Happy Windows

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brynnb/sets/72157614041613323/

If we suddenly hit the Powerball jackpot my first act (well, after helping my kids erase their student loans) would be to hire a tribe of artisans to work on every aspect of my house. I’d want everything stain-glassed, wood-worked and ceramitized. But since we do not have the wherewithal to become patrons of the arts, we must make do.
The celestory windows over the closet in our bedroom have been a source of irritation for a long time. We’d gotten into the terrible habit of parking junk up there (suitcases, the big bowls from Bob and Steph’s wedding we didn’t know what to do with, Bob’s hatboxes, a Rubbermaid tub or two of off-season clothes). It looked junky from the inside, and even worse, you could see it from outside when our lights were on.
I decided to do a faux stained glass treatment.

Bob cut me four pieces of Plexi-glass the exact size of the panes of glass (or as we like to say in the Witchger household “more-or-less” the size of the panes).

I drew up a pattern–an homage to Frank Lloyd Wright–and marked each section as to whether I wanted it clear, textured or milky-white.

Leaving the plexi-glass on the pattern I first cut away the protective plastic in the areas I wanted frosted and peeled it off, using the remaining plastic as a masque and spray painted those with aerosol stained-glass paint. When that had dried I pulled off the rest of the protective plastic and “drew” on the fake leading which I’d purchased in plastic squeeze bottles and let that dry overnight.

The next day I filled in each secton according to the opacity I’d assigned it and let it dry for 48 hours.

Bob then installed the panes right over the old glass using glazing points. When we get tired of them we can just take them down. But right now I like how they look, especially when the sun streams in late in the afternoon. I think this will be the motivation we need to keep the junk from gathering up there again. Now the only question is where do we put it all if Kate needs to use her old room again?

Lessons learned:
This can’t be rushed--a fan pushes the stained glass paint to one side so that you get a leeward effect.
The paint needs to dry absolutely flat-it has a high viscosity, but after hours it will run and if you don’t catch it in time it will overrun the “leading”.


Supplies:
Thin Plexi-glass
Fake “leading” for stained glass from the craft store
Stained glass “paint” in clear and frosted
Elmer’s glue (the cheaper the better, I used three bottles that were 25¢ each during the back-to-school sales) for the white milky sections.
Glazing points
A screwdriver for pushing the glazing points into the molding

Handmade Christmas 2008

New Favorite Old Favorite Jacket by Salvage Jobs by Mom TM

I purchased this jacket when I was in high school round about age 16 from a thrift store in Cary. (whoa... I have articles of clothing over a decade old) It was my favorite jacket for along time and made it with me to college where one of the pockets was ripped off in some kind of biking fiasco I believe. Recently my mother fixed the pocket and embroidered a beautiful tree with bluebird on the back of it for me. It is now officially my new favorite old favorite jacket and will heretofore have all my favorite jackets embroidered with various things courtesy of mom. (So long as I stay pathetically unemployed and all alone on the other side of the world I feel certain I can guilt her into many many more elaborate craft projects dedicated to me! A small price to pay for fashion.)

She forgot to take pictures of the masterpiece for our blog so I will post some below or possibly above if I can figure out how to embed a flickr album.

Ill let mom add all the painstaking details on the equipment, hours of labor etc.

In Progress Treeskirt

In Progress Tree Skirt

This treeskirt is a wedding gift for my good friends Megan and Brian. They got married April 22, 2006. -I guess I am a little behind. I've made this pattern once before for myself and since Megan liked it so much I wanted to make her one. I am off to a great start and am posting about my unfinished project to provide myself with the personal pressure to keep up and finish it. I would really like to have this to them in time to use this December. My dear Mum has promised to quilt it for me if I can make sure to have the piecework done by Thanksgiving. Wish me luck! I will post later with pictures of the completed project.

Time: I'll let you know once I am done.

Cost: a secret since it is a gift.

Witch-gear: cotton fabric, rotary cutter, clear quilting ruler, and a strong desire to have Megan & Brian put up a Christmas tree.

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)


What I Learned: That progress speeds up rapidly when I just have everything set up and ready to go. I am sneaking in a little work here and there. For example, I can sew a little in the morning while I wait for my turn to use the shower.

The Handmade Market

Handmade Market

The Handmade Market is put on to provide the triangle community with a chance to shop for goodies made with tender loving care by vendors from all over. I have participated several times before and it usually involves working on stuff right up to the last minute. My usual wares are handmade cards. I start out by first creating a series of collages. Next my dear husband scans the originals for me and we have prints made. I then sew each print on to a blank card with my sewing machine.

Time: many hours over several evenings after work

Cost: N/A

Witch-gear: bits of paper, stickers, pencils, paints, boxes of blank cards from Michaels, Kenmore sewing machine, Yes! paste, and a trusted x-acto kinfe.

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)


What I Learned: I need to come prepared with enough cards to restock my suitcase as the day goes on. Luckily, there were lots of cards sold but by the end of the day this resulted in the table looking sadly empty. Also I should start working on stuff earlier.