June, 2016 - Daniel Kenneth

June 27, 2016December 1, 2020

Using the Cookie Cutters

I took my cookie cutters off the 3D Printer and got to work on making some clay slabs to use them on. Everything did go off without a hitch.

If you’ve never used cookie cutters on clay, here’s a hint to great results:

Yup, that’s all, plastic wrap. I keep a big Costco roll of it in the workshop and it makes all the edges of my clay perfectly rounded. You can still muck things up trying to pull the wrap off the clay, but generally, it’s pretty easy if you take your time and go slowly.

I’ll make a whole bunch of these while I’m at it. I just hate that I have to wait so long for them to dry out and be fired. I want the project done NOW and that just isn’t going to happen. Though I may go set these out in the sun today which will dry them out pretty damn quick.

I’ll also play with thickness. These are only a 1/4″ thick, but they seem a little too thick now that I’m looking at them again. The look I’m going for is cartoonish, so this may still work out just fine. I’ll make thinner ones tonight and see which I end up liking more.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, these are going to be coasters for my newly painted tables. Lumpy Space Princess (the cloud looking cookie cutter) will go on my Finn and Jake table and the Hamburger shaped ones will be Krabby Patties for my SpongeBob table. I still haven’t figured out my third table, but eventually, I’ll make some for that theme as well.

June 26, 2016December 1, 2020

Yarn Bowls

I couldn’t wait to fill up the large kiln so I threw some items in the small kiln and fired it up. I had heard Mayco’s yarn bowls were recalled due to cracking. Yarn bowls are cute and all, but they aren’t very stable. While I didn’t experience any cracking the top of the bowl did bend inward a bit. I tried showing that in the picture above. Also, I fired this because I wanted to try out one of the new glazes, Lime Shower, SW-148, which turned out great.

I also threw in a second bowl to try out this Amaco glaze combination…

Pretty, right? It’s a little disappointing in real life…

Meh, right? Plus, there are spots that didn’t stay covered… I’m strategically not showing them in the photo. This one will be reglazed and refired. Hopefully, this will come out better.

June 25, 2016December 1, 2020

Black Glitter

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A few weeks ago, Amazon recommended this black glitter to me. I was intrigued because I didn’t know glitter came in black. So I had to have it, of course.

When it arrived I grabbed an old pair of dress shoes, some mod podge and got to work.

Working in small sections I covered the areas of the shoe I selected with 2 layers of glitter while it dried a few hours in between layers. The photo above was taken after the first layer and as you see near the toe one layer wasn’t going to cut it as there are gaps in the glitter.

Once that was done and dried I gave it one additional coat of mod podge as a top coat to seal it all in. Up until then, it was all quite sparkly and impressive. Unfortunately the final coat kind of dulled the whole thing and made it look a bit more like some type of rough black rubber that happened to glitter slightly. But if you want the glitter to stay on the shoe and not slowly knock off and leave a trail of glitter spots everywhere you go, I’m not sure how this can be avoided.

If you decide to do something like this I would caution you from glittering the sides where the shoe naturally bends at the ball of your foot (toe knuckles). I noticed after wearing them a few times the glitter started to break away in these areas.

June 25, 2016December 1, 2020

Fun while it lasted

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For the past week or two, I’ve taken over the living room and started repainting all the tables. They’re 14-year-old Ikea tables and have been dinged around pretty good from moving and general life. After starting I realized I forgot how slow house paint dries and how horrible it covers anything but walls. 3 or 4 layers of each color on each table with 4 hours of drying time between layers while trying to do it all at night after work means I basically get one layer on a night and spend the rest of the night guarding it against animals while it dries…. so many many days of painting each table.

So far I’ve done the coffee table and an end table but with the weather lately, I haven’t even got a coat of lacquer on them. I still have another end table to start and I am reconsidering doing the dining room table even after all the convincing I had to do to be allowed to do it. If you know me, you probably have followed my progress on filling my house with artwork and how my house is slowly turning into a giant cartoon gallery. So having a 30+-year-old dining room table really stands out amidst the paintings, stained glass, pottery, painted tables, etc.

Unfortunately, this weekend a guest is staying, so I had to clean up the living room and make it presentable. Well, as presentable as possible considering I have covered all the freshly painted tables like a granny’s house so no one can screw them up until the final clear coats are on them.

The photo of the coffee table above was taken while it was still being painted. There is now a SpongeBob table and I have yet to decide what the other end table will be. Nothing around this house really matches and there is no theme. I think I’d rather pick characters from other shows to keep the randomness happening. Any ideas?

I’ll post pictures of them as I get closer to finishing all of them.