Beading Made Portable

I've always been jealous of knitters and crocheters. Their craft seems so portable. You see them working all over the place-waiting rooms, coffee shops, trains. I've always wanted to be able to do that with my jewelry making! I've always thought it would hard to organize bringing a lot of beads, wire, and tools with me. Not to mention I wondered if I would get funny looks.

So, I set about looking for a way to carry my beading with me so I could give it a try. Here's what I came up with:

Basically, I stole two smallish boxes that my fiance had been given with some fancy tea for his birthday. They have tight fitting lids so they wouldn't fall open while traveling. One would easily fit in a large purse. I removed all the packaging from inside and just started wedging things in. I carry a beading mat in one, so I can put things out on a table without them rolling around.

When I travel, I always wrap my pliers so they don't damage anything. I turn some duct tape sticky side out and wrap it around the ends of each pair of pliers, with the pliers in an open position. Then I wrap another layer of duct tape (sticky side in) over the first layer so it doesn't stick to everything.

So far, it's working pretty well. I've used them to work while waiting for my father to have a procedure in the hospital, and on an amtrak train. I find making rings to be one of the easiest projects to carry with me. The tea tins don't fit a ring sizer or hammer, but I can carry those separately pretty easily, or leave the hammer at home. I've also got an old biscuit tin I bought at a yard sale for when I need to fit more/larger items in. The problem with that (at least the one I have) is that the lid doesn't fit tightly and needs to be rubber banded on.

I'm working on a few other ideas for ways to carry my beading projects around. I'd love to hear about your ideas. Is your craft portable? What's your favorite way to carry it with you?

Triple Letter Score-Scrabble Tile Pendants Part 2-making bails!

I know you’ve all been anxiously awaiting this, so here is part two of my post on scrabble tile pendants! Once the resin had cured on the scrabble tiles, the next step was to add the bails (or, pendant-hanging thingers, as I would have called them a couple of years ago before I started making jewelry-I’ve learned a lot of new terminology!) There are a lot of pre-made glue-on bails available, mostly by Aanraku. But being me, I wanted to make my own bails from wire. I had some idea as to how it might be done, and I looked around online for examples to see if anyone else was doing something similar. I didn’t find any, and I started wondering if handmade bails would even work! Luckily I asked around to a few of my jewelry-making ‘tweeps’ on Twitter, one of whom has made her own bails in the past and she reassured me so I got started!

I made the bails themselves with 22 gauge half-hard wire.  I made a small wire spiral, and made a large wrapped loop on top. (That was especially exciting as I got a chance to use my new wire looping pliers!)  I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures during this part of the process-I got excited and made a whole bunch before I remembered I wanted to blog about this!

I hammered the spirals flat figuring that that would make a more surface area for the glue to adhere to.  I also hammered the loops to harden them.

I then sanded both the wire spirals and the backs of the scrabble tiles to make a rough surface for the glue to adhere to. 

Then I was ready to glue! After doing some reading online I’ve found that a lot of people use an adhesive called e-6000. I’ve heard mixed reviews of it, though, with some people saying that their creations fall apart using this glue! My friend Meredith of TilleyJewels suggested something called Crafter’s Goop, which I think I will try out next.  My fiancé has a quick-drying two-part epoxy that he’s used for wire projects, so I tried that first because we already had it. You have to mix the two parts, then use it quickly before it begins drying.

Here is what the finished product looks like, both front and back. I’m pretty happy with how it looks, and just about ready to list them in my shop. The glue (and the results of my resin spills that I mentioned in the last post) are visible, but only on the backs of the pendants. My main concern with these was sturdiness-would the handmade bails stay on? A friend of mine has been wearing one of them and has had no problems so far. On top of that, when I was trying to take pictures of the pendants, I dropped a wooden board that I use as a background right on top of them, and the bails didn’t separate from the pendants. The adhesive wasn’t even fully cured at that point, so, I think they’re going to work pretty well!

As usual, thanks for reading, everyone! Please leave me a comment and let me know how you like the pendants. Would you buy one?

Triple Word Score-Scrabble Tile Pendants

Hello readers! For the past few days I've been working on scrabble tile pendants. This is the first time I've tried working with resin and I'm having so much fun! I thought it'd be even more fun to share the process with you guys. I bought some individual scrabble tiles at a flea market (the Fremont Sunday Market) while I was visiting Seattle. I also got some other cool stuff while I was there-watch backs, old coins-but those will have to wait for another project.

Scrabble tile pendants are pretty popular-as are variations like glass tile pendants. To put my own twist on the whole scrabble and make it a bit more 'me' I thought I'd try using my own travel photos for the designs. I also did one using some Japanese paper scraps that I bought on etsy. Scrabble tile pendants are NOT for the impatient-they take days to make if you do them this way.

Day 1: Computers, cutting, and glue (oh my!)

First I had to crop photos to the right shape, and make tiny versions of the pictures I wanted to use. I used GIMP for that-good free software! I printed them on photo paper and cut them out with an x-acto knife.  

The size came out pretty close to the tiles; I might make them slightly bigger next time as I'm not sure I want the white border.

Next I glued the photos to the tiles with mod podge and waited them to dry before trimming the photos closer to the edges of the tiles. 

Then I 'sealed' the paper with more mod podge-covering the surface and cut edges of the photo and let them dry overnight. Oh yeah-I should mention that our power went out mid-way through this step and I had to finish by the light of a flashlight and candles!

Day 2: Resin time! 

This was the exciting part. I used Ice Resin which is a two-part epoxy meant for jewelry, it dries clear and is supposed to resist clouding over time. It also makes a dome shape by itself if you're careful. I mixed the two parts of resin carefully and began dripping resin onto the pendants. (I had to open the windows-it's a bit stinky once mixed!) As I kept dripping resin onto the pendants it naturally went to the edges and domed in the center-so far it seemed to working great-at least until I bumped some of the pendants and spilled it down the sides-boo!

Here is what the pendants looked like when coated in resin before I covered them up and left them to dry for 24 hours-no peeking or moving them, as you could ruin the dome! I covered them with a box top weighted down with some books to keep curious cat paws away!

They're already forming a dome, as you can see. This is only about 10 minutes after I finished putting the resin on. William the hippo plush snuck into this photo somehow . . . 

24 hours later I was finally able to take a look at the pendants! I think they worked out well, despite the spills. The doming effect seems to be intact from the side view. 

You can see the effects my bumping and spilling did have here. I'll have to try trimming or filing the excess resin off the side, because I really like the design on this one!

Now that the resin has dried, I think I'll try out some bail designs while I'm waiting for them to cure completely (this takes 3 days!) I think the hardest part of this is all the waiting. LOL I've bought some ready-made glue-on bails, but I'm determined to try making my own bails. I love hand-making as many bits as possible.

So, what do you think of my first attempt at these pendants? Has anyone else tried doing this? Please leave a comment and let me know!

Copyright 2011. See more at Voyage of the Hyperspace Hippo

Semi-Handmade Scratching Post for Loooong Cats

Does your cat like scratching on vertical surfaces? Cats like to be able to stretch out fully when they scratch. Scratching is a basic need for cats, and the best way to keep your cats from scratching your furniture is to provide an alternative! There are a few types of materials used scratching surfaces and trial and error will determine what types your cat will use-our two resident rescue cats enjoy cardboard and carpet and will not scratch sisal. We have one really tall, long kitty who LOVES scratching the sides of chairs and even the corners of walls. He likes the cardboard scratching posts we have for him but they haven’t quite stopped him from scratching the walls. He reaches higher than any standalone scratching post I’ve ever seen. Only big (and expensive!) cat trees look like they’d really let him stretch as high as he likes to.  We’ve been thinking about making our own for a while now, and we’re still considering putting together a long cardboard one for them, but my fiancé came up with this design for a vertical carpeted scratching post made from an old board,  a refill for a carpeted scratching post, and some nails. You could probably easily use ordinary carpet for this if you could find the right size or were willing to cut it up.  It’s really simple, anyone could make one!

We found a long flat board in our basement left behind by a previous tenant. My fiancé tells me it is probably a 1 by 6 board. For the scratching surface, we got one of the refills for this scratching post at petco: http://www.petco.com/product/112680/Petmate-Lean-On-Me-Fashion-Scratch-Post.aspx It’s great for this purpose because it’s meant to go over both sides of that A-shaped holder so it’s LONG (A little over 3 feet). It has Velcro straps which we wrapped around the board. If you bought your own carpeting, you could easily customize the size and be able to wrap the sides and back of the board as well-I think we’ll do this next time.

We secured the carpet to the board with some short nails (short enough to lay flat in the front and not catch on kitty nails, but still not stick out the back).  If you’re willing (or your landlord wouldn’t mind) you could easily nail the board to a wall near one of your cat’s favorite scratching spots. The walls in our apartment don’t do well with nails (they tend to crumble) and we didn’t want to put nails into the front of the moulding where we wanted to place the scratching post (our cats favorite scratching corner!), so we put screw hooks in the back of the moulding and attached the board with string and rubber bands to make it easier to wrap tightly. We put one string at the top and bottom. You could always trim the board to the length of the carpeted part of the scratching post.

The hooks we used

The string on one side of the board

 The rubber band on the other side

Our long cat loves his new scratching post, and our shorter cat-who has always been very happy with the cardboard scratching posts-loves it too.

Above is one of our cats using the new scratching post, and to the right here's our looooong cat using the scratching post. Sorry for the low quality, but he just wouldn't cooperate when I was trying to get pictures but I managed to catch him on my phone! You can see even though he's not stretched all the way he reaches close to the top!

My cats seem pretty happy with their handmade toys. I’ve also made them a stuffed catnip sock and my fiancé made them a box to play in with 2 doors and toys hanging down inside. (Of course we can't resist buying them presents sometimes-they have lots of toys!) Has anyone else tried making their own scratching post or cat furniture? What about cat or dog toys?  I’d love to hear about it. If you try this method out, I’d love to know if your cat likes it too!

One of our favorite toys-a fleece rope on a stick

Copyright 2011. See more at Voyage of the Hyperspace Hippo

Adventures in Crafting-Chai Bath Bombs

Hello readers! I made some fizzing chai bath bombs before the holidays and never got around to blogging about them, but they came out pretty well! I found the basic recipe for these in a book called Melt and Pour Soapmaking by Marie Browning that I borrowed from the library. It’s a pretty useful book, not just recipes but also some basic advice on how to make hand-milled soap, bath bombs, bubble bath, and other things too. I won’t reprint the actual recipe here as I don’t want to step on any toes-but there are tons of basic bath bomb recipes online that could give you the right proportions, or you could see if your library has this book!

In general, though, all the bath bomb recipes I’ve seen have a few things in common-citric acid and baking soda. These are what create the fizz when wet! Many recipes include some kind of salt (either purchase sea salt, bath salts, or simple epsom salts which was what I used) and some add cornstarch. Then they add something to give the bath bombs a scent-usually essential oils. Some also include food coloring or other colors. I chose not to use essential oils as they are generally toxic to cats (I have two, and they both lick water out of the bathtub) and I have heard that some people with sensitive skin react to some types. I also didn’t add any colors. The recipe I chose used simple spices for both scent and coloring. I was able to get all the ingredients I needed (including a tiny spritz bottle) from a local natural/health food store that has a bulk section so I was able to make up little baggies with just the amounts I needed. Obviously the epsom salt, baking soda, and spices can also be purchased at drug stores and grocery stores, but you might have more trouble finding the citric acid there.

First all the powdered ingredients are combined together and mixed. This particular recipe calls for citric acid, baking soda, and cornstarch. I didn’t use all the spices called for in the recipe-I only included cardamom, cinnamon and clove (all powdered)-I wasn’t able to find star anise, so again I left it out. mmm, spices!

Next you spritz the powdered ingredients VERY sparingly-enough to make them stick without activating the fizzing reaction. This is where I made the main modification to this recipe. I thought that it would add to the scent and color to use chai tea instead of water or witch hazel for the spritzing liquid. I made tea from a delicious loose leaf chai that I had on hand from a local tea store, and spritzed the bath bombs with that. To the left, you can see the spritz bottle I used and the tea I made. It smelled sooo good.

You have to be very careful not to let it get too wet-in my first batch the powder started sticking together before the mixture seemed damp to me and the ones in that batch ended up fizzing and expanding in the molds-not good! The second batch I stopped spritzing sooner, and it still packed into the molds nicely and held together when dry. Below you can see how the damp mixture looked before packing it into the molds

I found an ice cube tray to use for the mold. You have to pack the mixture down very tightly into the molds, I found that I could fit a lot more in there than it looked like at first! Most recipes say to let them dry in the molds for a few hours and then let them continue hardening on a cookie sheet overnight before using or wrapping to give away (some say a week).

It’s been a couple of months since I made them and the ones I have left have lost some of their scent, so my advice would be to use them as soon as possible! I still think they’d make a great gift, you just couldn’t make them too far ahead of time. I do wonder if adding the vanilla fragrance oil would’ve held the scent longer or made no difference.

Making homemade beauty products seems like a lot of fun to me. I’ve found a few recipes for body lotion and I’m planning to combine a few and try that out next! :o) Have you tried crafting soap or beauty products? Any good websites or books to recommend? Please comment and let me know what you think!

Copyright 2011. See more at Voyage of the Hyperspace Hippo