Serendipity

Now, here is a cool thing. I was sitting at my work table thinking, Self? What shall we do to stay out of trouble? I figure nothing can happen to me if I'm sitting quietly at my table minding my own business. Right? Sure. Little Spawn of Satan is asleep. Allie is looking out the window. Life is calm and all is right with the universe. Temporarily.

Anyway, I begin messing around with this felt I bought.

Sigh... I always get sidetracked. This felt stuff. I am trying to find a civilized replacement for these buffing pads that my friend in Scotland makes for me. As she is my pal and I love her, I can't keep saying...CHRIIIIIS! Make me buffers, right? So, I am on a quest for buffing material. You are thinking...Oh, Moe... that is a no brainer. HAH! You are mistaken. Big time.

And... just WHAT is this mystery stuff Chris is using? It works like a charm. Leaves HUGE tumbleweeds of fluff all over my floor. Lasts about 2 days but gives the best shine anywhere.

I mean... you think I'm kidding about the tumbleweeds. I'm not kidding. I was giving a massage one day when one came ripping through my living room. Luckily, my client is face down and cannot see impending disaster. I mean, really. This thing hits my table leg and my client will be on the floor. Good thing I have insurance. You can just picture the gyrations I have to go through to keep this 40 pound ball of fluff from knocking my client to the floor. I'm old, I shouldn't have to do these things. :)

So, I digress.

I post on PCC and ask all my clay pals what they are using as buffing pads. As always, half the kids there jump in to help. What a forum. I love them! Anyway, I get several suggestions. So, I toddle off to the fabric store where I have on my list... FELT and COTTON FLANNEL. Soft, in both cases. Desiree and Celia have said this is what I need. I believe them.

Oh boy, here I am at the fabric store. I get yet another dear sweet little old lady to help me. She is from Japan and tries really hard to sell me a scissors. A scissors? I want felt and/or flannel!

I tell her I actually don't sew that much and I have a wonderful German made scissors that was a gift when I bought my Janome sewing machine. Luckily, I had the good sense to say the magic Janome word otherwise who knows what would have happened to me. When I said Janome, two other equally old and equally Japanese clerks chime in to tell me THEY have Janomes, too. Of course they do. Janome is a super machine! So, when I tell the woman I have this great German scissors, she gives me the dead eye and says, "but ours... made in Japan". I know better than to open my mouth. :D

So, back to the cloth. I explain why I want either felt or flannel. Mrs. Japan takes me to the felt and shows me these pre cut squares. It's pretty soft... might work. Only 42 cents! I get one. The she drags me to the flannel. OOOOO! This is nice. Very soft. I can hear Desiree and Celia telling me... get soft! I buy some. Celia and Desiree KNOW!

Now, I am home and looking at my fabric loot. Uh oh. The felt has this little tag on it that tells me how Green I am. Swell. I don't wanna be green, I wanna be SHINY!

It is made from recycled plastic bottles. How grim is this? Great for the planet but will probably amputate all of my fingers if I try to buff my clay. As spontaneous combustion is not in my immediate future, I think....Ok, scratch that. No pun intended. :( I mean, just PICTURE trying to buff your beautiful polymer pendant with old coke bottles. Jeez. I have only ONE question. Why me?

Ok, I put aside the old plastic coke bottles. Now I make a little pad out of the fleece/flannel. Very soft! Oh boy. I am proud of myself. I put it on my Dremel and start buffing. About 11 billion particles fly off. Sigh. I will persevere. Hah! Desiree was right! I had only to run the thing against a picket fence for 10 minutes and all the particles went away. I can't WAIT to see the next fluff ball that careens through our living room.

Now, this works pretty well. Not nearly as well as Chris's Mystery Scottish Stuff, but it's close. Then Janie gives me some suggestions. More on that another day. Ok... where was I?

All right.... I was sitting at my table. I have the old coke bottle felt now that is useless. So, I thinks... Self? You can use this stuff to apply your alcohol inks to clay. So, I whip out my non-Japanese German made scissors and proceed to whack the felt into small pieces.

It works great to apply the inks. I dab a bunch of various inks onto my clay. Now, I could get REALLY side tracked and tell you about Tonja and the Mule Puke. But I won't. :D

While the inks are drying, I mess about with LuminArte powders. The most glorious colors in the world. Someone told me they are going out of business? Say it ain't so! Back to the powders. I now have golden powder all over my palms. So, I cut bead size pieces of the now-dry clay and roll beads. Oops. Powder is now all over my clay. I cook the little suckers and lo and behold! Gorgeous beads! I leave it to you to decide. Is this serendipity, or what? :D