Halloween is my nother daughter 's favorite holiday. Last year I made her this bracelet and she would not even give it back to me to adjust the size until this year and then really didn't want to. So while I had it in my possession I took this picture. This year she helped me figure out my new phone, so I made her some ghost earrings to match. I was pretty pleased with both so I made myself a very similar bracelet and earrings. Of course I will only get to wear them a couple of times before it is time to put them away until next year.
I know it has been awhile since my last post, but that doesn't mean I have not been busy. London, KY's claim to fame is the Chicken festival. I usually avoid it like the plague. Well long story short, I had a booth this year in the Mountain Heritage Artisan Guild's tent. I was not expecting much, since most of the crowd is into blow up machine guns and such. I was pleasantly surprised, my husband was really successful on Saturday and Sunday in the sales department. Thursday and Friday were definitely very slow and miserable. Would I do it again, probably.
Back in the summer at the Gathering I purchased some metal clay powder. I purchased one pkg each Bronze, Brass and Copper. I have just now gotten to play with the first packet. I tried the bronze first, since it supposedly is the most forgiving. It is a long process. Wednesday after work I mixed up the clay and cut my pieces. I put them into the dehydrator until Friday after work. Then I put them in my kiln and did the first firing on a shelf to burn off the binder. Saturday morning, I took them out, they looked like charcoal briquets. I put them in coconut charcoal in a stainless steel pan and back in the kiln they went. They were in the kiln from 9am and were finally finished at 10pm. I opened the kiln and finally got to see them Sunday morning. We still didn't have a product that looked like metal. I put them in a pickle solution for awhile and then into the tumbler with stainless steel shot and water and dish soap. They tumbled all day, and Wa-la, bright shinny metal. I am very pleased and can't wait to try the other two metals.
