Enameling Experimentation and First Attempts at Fusing Fine Silver

Enameling Experimentation

So, I wanted to spend a few minutes playing around with enamels.

I took a charm I’d made out of bronze clay.



First I enameled the back (for strength).




Then I put black enamel into the channels on half of the charm.



And here’s what it looked like after my first firing.



Then I added enamel (powdered glass) to the other side of the charm.



And fired it.



Here’s the finished product (after I polished the bronze back up).



I’m not impressed with the charm, but I was experimenting so I’m cool with it. And now I have some ideas for things I can work on.


First Attempts at Fusing Fine Silver

These were very unsuccessful. As I mentioned in my other blog, I had to use a torch with more power than the Blazer micro-torch.

But it’s going to take some finesse and practice for me have better skill at fusing. This…



Was my first jumpring attempt. A section of the ring just balled up, separating from the rest of the ring.



This makes me think I was aiming the flame (not pin point, unfortunately) NOT at the seam.

I tried fusing a jumpring four times… it finally worked the forth time.

But then I wanted to make a really fat ball-end headpin.

It’s here on the left, 14g.



I’m going to keep it as a memento… along with a bead I’ve been saving (it’s an Alex bead).




That’s it for now.

This weekend I also made a lot of jewelry out of components I’d already made or had. It’s more of my attempt to use what I have rather than buying more.

I’ll let you know when I get the listings started.

Cheers!

Jewelry Giveaway, SRAJD Articles, Metal Clay Info, and Boots

JEWELRY GIVEAWAY

So I've decided that rather than give my non-happy-making creations away, most of them I'll just cannibalize.

BUT... there are a few things I *can* give away and as soon as I get good photos, I'll show them to you and ... um... give them away.

I made one thing last night that is really neat. But it's not good enough (by my standards) to sell and it took too long to make for me to consider cannibalizing... so... I hope it ends up with someone who likes it as much as I do. Not sure yet HOW I'll run the giveaways.


SRAJD

We've got three new articles in our RESOURCES section:

1) Wax Carving: Tips, Resources, and Advice by Amanda Katz (SRAJD #1220)

2) Turk's Head Knot Ring: Detailed Description, Tips, and Useful Links by Amanda Katz (SRAJD #1220)

3) And an off-site video tutorial on "Bernzomatic Brazing Rods" by Gary Snyder.

And we've got a few more planned for early next week (a "Sand Casting" tutorial, product review for sand papers, and info on wedding jewelry).



METAL CLAY INFO TO SHARE

This link has some very cool info. Check out that first pdf.

But really, the Metal Clay Academy is just an invaluable resource for metal clay artists.

The gallery is to die for.


BOOTS

Who I've taken to calling "Boo" instead. Maybe it's because I just watched Monsters, Inc. last weekend… maybe it's because this cat is so scared. Shrug

Anyway, he's becoming a cute little terror. Last night, he had several LONG occasions of playing on my bed, on top of my covers. Most likely chasing his tail. When I'd reach for him, he'd disappear of course… but then he'd come right back up, leaping about for what seemed like hours at a time (but I'm sure was only minutes).


Well, that's about it for now. I should have more time to create and post after this weekend.

TGIF!

Quick Catching Up

Got home from work last night at 5:15... and at 5:30 Monica and I were out the door heading to her hockey practice.

I watched the whole thing and went out to the car about five minutes before the kids were off the ice. Sigh... They had to come find me. Monica sliced two of her fingers on her skate blades (trying to fix her toe strap).



Got to the E.R. before 10pm and got home from there around 2am. Sigh...

Went to work this morning and have been home for about an hour... then heading out the door to take Gabe to HIS hockey practice. We'll be home around midnight.

Gabe leaves for an MLK tournament in Riverside tomorrow... then Mon and I get three relaxing days to ourselves.

I need to catch up with jewelry and creations and stuff like that.

Bootsy spends a lot of time being a typical kitten now... playing playing playing. Then he hides. Ha ha ha!

Well, I'm going to gather some gems up so I can make bracelets during Gabe's practice.

Toodles!


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Foster Kitty Update, ArtFire, and Editing Software

So… court was Monday, then Monday night, Tuesday night, and tonight (Wednesday) are all hockey… and the days are at the office. So little time to do anything, right?

Still, I like to stay in touch.


FOSTER UPDATE

Again, I can’t remember if I blogged about Andy (the first foster… who seemed ill at one point) but the update on him is that he got right as rain by the next day and he and his sister were both adopted out the week after Christmas. Yay!

Now, onto Boots. He’s really coming out of his shell. As of today (day 6), he can be seen on occasion at any given point in the living room. He does spend most of his time in his cubby (I folded up his dog bed and put it between the cabinet and the entertainment center), but he comes out to walk around a little and to play.

I don’t have any photos yet of him playing, but here are some from day 3.







Static pictures have a hard time expressing reality. At the slightest (and I do mean slightest) sound, this little guy is gone in a flash and curled up like a tiny armadillo.

But it hasn’t even been a week yet and the progress is really encouraging. I think he’ll be perfect for someone without little kids or too much activity in the household.



ARTFIRE

I was perusing ArtFire today. Sigh… I’m not sure why I’m there. Has it been a year yet?


VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE

We were using MSN’s MovieMaker (comes free on most computers… you may have it and not even know it… I did).

But the music and video didn’t seem to sync up right at time and I wanted to try something with a few more options. So we’re now using Sony’s Movie Maker (I think that’s what it’s called). Gabe is having a crash course in it since he has a school project due soon.

I’ll let you know what I think of it when I get a chance to try it. Actually, I’ll probably SHOW you… by uploading a video to YouTube. Oh, I should get video of Boots!


I got the beads for Monica to make “spider kits”. I should get on with that project.

Well, I should probably get back to what I was doing (yes, I’m actually doing something… not sure if it’s productive, but there’s always that chance).

Flower Petal Light, Toni Lutman, Foster #3

Neat Inventions



This is kind of an interesting idea. It’s a light that opens and closes, brightens and dims.


Featured Artist

Actually, it’s not like I’m doing a big feature on any artists… I just want to share (as often as I can) some things I like… people that make things I like. :-)

So today’s “featured artist” is Toni Lutman of WildWoods Art Glass studio in Carmichael, California.

I met Toni through Alex (who knows the coolest beady people!) at the local bead shows.

(BTW, I’m DROOLING over a necklace that Alex made with some of Toni’s beads just recently…. Maybe she’ll let me show a pic here in my blog.)

Now the hard part… I want to show a few of Toni’s beads, but picking which ones to show is SO hard…. There are SO many beauties and they are all different.



Oooo, that was fun! :-)


Foster #3

Although it’s only our second TIME fostering, this is our third foster kitty (the first time was two kitties).

In my 48 years of life so far, I’ve seen cats injured, sick, and die before my eyes. It’s all sad, but I find a much deeper sadness when thinking about Boots (as named by the SPCA).

Boots is four months old and seemingly terrified of everything. He was introduced to me as a very “hissing” cat and one who will run from me when I want to pick him up. Thankfully I’ve found neither of those to be the case. But he is far from “normal”.



BTW, I purposely put the cat bed on the couch backwards because Boots prefers to be “hidden” (or what HE thinks of as hidden).

This is his photo on day two and it epitomizes his current personality. The poor little boy gets all curled up and rigid when you hold him (although he does relax after an amount of time in the same position). He’s so rigid (I can’t think of a better word) that his tail is bound tight to his body… forcibly.

When you pick him up, the first thing he does is hides his face into a crook. Almost like he’s saying, “I don’t want to see life.”

He’s like the ferals I’ve taken care of (the real ferals… born and raised in the wild without human contact) except that I can pick him up, hold him, and pet him. Otherwise, he’s got that same attitude… 100% fear of EVERYTHING.

I’m guessing he was sleeping on the bathroom rug this afternoon because when I came home, the rug was flipped up (like someone made a hasty exit from it) and little Boots was hiding in the bathtub between the two shower curtains. Ugh! Since that seems to be one of his favorite places to be, I’ll at least line the tub with towels tomorrow. I can’t stand the idea that he’s on that cold porcelain.

He took his meds from me fine this morning… no hissing, fighting, scratching… nothing. Just that same rigid body that goes into hiding if I’m not holding him.

I worry that his life is nothing but sleeping. I know that sometimes cats sleep as a reaction to stress (like at cat shows… not all cats… it’s just how SOME cope with stress), but this is a four month old kitten. He should be tearing around the house, jumping after pieces of paper, and sounding like a stampede of horses.

I do hope he relaxes a little in the next few weeks.


Sharks Play Detroit Saturday

Wish I could take the kids to a game one of these days. Gabe even mentioned that he would have liked to go to that game in particular. Well, I’m sure we’ll go someday. It’s been a couple of years… we’re due. :-)


Friends

Well, I’m having lunch with Alex tomorrow (Yay!). I’m going to see if I can get my create juices to produce anything useful for her (I don’t have time to do any PMC, though).



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