Princess auto - hole punch

if looking for a good hole punch for metal

princess auto has on sale for only 19.99

  I have this one and love it

actually I had 3 gave one to a friend  - really good for making those small holes
too - I affix mine in my bench vise

Torch Enamel Bead Class - June 1

I so fell behind on promotion of classes  but there are still spaces available for the June 1st class

If your interested just email me at

dread@deborahread.com
and put class in the subject line

this class is from 10-2
and is 95.00 per person
All supplies included to make enough beads to assemble a necklace  -

location is
Cannington Ontario -

Toronto Bead Society - Spring Show

At the bead society Spring show for two days
My biggest aggravation for this venue was the getting my goodies to the show room from the street level and back again.  Last year I had one of those rubbermaide flat carts which was "awful"  the worst thing you can buy.  No control and very tippy - especially when you have to go over cobblestones
so I definitely did not want to use this again
and of course I left it to the last minute but found the best cart that was inexpensive at Princess Auto

Its perfect - nice rubber wheels and it slides open to a larger cart - not huge but enough , the handle folds down so its compact too.  Approx 53.00 each - assembly is just attaching the wheels when you buy it - along with bungies and your all set - I found they moved amazing on the sidewalk and the cobblestones in front of the venue .

Got set up and ready

Had a great time 

My granddaughter helps me get all my things to and from the show as well as helping sell - I think its the 4th year for her 

Here she is making a necklace and earrings from beads she bought at the show 

Well the next show is not till July but I want to get working on some new things 

Hope I can start this week 

well finally off to bed - need some sleep and up to my full time job Monday 

One of my Customers work

Here is a necklace made by one of my customers that purchased the PnP Blue resist for etching
NancyZL  from NJ

I love the metal pattern and the earrings are really sweet 

3 days to Show update

So did absolutely nothing on Tuesday  other than go to work and come home in a rain storm
didnt really feel like doing anything  at the studio

I had to get those bails glued on tonight so they would be dry  by friday night to put on cards.  Got the other batch onto cards tonight and in the box

Thursday is start to pull out all the boxes of goodies  and stack them to get ready to pack up friday night
I feel unprepared  but I always have my things packed and ready when I bring them home from a show so I dont have to run around  and I do have some new  goodies to put on the table -

I did get hay out tonight for the horses and turned the pool on and put chlorine in - I cant beleive that there is probably a good 2-3 inches of water added to my pool just from the rain over the last two days (I am using my hose with a filter to fill my pool this year rather than spending 350 for a water drop - I'm in no rush to go in and if I was hot theres enough water to play in - the kids did on Monday and loved it )  .  so tonight put the hose in and will let it run till about midnight and I'll turn it off - hopefully another couple inches of water.

  Was rather nice at the studio but I'm tired from working all day so its off to the shower and a nice tea to settle down for the night.

I think I'll postpone my panic attack till friday -

Long Weekend - Day 3

I am not sure if sleeping in counts when you get up at 5:30 feed the dog and take him out
then come back and crawl into bed and sleep till 8:30 (that is late for me )

I got up and had to put out hay - check the pool , finish some weed wacking and get into the studio and finish the 2nd sheet of dichro

Evidently I only need about 15 minutes and  I was finished - I was a lot further than I thought when I went to bed 

Once finished I pulled out my slab cutter and chopped it up and then ground the sides and edges 

and into the kiln they went 

While they were in the kiln I stamped and got some etched copper  started  and cleaned the small butterflies 

and the bars for the toggles - got them punched, coloured  and sealed 

I rally like the matching etched bars 

and I got the etched pieces out of the kiln and will put the bails on Monday night 

I still have a batch of the etched toggles do clean and get ready but probably wont have ready for the show and I still need to make some more bars  for some of the toggles I have finished not sure if I'll have those done either  

 - I feel I did get some things completed this weekend - I only wish I had started earlier and I would have some new  lampwork as well 

so Monday is bails on the 2nd sheet and let them dry mount the 1st sheet onto cards 

I also have to get all my boxes and goodies ready for the show by thursday and loaded friday night as its  an early morning on Saturday 

Long Weekend - Day 2 accomplishments

Well I woke up to a dreary morning - a little bit of showers for about 15 minutes nothing that really soaked

I started by cutting my finished etched sheet of Zentangle  and ground the edges and got it in the kiln  and got  them out later in the day when they cooled

Took a pic and started grinding the backs and glued the bails on using the E6000 - the test ones I made seem to be ok 

During the day while my kiln was on I finished up my toggles by finishing punching holes and cleaning up the corners and sides and prepping for dipping in the Permalac  to seal them 

I also tried out some coloured ones too

I had time to do a couple of test pieces of butterflies 

Then I thought - now I have toggle pieces but I didnt like the wire type piece to put through the toggle 

I tried balling the wire still didnt like it 

I tried flattening it - - still no 

so I decided to make the  copper pieces I wanted to etch

If I make an etched sheet cutting can be such  a pain so I decided to slice some with my shear - fast and easy thin strips I cut down and cleaned up 

- now I had thin pieces and thought it would be difficult to stamp so I put onto some tape side by side and reinforced it with a block of wood and then I could stamp them all at once and evenly 

so I etched them 

they look much better  and complete the toggle 

I had put in another batch of squares for toggles  in the afternoon that I will colour as well 

They need cleaning 

But that is for tomorrow with I hope the 2nd sheet of dichro that at 5 pm was not quite finished 

But I hope to finish tonight in prep for the morning 

Just waiting for the first batch of butterflies to come out of the etching solution and I'll add them to the cleaning I need to do with the toggles for tomorrow 

Long Weekend Progress- Day 1

Day 1
One week till 1st show of my season -
I had to open my pool which took most of the morning - draining the cover, cleaning it and pulling it off the pool - (by myself )  set up the pump and filter , put the chemicals in and start it up - clean the sides and push any dirt to the deep end and let it run all day - turn the tap on and start to fill

Run to the post office with my etsy sales  , run to the store to pick up tea  and a few other things
get back and cut the lawn and weed wack - which I didnt finish

and of course its warm out (dont want to complain waiting so long for heat)  - so in between I ran to the studio and  kept etching  my first sheet of 6" x 6" dichro so I could cut it up and fire it on sunday

I finally finished around 8:30 pm so I can cut first thing in the morning 

I started the 2nd sheet that I hope to finish sunday and then cut and fire on Monday - this should give me lots of the zentangle engraved for my show 

This second sheet has bright oranges/reds that I will engrave - 

I hope to have done by the time I finish firing the 1st sheet of cut pieces 

I also finished punching and dapping the toggles and just have to make the slide in piece 

not sure if I am going to sell them or use them for my own pieces 

Trying to accomplish something ........

Working towards getting a few more things completed for an upcoming show
finished carding  the engraved zentangle dichro  pendants I completed

finishing cleaning my copper etched squares that I'm making into toggles

Now they are cleaned up I'll file the corners and cut and punch the holes 

then I will dap them -  decisions on patina them or just seal them as is  - not sure but I have enough that I can do both 

Plus hopefully wednesday night I can etch another batch of copper 

Mothers Day Weekend

Been busy at work and not getting much in the way of jewellery completed
the first thing I worked on during last week was putting bails on my finished zentangle engraved/etched pieces

I rough up the backs and use the UHU Creativ two part epoxy which I am down to almost nothing left in the tubes and cant find anywhere any more - other than on site in England -   I ended up buying a new tube of E6000 to give it another try - I just find my bails pop off using the E6000 but I've read where people swear by it - so I'll give it another try on some test pieces 

Hopefully it starts to warm up again - the temps fell to zero again (32 )  and during the day only mid thirty's  and it snowed -  May 12 and we had a small snow storm 

I put some heat on but never made it up to the studio on sunday so I shut it all down and locked up 

On Saturday I had both my granddaughters and we spent a few hours playing in the studio - I had put the heat on and we stayed up there  an they painted their picture frames for their Mom  and did some other crafty things 

and I cleaned glue from the backs of etch copper pieces (with goo gone)  I'm making for toggles 

(I'll take a pic later and post ) 

We made a wonderful mess and I got my hands dirty- and it felt good to be playing for a bit 

Hopefully tomorrow - Monday I can go up and put my zentangle pendants onto cards and do some more work  on my new sheets and get them done by the weekend to cut up 

2nd Sheet Dichro fired - ready for Zentangle engraving

I finally had a chance last night to go and pull the cooled sheet out of the kiln
this is the 2nd  sheet ready for engraving -   the dichro was fired face down so that it is perfectly flat so that I  can use my dremel to engrave the Zentangle designs .  the sheet is approx 6 x 6
and I used some of the reds and oranges/sepias in this one

again I wish I could show better colours with the pics - they are so bright 

I'll sit this weekend while I'm copper etching and start on the these sheets 

I'd like to get them all etched by next week and cut up , sides ground down and then fire polish 

I do like to have new items for sale at my show each year 

and of course its been cold and I've been procrastinating getting things done so its going to be a busy few weeks stocking up for month end show 

And the April Give-A-Way winner is .................

Woo Hoo - the winner is !

Angi Mullis   I have your email  and I'll get you to send me your mailing address