Better view of those gems

Better view of those gems, a photo by beamoore on Flickr.

Pink, decoupage concrete mushroom.

Pink, decoupage concrete mushroom., a photo by beamoore on Flickr.

I keep working on these babies.
Wow, world of all the possibilities, endless.
I wish I had more life!!!!
My head keeps spinning from ideas.

Just hello.

I got a little bit sidetracked from writing about the melted plastic for a little bit, I apologize.
I jump from one subject to another, my brain doesn't have the ability to keep track of time.

I will be alternating one thought with another, just bear with me.
My brain acts like the Basset Hound in the pic above.

Concrete mushrooms

Perfect stuff for decorating your landscape.
I have been contacted by many people either wanting to buy one, or wanting to make them.
All I can say that, once you start making them, you will be addicted, plus you will definitely are going to get a better muscle tone. Double whamy!!!!!
I have to make it very clear, that this idea is not mine, I got it, with all instrution and even mold and my first concrete stem, by mail, from a Dear Friend, Sue from South Carolina, that I have been talking to for a while now. We often brainstorm together about new ideas, and she motivates me to make more of them and start selling in my area.
Here is how my firsts dry, concrete mushroom looks:

As of today I started painting it, and putting glass marbles and tempered glass mosaic on the top. The stem will be just painted, in colors complimenting the top.
This one is already custom order, it is painted in greens and purples, to the customer's liking.


I basecoated it with purple and green, then smugded some metallic purple and green, and again, smudged purple and green glitter paint on it, I also glazed it with a little bit gold.
Here it is painted and starting to be covered with glass.

Guide to making plastic 'tiles' in a more clear order.

I keep trying to post clear instruction for making those pieces, but my brain goes faster than I can type. ADHD at its best. I apologize about that.

You need to start by collecting clear or opaque (I like mine mostly clear) beads, I get those a lot at Walmart and crafts store, or you may confiscate them from children who have grown out of making funky jewelry.
Other plastic pieces that you can use, are for example utensils, the disposable, knives, forks spoons from all sorts of social gatherings. Unfortunately, picnics are not going to happen very often, due to this time of the year, unless you live in Florida or similar, warm area.

You can collect them discretely or openly and explain to the stunned by it people, that you make art out of recyclable materials, and lets just leave it at that, or say that they will see it when you are done with it.
Also ask the hostess if she has any used, disposable tins, that she used for baking, lets say a pie, muffins or banana bread and if you can have them.
So, lets wrap up the social gatherings subject and just say, that you will need:
*Plastic beads,
*Other plastic items like the plastic ware,
*Anything that has the similar look and texture or hardness of those mentioned before,
*TG, which means tempered glass, that you can find at junk yards or glass shops that fix broken windows in cars, or for example, replace glass sliding doors in showers, sometimes, if you find out that someone broke a glass wall in an office and such, ask if you can have some of that glass. Just keep your eyes opened for accidents (unfortunately) that will leave some pieces behind.
*You also may want to collect colorful glass gems, found mostly in floral supplies and section of craft stores,
*Seed beads,
*Metal beads
*Metal or glass pieces of broken jewelry
*Acrylic chunks sold in aquarium accessories sections or pet stores,
*Colored small and larger rocks for decorating the aquaria
*Interesting looking rocks that you may see anywhere you go,
* Metal, disposable baking tins, for baking muffins, big and small, round for pies, square for brownies, rectangular for breads, small
*Metal, small and medium boxes, empty, of course, from candy, cookies, Altoids and such, fancy teas, etc
*Aluminum foil
*Toaster oven, or regular oven that is located away from your living area, in a location that is very well ventilated
*Mask for blocking all the stinky, dangerous fumes, from baking the plastic
*Level
*2 part clear epoxy, used for finishing bars, counter tops and such. Any hardware store should have it, by all the varnishes, finishes etc.

Don't be overwhelmed by this list, you can collect everything over time, and you don't have to have all the items that you put

I personally try to use anything free and recycled, I clean the items thoroughly, before creating the tiles, of course.

As you start making the tiles you will probably think and find many other little things that can be used in the composition.

Just to begin, have the plastic beads, baking tins, like the muffin ones, to start small and get a hang of it, and the toaster oven, make sure you do it outside and don't inhale the fumes.
Use the level to make sure that the toaster and the tin are leveled, the plastic will melt and gravity will work with it, you want the tile to have the same thickness on all sides, but if you chose to do so, you can make a tile that is thicker on one side and thinner on the opposite side, just for the heck of it.
I am going to stop for today, and I promise, that  more is on the way.

Here is a pic of the beads arranged in a muffin tin, ready to be baked:

And here are some right after baking:

Have a great day. More instructions, soon.

There is still so much more to say about this silly melting plastic method of creating all sorts of funky shapes.

If I repeat myself, I really apologize.

I am including a photo here that shows the starting phase of placing plastic pieces into cupcake tins, regular and smaller size.

Here is what I put in there to be melted: pony, translucent, colorful, plastic beads (from Walmart, $4.99 a round package, 1 lbs, I think), pieces of broken tempered glass ( I will be referring to it as tg), glass, flatback gems, smaller, seed, glass beads and, also from Walmart, found in aquarium accesories section, acrylic chunks of plastic, used normally as decorations for the aquariums. Bad news is, they stopped selling them at least in the store near me, but if they stopped in one, they probably stopped selling them in all others. These chunks of plastic were excellent to make my plastic thingies. Oh, well. I will try to ask at a pet store if they have those in their "fish" section.

At he same time Walmart has similar acrylic chunks in floral decor and wedding stuff decore, but more expensive, so I pretty much made a 180 turn. I am sticking to cheaper stuff.

Sooooo, for now, lets just get everything together we want to melt.

I have to say that another item I realized I can use, besides the beads are clear plastic utensils. I started to collect those, asking Friends to keep them for me, and don't have to be clean, I will wash them, just BRING THEM TO ME, Pweeeeeeeze!!!

They are cheaper and better to fill the item you want to make by melting, and you will need to add less colorful beads, but you may add, glitter, more flat back glass gems to keep all the stuff colorful.

A word of warning, plastic will crack a little bit around the glass marbles, but to offset and cover up that look, placing pieces of tg, next to them kind of takes attention away from the cracks, plus you can still glue and hide the flaws after the piece is done melting or the clear epoxy that you can finish the piece with will cover up the flaws.

I think, I will say more in the next post, and be happy to answer questions, if you sign up to read what I have to say about anything that comes to my mind and I will start working on it to my Loved ones' despair and amazement at the same time. Boo boos also happen, too , so please be prepared to have those , too, but without trying we will never find out anything.

'Everything on it 2" window, this time with melted plastic thingies

003, a photo by beamoore on Flickr.

Given to a charity auction for the local Theater, and got sold for $230. Wow, just wow. Last year was a fiasco, even though the last year items wer a lot nicer, I thought, but this is super awesome!!!!
And I get a spot on th Theater's marquee with my name on it, for a day. Another WOW.
I guess. I just need to kepp melting and making those plastic tiles, with stuff embedded in them. I am thinking of putting not just glass beads, gems and tempered glass, but should include some nice metal beads, pendants and buttons. Must me metal, not plastic disguised as metal, other wise it will melt, too and create a disaster.
Ok. whoever reads this, if you want to use opaque beads, procede with caution, the pearlescent ones look ok melted, if you mange to do some swirls in the whole mixture while it's hot, those will look awesoem with the transluscent ones, the non shiney, matte finish, will pretty much be ok, but I personally like the transluscency.
Ok, don't get me started on politics and how, I think, the government should function.