Creative Projects 7.06

Since I am relatively certain my boyfriend's parents do not check my blog, I shall post the latest creation of mine.  I was at Michael's a while ago trying to figure out a present for his parents, who I am visiting for Christmas.  Last year I got each set of parents (his parents are divorced so there are two couples now) a nice bottle of wine.  This year I was thinking of making a Christmas ornament, something fancy.  As I walked around the aisles, I came across some glass etching patterns - you get a pattern, put it on something made of glass, put this paste on that corrodes at the surface, wash it off and voila, a lovely professional looking glass etching.  There were some with letters and with grape designs, so I figured I could put the names of his parents on the glasses and decorate with grape stuff.  

After getting the kits and the corrosive paste, I ordered some nice cabernet sauvignon glasses online (they are fans of cabernet).  The glasses arrived a couple days ago but I hadn't gotten around to doing anything with them. I started a new rotation today and had a fair amount of time so I figured I would do that today.  It took 3 hours! I was surprised.  First I had to cut out and duct tape the designs (with their protective plastic) onto four glasses.  Then I had to use a popsicle stick (essentially) to grind the pattern onto the glass - this is just the stencil, mind you.  Then I had to carefully remove the protective plastic and re-duct tape around the stencils to ensure none of the corrosive paste could mess up the design.  After that I added the paste, waited 60 seconds per glass, and washed it off.  I ended up with some very nice looking glasses - better than I had expected, actually.  Also, I was surprised that the etched part didn't have a rough texture - it feels essentially as smooth as the original glass.

Another project I have been working on which seems to be ready is the pressed plant project - I think it has been two weeks since we placed it in the press, so I shall now check it...and it looks great!  Just fitted it into the quad - need to start pressing other plants now - he wants dill, sage, rosemary, and basil, so we will have to combine two of those into the larger quad space.