It's all about having the right tools

The jewelry market is super, super competitive...I don't think that I've run into a person in the last five years who doesn't claim to be a jewelry designer. I don't think that I've ever been to a craft fair/art show/etc. where I haven't overheard the phrase "It's pretty but why would I buy something I could make myself?" The problem then, is trying to create something that would be very difficult to replicate, a piece that is truly one of a kind. Of course, when you start expanding your jewelry line and trying to come up with something different, you discover that you need some additional tools...which cost money...which you don't have...because you spent it all on vintage clip-on earrings and the cutest little patent red Mary Janes. But where there's a will, there's a way...and conversations like these:

Me: "OW!OW!OW!$%^#&&&**&#@!OW!"
James:"Are you ok? What are you doing?"
Me: "I hammered my thumb...bad."
James:"What are you hammering?"
Me: "Copper...I'm making a necklace...see? It's pretty!"
James: "Is that a pink hammer and an ice cream scoop?"
Me: "Um...I needed a metal surface to hammer on...it's not like we ever eat ice cream anyway"

Or...
Me: "James! Come see what I made!"
James: "That's cool...what is that, wood?"
Me: "Uh uh, it's some old polymer clay I had and that crappy wire and then I baked it on an old cookie sheet and I carved it with a scalpel and sanded it with an emery board."

Silence

Me:"What?"
James: "A scalpel?"
Me: "Oh... Oh, no...Don't look at me like that...it's a disposable scalpel...it comes in a package...you're gross."