My new trick…

I've known Tim for 6 and a bit years now. That means I've had a computer for 6 and a bit years now too. That also means that for 6 and a bit years I've wanted to know how to use Photoshop to play around with our photo's.

I've always tried to use the instruction's that come within the program. The "help" topics never helped though. They didn't start at the start, they didn't explain what each feature could do. So I'd get all of an hour in to it and give up.

Recently Tim got me a program that is THE BOMB! I love it. It's a video lesson, not a writen tutorial. I watch, I copy...I learn.

So anyway, here is what I have learnt so far.

I took this photo of Katie's Jordan....

and then gave her wings…

And then I got even more adventurous with a photo of MB’s Meredith.

I put her in this photo.

To make this…

Do you like it???

I don’t know what I am going to do with all of this knowledge now. I have order’s already to add people in to other photo’s, people who didn’t get photo’s with loved ones and what not. Maybe I could make a living out of this sort of thing???

Latest Project

My latest stained glass venture.

This only (you heard me, ONLY) took 7 hours.

This is the glass just after it is cut, obviously.

Then you need to clean the glass and wrap foil around each piece. The copper foil makes it so the solder will "stick" to the glass.

Then it needs flux, and the solder can go on.

It is silver when it first goes on so you put Patina on it to make it turn black.

I'm going to do quite a few of these as practice. Each face is only a little bigger than my hand (I have small hands) so it's an easy project to get some experience in with. It also look's fantastic just hanging on the wall, even without the sun going through it.

Just a quick note to let my mother know this is NOT for her. This is NOT the thing I will be bringing to give you...just so you know.

This isn't "it"...seriously. It's not.

A step backward, to go forward

When I tell people that I am teaching myself how to make things from glass more often than not the first thing they say is "Oh I would love to do that, is it hard?"

The answer to this question is no. It's not technically hard. We bought some "how to" books to teach us how to actually cut the glass and then put it together, in a way that resembled some sort of art.

What it is is very expensive. The start up costs were amazing (don't ask) The material is outrageous! Why a single income family decided to chose stained glass as a hobby, I don't know.

So the last time we went to the glass shop we bought 2 small sheets of yellow glass to make my sunflower project. Once I finished the larger of the two sunflower's, we then found that the second sheet of yellow glass was completey different to the first. And I didn't like that idea. Tim kept telling me it would be ok. Just make the second flower out of the different glass he said. But I can't do that. Because sunflower's are all the same. They don't differ in their intensity of yellow.

So my glass sat there for weeks, because I'd technically run out of glass to keep going. And we can't go to the glass shop again because we're saving for other more important things.

This is what I have done, to get some sort of satisfaction out of this hobby. I have made the big flower, which was already completed...into a suncatcher. It was annoying me to not be able to keep going and also to not have something to show for the work I had already done.



That's it just there. It is not the best project I have done. As in I like the mirror concept more than anything. But it IS the best work I have done in terms of technique. The line's are clean and smooth like the professional one's I compare my work to all the time.

Now to find another project, or hobby.

Why I didn't just take up tobacco spitting as a sport or something I don't know.

Ten down, One Hundred and Twenty to go!

Yes, seriously!

There are 130 bit's of glass to cut out for this project. A bit daunting!

Here is the first ten bit's I have cut. I'm not sure I am happy with them. I'll get Tim's second opinion before I turf them out and start again though!!

Believe it or not, this is 3 solid hours of work! Just ten bits!!!!!!!

Later that day

Just thought I would add this next photo . I am having trouble typing since I cut both of my index finger's on the very last bit I was cutting. Piece number 71 if you must know.

I'll be ok. It's just like a paper cut! Oh and it's amazing what you can get done when your baby is in the care of your other half!!

Sunflower's

Anyone that's known me for at least 5 months will know that I am trying to teach myself how to do stained glass. Tiffany stained glass, not the other one. I have no interest in the other one just yet. Although Tim does. That doesn't matter because he's changed from wanting to make things from stained glass to wanting to make model aeroplanes. How that shift happened...I don't know. Maybe Jaxon's room started the madness. Oh wait, I haven't shared Jaxon's room with you yet...keep an eye out and I'll post picks!




Anyway, I lost all motivation for the stained glass when I finally completed the mirror I was making for Tim's Mum Judy. (Below: Judy's Cat Mirror)

I had no idea what I wanted to do and no real desire to just mess around. I HAD to be doing something constructive, not just making candle holder's. So I sat here searching the net and finally found what I wanted to do.

And here is the very beginning of my new project. YOU get to watch as it grows!

This is the picture I have based my project on.

And this is my design from that.

And then from that little drawing Tim put it through a resizing program that made it THIS big!!!!

When I first got the idea to do this as a mirror the main thing was that I didn't want it to be as big as Tim's Mum's mirror. So we looked at where we were going to put it once it was done and measured how big we wanted it. WELL!! It is MUCH bigger than Judy's mirror! (60 cm W X 80 cm L) But I'll do it anyway!

Stay tuned for more Sunflower updates as I work my magic!