New Years Resolutions - a bit early

Looking back I had a wonderful crafty year working with clay, metals, punches, glass , paints etc.. and really want to do more next year - new items for me this year were of course the Big Dragon Eyes,  getting back to glass painting and working with kiln glass - and frits  and of course the crazy wine bottle slumping that I totally enjoyed

Looking to get a new intermediate size kiln in the spring  with possibly a final bigger one for summer so I can work larger glass pieces and get some ideas out there

More metal - more forming and cutting  - I totally enjoyed my ring class -  and using silver again

I look forward to putting more time into my crafts this year - so wishing everyone a very Happy New Year

November Give-A-way - redraw winner is

I do state on my draw that you need to have an email address that I can contact you with after the draw
Unfortunately the winner for November  did not have one -so it has been impossible for me to contact

so

I said that If I did not hear from them by today the 10th I would do a redraw -  so drum roll and the winner is  Here Bead Dragons !!!!

I will contact you via email and if you can send me your mailing address I can get this out right away and hope that you can get before Christmas !!!

Congratulations

Scan N Cut by Brother -JPEG or JPG images or text to Scan n cut

Haveing a great time with my Scan n cut - all the things I've made so far - and took a 3 hour class this week and now know how to do more !

Very excited as I'll be doing vinyl cut outs etc..



will be outlining some amanzing things to share

A lot of people want to do text and images and its easy -

Taking a JPG/JPEG and making into a SNC file

In this sample I am using a Text Name but you can create a whole page document to bring into your scan n cut

I started by finding the font I wanted - In this case I want "Oliver" this is the Frozen Font that just about anyone with a little girl in the family needs - go to http://www.1001freefonts.com/

search for oliver - scroll down the page and there it is - download -

now you can save the zip files in folder -

but I use word a lot and if I want for something else I'll just grab again - open the zip folder and select the font and click to open- this gives you a page of the fonts - top left corner has install - select and it puts it right into your word -

Open word and type in you text -

you can either choose at this time the font or just type and then highlight and change - made the size about 150 so its big and easy to see and work with - best to use black as the color so that it is recognized easier for the outlines -

Now there is a beautiful app called the SNIP Tool in windows -

its under your apps in 8.1 as windows accessories - I have it fixed to my tool bar - click on the snip tool - select new - highlight the text (try not to get the cursor in the clip) it will come up in its own window - now saveas (name it to a location you can find after) and make sure its a JPEG/JPG file - ok now we have our text

Open canvas - select new project - select the leaf box -

choose file - select the file you just saved

to the right at top two boxes lets start with the "outline" box and you will see another box with max number of colors - now reduce that to 2 - and hit the preview button - and you will see blue lines around the letters - but o dear - the centers in A or D etc are not highlighted - and we want those - so go up to top and choose color - and then preview - voila

if your satisfied with the outlines then click ok and it transfers your design to the mat for manipulation

Each letter can be moved

You may note there are heavier outlines on certain areas - 

you can delete the extra cuts by highlighting and deleting (garbage can or your delete button) -

to group them just select all by highlighting all the text - then the edit tab - and group - now its all one group to move around - you can also reverse this with the back arrow at top

or highlight and ungroup from the edit tab


- to save - click the box with the down arrow at top

and this saves to cloud with Brother -

or hit download

and it will create the file for cutting -(remember where you save it - as you take from file and move to your USB -

if you practice this you will have a great time with vinyl and images for cutting because I sure will -

Still Slumping.......

So Saturday morning I put in the pattern sheet and a clear bottle with hopes that I would have success
I coated the  ceramic pattern sheet  - I thought well but Sunday morning it was cracked and stuck to the mold .......

I had no problems all week slumping bottle flat on the fiber paper (thick) and on the kiln shelf but now I believe its possible that the boron could be the problem - maybe - will check it out
well I'll wait till next week to see as I poke the stuck pieces off my mold and use a new can -

I have switched to my old fusing schedule which is much faster and I do two bottles a day for regular flat bottles

going to give the lava cloth a try and put posts to the side to see if I can make a curved dish
then I can use the same schedule

Wine Bottle Cheese Trays

Yup coming along - every morning at 6     I go to the studio to pull out a cheese tray out of the kiln and put a new one in -

I clean and then put some rafia on the neck as decoration and a cheese knife - then into a bubble bag ready to go to for the show on the 17th

up to 8 and 1 coming out in 3 hours and another going in - this time a clear on pattern  - as I said if I keep this up I'll have 20 for the show

Slumping Along.........

Since last Saturday I have been slumping wine bottles for cheese trays - up to 8 so far with one in the kiln now

So far all green flat bottles - tomorrow will attempt pattern clear bottles again - see if I can get about 10 of those ready for the 17th  mini show at the school  Hoping for a total of 20 cheese trays

Need to work on a couple of things to prep and get ready for the quicky set up we have to do as well

I have picked out my next kiln - the sort of mid size  before getting the really big one

A Paragon CS19D - is a Clamshell as well as a top loading - this should suffice for next years big purchase -  I'll be able to do at least 3-4 bottles at a time and be able to slump some nice plates and trays that I want to do - I want to get back into painting larger pieces  as well

my eye is on a really nice tray  the "LENA" glass slumping mold  -  I may get some mold before the kiln shows up

Results for November Give- Away - THE WINNER IS ........

The winner of the November Give-A-Way   is


LisaAnn     Please enable your blog with an email -  if I do not hear from winner by Decembe 10 I will pick another winner 

if you can email be at dread@deborahread.com with our mailing address I will get your prize out to you this week