Busy weekend - but not for crafts

Busy weekend - my daughter had knee surgery on Friday - got postponed from 10am to almost 1pm so we were in the hospital from 8am to almost 5pm  - all day long ........ but she came out of it well and happy - and knee looking good and she is already up and about on crutches

I scored big time this weekend on bottles - some specialty Beer Bottles  from  my Niece from a Brewery in a local town close by  - little brown jugs and they have enamel labels which I love

cant wait to flatten these babies into something - maybe spoon rests or I may make a ceramic tray so I can make a dish from them 

then the big haul of the WISERS whiskey bottles from my daughers inlaws 

I started washing and getting the labels off but there were soooooo many I ended up with about 15 - these are the best wide clear cheese trays and I use my pattern - (if I can figure out what the heck I am doing wrong - either not enough boron or problem with the ceramic pattern ) either way - big score 

then on sunday spent some time with granddaughter crafting again - she loves my scan n cut machine 

making a wreath of paper snowflakes cut from the machine 

Cutting Machine Challenge

Well I have been surfing and joining blogs and facebooking about the Scan N Cut and having a thoroughly great time of it -  then I saw someone made these ......


the houses are amazing  - found it at svgcuts.com  and bought the kit  (under 9.00 cdn) what a deal !
so I guess the challenge will be if any of the items will even look similar

some of the houses I've seen others make are totally amazing !!!!!!!!

Christmas Craft time

Last weekend I had my youngest granddaughter over  and we decided to make christmas ornaments -
we did paper chains,  and started using my  Brother Scan N cut I bought early last year  and never hardly got to use it -

WE had fun making snowflakes, and paper ornaments  and she made up a card for her mom for after surgery (this friday ) she learned how to use the machine and to select things for cutting - she really enjoyed it as I did

the butterflies were for her moms card and she did everyting - put the paper on the cutting mat, put in the machine, selected the parts and glued them together 

I was having fun with some other 3d ornaments I downloaded and converted for a cutting file - so I learned to do something too 

ta da 

Loved these patters there were three sizes

these were patterns in the machine I just cut 4 pieces for each 3d snowflake and glued together 

I bought the round flat type plastic ornaments at micheals - 50% off right now 

simple decorations 

consist of 

plastic ornament 

green tree pieces from dollar store and you but to fit in the ornaments about 2-3 " long 

put a few in ( you will need wire nippers to cut)

dollar store has red berries in a bag and long big ones  - cut them up so they are singles 

snow - this I had for years but I think I got from micheals - a bag will last a long time 

a funnel to put the snow in the ornaments 

so its greens first red berries or small pine cones if you can find - even frosted greens  then the snow 

they turn out to be really cool ornaments 

crafted out 

Update - on fusing - and the wine bottle slumping problem

Last week I posted that I ran a clear wine bottle slump onto my ceramic pattern mold and it cracked

I ran the cycle that worked perfectly when my studio was about 65 - 70 F   from  6:15am  

thinking that the cool down late at night caused the cracking - was about 55F when I went in to see the next morning -  hmmmmmmmmmmm

I had a suggestion from Rose Mary Clay to adjust my schedule and add further cool down - so that it was slower -

Before I did that I ran another Green Bottle slump on my ceramic patter from  night to morning - thinking the day would be warmer - same temps around 50-55 F

NOPE - it cracked - even more - but I did notice it was sticking more to the mold
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

On the weekend I warmed up the studio by turning on the heat friday night and putting another wine bottle on - a clear (not that it really matters
changed the cycle since it was warm to sit and do in the stuido so that I added another couple of segments and time for holding -

so excited saturday afternoon- to open and it was again cracked - hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

noticed again harder to get pieces off -  I cleaned and sprayed the Boron on for every firing -  thinking maybe not enough

so now I need to do a slump WITHOUT the pattern mold and straight onto the kiln shelf with kiln fiber 

I had turned off the heat last night - so the building cooled down to about 45F this morning - and 

Voila - the bottle was fine -  

so .........

I need to double check how much boron is actually getting onto my ceramic mold - am I possibly not getting enough on (I've made about 10 with no problem - with one only the weekend before the trouble ) 

it also could be the glass being fine on expansion but the ceramic piece not expanding and contracting in the cold the same -  

any way - had fun - cleaning the studio - moving things around - bringing the last of the electronics - liquids down to the house for winter  - I'll only take things up and put on heat when it might be sunny weekend and it helps heat the studio 

I'll need to clean up the basement studio so I can at least torch 

got a great haul of bottles on the weekend 

10 clear wine bottles and some more of the green glass sparkling water bottles  and a cool liquor bottle 

these are the wine bottles I bought - got  48 of the 1L (left ) and 96 of the 750ml (right)

and deciding on the next kiln 

either a pargaon 19CSD (double opening ) or go for the 26"  

I am thinking the 19 for the next intermediate then I'll go for the  BIG kiln 

DONT FORGET THE GIVE-A-WAY !!!

GET YOUR NAME IN FOR THE GIVE-A-WAY FOR NOVEMBER -   GO TO THE GIVE-AWAY THREAD - SEE SIDE BAR AND CLICK HERE 

JUST ENTER YOUR NAME !

No Boho today just a Boo Hoo

Well its officially too cold to fuse in the studio now -  I had a wine bottle in the big kiln yesterday - when I got home it was still 320F  and when I left for bed  it was down to 225  so I left it till this morning

Rushed up at 6:10 to pull  it out and possibly put another in -  - it had cracked - the studio was 55F - a tad cold and probably brought it down too quickly  at final cooling.

so unless I warm the shed (oops studio)  up on the weekends I'll have to wait to do it then

Picking up  144 wine bottles tonight -  at least I'll be ready to go for spring

Boho #3

Got to etch, cut and make a ring - even got the pattern from  Leslie last week

so now mine will actually look like everyone's  first rings
Same as before - I cant stop using the dichro cabs - I have a few ......

even got to cut another couple from the left overs - smaller saddle rings

Finished Boho #2

Finally this morning - turned on the heaters last night - lovely this morning - finished soldering the back of the ring little embellishment, tumbled and fitted the dichroic glass in the bezel

the first pic is when I was partially done - note the color of the  glass - very transparent

 same piece of dichroic glass just the background has been darkened

small flower from shot plate

I colored the back of the bezel  with a black sharpie and used a bit of j-b weld to hold the stone in place (not finished quite burnishing it down - waiting for the glue to dry

but you can see the extreme change in reflective color from the glass

NOVEMBER 2015 - GIVE-A-WAY

November give-a-way is now closed

YES !!!!  I am doing a Give-A-Way in November !      A FAT CAT PENDANT

Has a little articulated mouse hanging from the bottom

Same rules as before:

  just make a comment here on this thread and I will pull a name at random on the 1st of December  

No cost to you and I ship anywhere in the world to the winner

Just be sure your blog comment has a link to your email address- no anonymous please  - update your blogger information as sometimes its hard to find you 

Have a great month !

November Give-a-Way is now closed

HAND OF MAN BOOTH SET UP

Here is what my new booth set up looked like

Cons - didnt like the feet extending into other booth so I had to pull them in - which made my booth smaller

cons- not sure of back end set up with small table - maybe none at all or shorten and give myself 2ft at the back of the 10ft  and this way the whole back is available to use -  ahhhh will have to wait for sprint to set up outside and see how it goes for testing

Pros' - love the fact that everything can be seen - its hard to choose when things are packed tight on the tables or not at eye level

POSTING A GIVE-A-WAY FOR NOVEMBER TONIGHT

I will be posting a give-away tonight  for November - so that the winner can receive as an early Christmas present next month

Not sure what to pick as yet  but I will scrounge around the studio tonight !

So stay tuned !

Time to prep for winter and studio time

So now its all about the weather - this week not too cold so I can go to the studio possibly every night and I have plans on the weekend with a friend in the studio to worth with .

I had a great time at Hand of Man - was the first time there - did pretty well - over what I though I would which is great  - an who know that the area needed  Cheese Trays !!!

- they loved my patterns on the back -  I unfortunately only make 7  (only two had the patterns) and sold all before noon on Saturday with requests form others as they came by - but fortunately I am local and trip out to the area all the time so I can take orders

so breathing with a sigh of relief as my year is over right now for shows so its play time and build up stock from now to spring - if I can get into the studio