Last Call for June Give-A-Way

Will be drawing the winner for the small turtle on Wednesday July 1

click here to jump to thread to add your comment !

Frit Shelf finished

The frit shelf is finished but it seems I need a bigger one as I still have stuff left over - not to mention if I wanted some new items

Came out quite well and very happy now for the frit  workstation

Now I cant  make any more excuses to start fusing


left overs - duplicate powders (middle)  and other frit sizes (med & course)  in 96 
the other frits you see are for my lampworking 
one can never have too much frit




Just building and organizing

I was not feeling well most of the weekend - had my granddaughter for Saturday  but putzed around moving things here and there  - keeping her busy  -  one thing I wanted to do was  to reorganize my frits for fusing  now that I am playing with them again - its hard to see them on a shelf all stacked up so I decided to build another shelf - like the one I did for my enamels
enamel shelving

my enamel station- the4 x 8 sheet of ply on 2x4 shelves - its on wheels so I can move around - and the flat back holds those pull out boxes for storage - I'll have to show another time 

this one for frits is going to sit on top of an already built table  - and will be adding more shelves tonight - ran out of wood and didnt feel like going for a drive - I should get all my bullseye frits, (powder, #02 and shards ) onto this frame - plus maybe some of system 96 which I have a ton of as well 

electro etching

 I bought this kit called Etch-O-Matic -  to play with and thought it was interesting -
http://www.martronics-corporation.com/

they advertise:
Permanently Etches Or Marks Metal Tools, Parts Or Equipment With Your Copy, Designs Or Trademarks In Seconds For Less Than A Penny Per Mark!

  you get a lamp unit to expose therr phto sensitive Durafilm - pattern that you print out on a transparency - which means you can use original art -  then use the durafilm  film as the resist and then use the little electric unit and some  electrolyte for whatever metal and you get an etched design on metal

UV Exposure UnitI got the Mark 440

Wellllllll  as I said way over 10 years  and I actually turned the bulb on but I was doing it with the photo sensitive aluminum sheet they have to make serial number labels for work

Martronics sent me a sample of the blue /aluminum - you can get green, red and black as well

and I tested it out and was amazed
I put the company logo on and the address and put up to 8 custom s/n 's on the word template -- this allows me to change the s/n to what I want or make changes to my artwork any time I want -  then I printed on the transparency
I cut the aluminum piece  with scissors - its thin and has a 3m back  - I put the aluminum on the tray, put the transparency  reading side up and put the glass cover on and under the bulb - I turned the UV bulb on and set the timer for 3.5 minutes as per instructions

at end of time turned off the light bulb -  took off the glass and transparency and put the little sheet into warm water and was amazed as the image came up and used a soft sponge to wash away the unexposed lettering (anything black will wash away )


Now they have a unit that will do 8-1/2 x 11 but the one I have at home I can do a 4x4 area  so I did one at a time - will probably get this for work


these above units are what you need to produce the resists - that you can use for etching glass as well - so multi useful - check out the site

Of course I could not find the durafilm I got with the unit so just waiting for that to try this electro etching - t

The electro etch kit is interesting
    this pic they are marking tools
and results look interesting - and they say just about on any metal

they have videos on how to make the film resist, and use the tools - love the old guy that does the demos !

and looks pretty easy to use and is pretty clean - so now its just seeing what kind of mark is the result
I got this and the industrial unit that does a deeper etch as well
so just waiting on some film and I can see how this works

More powder frit on fiber paper - capping

I decided to cap one of the samples last night  I sort of forgot about it and over fired the edges but good news is I can grind them down - I'm pretty flexible  and it is only a sample - although I may cut pieces from it to make pendants

before

fired with a clear cap -  the white is the fiber paper background - smooths out the design


I peeled and washed off the fiber paper backing and just sat it on a black background - not sure if that is the color I want - maybe white to show it off more - its funny how it looks more green on the white background and more blue on the black 



June 2015 Give-A-Way

June Give-A-|Way is now closed -   THE WINNER IS :   DARYL ADAMS
I will be in contact shortly

Its that time again -  A Give-A-Way for June 2015

As always its free to enter and I ship free to you

Just leave a comment on this thread (sorry no anonymous )   (please be sure you have an email on your blog site so I can contact you after)

On July 1 I will put the names in a container and randomly draw and announce the winner on the blog

So...... this month is a Turtle ! -Its one of my small Turtles about 2" -  Sort of a rust red - I think the color is called cherrywood -   with purplish head - comes with a sterling silver neck chain so you can wear it right away



More fusing powders on fiber paper

Played again tonight - this time with the crinkle look