Not Much Space to Work...

At the moment I'm having a bit of work space crisis, and am limited to working in my living room. There is only so much I can do there, with hardly any tools, but I can melt granules...
So I have been replenishing my granule collection, and using them for some new pieces when I am able to get to my bench.

To make the granules, I use scraps of silver that are leftover from my bezels. I cut them into small pieces, in random sizes, and melt them on a charcoal block. As you can see from the picture, I am going to be needing a new one of these...

Above is my portable granule making station, just missing the torch. Initially there were small dents scraped out of the block to allow the granules to have rounded bottoms. They still don't go completely spherical this way, but that suits me because they are easier to hammer when they have one flatter side.

The picture shows the curled silver scraps, and also some freshly made and pickled granules.

Once I get a large enough batch of various sized pieces, I pickle them, then my favourite bit - sorting them into sizes.
I have a handy tool for that purpose which is called a 'Stone Sieve Set'.
Riogrande sell them in the US (here) but I managed to get one cheaply from ebay which works just fine and I love it!

Here is my current granule collection. The numbers are the plate sizes. Can't believe I have been this organised!

And here are some of the pieces I made recently, when I had a chance to access my bench: