Safety mistakes

I’ve been struggling with embarrassment and shame and feeling like a dumbass. I’ve been trying to break the habit of calling myself stupid/dumbass/etc. whenever I make a mistake and just accepting it and moving on. Working on it means I’m still deep in the throes of embarrassment.

But yeah, after talking with a much-more-knowledgeable friend yesterday, I realized that the half-face respirator I’d gotten did not have a proper seal. I should have listened to my gut feeling when the suction didn’t quite feel as powerful as I had expected, but I kept on wearing it anyway.

Aaaand as my friend (and probably countless safety experts lol) said, “a respirator that isn’t sealing is about as good as no respirator”.

It explains the sore throats I’d been getting, at least. I thought maybe it was paranoia, or being a mouthbreather, but naw, just full on breathing wood and fumes.

My friend helped me track down small half-face respirators, and I put in an order to pickup on Tuesday.

New airbrush!!!

In more exciting news (although it’s affected by my respirator woes), I bought an Iwata Neo brush and Neo Air compressor! I’d been really wanting one for awhile now, for no particular reason besides they’re cool af, and I wouldn’t mind getting into miniatures and wargaming, and I’m curious what I could do with it for lettering and calligraphy. (I also may have used it as a reward to get myself to do some massage business related tasks I’d been putting off for way too long. Hey, it worked. Wish I didn’t have to bribe myself with a ~$200 purchase. XD)

I’ve sat down with it once last night, but was having a hard time battling the gigantic, night-time bugs that kept flying into the stream or into my crafting lamp, so no more outdoor, night-time attempts for me! I sloppily blasted some equally sloppily mixed green paint on some clay tokens I had made and they turned out as horribly as I had expected… tho perhaps I surprised even myself.

Now I know I need:

• Gloves on both hands, not just the hand holding object
• Mixing cups so I’m not mixing directly in the airbrush cup - I need to make a trip to the studio to grab my supplies
• a dedicated airbrushing space because it’s a pain in the ass to break this down