Rework Department

So yes, i was stuck in the whine cellar with a bunch of women. As a woman, who isn't a girly girl, don't like to work with that many other women. It makes me realize how caddy and vindictive we are as a sex. I saw the pure evil of these women and it was not nice. They were cut throat and pure evil. There were some nice women i worked with, but in that enviroment, it brought out the worst. And god forbid it be that time of the month. Cause when it was......... it was EVERYONE's time of the month. Talk about a week where you don't want to show up for work.

The work in that room was interesting and not very easy either. You had to weld wax together and clean it up. Cleaning the wax was difficult cause of the using of kerosene. Kerosene eats wax and and smooths it out. But you need hot soapy water to wash off the kerosene, and god forbid you miss a spot, it eats away at that spot and destroys the surface. If you couldn't do this well, it would make your day miserable. And to do some of the smooth pieces, like a Tom Otterness, where there are some tough areas to get into, that was hell. And i did my fair share of Tom's stuff since i did go to work for him after working here. But that is a story for another time.

I also got to see some sad things in that room, besides how these women treated each other. We would get these little old lady "artists" that had money and made "art". They would bake cookies or a pie and come in to work on their waxes. I had to work with one of them and said, oh that is a nice scotty dog you are making. I figure, be nice, make nice conversation. She flipped. "It's NOT a scottie dog! It's a terrier!" Okay, lady, give me a break. All your dogs look the same. I hate to see what her beagle or Daschund looks like. Or hell, St. Bernard! Anyways, it made me realize that they pay money to sit there and have company. They are bored old ladies who live by themselves and just want someone to talk to so they make these horrible pieces of art and bake stuff, which by the way weren't good either. It was a sad thing to see and that was the only department I saw that in.

Working with artists is a difficult thing. You have to deal with their nuiances and quirks. There were some that were just pure hell to work with and others that you absolutely loved. You had to deal with them more in other departments such as finishing and patina, but you did see them in rework and they could be a total nightmare.

I do remember asking the head of the department, how do you know what an artist wants? I thought that was a valid question considering that i knew I would want to have control over my pieces going through. She was so happy i asked that, cause most people that were artist in their own right did put in their own "style" into the pieces they were working on, so that made her feel better about me working on the sculptures. Now at this point, i was thinking, i don't want to stay in there. I wanted to go learn new things in other departments. I wanted to work with anyone other than these evil women. I had said to myself when i got that job that i would "rape it of knowledge". That was my goal. I wanted to learn as much as i could.

One day, they came down and asked me if I could help out up in the mold room cause they had a lot of new pieces in and there were a bunch out sick and on vacation. I said SURE! I had an out and a chance to see a new department. I was so excited. It was in a different building and everything. One of the women in the room with me was super jealous. She had been up in the mold room and kept trying to get back in there. She will come up later in future stories, but i was now her arch nemesis. I took the job away from her, in her eyes. I just saw it as a way out. And it was.