Big changes

I'm sorry I haven't been around for a while, I haven't been crafting much. Well except for some forays into felting, but the kiln has been cold. I had a guest staying in my craft room then we moved a mattress into my craft room so DH and I could stay there while we had a guest in the bedroom, then I went crazy, then I went to graduate school, and now I'm moving to Seattle. Things will be slow during the move. But I'll try to post a bit about learning to felt. So far it has been fun.

broken glass

Just a note on my last project. Even though I let the mold dry for a long, long time it still exploded in the kiln. I learned that I should allow the kiln to heat slowly, I had the setting on fast, my bad. Oh well, I'll try again later. Right now I'm doing my broken glass experiments.

I'm breaking glass into small bits, not too small because it doesn't melt right. So I got my glass and I broke it into smallish pieces. I put the pieces into a terracotta tray I had coated with kiln wash. (another thing I wasn't sure I did right... we'll see.) But I set up the kiln with a schedule I got from Glass With a Past I know she has a better kiln than I have, but I'm trying her schedule as a way to start. I will make adjustments if it doesn't work. But here is the schedule. "300/hr to 1100 hold 10 (this stop makes sure your mold and glass are all the same temperature) 300/hr to 1650 hold 20 9999 to 1020 hold 10 (annealing stop) 200/hr to 750 then off" 
I'll try to remember to post pics when I'm done. Lets hope what I did isn't rubbish. 

So I'm starting to work harder on my recycled glass. I joined the Glass Art Guild Guild of Utah. I think it will be a wonderful resource for me. One of the bloggers I love Glass With A Past is here in Utah and she had a lot of good info to share She had us make a clay tile that we will use to carve our glass with. She also does glass carving with glass fiber paper, but thicker. Or thinner, depending on the glass fiber you use. What ever, it is interesting and beautiful. I got some so I can try it myself.
The thing is I've got somebody staying in my craft room and I feel really bad asking her to give up her privacy of the craft room so I can use my kiln. The problem is that the fuse fails because the kiln draws to much power. So she can't run the computer or the lights or anything else. It is quite dull in there while the kiln is running.
But I bought some clay and I'm making some molds:

I'm going with abstract right now, because I'm still figuring out what the recycled glass is going to do. I completely screwed up my pot melt project. It totally devertrafied. But looking at examples of other peoples work with recycled glass, I think I can work with the devertrarfication. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the glass, I've had a few ideas, but I'm not sure if any of them are good ones. I know can get some glow in the dark power I can mix with it. I think that would make a great effect. I could figure out how to make a split mold, Maybe I could make a glow in the dark Cthulhu. I think that might be beyond my skill level. I have some reliefs of space invaders I could make glow in the dark space invaders. I need to get a bag that I can use to crush the glass in. I can't use a thin plastic bag that the glass can cut it's way through, I can't use a paper bag for the same reason, I don't want to use  cloth bag because the it will hold and catch the glass in its fibers. So I'm going look for a large silicone bag or something something like that. Ron suggested I look in a sporting goods store. I don't know I guess its a good start. I get my bag, I get my mallet and go to crazy on  my ruined recycled tests. It'll be great.

Been off my game

I haven't done any crafting lately because we have been letting a friend stay in my craft room. I started a pot melt project tonight I hope I don't cook her out of her room. It does get kinda warm when I melt glass. 

I'm doing a pot melt. I've got some glass that is just being wasted because it didn't do what I wanted it to when I first slumped it. Now I'm melting it in a terracotta pot and on to some thin fire paper. It should turn out to be sort of a rectangle of melted glass. People do pot melts to mix beautiful colors and create lovely effects. I would like to do that, but I'm still just trying things out so I'm not going to waste good glass on the project.

I didn't take any pictures. I didn't think anything I did was picture worthy. First thing I did was cut my glass into smaller pieces. Next I loaded them up in my terracotta pot and put the pot on three kiln posts to lift it above my kiln shelf. I set the kiln at the levels that were recommended and hit start. 

About forty minutes into the project I realized that my set up wouldn't work for a pot melt and I went in to change it. I put on my heat resistant glove and laid the kiln posts on their sides and put the pot back on. I next realized that there was a chance that the glass would stick to the kiln post so I put some thin fire paper on top of them. Now I think the thin fire paper is too close to the pot, but I also learned that my kiln is at a level where my heat resistant gloves don't work so well. They work, I would hate to feel the heat from the pot without the glove, but it was warm enough that I'm going to leave well enough alone.

We'll see what happens, this guy is going to learn to fly or hit the ground. 

Jump Drive Jewelry

So not quite a month, but I did let a long time go between posts.

I'm sorry about that. I spent two weeks of that time being crazy so the only crafting I was able to do was under the direct supervision of a rec therapist. Yay! I did make a cute frog out of clay.

The rec therapist thought it was so cute, she asked me to make another one so she could have one, too. She tried to make her own, but she kept messing up the mouth.

So when I got out I was inspired to make some more clay art. I got out my clay and got to work.
This first one is for the dork in all of us:

 I want to make it into a keyring, but I'm not sure enough of it's durability. I wouldn't want to sell something that was going to break. So it might become a pin, or a pendant.

The next three are special, I made them to house small jump drives. They are all necklaces so you can wear your data where ever you go. I don't know, I think it is a good concept. I hope other people will like it, too

 

I got busy with my glass again today. I set the Coke bottles aside, I'm going to have to decide what to do with their ruined remains and I'm going to have to look into how I don't get the paint to burn off. I think a lower heat or changing the soak times would work, but I'm not sure. 

We got a heat gun and I was excited to try it on my labels. I had read that that was the best way to get them off. It worked great, except that it left an gluey film behind. I tried all the home remedies I could, nail polish remover, alcohol, cooking oil, lotion, re-heating the glue and scraping it off while it was hot.... Yeah, they were all failures. So I got some adhesive remover. Rubbed a little bit on the bottle, waited 30 seconds, and wiped it off with a paper towel. I came off right away. It did leave an oily film that I had to wash with soapy water, but all in all I think it took less than 6 minutes for the labels to be completely removed. And it will go faster when I figure out a system.

For now I'm just going to lumber along.

The cutting of the bottle I was using for my project cut very well at first, better than all the other cuts I made, but while I was using my tool to cut another line on the bottom the glass broke of two smaller pieces. I wasn't able to cut the bottom into the size I wanted, so I won't be getting a square with the bottle, but it should be interesting.

I think I over crowded the kiln:

 I'm afraid the glass might melt together, but that will give me an interesting outcome to use my imagination to make useful. I've got a stack of slumped glass that is just waiting for a second chance. That's the good thing about working with recycled glass, you can always try again and see what comes out next.

Those are all the products I used and I would highly recommend them.

Getting ready to Etsy

I've cleaned up my craft room only to start make a mess again that same day. I need to get into the habit of putting things away when I go in there instead of just dumping them on the floor.

I finished photographing my coasters. I used a slightly different method than the one I posted awhile back. I don't know if I'm going to update my entry or make a new entry and put a link to the better way of doing it on the original entry. Choices, choices.. I'm just not in the picking mood.

Here is my coasters:

As you can see, I added felt to the  back instead of the little feet. I also sprayed them down with varnish to give them a shiny but non tacky feeling on the top. On the original one I did the little feet got stuck on the tacky modpoge and split apart leaving a residue on the top of the coaster. I also used it to test out the varnish originally. I found out then you needed a layer of modpoge over the top or the paper that is on there starts to wrinkle  and the coaster is wasted.

Sorry I haven't been around

I've been sick for the last little bit so I didn't really feel up crafting much. I also have to clean up my craft room again. I've been picking up supplies and just dumping them on the floor in there. I got some material that I'm going to use to make these wrist cuffs that my sister and I worked on last summer.

 I'm going to be using reclaimed jeans as the ruffly base cuff. The top part is going to be made from the material that I bought. I got some cute daisy buttons and the hair bands that loop around the wrist and other button. And I have the pin backings for whatever I decide to make out of polymer clay to go in the middle.
I've done some other project with polymer clay I've made a companion cube  pendant and I'm currently working on a Cthulhu- well I was before I got sick... I'll post pictures when it is closer to being done. I've also been saving up bottle caps to make into clay pendants.

It's the ADD, my focus has jumped away from slumping glass for the moment. But I'm going to be joining the Utah Glass Worker's Guild in January so I think that will get my excitement up again.

I need to buy kiln wash before I can move forward with it so there is still some waiting involved either I get it through the mail or wait until my husband and I feel up to driving to Layton. That is if the store in Layton even has it, they are shifting their focus away from glass and more towards pottery. I don't know, do you use kiln wash for pottery?

But for my current project I need to find out if my sewing machine works. I got it for $15 at Deseret Industries I haven't figured out its threading system so I haven't actually tried it out on any material. I know the needle goes up and down and that is a good sign, but we'll see. I also don't know if it has a button hole setting. It is old, but I don't think it's that old.

We'll see.