Warning! Alcohol is bad for you!

I've been up and filling my kiln up at 6am most mornings this week.  I've got a couple of lovespoon orders to get through and things just seem to be going wrong.   I did a batch of six spoons that I wanted to get done as soon as possible.  I'd cut them all out and thought they were going to turn out good.  In my attempts to try and speed things up a bit I thought to myself  'alcohol is drying, I'll clean them up with that before I put them in the kiln' So I put a bit of isopropynol on them.  Big mistake. It left a residue on them that even after dremmelling it off and refiring twice again didn't get it off, wasted my time, effort and money and generally caused me a whole load of stress.  The moral of the story; don't use alcohol! It is bad for you!!

Mould Attempt No 3

Today I've been attempting to make a mould again.  I've made a model out of clay, am gonna make a latex mould out of that one then fill that up with melted modelling wax then use that model to make a plaster mould.  That way i'll be able to keep the latex mould to fill again and again to make the model exactly the same each time I want to make a new plaster mould, and I intend to make lots of them.  Fingers crossed this will work! 

My Shameless Plea

So as I'm now a regular blogger I thought i'd make use of my little corner of cyber space for job searching.  Shameless I know but hey in this recession needs must!  I'm looking for some little part time flexible jobs in the South Wales area doing something creative or with animals or kids to boost my income.  I'm loyal, trustworthy and willing to try new stuff so give me a try    :)

Help Needed

I'm in the process of making my own moulds for my lovespoons.  Right now it takes me a long time to cut just one so I'm trying to cut that down by using moulds instead.  Problem is I haven't got a clue what i'm doing.  I've read a bit about mould making but I'm just stumbling along, trying to figure things out for myself.  It's not been much of a success so far.  I'm using a mixture of plaster,  grog and flint.  Anybody out there able to lend me a slice of their glass fusing wisdom?  Any help is much appreciated ;)

(Unofficially) Sponsored by Samsung

I've not updated for a while because i've not been able to access my account.  I was using the family computer to do all my business stuff but our computer is pretty old and tired and doesn't always do what you want it to do, which is really annoying when trying to run a business.  However, I have now been forced into the 21st century! I am the proud owner of a tablet.  This is all new for me cos I'm not much into all this technology malarky, I'm a creative not a techie.  I needed a new phone too so I did a bit of smart shopping around and found a deal with the Carphone Warehouse.  I got a Samsung Galaxy Ace phone, Samsung Galaxy tab and a Samsung camera for £21 a month.  I am now unofficially sponsored by Samsung.

The mystery of the missing piece

Do you know when you get days when you're just extra clumsy?  I'm having one of those today.  I just seem to be breaking/dropping/bumping into stuff.  I've decided to stop making stuff for today cos i seem to be breaking more than making.  And somehow, i've have seemed to lost a piece of glass.
 I cut my spoons in about ten different pieces and whilst loading up my kiln I placed a little piece of a spoon on the controller of my kiln whilst I put other pieces in place.  The controller has vents in it and it dropped down into one of those vents. Not good!  So I called my dad to come help me and he unscrewed the controller to open it up and we couldn't find it.  I've still not found it and i'm puzzled where it could have gone.  Strange.

The tough side of business

My poor pride is feeling a little hurt right now.  I have today been travelling around shops asking if anybody's interested in buying my lovespoons (I felt like a proper apprentice contestant!).  Generally i've had positive feedback off people, although I didn't make any sales most people liked them and were interested.  However, I went into one shop and well, my ego took a bit of a bashing.  The lady who owned the shop was not interested at all and seemed very set in her ways.  I don't think she appreciated my 'modern' take on the lovespoon.  Each one of my lovespoons is my own little creation, my glass babies.  I put a lot of effort into every one and being the sensitive person I am, I guess it's to be excepted that my pride would be a little wounded.  I'm still feeling positive though!  In the future when i'm a multi million selling glass artist, that lady will regret that she was not one of the first to supply my spoons!