Acrylic Pouring

I have been accumulating all kinds of goodies for Acrylic pouring  and came across a class in Peterborough to take - was a few hours but we did a hands on canvas and a couple of other things - cant wait to pick them up end of the week

this is what I did in the canvas - using  regular dollar store acrylics a touch of water and the Floetrol (which is soooooo much cheaper than the pouring mediums you get at either Michaels or Curry's )

I'll have more details on set up and mixing shortly but it was fund and  less waste than I thought there would be to take the over flow and make  bookmarks and  jeweley from

but here is my first small canvas - I used the  silicone oil in this one

This weeks steel etching

allmy etchings for this week - extremely pleased

next step run some copper samples 

Another Etched Steel plate

almost done for the night - just one more batch after this one - really like the swirls

Yet More ! Etched steel

fresh out of etch tonight - I have some prepped and working on tonight to get etched

More etched steel

Loving how it etches - so easy -  the hard part is weeding the vinyl and  then taking it off the etched pieces  takes the most time

and prepping some more 

Etching Steel

First - thank you Leslie Kail Villarreal for her inspiring video on how to etch  steel

I did use 3" x 6"  (.125) Hot rolled steel - you just have to clean the scale off with some elbow grease and  steel wool (although I could have used muriatic acid to clean it as well )  - I cut a pattern with my scan n cut machine using 651 oracle vinyl (going to try pnp another time )  and used both the negative and positive image and used both sides just to see how it etches.

I bought the glass vase at the dollar store  and used a metal cake pan for underneath.  I had an aquarium pump from my pysanky eggs and just cut a piece of the tubing to use to bubble and clipped it to the edge with a plastic clip - from the dollar store .  I also got a plastic pitcher to mix the water, copper sulfate and salt  then put my piece in  and poured the mixture in - 2L is enough to fill this vase to the top.  2L is  1 cup of copper sulphate   and 1 cup of salt (I used the pickling salt - no additives ) and then filled the container up to top (2l mark) mixed and mixed till disolved.

So it was soooo green and bubbling - after 1/2 hour took out and used a soft toothbrush to brush off some of the copper build up then put back in.

once finished just brush more and clean off - the hardest was puling off the vinyl with tweezers

cant wait to try it out in my rolling mill 

My notes : 

Next phase is to test out using my PNP blue which is easier to use - and can do more details as well - and I want to go revisit my steel washers  for pendants if you remember 

I used pnp blue for the pattern but the etch was really for copper and not strong enough - this formula gives a really good etch  so will try it this weekend - go here to find washers 

https://deborahreadcom.blogspot.com/search?q=washers

MISSING IN ACTION

Yes I have been missing in action
Have I torched in past almost year - no
Have I turned on the kiln in almost a year - no
What the heck !

Starting last year in July - right after my one show - I contracted shingles so for about 4 months was really ill and tired - but still had to go to my day job which just tired me out more.

My work at the last minute had to move - so had to move a production facility  to a new location  between Nov 15 and dec 15  - what a chore - but we got it done - but I contracted bronchitis and was sick from before Christmas  till almost march
and of course for a few months after the move  getting things organized and certified etc..

then we wanted to go ISO which should take a good year  to build and implement - was reduced down to 2 months - so not only did I have my reg job that takes about 60 hrs  a week   I started to add more hours for ISO - up to 100 hrs a week  total  to keep up  and cancelled any holidays I was going to take for the summer

so that has been going on so no time to really do much of anything and still not 100% ISO is not finished as yet not till end of this month but now were adding  participating in the training and set up our our manufacturing  section with new accounting software - and next week three days of ISO Internal auditor training .

my one show is coming up in july and I have nothing  made - nothing - and I needed new glass plates, glass candles and jewelery - so not sure if I am going now.   I so want to make somethings but now no time. 

Although I have been playing with paper and doing some crops just to take a break - and I love playing with paper .

I hope that once this month is over I can actually start to make things again in my studio .