Pregled posta

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PROJECT INSANITY ALBUM

PITA Quotient: Surprisingly Major
Planned Project: Yes

In the end, I wound up making two sets of these (three pieces each). The first set consisted of *five* eyeballs on the front and BACK sides of the knives. Easy to do, but seemed exceptionally labor-intensive. Made the first red bit too wide for my taste, so all of the remainder were narrower than shown in this photo (and, after that first set was all baked, decided I hated the narrow red bits, hence the wider red bits as shown here).

Since these are dimensional on both sides, I made a blanket of polyfill batting to fit the bottom of the pan so the undersides of the silverware wouldn't flatten under heat and their own weight.

Couldn't find the ding-dang oven thermometer, so I had to run out and buy another. First store didn't have any (WTH?!), so I wasted even more time running to another store, which did. Ran home and took pains to discover the proper temperature of the oven, which appeared to be 15 degrees too hot. Made the adjustments, covered the pan to avoid browning, baked . . . aaaaand . . . the clay wasn't fully set. Took it up by five degrees, tried again, aaaaaaand . . . almost. Took it up another five degrees, and that time it worked. Uhm. Whaaaaaaaaat?!

I didn't notice until the third time around that at least half of the eyeballs had melted. Frack. The tiniest ones suffered the worst, and even more badly on the undersides, which I thought was odd until it dawned on me, days later, that the hot plastic was getting the texture of the polyfill embossed into it. The polyfill texture caused the corneas to cloud. Tried to buff it out with the Dremel, but buffing only caused more clouding before it dawned on me that the buffing friction was so great that the eyes were sort of re-melting all over again. Alrighty then. It finally dawned on me to apply a coat of clear sealant of some sort (Future Floor Finish), and *that* pretty much restored the appearance of the eyes. Almost, but not entirely.

I was miffed enough by all of this to make a new set (of three knives) a day or two later. This time, I only used three eyes per side, mostly because my stash of eyeballs was running low, but also to shave some time and tedium off of the process.

Stuck my thermometer in the oven to verify the temperature, aaaaaaaand . . . this time, it was dead on accurate. Yes, set in the same, exact place.

Still, my clay wouldn't set. Oh, gargh! Notched the temp five degrees higher. Then another five. This is not supposedta be good for polymer clay. After they'd finally set, it dawned on me that I'd inadvertently used an additional layer of poly batting underneath, and that was enough insulation from the oven to keep them from doing anything. M'duhhhhh.

And still the problem with the eyes. Not especially heat-safe, ya think? Not with my temperature monkeying and increased baking times.

The final two items were a serving fork and slotted serving spoon, neither of which have eyes on the reverse since they will only be set down in a face-up position.

Repaired all of the eyes again, then sealed the whole shebang with Flecto Varathane Diamond Glaze, which supposedly binds with the surface of polyclay and becomes One with it, instead of being a peel-off-able coating. Heh. And then there's Deb's luck.

During the party, I'd warned people not to leave the serving spoon inside the crockpot with the meatballs. Welllll, force of habit being what it is . . . after a coupla hours, the finish started bubbling off of the spoon.

A day or two after the party, I noticed half of the silverware sitting semi-submerged in the sink. Noooooo . . . Paul knew I wanted these to be hand-washed, but I didn't think to tell him not to let them soak. All areas that had been submerged were white, but I thought they might be okay once they'd dried out. Nope . . . the finish is peeling and bubbling off of all of them.

To date, the silverware still has not been dealt with. I didn't wanna shove them into storage and then have to deal with them as another PITA repair project for Halloween 2009. I just haven't had time since *this* Halloween to get to them. Just gonna go in and try to Dremel off all of the finish and regroup somehow.

Oh, and a week after the party? I discovered the original oven thermometer *right* where it should have been, in the drawer that Paul and I both pawed through multiple times apiece and. could. not. find.

I painted and redid my shelves, Then built this worktable to do my crafts on. I painted the room this garish mint green color to put with the brown shelves and I dont care for it all at night. It looks ok during the day. I plan to put several coats of Varathane floor finish on the table before moving back in.