeky themed pieces, all of which are available on my website, and many in my Etsyshop.
I have a no- quibble guarantee with all my work, and occasionally I have a return.
This week I was contacted by someone who’d been bought one of my TARDIS pendants as a gift
The story was as follows:
“…my gorgeous tardis fell from my neck. I searched everywhere and remarkably it turned up a week later on my driveway. It would appear it fell on my way to the car and was then picked up by a bird and left on my roof until heavy rain washed it down.
It looks like it has been run over. Would you consider reviewing the damage and repairing?..”
Well, how exciting. And how lovely to have one of my pieces described as gorgeous.
That’s a #HappyDance right there
For those of you not in the UK, we’ve been quite restricted in our movements – although not actually ‘locked down’ like some areas, we’ve been asked to stay home as much as possible. It seemed to me that my customer’s TARDIS had, true to the original, taken it upon herself to go for a wander, properly travelling in Relative Dimensions In Space and quite probably in Time too, before choosing to return home.
This made me very happy.
As did the opportunity to repair her.
My customer has returned her to me and I reviewed the damage.
Surprisingly minimal – the bail on the back was properly crushed, and there were some serious scratches on the back too, but the front is mostly undamaged. Here she is, on my (new) peg, whilst I reviewed the damage to see what needed doing. You can see she’s also got a bit of a wonk going on, which definitely wasn’t there when I sent her off to this lady’s partner back in May
Repairing was a simple task – just heating to melt the solder that was holding the (now useless) bail on; a bit of judicious filing some serious sanding and polishing back to remove the scratches and the remnants of the excess, old solder and then making and applying the replacement bail, (utilising an off-cut from my scrap pot) with a polish and a trip in Betty-The-Barrel-Polisher
Finally I gave her a waft in some XL Gel (my favourite liver of sulphur solution) to bring her back to full glory
I always check back with my customers throughout the process of making or repairing a special item. It’s amazing how often a request will evolve during the process of a commission,. To my mind, half the point of commissioning a crafts-person is for the interaction and the other half is the resulting uniqueness.
Because this TARDIS had been off on her own adventures, I thought it would be nice to reflect that in my repair, and keep the wibble-wobbly-ness in. My customer agreed, and so the finished, repaired TARDIS is nearly as good as new -in fact she’s arguably better than the original because she has such a delightful story to tell.
So, I got to repair something for someone, enabling her to wear something she loves, and because I was able to reuse my offcuts, I was able to do so at minimal cost.
A two-fer. Splendid. And double duty for August’s #ScrapHappy
Kate , Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn (me!), Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin, Vera Del and Nanette
Now that’s a proper good ScrapHappy story 🙂 I have to say, I do love the look of the Tardis all tarnishy and heated. I’ve always thought a universe-traveller ought to look a bit more, well, beaten up…
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well, it’s only scraping into scraphappy, really! And yes, my favourite TARDISes (TARDI ?!) are the ones that look like they recently had a rough landing. Hopefully she’ll get her’s back today, or Monday. It’s been one of my more fun repairs. I usually have stuff from other jewellers to repair and there’s always a very stressful moment if heat has to be applied, coz so much jewellery sold as silver, isn’t silver at all. No to read and enjoy everyone else’s posts 🙂 I love scraphappy day. Thank you
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TARDES…? TARDA…? BTW, I’ve been looking for a pair of earrings and can’t find any that match my imagination. If I draw something, can you tell me if you would make them, and how much? I have a Big Birthday coming up early next year….
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yes, of course., Don’t forget that there are the same caveats regarding postage to Oz though – but if we are in plenty of time and it’s clearly a significant birthday (congrats 😉 ) will you be expecting visitors from the UK? In which case I could deliver them here for you.
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Sadly no visitors from overseas. Probably not even rellies from the next state, as both would be required to complete 2 weeks of quarantine… I do understand about the postage thing. Maybe we have to come up with an imaginative description that isn’t ‘earrings’!
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I love the idea of a tardis going off on an adventure! Buying from a craft maker adds a whole new dimension to buying something – it holds memories and a relationship as well as the thing itself. The repair adds another layer to that and I am sure will make the pendant extra special to its owner.
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I hope so. Thanks 🙂
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What a story that TARDIS could tell…I am glad the wobble was saved!
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That’s marvellous – a real TARDIS going off on its travels.
I love buying from makers, especially when I get to have some input into the process, and to know that if the item gets damaged it’s possible to get it sorted. Recently I commissioned a friend to make something for Mr Snail’s birthday (end of this month) and when it arrived, not only was it beautiful and unique, he wouldn’t accept any money for it… I must make him something in return.
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Wasn’t it delightful? I was so pleased the owner allowed me to share the story.
Occasionally I get the opportunity to trade with a fellow craftsperson. Most recently I and Rebecca Bruton did an awesome swap. I found her at a Craft4Crafters event and fell in love with her botanical work. She is often in Exeter, so came over one day and had a workshop tour. Both of us think we came off best in the art exchange, so I think that must mean that we gauged the swap perfectly!
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what a wonderful story and adventure, how satisfying to know that someone really loves your work and will appreciate it even more after it’s wobble.
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YES!!! Exactly 🙂
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What a gorgeous story. Definitely one for the scrapbook. I’m so glad you posted about it coz now it’ll be digitally recorded for posterity. 🙂
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fanks.
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lol! That is so you. 😀
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How wonderful… love the idea of the Travelling Tardis 😍
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fab, wasn’t it? 🙂
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Sisterhood of the Traveling Tardis 🥰
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That is a WONDERFUL story with a very happy ending!
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it HAD to be shared, didn’t it?!
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How lovely that she loved it enough to want it repaired 🙂
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I know. she was clearly very upset initially, and delighted when she got it returned. Made my week.
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