Thursday, September 11, 2008

Tooling Around Tel Aviv

Although I have now been working and building a jewelery business for over 3 years, I have never gone out and bought propper tools. Most of what I had was stuff I could "use to get by"- either it was a cheap version of the tool I needed that was mostly okay for what I needed, or it was 2nd hand , or it was a cobbled together solution that would work "well enough". I never bothered getting good power tools becuase we were aclready talking about aliya and knew that we could not really bring them with us (different current here. Although they would work if used with a converterm they would not maintain a consistant speed.)

So yesterday I took the bus to the train and the train into Tel Aviv. Have I mentioned before that Tel Aviv is grotesquely muggy way more Toronto-like weather-wise (although it is still waaaaay hotter than Toronto ever is!) than Bet Shemesh?

Anyhow, Ahua met me at the train station and together we went ot the store I chose to get my tools and stuff like that. We got there and the guy was wonderful! Not as pushy as the first place I had gone, not as stuffy as the second. Between his English, my Hebrew, and the fact that I had come prepared with pictures and drawings of what I was looking for, we managed to do really well. It was actually great becuase once we worked out what I wanted, he would give me the Hebrew terminology for it and wait so I could write it down next to the picture.

So for the first time ever I got the real deal. This was what we had been waiting for! I got a proper flexshaft rotary tool with minimal vibration. I got a propper jeweler's work bench that sits at the right height. I got real polishing motor (70,000 rpm!!!) and mill. It was so exciting! I may not have any of my hand tools, supplies, or books, but man does my studio look awesome!

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