May/June - Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist

New Edition - great step by step for a hammered bracelet


and darn  a new tool ..................................called a Beverly shear - I want one
cuts curves - O dear off to research


found them at Harbor Freight and Princess auto
both under 200.00  in fact Princess is to have a sale next week on them  reg price is 169  so even less is better

Wireless set up in the studio

I have had internet in the studio but it was always  hooked up direct to my pc
I really like the Hawking Tech brand

My studio is 150 ft away - Its a Metal building so wireless signal from the house was nil  and I didn't want to run cable

So my initial install was a hard wire from my lynksys router to a hawking bridge/access point that was on the other side of my house - where I run a hard wire external antenna  that emits the wireless signal up to my studio where its picked up by another external antenna that is hard wired into the studio and connected to a usb repeater  that was connected to my pc

But I want wireless this year as I have my surface 2 that I want to move around with me rather than sitting in once place

so I called hawking and they gave me a suggestion of a wireless repeater bridge which was so easy to install
run the online set up choose my network - let it do its own network assignment  and set a password - tada

ran it up to the studio and took my surface to test - works great - I can even connect to netflix and watch a movie so the signal is great !!!

Now I need to replace my tv and sat receiver  as I brought them in before it froze -and now they reside in my bedroom and my old receiver and tv went to the spare room  -  I have to have noise going in the background when working so I'll have to check around for a flat screen deal

I hear my studio calling ...........

I took another load last night to the studio of stuff in the kitchen -  I can almost see my kitchen table !
a few more  ( I try not to tire myself totally out )
was so nice - I unlocked and walked in - because its hovering about 50 during the day plus the sun - it was nice inside -  the weekend calls for mid 50's with about 40 at night so I'll plug in the heater Friday night and get it up over 50 inside (still feels dampish)  get some water and pop into the fridge -  I'll have to see about a TV since I took the one I bought down to the house for the winter and it ended up replacing the one in my bedroom.
Have another bridge router unit coming so I can install wireless in my building rather than just a direct connect for my internet -  ( I have a bridge to antenna from house   to antenna to usb repeater currently )  if I put in another bridge repeater then I can get wireless signal within the studio for my phone and my tablet

I still have to move things around as during the winter I just grab and drop things all over as I never want to stay more than a minute

I need to do a bunch of etching, ceramics and fusing glass - I have a bunch of projects in mind and one in particular I want done this weekend

I may even get the water back running by this weekend which will be great - and thinking of installing a small electric heater for hot water  this year

this year I have to clean a bit more and get the area around where I am putting a wood stove done and have it installed by mid summer so I am finally ahead  and may have longer and earlier times at the studio during the year

wont be at the TBS show for the spring I have dental surgery scheduled but its been cancelled a few times already since January plus I am glad as the venue is hard to get in and out of down town  Toronto plus I learned this morning the Don Valley - a major north south route will be closed for repairs which makes my trip form 2 hours to over 3 hours  to get there

so many plans......... so little time

No Rolling Mill for me right now

So it turns out that the supplier on Ebay - "ran out of stock" and wont have for another two months - so they refunded me - so we will see - going to keep my eyes peeled - I really want the interchangeable rollers ! so I will have to do without for a while longer- but a little tee'd off since I was so excited
 

Almost Spring - taking things back up to the Studio

I turned on the heater yesterday so I could spend some time today working on my piece for the 8th Bead Soup - was just above 50 deg. F  so with a sweatshirt and pants on I was ok -Popped on a movie on my Surface for some noise -  and got to work and finished.

I just had to assemble and took it apart 3 times till I was happy with the results - cant wait for the reveal to see everyone's pieces.

 I love my studio and the fact I can just walk over to my workstation that has my torch for enameling and work my wire and then walk away - I so cant wait till I'm 100% up there - and I hope that's starting next weekend -  maybe with some heat on till we warm up some more.

Sorry cant show yet - on May 3 we all get to reveal

So each trip up  I took an armful of items that I brought down because I didn't want it to freeze during the winter and my kitchen is full of stuff so I want to get it all back up there as soon as I can.

I still was playing with those wax eggs - I really like doing them  - I did another couple last weekend and then a few more this weekend \- now I'll take all this up to the studio as well and I"ll finally get my kitchen table back.

I finally finished a full 18   then made another 3 wax drop and pull  this weekend- I'll keep the stuff available and see if I cant make more during the year of both kinds

Another Drop & Pull Egg

Probably last for today

Another Drop and Pull Egg

Probably last before Easter - but I think I'll continue during the year to keep making eggs
I almost filled a carton (18)  (the top two on right are from my granddaughter - those in the carton are the ones I did this year )  I 'd have more but I cant find the ones I did about 3 years ago - they are in a safe place !

A try at the coloured wax eggs - Drop and Pull method

Yes a relaxing day and I finally sat down and gave the colored wax eggs a try for real
Not bad for yet another try and this time actually doing a design on the egg rather than practice.
Starting to get the hang of it - a lot more practice is needed

Rolling Mill Choices

Since Metal is not my one and only passion and that I dont spend 100% of my time with metal - and not that I would not love to get a Durston Mill I had been looking at some less expensive mills to do the job I want to do. Especially for the amount of metal I may actually do

1. I want to emboss onto metal - yes I really would like to do that and some metal folding
2. I want to create some of my own wire
3. I want designs on my wire

found this  mill
 its an 80mm  (thats 3") that would be suitable and one of the options I like is that you can buy design rolls for it  and I did not see that I could do that with a Durston  -

PATTERN #52


PATTERN #53
 I'll get this one first

PATTERN #57


PATTERN #56


I think there are others -  as the #'s depict there must be -  will need to check them out   my favs are the #52  and the #56  and I'll plan to order soon

Early Morning Playing - Saturday - some metal and some new drop and pull Easter eggs

I got up early  (6:00) with intent on getting my trailer full of stuff to take to the dump  for 8am from the basement - but tools and goodies on my kitchen table drew me more than running up and down the stairs

I started by cleaning my kitchen sink, sweeping the extra dog (my dog is molting and it seems like he loses a whole dog each night)   doing the dishes and then unpacked my new tool -  and it was full of shipping grease and of course I had to give it a go
 its a cupola set - it says small but its actually quite large - so I am trying to figure out how really big the large is -   I wish I had measured as the one I got is similar to the other set I already have - one side is deeper than the other  and I had to try it out once it was all cleaned up

On side dapped did a plain back 

flat back option

will eventually solder something together 

then I got detoured and started to try the new drop and pull easter egg decorating 

THESE ARE EGGS FROM THE SHOP THAT SELLS THE WAX 

EggstrArt

You must visit as she has amazing eggs 

I was going to use crayons but they didnt work very well - could be just not hot enough now that I have played with the real wax colors for drop and pull - ordered them from etsy 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/EggstrArt?ref=l2-shopheader-namereally nice colours and this will last a long time 

pans from the dollar store on my hot plate and a headpin in a wooden handle or if you can find a headpin put into the end of a pencil with  eraser 

now  here is what I did this morning - played till I found the right temp for the wax (on my hotplate around 350 although I may go up a bit higher next time )so it would be fluid enough to stay pliable as I basically dropped and pulled on the egg 

I played at cutting holes - but my dremel is just too bulky and I guess the tips are just not right - I was cracking the eggs -  so I used them as testers to try and practice the drop and pull

AND THIS IS WHAT I DID 

it took a bit to figure out that the temp of the wax needed to be higher (I was at about 225) - you dont use a candle to heat up the tip - its the heat of the wax that keeps the flow going - once I felt a little better about the strokes- I still had one other egg I had prepped and drilled holes in - still damaged but I hated to waste it so I practiced on that one - once I got going ......

I started with the red

then added the black - I figure ok for first try's and I only used the drop and pull and dots so far - many strokes to learn 

New Item Available on Etsy - Make Your own Custom 24 g 3" x 4" Etch Copper Sheet (thinner copper sheet)

This is for the 24g thinner copper sheet -  not quite as deep an etch because the copper is thinner but still not just a surface etch.   The nice thing about the 24g is that you can cut with scissors - and finish with a nail file and its very pliable and can be worked with your fingers as you can see from this piece that I am prepping for my assembly for the 8th Annual Bead Soup reveal at the beginning of May .

I used my fingers to bend the edges into shape-

I have posted this  new item on Etsy -   Just send me your artwork (must be your own original or free artwork  - no trademark art)  and I will etch it onto copper for you -    if you choose 5 pieces you can have them all the same or a range from 1-5 different patterns - 

I will save your work so if you want to reorder it can be made up easily and if you need help with it fitting in the 3 x 5"  space I can help resize for you

My existing zentangle design sheets are on the 24g copper sheeting 

other sizes and gauges will be coming for the custom copper sheets and copper shapes

Time Capsule - find

Cleaning the basement still - moving things around I found a box that I had not opened in over 10 years

was kind of nice to find some items I put a way and forgot about

All bubble wrapped so that when I moved they would not get broken

One of my painted glass pieces - the second ever piece I painted  - the yellow was the silver we had to apply in class 

a sample from class where I painted eggs for shading project 

 fused frit on glass  hanging pieces 

something I need to try again - you use templates and sift over 

one of my favorite beading pieces - called twist and wiggle I did a very long time ago in a class in Pennsylvania 

My first painted beads - I need to make new ones 

assortment of my old business cards 

MARCH GIVE-A-WAY - WINNER IS !!!!!!

The winner of the Fat Paddy lampwork fat cat is :\\KayzKreationz

I will track you down or just send me an email  at dread@deborahread.com with your mailing address and I will get Fat Paddy out to you 

I'll be posting an April Give-A-Way later this week \

so come back soon 

March - give a- way Moments away

I was gong to do this last night but thought I'd give last minute people a chance  and then - well
I totally forgot till just now

I am just going to write out all the names and pull a name so stay tuned  !!!