As a teen, I routinely stuffed my size 9 feet into size 8 shoes, trying to deny that my feet would never be small again. The same kind of denial recently led me to try stuffing a piece of 22-gauge wire (my favorite size!) into the tiny, delicate drilled channel at the top of a lovely Oregon sunstone briolette. Guess what happened?! The pointed top of the teardrop-shaped briolette broke right off, leaving me with that same old feeling of dejection....