Prepping for some Painted Beads

Prepping for some painted bead making  -havnt made any in a few years - hand painted that is - made some screen printed zentangle beads - needed to make some quick panels

These are done with ink pen and nib - add my Reusche  black trace  DE-401 mixed with clove oil
( I love painting as the smell is really nice )

First step is black outline - then I will fire - then I will add colors if necessary- its more of a reverse painting technique the black is first then the color

1 more day to end of August Give - A- Way - dont miss out

only 1 more day left to get your name into the Give-A-Way !

don't forget to leave a comment on the give-a-way thread -  short cut on right side bar but here is one for you to follow too - just click here !

Final collection of Jump Rings Made on the Ringinator this weekend

Well I went up to the studio and Sunday  morning and sat and made more aluminium coloured coils for cutting
got  as many as I wanted done  and then started up the ringinator - I have it down so nice I can do a full run of rings into the sieve  without stopping - so nice .

my coloured aluminium jump ring collection increased before noon

now I have to make something with them 



Aluminium Jump Rings -

finished the Aluminium Jump Rings today
I only have the sterling silver left to cut - but I think when I finish that I am going to make some more colored aluminium coils as
Heidi Duppstadt  post of that beautiful chain mail collar has really made me want to make one too





Ringinator set up changes - update

Proposed changes for tonight to the set up


  • condense into one jug intake and drainage - will give me perpetual oil recycling I tried this but the little aquarium pump had a hard time pushing the oil vertically - so maybe a larger pump is required - so went back to two jug system for now - but the two lids have both size drain and suction holes so its jut open the lids and switch jugs - no repoouring etc.. 
  • put a filter into the jug to take out copper grindings - maybe a coffee filter as its not pouring too fast back into the canister so it should give it time to filter and drain back into the jug  This works ! so now back to two jug system the receiving jug I put the coffee filter in the mouth of the jug and twist the lid to hold the edges 
  • fix the cut ring exit tray so the cut rings will fall into sieve without me having to push them - needs some sort of sides and a better angle - I bent up the sides and pushed it down a bit - its ok but still not perfect - still have to push every once in a while the pile that is accumulating 
  • figure out how not to have drips from the exit tray - maybe new type of exit tray  - or it has to sit up higher so there is more room for the drain tray to be under the exit tray  put the tray just over the sieve bin and a piece of packing tape to hold the trays together - once done no drainage 

cant wait to get home and make the mods and cut some more stuff tonight - should be end of copper coils  and onto the the silver plated

cut the balance of the copper and did the silver plated copper  16g  so next is the colored aluminum 




Ringinator Set Up

I didnt get home early so I had to spend some time prepping the drain pan - where is the glue when you need it !

Finally got the pan attached to the clear tubing and attached to the drain jug

Overall results were great tonight - by the time I finish I'll have tweeked it even more for this years run-- after setting up and running and when all the oil was in the drain jug - I was thinking - why dont I just use one jug and put the hose for the intake into the same jug -  tomorrows modification!

the pan I put holes on either side and a piece of wire to hang from the threaded bolts

the pan is on an angle so it drains into the jug 

the jug at the end of the run - a good 15 -20 minutes as I adjusted and let the cutting oil run 

side angle - you can see the drain pan on an angle to drain 
right now I have a sieve sitting so it collects the rings and drains them 

the only issue is the positioning of the metal tongue where the rings come out on to drop into the sieve -not angled enough and the holes if not over the pan drips onto the table 

the tongue piece is great but if the pan is not resting on the sieve it drips and the angle is not great enough for them to just fall into the sieve I have to push them in or they fall to each side and into the pan 

todays haul  and still lots to do 
I want to finish all the copper then work on the silver plated and then onto the sterling silver 

I love my Ringinator Time - some changes to layout

Here is a hand drawing of how I am going to set up tonight the Ringinator with the drain jug - so I hope it works - will make cutting even easier if that is possible - did I tell you I am on the same blade for last two years - I used to break my blades constantly with the hand blade method- Once I have it set up tonight I'll take actual pictures of Ringinator set up


Ringinator Time !

Got the ringinator out to cut the coils
Set up and prepped and did some jump rings

part of new set up was a large jug of cutting oil (water based) and I have a drip pan to drain into a a collection tray  but I want to connect a plastic tube to the end of the drip pan and then drain into a jug of same size so I dont have to keep emptying the trays -   the big jug is just is great but the small collection pans are a pain. So going to find some tubing tomorrow that is small enough to fit the drip pan and then get another jug of same size - that way as my big jug empties in front of me I'll get a really long time of cutting without stopping. Still had about 1/3 of cutting oil left and two full drain pans
after 5 minutes of cutting filled the two drain trays so you can see if I can drain off into a larger jug then I would not have to stop and change out 


 Just 5 minutes of cutting

Nice pile cleaned and drying 

just melted a hole to put the tube in to suck out the cutting oil 


the metal piece is to let the rings fall down into the collander

odd angle but you can see its a standard bead tray - will connect some tubing to a jug

still lots to do 
cant wait to cut the aluminum colored coils


Dont Forget the August Give-A-Way

don't forget to leave a comment on the give-a-way thread -  short cut on right side bar but here is one for you to follow too - just click here !

You could win!

Unpacking from show and making some more coils

I waited till this morning to unload - as the sun was coming out
draped all the tarps and tent  to dry out before folding and packing away - swept off the sand
cleaned all the legs of the tables and such - dried the boxes and made sure the stuff was dry and stacked it all away for next show

then started making coils for jump rings - maybe a few more and I"ll set up for cutting with my ringinator !


Splash Fest - turned into Rain Fest

I had hoped the day would be better - was great till about 12:30 and then the heavens opened up and we got torrential rain - nothing worse than to close up and pack in the rain

but.....

I loved where my booth was and if it had been sunny would have been a great day.  Kayaks, Zorb, Balls, trampoline, huge water slide all on the beach -  wake demos  right in front of me 












More Assembly

rushing this morning to make a few more necklaces from existing beads for a show tomorrow









Finished the Frill Necklace

Finally got home tonight and cleaned the beads and assembled the last of them to make the frill necklace.  I know what I want to make next but I just need to get through this show on the saturday and then I can start working on more necklaces