And BTW--follow-up pics on DiamondGlaze project

In  order to redo my 2-peseta steam punk souvenir spoon, I tried warming it up, but that didn't loosen it.
I ended up having to dig & chip it out, taking some of the spoon's plating with it--that part wa OK, made it just look older--but losing the things I had embedded in it didn't make me a happy camper. 

As you may have noticed in the last post's pics, I've started to redo it, but it probably needs one more layer.

Anyway, here are some photos of the undoing process. 

WIP--ear gages

Several young friends and a couple of customers have suggested that some of my work would go well in ear gages, those larger-than-earring-sized objects that have been appearing in a lot of lobes (at least around here).
Our friend/sometimes roommate/partner of Chase Carolne has 00gages in opal or opalite that look really good, so I recruited her as a consultant and bought some gages for experimenting. I also bought some Easy Cast, which I can now recommend - it sets fairly quickly and perfectly clear, unlike the Diamond Glaze that was giving me problems.  It's a bit harder to use--a 2  part resin that requires measuring and mixing-- but I think it's worth it.
We stuck the tubes to fac-up packing tape to hold the resin in. Relatively successful. though next time I think we'll use a see-through surface.
I set some of the gages up with things I thought might work & ranthem past Caroline and Chase. Then last night, while Caroline was at school, Chase and I mixed the stuff up, sort of layered it and added things, and the pics below are what we have now.
Measurung: Each batch of 6 oz. or less requires 3 plastic vessels and 2 plastic or wood stirrers, all of which have to be tossed after use. So. I bought 100 small thin white plastic cups , which we marked (on the outside) with a permanent marker line at the same level. We could see the mark fromthe inside (THIN plastic cup) so just poured each part to the mark. Then we poured them together & stirred (we were using washed popsicle sticks, but I'm hoping to get something next time we go to the restaurant supply place--till then we have some thickish skewers, but I don't think round is the ideal shape) for the required 2 min, then moved to another cup and stirred with a clean stick for another 2 min. It worked really well.

Anyway, so there we were with a cup of goop and quite a few gages, in silcone, wood, ad horn. We also have one metal one, but we were only doing tubes and it's closed.   Preliminary results suggest that
1. we need more research on glue to hold anything to silicone.
2. silicone gages work nicely filled with resin, but may work even better as molds.
3. wooden gages can have things glued on, and are dynamite with resin and inclusions.
Silicone and horn (red flowers) are also great.
4. Diamond Glaze, which we tried using to hold a few things that didn't require transparency, stays runny in silicone & is a poor choice for this project.
5. We used 2or 3 different Beacon glues--experiment, remember--and all worked well with wood but not silicone. I triend some Flexible, Stretchable with the silicone, but it was old and runny. I'll give it another shot with a new jar--the problem is that the silicone tubes flex off the glue, so that seems like one way to go. Another may be to use some sort of caulk, but we're not going there yet. If anyone's had any success with a adhesive for silicone, do please let us know.

So this is what we have--final cleanup, any sanding, etc. still to be done. A little more pouring to top things up, too, but you can at least get an idea of where this is going. 

Here we are! 3 generations

So now only Michelle & Samantha are missing (this is daughters & granddaughters - son & granddaughter, grandson, are separate pics to be taken when possble)

A very busy month!

Please read this post bottom to top. Pics posted backwards!

4. And I finally gor ALMOST the 3 generations pic I wanted

with Anne-Sarah, Jenni, &  Ellie--we'll try for one with  Jazzie next time,   10/16/10

3.And a few days after that, on the 16th,baby Jenni grabbed her Zaide Seth's fnger & refused to let go!

2. A few days later, on the 11th, the day my mom would have been 101 hd she lived that long, we went to see Jenni and family, but Jenni, Anne, and Nick's mom had gone to the doctor, so we had some rare time with Jasmine (middle daughter) and her dughter Ellie, at 19 mos. getting some gymnastics tips from mom. 

A bit later Jenni & crew came home & almost immediately got a call from doc's office to go directly to ER--she was apparently quite dehydrated - some breastfeeding difficulties I suspect had to do wth being induced.
So it was off to ER for all of us, where some formula was added and Jenni was allowed to return home.


1.
Pics, of course, uploaded backwrds. Here's the first family photo with newborn Jenni Fae Hickey, mom Anne-Sarah (our youngest daughter), dad Nick -- a few hours after almost 3 days of induced labor &; little sleep.

Jenni arrived at 10:39 am on Oct. 6,2010, weighing 8 lbs., 8 oz. & 20 " tall.

Olympia Artswalk & Craft Fair, 5-9 pm Oct. 1

We (Ann Beal, Caroline, Chase & I) will have a booth at CraftX tomorrow night. It's on Washington between State & 4th--roughly from


Cafe Vita to Einmalein.

Won't know our booth location until we arrive, but please do come, look around, & say hi.

We're trying to make a night market an ongoing thing, & the more people who come, the better.

It's from 5 to 9, but street closes to cars at 4:30 & we'll be set up a little before that.

Hope to see you there! Leslie

more new work

Some things I've made and am working on. Some may hit etsy before Fri., but some may debut at the CraftX Oly show linked with Artswalk on Fri.
On the other hand, our new granddaughter may decide to emerge before Fri., in which case I'll be extremely happy that I'm sharing a booth, since Chase & Caroline will carry on for me.
But anyway, some pics.  Bear in mind that bone hates to be photographed, so some of the skull pics are not that great.

Add caption

As usual, having trouble with picture placement. This is called "Not so secret garden" and there's a closeup near the bottom.

This may be called "Octopus's Garden", though I'm not sure you can see the octopus, but I think it's really about Amelia Earhart, whose landing site may finally have been located.  There are several pics of this, at least one of which has migrated to the bottom of this post.

These are very Mexican feeling Caterina earrings for Dia de los Muertos. Skulls, flowers, lacy silver parasols--too bad they're impossible to photograph well! I hope you can get the idea.

Little steam punk skull earrings. Got raves as I was making them at last show.

Inside of the garden piece

Lush garden in a tagua nut almost-box --one of my friend Ann Beal's rejects. I think it's just an ornament - really heavy & clumsy to wear, but everyone who's seen it, even Seth, oohed & aahed.  I remembered that I CAN do other things than steampunk.  I like the glowy stuff inside--sort of like a coral reef or maybe underground grotto. Several pics, spread out.

Another rejected tagua shell. Not sure yet which way it goes or what goes in it, but think it will come easily.

Little antler log(?) also from Ann--wonder what will come out of the faucet?

Chase & I did a couple of bracelets--steam punk watch case centers with knotted hemp bands. This one needed pins. As you can see, I've added some in my own style.

 Crowned skulls with tiny spikes--more Dia de los Muertos. And below, aside from the pics that mysteriously moved down, just skulls with diff numbers of spikes on diff earring backs.

That's it for the moment. Hope to have more before (and after) Fri., along with pics of baby Jenni Fae.

PRIZE DRAWING REMINDER !!!

Every month, on the Facebook fan page for Findings, my etsy supply shop, there's a prize drawing.
In order to enter, all you need to do is post a photo of something you've made using anything from the shop--not everything, just one component.
Last month we had a winner, this month no one's posted yet, making the odds of winning pretty high. 
So if you've done anything with something you've bought there, do post a photo--you may win.