Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Plate Challenge 2007!: Part One of Part Two

Remember the last plate challenge? I had those pretty flowers in the center of the plate and I wanted to break only the rim and keep the flowers intact. On the first cut, I broke right through the flowers. I cussed and cried and didn't think I'd try that again too soon.

Well here I am giving it another shot. I bought a load of plates from a dollar store having a going out of business sale. All they had left were purple plates so I guess I will need to have a purple plate project some day in the future.

To remind you all what the plate challenge is, the object is to take a plate with an image in the center and use the wheel cutter to break the glass around the image with out destroying the image itself. When I did this in class we drew hearts and flowers and all of my attempts failed miserably. I decided that this time I just needed something in the center I would never want to break. Something that means a lot and I'd never want to harm in a million years. I chose to use the image of a trusted friend:

I chose Pharaoh Mobius. Who'd want to break that face, huh? It's so cute and poiny.

I took a wheel cutter to the rim of the plate and cut. The first cut broke off little bits off the rim but none brutally cracked PM's lovely mug.

So far so good. PM's puss is presently perfect. The rim seems to want to break apart nicely and not straight through his mouth like I might have expected.

Many cuts later and PM remains okay. I'm really glad how well the rim wants to bust up without cracking into the center where PM smiles cheerfully. This is great!

But I am so totally not done. While the rim has been removed, there's another obstacle:


Underneath the plate there is this rim. This could cause me some issues. Actually, it could cause PM some problems.

Tune in next time for the adventures of "PM's Periled Puss!"

Thursday, April 5, 2007

My Last Project

Here is my final completed project:


This is an ornament I made just before Christmas. As you can see, it's made just like the last stained glass piece. I covered each piece in foil and soldered them all together. The only clear difference is the type of foil I used. The insides of the ornament got the straight foil while I used a nice scalloped foil on the outside. I was the only one in class who used this because I was the bravest! I knew my heart would look awesome with it so I had no other choice but to gird my loins and try it. I think it looks gorgeous!



Here is my peice again stuck to a suction nipple, catching come sun.

If I could do some things differently, I would have soldered the inner parts thicker so you wouldn't see the seams. Also, this heart was all cut from the same piece of glass but the upper right side was a bluer peice. It looks weird to me. Also, all the grains in the glass could have matched better. It would have given the heart a more ethereal quality.

Aside from that, I really like this ornament. It can be used year around, not just for Christmas.

And now, because one Tork demanded it, here is another cat picture:

Emma Vs Godzilla!

BTW, I'm going to get back to the organization now like I said I would before. I got lazy and never really started but since I'm out of projects and the basement flooded again, now is as good a time as any. Unil next time, "MLAAAAAAAAAAGH!"