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

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