i am seeing dots....

i have to say my least favorite part of soldered goodness is putting the foil/tape on the piece.

grrrrrrrrrr...........today i ripped the foil tape off 2 times on one of the pieces. 

i soldered the first of the two reliquaries with the baby dolls sharing a secret.

this first picture shows the reliquary before i added the dots, and it also shows what is normal when soldering a reliquary.....condensation.  this is why you need to wait for the glue to dry, i usually wait about 24 hours, before soldering.  if not you could end up with a mess.

i love the look of vintage chenille bedspreads.  i have a couple of them.  i remember as a little girl being fascinated by them and their dots.    i just knew that these vintage baby dolls and the vintage papers and stamps needs to be encased in a box with these happy little dots. 

i also remember as a little girl going to the woolworth and five and dime with my grandma....there seemed to be and endless supply of miscellany and gadgets in what i call dime store pink and dime store blue, and i remember pearls....like the cheezy dime store bath decor with a bathing piggy in an old fashioned bath tub and fake pearls of varied sizes used to simulate bubbles dripping over the side of the tub....thats what i think of  with the soldered dots.....and it makes me happy.  my grandma was something...she had a mouth on her that would make a sailor blush, an attitude, a bit of a goofy nutball, and she had some issues, ...but that woman loved me...truly loved me....warts and all.  guess that is why all that cheezy stuff like lots-o-dots make me happy. 

the pics above were taken before the reliquary was cleaned to remove the flux.    after dinner i added just a few more dots. 



this is after a few extra dots were placed strategically and was shiny and clean....and condensation free. 

got these bits soldered up today as well. 

i can not wait to get back down to my studio and finish up.  i still have a few items to solder and then will be assembling pieces.

i have several pieces ready to go on the etsy shop and i have been dragging my feet....and all my other body parts.  i love taking photos...except when it comes to the etsy shop.  it makes-uh me-uh curazy!

i guess that is all i have for tonight.  i am one pooped puppy that is waiting on the dryer before she can go to bed. 

i am off to see if there are any science geeky or funny shows to watch.

hope you had an awesome day.

mwah!

girlfriends reliquary and a charming wish

i did not get to spend the time in my studio today like i wanted.  the peri-menopausal pms insisted we stayed curled up in bed whining about feeling crappy. 

so i made a deal with the pms...we go downstairs to the studio and if i did not feel better we could come back upstairs and curl back up in a ball for the rest of the day.  neener neener i did not feel all that much better but i stayed put and played anyway.

yesterday i had cut the paper linings to the 5 future reliquary boxes, today i secured them, and i made sure it was corner to corner this time, with double sided tape.  believe it or not that took a bit of time and was sooooo boring, even with something good to watch on my ancient tiny tv that i am so thankful for.


once they were done i realized i had no idea what i was going to put in them.  yipes!  i wandered the studio searching for ideas and things to put in these little boxes of happiness.  i put wee little farm animals in them, the little yellow pipe cleaner easter chicks....have you ever noticed that only 1 out of an entire box of those chicks has their face on straight and not all smooshed and off to the side? 

i then remembered i had a ton of vintage plastic baby dolls.  for a bit i played with them trying to figure out how i wanted them positioned.  i decided on this.....

don't they have the sweetest faces?!   makes me think of that special person a girl has in her life that she can confide in and know their secret was safe.

i also used 2 vintage postage stamps in the box for a bit of color.

  the hardest part is waiting.  i had to e6000 the dolls together, wait for them to dry enough to then glue to the bottom of the box.  if i solder it too soon then the glue may not be set enough or the condensation that builds up inside during soldering sometimes could cause some real messy problems.

  patience, patience, patience.

   i am a patient person when it comes to many things, but not in the studio.  today's project is not just art, but a test in patience and i am gonna pass.  it is now 11:45 p.m. and i have not run back down to my studio to begin soldering.  i am being a big girl and waiting until tomorrow to give the e6000 plenty of time to dry. 

after gluing the girls in the box i cut some glass to solder a separate stamp charm for the reliquary necklace. 

i have also been in the backyard collecting some of these.......

probably should have cropped this photo, but the pms said ppppbbbbbtttt to that.  it is a clear cup with dandelion blowy things in it,  up against my belly.

i used them to make a couple of these.......

it still needs to be soldered.  i figured i would just make tomorrow a soldering day.  i am also going to put a few more of these together....i figured my baby girl would love it, and she did.  i would love to make several to keep on hand.   everyone needs to make a wish now and then. 

the 'little' dog that i posted about last night is back safe with her owners.  we found out she is a shiba inu.  the photo i took of her last night being loved on by the hubby

was a very slimming and flattering photo.  i bet she weighed at least 60 pounds....and those 60 pounds were stuffed in a fur made for half that.  kind of makes me sad.....the reason her eyes looked so tiny is because she is mostly blind.

 she is also going deaf....maybe that is why she and i communicated so well? !

her owner told me she gets out all the time, but she makes her way home.....the dog was in the middle of the road late at night and she is nearly blind and deaf......i think it is time to fence in the yard buddy.  my son's friends say that their dogs get out all the time and we should not ever bother picking her up again. 

i better run, i just realized i have a load of laundry i need to do before tomorrow morning. 

hope something wonderful happened to you today.

lots of love....mwah!