CZ's are a success!

Well today I finally got to play with my Cubic Zirconias! I first fused down some little black cabs to make some studs with then used my dremel to create little dents like the pics thats I showed yesterday on my tester piece. I thought I had done the hole too big as when I put the stones in they sat flush with the glass and I was worried the glass may melt over the top of the stones.

However turns out that the glass must have filled in underneath first and it's pushed the stones up a little bit which is fine with me. They look so pretty and sparkly! Will get a photo soon althought it may be a little bit hard to get the sparkle.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Today I finally got around to going to Bunnings (thats a hardware store for those of you who don't know) and I had a look at the Dremel stuff. As I have mentioned before in my posts the bit that I had to make dents for my Cubic Zurc's didn't fit my dremel so I needed to go and see if I could get another sized chuck. They had a packed of four different sized chucks and an extra collette so I took that because I wasn't sure what size I needed for my diamond bit. So this afternoon I was playing around with my new but not so new toy! It is sooo easy to use and so smooth and I am sooo happy!!

This is my little set up. You can see how messy my desk is! What a shocker. The glass has to be submerged in water to prevent the glass from cracking and also to keep it cool. It also helped to protect the diamond bit and make it last longer.


Here are my little holes!! I was testing out making bigger and smaller ones just for the different sizes of CZ's that I have. I tested the 2.5mm ones in the small hole and it fit almost perfectly!
Anyway while I was at Bunnings I was looking at the grinding stones because my dremel fell and clips my grinding stone and I was also checking out the engraving bits. Well I never knew diamond tip bits were SO expensive! One of the diamond tip engraving bits was $40 on its own.

So after some more looking Mum found this kit with 11 pieces in it. Two of which are diamond tip and I know I can use at least one of the bits as a grinding stone. Guess how much it was?? $25!!!!!! You'd have to be an idiot to pay $40 for one piece when this set was hanging less than a meter away. So I was very pleased with everything that I got today. I haven't opened my 11 piece set yet but I will be trying out the engraving very soon as well! Ah the ideas that are running around in my head.


Me is very happy!

Test Complete

Well it seem thats the mixing of the COE 96 and 104 glass didn't go too bad!! I didn't have any glass reactions and the cab looks normal. Of course it could still be weakened and not last the distance of the normal cabs so once it is annealed I will be chucking it into my bag or wallet and see how it handles. If it doesn't crack or anything then it should be alright to make others and use in my jewellery or sell!!

Geeze the possibilities will be endless then!

I am hoping to drop off my made cabs tomorrow sometime to the lovely Nat. I do have a plan to make my nephew a pendant and put it on some leather thonging but I think I will put it off for tonight as it is really cold outside and I don't really feel like sitting out there tonight. But who knows, I might change my mind.

Still no study has been done...argh.

Testing..

At the moment I have a piece of glass ready to be fused. The only difference is this time I have mixing COE 96 and 104...OoooOoo!! I made a little bit of frit out of the 104 canes. The frit isn't that good because I am really dodgy when making frit but oh well. So later on when I fuse it I will see how it turns out. I know it may look alright but still be weakened from mixing the two COE's so I will just keep that cab for myself and maybe make it into something to see how durable it can be.

Apart from that I haven't really done much! I am home sick today because I am feeling really off, headaches, stomach sore etc...stupid body.

I beaded and I gloved!

I have pulled myself away from the glass and actually used some of the beads that I got the other day at the Craftshow. Well it is actually gemstones, mmm lovely Turquoise. I remember when I first got into beading that I always thought to myself that I wouldn't use gemstones and that they don't really appeal to me that much...BUT....I just love Turquoise. I love Rose Quartz and Amethyst and Onxy too but Turquoise is my weakness.

So at the Craftshow I got these cool little nugget Turquoise and something which was sold as 'White Turquoise' however I don't think it is and I think it is something called White Magnesite which is closely related to Turquoise. However I don't really mind because I just loved it and the necklace has turned out better then what I expected!

Of course I had to make a matching pair of earrings. These are slightly different as I have used little Howlite beads with the Turquoise.

On another completely different note, I have to get out a new pair of gloves for when I deal with the kiln. So I generally only wear one glove, because thats all I need just to lift the lid to check that everything is A-O-K. So I decided to jazz it up a little bit. we got given these little sample packs of beads and sequin stuff at the Craftshow so I just sewed a couple of them on. They are onyl cheap and plastic but make the glove a little bit more....me!
Yet again no study has been done. Lets hope tomorrow is a slow day at work and I can get some done to make up for today!

New Cabs

Yet again another post to say that I have updated my Flickr with some new cabs. I seem to really be pushing them out lately. Although I must say that I haven't really done much study over the past week so that is probably why!

Another good note is that I have sold some more cabs! The ladiez on the beading forum are so lovely and encouraging! I will hopefully be able to afford to get some new glass soon so I can experiment with other colours and mediums.

I still have got the new bits for my dremel so I haven't been able to play with the CZ's yet. Never mind!

Update- New Cabs

Just a quick note to let you all know that I have updated my Flickr account with a whole heaps of new photos!! So go and check them out.

Also some other good news is that I have had some interest in my cabs from my beading friends and I have sold some already! How exciting. I must be doing something right then.

Another quick note. You will see on my flickr photos that I have started including photos of the sizes of the cabs. This is so if anyone is interested in buying one (or two or three) that they can see the sizes! I made it from paper, a ruler and a black pen :P Simple and it works pretty good!



Thats all from me at the moment. I wanted to play with my cubic zurc's on the weekend but my drill bit I had with my tutorial is too small for my dremel so I will have to sort that out and try another time.

Ciao!

Pink 'Funhouse' concert

Well I haven't got many pics of new jewellery related stuff but I did go and see Pink on Saturday night so thought I would post a couple of pics from the concert. Considering how fast they were dancing around I got a couple of good pics!

New cabs update

Just a quick update again to let you know that there have been a couple of new cabs added to my Flickr album.

Seems I have been quite busy over the weekend so it might be a little bit until I get some more made.

On a totally unrelated note, I am going to see Pink Saturday night!! Woo!! Hopefully will have some pics to post up from her concert.

New cabs - updated Flickr

Well just a quick post to let you all that I have uploaded a few photos of some new cabs on my Flickr album. This one to the left is one of my new ones but I have a plan for this one, muhahaha.

Enjoy browsing. Still have a few more on the way...