I managed to get some decent photos of some cat pendants, but I'm still relying on the sun for my photo lighting. I just can't seem to get around it. I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and invest in some photo quality lights and bulbs.

A new camera probably wouldn't hurt either. My camera is pink...I thought it was cute when I purchased it a couple of years ago. Now that I'm using it to take jewelry photos I don't think it's cute at all. The silver reflects my pink camera, so I've had to tape black paper all over it. Nice huh? LOL I'm tempted to just paint it black...or maybe just get a new camera.

Here they are - Maxwell the grape, Polly and Molly:


Polly is sold and Maxwell & Molly are listed in my etsy store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/mistymade

Revive it!!!

It's been over 7 months since I posted on my blog - shame on me!!! One of my New Year's resolutions was to start posting regularly...obviously that didn't happen. And I got all mad at myself for not following through. But I realize it's not too late, I can start today. Actually, I had planned to start last week. And last week I had planned to start the week before that. Big sigh. I'm a procrastinator, I admit it.
I will procrastinate no more! I had a grand plan to revive my blog today with photos of some cat pendants that I've been working on. So I went to take some photos and every photo I took looked like crap. I rely on the sun for my lighting and the sun has not been reliable at all. I'm sick of waiting for the sun to come out, I need a good photo setup that I can use any time of the day. Off to Hobby Lobby I go, hopefully I can come up with something decent cause I think it's suppose to be cloudy all week. Pbththththth!!!

Last night's casting . . .

Last night's casting session was AWESOME!!! Here's a pic of my centrifuge. The white thing is the crucible, behind the crucible (the dark colored metal thing) is the flask. The square piece of metal you see on the right is the counter weight - it helps balance the centrifuge and keeps it from shaking.


Here's a close up of the crucible and flask. The silver has already been slung into the flask.


Two flasks that have been cast. You can see the metal "button" - AWESOME!

After the flask has cooled a little bit, it is dunked into a bucket of water. The water shocks the investment and causes it to bubble like crazy and break apart. The investment falls out of the flask and reveals the rings (or whatever item was cast). I then use a tooth brush and small screwdriver to remove most of the investment that clings to the casting. Then the rings go into the ultrasonic to get the remaining investment out of the little grooves. :^)

Invested and ready to go . . .

The rings/flasks have been invested and they are dry and ready to go into the oven. The little pink/red thing you see in the middle is the base of the "wax tree". I even invested them before I had coffee, isn't that awesome! :^)


And here are the babies fixing to take a long hot bath in the oven! Yipeeee, I will be casting 5 flasks tonight!!! Hot digity!

Wax day . . .

Today I played with wax . . . lots of wax . . . wax in the form of 'plays with fire' rings. :^) I did some final clean up on them, then I sprued them up. First thing tomorrow morning I will invest 5 flasks then cast them in the evening after they have sat in the burnout oven. Man I'm tired.

Test Cast SUCCESS!!!

Woohoo - I'm doing the happy dance! My test cast was successful!!! The new torch tip is AWESOME!!!
I did get some bubbles, but that's an issue with investing. Do you see the little balls of metal stuck on the rings? That's were the bubbles didn't rise to the surface during investing/suction. I think I will need to buy a little machine that will dislodge the bubbles and allow them to rise properly or reduce the time I mix the investment. It did start to set up a little fast, maybe it's the humidity. Anyhow, those little bubbles will cause problems if they get stuck in the lettering so I need to take care of that problem before I do any mass casting.
I'm just thrilled to death that the casting process went so smoothly! Woooooooooooohooooooooooo!
I think I will have them available in about a week and a half. :^)

What's sitting on my bench ...

My new casting tip is scheduled to arrive on Monday, the 13th. Of course I have to work Monday and Tuesday, not sure about Wednesday??? So I probably won't get to test cast until Thursday (or Wed. if I don't have to work). I just hope it fits the handle that I already have. I can't tell you how stressed out I am over this darn casting torch. Grrrr...
So while I'm waiting for my golden package to arrive I've been melting glass. I have a handfull of heart pendants in the works, here's a shot of my jewelry bench top. :^)