Saturday 24 August 2013

A Latex-plosion

My latex mould worked out well.  I've made a couple of wax models out of it but I decided I wanted to make a model out of lead so it would be more solid.  My dad's a keen fisherman and makes his own lead weights so I enlisted his help in my mould making quest.

Off we went into the garage and melted the lead in an old battered saucepan over a tiny camp stove.  I set my mould down on the floor and watched as my dad poured the lead.  I don't know why I thought pouring molten lead into a latex mould would work, needless to say, it didn't!  The lead bubbled and spat as it melted away the latex leaving a shiny mirror like puddle on the garage floor.  I think this is what you may call an epic fail!

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Am I living in a box?

Aargh! I'm feeling the need to vent right now.  I so need a studio.   Having to conduct my business from an old cardboard box is really not ideal! Being the creative that I am, I like to finish my work  before I tidy up the resulting mess.  Unfortunately, my mother (understandably so) does not appreciate my tornado of mess that whirls it's way through our house so I've had to 'discreetly' hide my mess in a cardboard box under the dining room table.  I do fear the untimely demise of my 'mess' when my mum is on one of her crazy 'cleaning trips' though :-\

Thursday 8 August 2013

Success at last

I don't wanna jinx it but I think the fire polishing worked! They came out clean and mark free. Yay! I've still got more to fix but I think this will do the trick.  I can finally get those damn troublesome spoons out of my hair.

Wednesday 7 August 2013

Update No. 2

I'm making progress with my messed up spoons.  I'm determined not to let all the glass and hard work go to waste so my next plan of action is gonna be fire polishing.  I'm gonna grind all the manky, ugly bits off, sand them down with a coarse sandpaper then a finer one, then a finer one again then I'm gonna put them back in the kiln for a fire polish that will melt the glass just enough to smooth out the top layer.  I'll let you know how I get on!

Friday 2 August 2013

Spoon Update

So it turns out it wasn't the alcohol causing the marks.  I think it was caused by grinder markings and because I was rushing a bit, instead of giving them a proper wash I was just wiping with alcohol and not giving a good scrub which didn't clean them up as much as they needed to be.  But I've had a few come up clean nowvso, fingers crossed, I can salvage the others :)