You Might Be an Engraver's Wife If....

Abigail

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You Might Be an Engraver’s Wife If….

1. Your husband's fingernails are always a dull grayish brown color, no matter how hard you scrub.

2. You have learned to ‘announce’ that you are entering his workshop or studio from several yards away. You know to never enter the room suddenly or unannounced because one mustn’t startle the ‘artist’.

3. Your friends and family members always have just one little favor to ask such as “could he just put my initials on this miniature thimble that I found at Kmart?â€

4. You notice he looks at the picture frame instead of the picture, noting how the scrollwork is laid out.

5. He protects his hands like Ginger Rogers protected her legs.

6. People ask you if your husband can fix their watch/bracelet/necklace or melt their gold jewelry down to make something else out of it.

7. He has weird friends.:D

8. Your husband cannot leave an antique store until every bit of carving, engraving or embellishment has been fully studied, evaluated and possibly photographed.

9. Your husband is willing to spend $5000 on a microscope, but only $1500 on a car.

10. Your husband’s engraving is neat as a pin but his work shop looks like it was just hit by a tornado.

11. He knows how to layout and engrave beautiful designs for jewelry but he can’t match his own clothes.

12. He puts weird things in the microwave.
 

jimzim75

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The List

My poor wife is an engraving widow. I showed her, your list.
She circled 10, 11, and 12. While mumbling, "your all alike".

One thing though, she sure can spot a flaw in my work.
The type of jobs where your eye begin to cross. She knows
how to tell me about it without me going into a meltdown.
A nice sort of critique that helps a lot.

I'm still working on how to get the next big piece of machinery
without her finding out about it for 6 months. She does the books,
so it's a challenge.
;)
 
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Marcus Hunt

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Great observations Abigail. I'm just setting up a new studio/workshop and am determined to keep it tidy but you just never know when those tornados are going to strike!

all the best,
Marcus

ps, I got my new mandolin at the weekend! Yippeeeee!!!:D Its a blonde Eastman 615 and sounds great. Will probably bring it to Grand Masters 07 , so I hope The Glendo Pickers are going to be there.
 

Sam

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Marcus: My benches are prone to tornado strikes, too. I wish I was a neatfreak but I'm not. I'm at my best when I'm burried in clutter!

Congrats on the new mandolin! I've not heard of Eastman, but their instruments look quite nice on their site. All hand carved, too.

Here's Abigail making her mandolin debut. / ~Sam
 

Abigail

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Great observations Abigail. I'm just setting up a new studio/workshop and am determined to keep it tidy but you just never know when those tornados are going to strike!

all the best,
Marcus

ps, I got my new mandolin at the weekend! Yippeeeee!!!:D Its a blonde Eastman 615 and sounds great. Will probably bring it to Grand Masters 07 , so I hope The Glendo Pickers are going to be there.

Hi Marcus!
Congrats on your new mandolin! I'm really enjoying playing. I'm liking the sound of the open string chords where the sound kind of rings better than the choppy bluegrass sounding chords. What about you?
We are certainly planning on being at the 07 Grand Masters Pickin'. We'll see you there. Perhaps we can all visit the pawn shop. :D
 

Mike Cirelli

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Abigail I am amazed how you hit the nail on the head, that's scarry. Since I'm a Goldsmith I have to do number 6 also. No wonder Sam married you, You understand the bench people:) I have to show my wife this list cause she thinks the oddness or should I say peculiarities is unique to me. What a relief, she had me believing it.
Congratulations on your debut hope it went well.
Mike
 

Abigail

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Covington, Louisiana
Hi Mike,
I am quite amused by you "bench people" and your 'peculiarities'. I have to admit that although I am not a 'bench person' I am quite peculiar myself! I'm sure Sam could come up with a list of more than 12 strange things about me!
Maybe I'll start a forum for the engravers' wives so we can all compare notes about you guys. Only, I may be the only computer nerd wife out there. Whaddaya think?
Abigail
 

Abigail

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Covington, Louisiana
Robert:

Main Entry: weird
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: bizarre
Synonyms: awe-inspiring, curious, dreadful, eccentric, eerie*, far-out*, flaky*, freaky*, funky*, inscrutable, kooky*, magical, mysterious, occult, odd, ominous, outlandish, peculiar, secret, singular, spooky*, strange, supernal, supernatural, uncanny, uncouth, unearthly, unnatural
Antonyms: normal, regular, usual ;):) ;) :)
 

Sam

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You want to know what weird is? Abigail will cuddle our dogs and let them lick her face, but if I let the same dogs lick table scraps from a dinner plate, she performs a disinfecting scalding-water-and-bleach ritual on the plate...twice.
Now THAT is weird. / ~Sam
 

Mike Cirelli

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Abigail: You may be somewhat alone on that one. Whats crazy is we see your list as our strong points:) As for the weird friends all the synonyms describing them keeps me off drugs, all those personalities who needs drugs for entertainment.
Mike
 

William Grubb

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That pretty well hits the nail on the head,I fit right in there , especially the part around my work bench,when I do put things in order I can't seem to find anything....also I envy you on your mandolin playing that is one instrument I would love to be able to play.

Bill
 

pilkguns

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in the land of Scrolls,
Hey Abby, Rhonda's gonna love this list when she sees it. She had a club a few years ago, callled WOSEM, Wives of Self Employed Men. Seems there was about 5 of us, engraver, knifemaker, wood carver, banjo maker, artisitic welder, all of us who walked into our backyard to go to work, while the wives on the other hand, all drove like an hour one way to work in some "real" job. They had a similar list of us husbands peculiarities.

Of course Rhonda has long since joined the self employed category, starting in 1989, but she can relate to most everything you've wrote.
 

William Grubb

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Heck Glenn I wouldn't call you "wierd" you are a very delightful, you keep me
laughing with you antics....very whitty wouldn't you say so Sam?
 

Kerry Bogan

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Harmony, Maine
Abigail
Have you been talking to my wife? I knew I was transparent but holy cow!!!
I can definetly see why Sam married you. By the way he talks about you a lot in his classes (in a good way).
 

John B.

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Hey Abigail.
Great thread, got everyone going!
As I said in my first post, the only thing missing from the Cafe is some of the great music that you, Sam, Rod and Marcus and others gave us at the 2006 Masters.
That was a great evening and thanks for it.
I think about it every time I visit the Cafe for a coffee break.
John B.
 
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