psssst.....i'm back

for those who just come for the art of it all there will be pics below all the blabbering of my life as  it has been nearly a month so bear with this girl while she gets her blog bearings back.

i really have a good excuse reason why i was gone.....i have gotten out of the house in the last month more than i have in a year total....sick, sad, and pathetic.....and so cool all at the same time. 

i was out and about with my mom and sister....twice.  no pics because i was concentrating on not falling on my face.  apparently the beast thought it was invited as well. 

as many of you know my sister was one ill puppy and in the hospital...remind me to show you the vase i soldered up for her to hold some of my home grown flowers to help brighten her hospital room.....  and i want to say THANK YOU again for all of your prayers and thoughts and well wishes....and she thanks ya too.  i know they were heard.  she is at home now and healing from it all, slowly but surely.  thank God. 

i finally got myself back on an almost normal peeps sleeping schedule which meant no late night blog posts.   i had been trying to find that perfect 'blog' time alternative and once i did i realized the end of the school year is just days away and i need to rethink it all over again.   i so need my peace and quiet in order to blog.

we changed from charter to at&t.  ugh.  maybe i should save that story for another decade. 

i am posting now in the wee hours of the morning.  i have been in bed for 4 days now.  i think my butt is growing roots in the mattress. since i have not done anything, besides spin, for the last 4 days and i am starting to feel a bit better,  i am wide, wide, wide awake.  just like i had a dozen or so pots of coffee. and i drank 'em with a straw...oh wait that only means something with alcohol doesn't it...   i have known for the last week or so that beast was going to get extra nasty, and on thursday night it did.   instead of sending an email, or giving me a call it causes intense pressure in my ears that is very painful along with bouts of temporary deafness in one or both ears becoming more  frequent than normal along with the 'ringing' in my ears becoming even louder.  this time headaches came along for the ride, even while popping 4 motrin every 4 hours. 

ohhhh....and we have a new member of the family.   it is a long story.  everyone has wanted a second cat, again.  as if the first second cat we had was not enough of a nightmare.  i have said no.  they have said puhlease.  back and forth and back and forth.   especially now since the hubs job situation and financials and all.  the daughter went with a friend to a pet store.  clarence was a rescue kitty needing a home.  his top is pure midnight black, his belleh is brownish black.  and he is cross-eyed.  big time.  he has some depth perception issues.  lots and lots of other peeps applied and were denied to adopt.   we applied...yes i gave in...figured the cat lady  would say no and i would not be the bad guy.  uh...she said yes.  we now have a second second kitteh.  he is sweeter than sweet.   moan-uh is just now dealing with him and has come out of hiding after 2...or is it 3 weeks now.  oh...hold on i gotta get the pic my sister took of him off facebook......be right back.  

ok...this does not show the full extent of his crossy-ness.  it is next to impossible to get a good photo since he is all black.  but it gives you an idea.

he mostly sleeps like this....actually with all four legs kinda up in the air like bloated road kill....he kinda fell over to the side here. 

he is a few inches over 3 feet long nose to tail.  we are thinking he is part maine coon.   he looks like a panther when he walks and stalks through the house. 



ok...lets see.....oh yea.  the vase(s) i made.....

it started life an just a plain old spice jar

i so love the texture.

i soldered a charm and used some green sari silk to attach.   i was not quite sure if i was in love at first, so i decided to make another, just in case i liked the second one better and could give that one to my sister instead. 

i decided to keep this one for myself.  see the 'thorns' i soldered on the charm?  yup....figured the last thing my poor sister needed was to get jabbed by a 'thorn' and end up in worse shape since she is allergic to everything and with our luck end up with solder-patina poisoning.  not that it exists in the normal world....with normal people. 


so....anybody in the mood for a tute on aging a mirror?  i was not sure if i would be up for it, but here i am still wide awake and thinking my beast induced brain fuzzies might cooperate.

i had a couple of different types of mirrors. 

some had grey backs, the others terra cotta.  

the terra cotta ones came from hobby lobby.   dunno where the grey backed ones came from.

a little back story on how i figured this all out.   i have been wanting to do this for quite some time, but when i read up on it here, there, and everywhere on the internet it involved a really super icky chemical and from what i could tell what expensive...like 30 - 60 bucks kind of expensive.  

one day i came across a tute from someone who actually ages mirror and sells them...like seems to make a living doing it from how i read it.   while reading this latest version the teacher mentioned using a product to eat the silver off that sounded like a patina.....hey i have some of that....i wonder?   what do i have to lose, right?   and besides the novacan patina is icky, kinda bad icky but not super icky which makes it not as icky to use.  right?   

first you have to strip the paint off the back of the mirror.

i seem to have misplaced the photo of the stripper i use.  i only use citri strip.  it is orange.  much less icky scary than the other stuff. 

the mirrors from hobby lobby...the terra cotta backed....stripped off in just minutes.  the grey backed mirrors took hours.  the neat thing is the stripper actually started to eat some of the silver off of the grey backed ones. 

once the mirrors are washed off then grab your novacan black patina.   i also had cotton balls and a straw, some paper towels and a vinegar/water solution, and don't forget the safety glasses and rubber gloves. 

the mirror on the left has been wiped down with patina, and then i let the cotton ball sit on a part of the mirror.

the mirror on the right has a puddle of patina sitting on it.  i used the straw to grab some of the patina out of the bottle.  you know how you stick the straw in the liquid and use your finger as a stopper to hold the liquid in. 

i spent the next several hours experimenting.   the first mirror i did this to, the patina ate the silver off in literally a fraction of a second.  others took several minutes.   some needed some elbow grease with the cotton ball, others not so much.  all i can say is wait for the mirrors to go on sale at hobby lobby and buy a bunch and play and practice.

after you have removed the amount of silver you want then you need to neutralize the patina.  i used just plain water and used a vinegar/water mixture.  both worked just fine.  

i then sat the mirrors outside to make sure the were completely dry for a bit.

the next step is to spray paint the back.  i think photo goblins raided my album since i seem to be missing the photo of the spray paint i used as well.   that is what happens when you let a month go by between the photo taking and the photo using.  

i used a charcoaly grey color.  it was also textured, so it dried to a very flat finish. 

this is a sampling of some of the mirrors i aged.   thinking i did a so-so job, considering it was my first time and all i was pretty happy.  i went back to the site where i found the info and much to my surprise, surprise, surprise  (imagine goober's voice here)  my mirrors looked like their mirrors....the ones they sell!  yippee!

this is the first mirror i did....the one that took only a fraction of a second for the patina to eat the silver off.  it is a bit over done...but i like it and hung it in my bathroom.  i will take a photo of it tomorrow and post....tomorrow.

the frame of this mirror was a pukey gross green.  when i used the stripper on it i found the green paint had soaked deeply in to the wood and there was no removing it all.  it left the wood looking almost mossy!  i added a coat of antique walnut stain to age it a bit.   i think i am in love!

this is the back of one of the mirrors after i applied to spray paint.   this mirror had been glued to an antique silver platter.  i had used a heat gun to release the glue and much to my surprise found a heart...see it?  right there...see!   i have since re-glued the mirror back in.  need to take a photo of that one too tomorrow.  

okey dokey...i think that about does it.   the brain fuzzies are getting a bit gnarly.  if you have any questions you know where to find me!  

if tomorrow is better i will play show and tell with giving metal a patina with a.....drum roll.....torch! 

sweet dreams....much love to you.

a box of curiosity and a pinterest diy win

i am so happy that this weekend has ended better than it started, and for that i am so grateful.

at the end of my last post i predicted the pms would most likely leaving me sobbing in a corner for no real reason, saturday i was a doing just that, but mostly because the beast (meniere's) was really, really being naughty in a bad way.  just an hour in to my day i was not able to walk by myself, it messed with my ability to swallow and read and hold things, reading a book or text on the computer was not happening. 

most days we joke and make fun of the beast and how sometimes, when i get spinny i can look like a bobble head, according to my youngest.  when i lose my balance i tend to throw my arms in some goofy direction trying to catch myself and who ever might be in the room does it too.  we are a bunch of goof balls....probably funnier to be here.  

the only days the beast can bully me to tears is on days like saturday...and that was not even what one of my more challenging days can be like....without my guest, pms, i can usually shut the bathroom door so no one has to see my give in and cry....but the pms enhanced the boo-hoo process and i fell apart in the kitchen in front of everyone.....i hate that. 

today started off better.  i am not back to my normal less spinny self, but i am better and was bound and determined to make art....the soldering bug has bit me something awful this past week and that is what i did.

it has been a couple of years since i have done a reliquary and i started playing around with ideas last week using a match box, some very old watch maker vials, vintage beads, fish bone, coyote toe bones, and peridot chips....oh and vintage german book text in the background. 


i used double sided tape to secure the vintage book text down, but later you will will not enough. 

you can also see  that i have a wire running through the box....i have wanted to do this for a long time.....and

it was a good excuse to play with this....squeeeeeeeee!

at first i was going for the abacus look with some vintage trade beads....nah.....not how i pictured it.

like a dork i double stick taped the vials to the inside of the box....the beast causes me a little air headed at times, not like i don't already have that problem anyway!  i had to yank the bottles out and that caused the paper to be ripped to shreds so i had to cut a new lining out.

now that is more like it.

uh boy.  i got this all taped up and if you look at the left hand corner....part of the vintage book text is haning down.  i did not tape it corner to corner, just a bit in the middle and somewhere in the process of putting the foil/tape down for soldering i jarred the corner loose. 

so, i can just leave it...who will notice...does not matter.  i will know. 

i took just the top bit off and adjusted the paper the best i could with an exacto knife and sealed it back up. 

it was a pain in the butt, but worth it.

i use a bone folder to make sure the edges are smooth and all sealed up.

wah-laa.  ready to solder.  here is where i realize i did not plug in the soldering iron and decide to take a potty break upstairs and check in on all the peeps to kill time to let it heat up.

notice the vial on the left of the screen, the little one.  see how the cork is in nice and tight....just wait.

here it is all soldered up. 

i have mentioned in previous posts that i have decided i might just not be one of those pretty, super smooth solderererers....that i have decided to call this my 'style'

this evening i decided why not give it a bit more of that ancient dig site, or antique look and make it look as though it has been sealed or nailed or screwed shut.

it took a good hour experimenting, and inhaling lots of steamy stinky flux, not sure if that is a good thing, and found that if you make a dot and really really really quickly move the soldering iron and shove a bamboo skewer in the center and push down you get that sealed, nailed, screwed shut look! 

did i mention the beast was still being naughty....and that my sense of aim was a bit off?!?!  so this was pretty darn good.  not that i got it 'right' on the first try for each one, but i did it!

i am so happy!  squeeeeeee!

here is the back.  i experimented with another process for large areas like this and i almost have it figured out and when i do i will play show and tell.

when i told my hubby that i made this from a match box he was blown away.  he thought i used one of my vintage metal boxes.  he is my biggest supporter and without him i would have never gone as far or done as much as i have.   i am a lucky girl.  he thinks i am a genius....

remember a bit earlier i said to look at the bottle on the left of the screen....see what happened to the cork....it is no longer snug as a bug on the tiny vial.  during the soldering process condensation built up on the inside and it must have loosened it.   note to self:  secure the corks in the next on i do.

i was hoping that once it dried out a bit the cork would stay stuck, but no such luck.  thankfully the bar of beads are keeping the cork from coming all the way out and the contents of the tiny vial from spilling all over. 


on a different note....PINTEREST....my addiction.  there are so many neat ideas, arty, household, cleaning, holiday....the list goes on and on and on and i have become, like so many others a pin hoarder.  i decided i was going to try some of the diy/tutorials i was pinning.  i have tried a ton of them and figured i would share my personal experiences on posts here and there.

the first one i will share with you, but not the first i have done, is the milk jug watering can.


i have several vintage ones that i don't use, and i also always seem to have at least one empty milk jug a day.  

on the pin it showed the watering can with holes in the LID.   when i first saw this i thought what total genius, and then realized at some point you would need to turn the jug almost completely upside down to get the water out.  so......................

i pokes them here, and it works great.  now i just need some plants that need to be gently watered. 

it is only midnight and i am a bit pooped, thanks to the beast, so i am going to say nighty-night for now and see if i can settle down. 

hope you had a beautiful weekend.  smooches to you.