Candles, Custom Work & Colouring

I suck at candle making, I really do.  I tried it out west....I was so enthusiastic and bought tons of stuff.  I figured how hard can it be?  Well as it turns out, for me, it's hard.  I got rid of all my supplies long before I moved.  Last year, my friend Tracy told me she had a bunch of empty decorative tins she was going to toss out unless I wanted them.  Being the King Moonracer of Misfit Craft Supplies, I told her I'd give them a good home.  

Wasn't really sure what to do with all those tins, but I figured how hard could it be to pour wax inside and make candles?  It's basic enough....doesn't require a lot of technique or understanding.  Got some wicks, wax pellets, a candle thermometer and a melter/pourer.

My first attempt was a little rocky.  I cooled the tins in a pan of cold water with some ice cubes.  It was at this point I discovered that the tins aren't watertight.  Water seeped up the edges and caused the wax to separate.  I had to pour the water out of sides after they were completely cool.

So the next attempt was by keeping the tins in the pan on wax paper.  This time I only poured them about half way full, then I took them outside to set up in the icy cold air (it was about 20).  That worked a bit better except the wax leaked out the bottom around the edges but it scraped off pretty easily.

This time I decided to put some shells and beach glass on top of the first hardened wax.  I was afraid that the top layer would melt the bottom, causing the treasures to be forced to the bottom.  So instead of bringing the cooling tins inside, I brought the melted wax outside and that worked well to keep the first layer from liquifying.

It was snowing by the time I finally brought them in.  This is what the treasure ones look like with their lids.

And without the lids.  I think they came out pretty good!

Then I robbed some tea lights of their wicks and glued them onto some shells, then poured wax in them.  The two smallest shells have been painted with metallic paint and I don't know how safe it will be to have hot wax or an open flame near it.  Time will tell.  

Then I decided what the heck....why not just use up all the wax since I have the tins since the weather is cold?  So I spent over four hours one afternoon melting, pouring and setting about 12 or 13 more tins' worth of treasure candles.  They set up so much faster when it's 25 degrees out. 

A wolf charm surfaced when I was reorganizing all my beads so I made this necklace for my bff Shelly.  She picked the length and the colours.

The Creatures of the Salish Sea colouring book had also just arrived and the pictures were large enough to be quick workups and there were only about 8 pages in it anyway (since the book was designed to be easily completed in the Victoria Clipper's nearly 3 hour journey between Seattle and Victoria), so I did it up one afternoon.  Mine took a little longer than 3 hours because I had to google exactly what each animal looked like and attempt to replicate it with the crayons I had on hand.

Pardon the flash reflection at the bottom....I was in a hurry to shoot and upload these pics.

I rarely work with crayons these days so it was nice to use them again, although I notice they are definitely not the quality we had in the 70s.  I really don't remember the wax flaking and stickiness of them at all.

I have another colouring book of Washington State history and symbols, which is also geared for kids and is another one that I finished in just a few days.  I am using crayons and Crayola brand coloured pencils (usually I use the higher quality Prismacolour) on this one.

I think what strikes me most about this particular picture is the grin on the girl's face.  All I can think about is, 'Girly, you are in for the hardest few months, possibly years, of your young life.  You're gonna have that smile wiped right off your face in the first few weeks of this journey,'  I realize the illustrators had to make the book upbeat for kids, but seeing this girl look like she's having the time of her life on the Oregon Trail is a little disingenuous when you know the history of the hardships faced by the pioneers on their trips west.  

Recently Completed Projects

This pretty silver locket was included in that awesome bag of stuff I got from my friend Monica awhile back. It was all tarnished so I polished it up nice.

Then I added red suede-like paper on the inside with some steampunk gears and a key.

Spotted this design online and it was a very quick, two day work up for my bff Liz.  It fits easily in a 4x6 frame.  

My stepdaughter loved the black & red egg I made for Lady Axe so I offered to make her one too. That meant hunting down another skull & cross bones cabochon, which I finally found on ebay.  The seller also had a purple and black one so I got that too.  

I used lilac paint and then purple glitter paint on the outside and trimmed the edge with chain, similar to the red & black one.  I gave 'em both to her.  

Marsha commissioned 15 beach-themed bookmarks and 2 bracelets. I assumed that beach-themed paper supplies would be easy as pie to find here, but I was wrong.  There were lots of cutesy pie, cartoonish fish, flip flops, umbrellas, shells, sunglasses, etc. but not a lot of more upscale items. I couldn't even find a nautical map to buy!!  I bought what I could and dug out the rest from my supplies stash.  I made them all in one day.  I didn't take pics of all of the backs, but there are sea-themed quote stickers on each one.  Sorry for the bad pics.

The 2 bracelets were to have a sea theme and the other with 'faith' and a music charm.  Do you think I could find a music charm anywhere?  Liz came through for me by finding one at her local bead shop in Northern Vermont.

I wasn't sure if E6000 would dry enough to be waterproof so this windspinner project started off using LockTite which is supposed to be the best waterproof super glue for glass to metal.  I let all the pieces dry for a couple of days and when I picked one of the discs up, all the glass blobs popped off!!!  Slight delay as I re-glued them with E6000 and so far they've held up through some rain and wind.  We'll see how they do by the end of the summer.

I found some amazing beads 50% off at JoAnn Fabric and Crafts and used one to make another useless hanging thing that's based on a picture I saw on Pinterest and which were for sale in the Moonbeams & Mayhem ebay store.  I have no intention of making these to sell because this one was a pain in the ass.  Seriously.  The frustration to figure out how it was made and adapt it to my supplies on hand and skill level (which, to be honest, ain't so hot when it comes to seed bead art), wasn't worth it.  Also, I had to deal with thread and eye pin breakages at really bad times.

This heart hanger was leftover from that Christmas shelf I made a couple of years ago.  It was already curled on the ends but I had to unbend them in order to get those beads on there and I didn't do a very good job of bending them back.  The steel was difficult to work with.  Then I painted the heart part black and glued wood beads on each end to keep the beads on.

It really does look better close up and in real life.  Used a bunch of the JoAnn Fabrics beads for the bottoms of each strand, with glass pearls, Czech glass, square lavender beads and silver beads of different shapes.

The weather's been so nice and I've been between projects so this is all I've gotten done in May.

Custom Work

Occasionally my friends will ask me to do custom work for them and I'm always happy to oblige.  My friend Dorleen was in Florida during the spring and found a rare & rather large shark tooth.  She wanted me to make it into a necklace for her.  I wrapped it in heavy silver wire to make it into a pendant, then put it on silver chain.

My friend Michelle's cousin, Pam, who is now a friend of mine, asked me to do a couple of soleless sandals for her.  It took 3 tries of restringing to get it to fit right.  I know they look cool, and easy, but it's not a project I enjoy. 

And my friend Laurel asked me if I could sew some Harley patches on her denim jacket.