Steampunk and Treasures

           Steampunk and Treasures are two book boxes I finished this week. Both of them are experimental boxes and though not perfect, I’m pretty happy with the results.

          Last time, I showed you my strap hinges that broke and told you I was leaning towards sanding and reshaping them.

         When I was sanding the lower hinge, it broke more.

          Sigh.

          And I told you I was waiting on some new clay molds to come in the mail. Those came and this is how my Steampunk box turned out.

          My Treasures box was experimental because instead of using clay molds in the design, I used a thin cardboard, like a cereal box, and cut the designs on my Cricut machine.

          I was worried that just the thickness of a single piece of board would get lost when I applied a coat of plaster of Paris (POP) so I cut out two and glued them together.

          When I had the design done, I decided to skip POP and just paint it.

          I was painting the design on the back when the two layers started to separate.

          I could spot glue it, I thought and kept painting the rest of the box. When it came time to deal with the separation, I said, What the hey, and pulled the top one off. It may look a little rough, but it is a learning experience after all.

          And this is the front of the Treasures box.

          Here’s the back of both boxes.

          I did more than one experiment on each of the boxes, too.

          On Treasures, rather than use a full hinge, I used two smaller hinges. So, a gap appears on the front cover.

          I did the ‘pages’ different, too. Treasures was made the way I’d been making them. Taking a piece of cardboard and stripping away a layer of paper to reveal the ribs underneath. It’s really important, while doing this, that you’ve got the ribs running in the right direction. Let’s just say a lesson learned.

          On Steampunk I used a coat of POP and a toothpick to draw the page lines.

          On the first two boxes I ever made, I’d used a really really thick piece of cardboard. When I made Steampunk, I used just a regular thickness of cardboard. I doubled it when I made Treasures and that just works better.

          My mind is already racing on to new designs and new experiments.

          “What are you going to do with them?” Mike asked.

          “I don’t know. I just made them because I wanted to make them.”

          I’m even thinking of making fake books and having no lid at all. That way you could just stand them around for decoration. Who knows if I’ll actually do that or not.

          “Peg, what about the box with the bricks that you showed us last time?” you ask.

          Yeah. Well, that one’s not done yet.

          Besides my steampunk molds, I’d gotten one that had little butterflies and flowers and dragonflies. That inspired me to make a vine up the wall and add little flowers and butterflies and dragonflies all over the place. How I’m going to paint it is still percolating in my head.

          On the front of this one I decided to go with the tried-and-true Dream design. When I put Dream on, it came out a little bit crooked.

          Sigh.

          “Maybe no one will notice,” Me said to Myself.

          “Yeah, but is that really what you want to be known for?” Myself asked. “Slipshod workmanship?”

          “But then I’d hav’ta sand it off!” Me whined. “What if we ask all our friends on Facebook?”

          Don’cha love the conversations we have with ourselves.

          So, Me posted it to Facebook. “Does it add to the charm or should I take it off and start over?”

          “I wouldn’t even have noticed it if you hadn’t pointed it out. But once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it,” my beautiful Jody said.

          “I wouldn't have a problem with it but if you're gonna worry about it later I'd say take it off,” my beautiful Trish said.

          And my feisty redheaded neighbor, Miss Rosie says, “It wouldn’t bother me.”

          In the end it did bother me. I sanded it off and redid it. You’ll have to wait until next time to see how this one comes out.

          Let’s give credit where credit is due.

          Blackie helped.

          I use baby powder to dust my clay molds and prevent sticking.

          “Here’s your brush,” he says just before knocking it to the floor.

          Turkey.

          The camera picked up some interesting highlights in his eyes.

          So, what am I going to do with them rattled around in my head every since Mike asked.

          “If I wanted to sell these someplace,” I asked Trish, “how much do you think I could get for them?” She sells a lot of the crafts she makes. I was hoping for maybe an Andrew Jackson.

          “Twenty-five, thirty,” she replied, much to my surprise.

          I’m not a big fan of charging friends or family for the things I make. The few times I have accepted money was when I was asked to make something for someone who wanted to gift it to somebody else. And I have sold some of my glass work to a couple of gift shops around here.

          Here’s my question. If I do sell one, does that mean that I have to split it with Blackie?

          Speaking of Blackie…

          I’ve been suffering with itchy feet lately. Over the last few years, I’ve discovered that if I use my Ped Egg when my feet start to itch and sand down my calluses, the itching stops. And I, of course, stop sanding them — until they start to itch again.

          A few months ago, my feet started to itch and this method didn’t work anymore. I took to keeping a hairbrush at the foot of the bed to scratch my feet on in the middle of the night. That’s when the itching bothered me, not through the day.

          By the way, don’t even Google itchy feet. Just sayin’.

          I’ve been soaking my feet in Epsom salts for a few weeks now. It’s helping and itchy feet aren’t waking me up at night anymore.

          Blackie made an addition to my salt water. His little squeaky bird that tweets when batted around.

          You might be surprised to hear that it still works even after its bath. I know I was!

          Blackie still stinks sometimes. I really don’t believe its his food since all the cats eat it and he’s the only one that stinks. When he went for his shot, I asked them about it. They suggested we get his poopy checked.

          “We’ve got three cats,” Mike told the gal.

          “That’s okay. If one cat has parasites and shares the litter box, they’ll all have it. Just get a fresh one,” she advised.

          “Didn’t you worm him?” Mike asked me later.

          “Yes. But the medicine I have doesn’t kill all the parasites. Different parasites require different medicines.”

          I was headed out to feed Sugar and Callie in the cat room one morning and surprised Blackie in the middle of doing his business. He jumped out of the box. When I came back in a few minutes later, I could smell it and Blackie was headed back to the box to cover his business up. I grabbed a sandwich baggie and plucked it from the box. I’m going to say he’s got something since his business was mushy.

          “Peg, didn’t you notice before this?” you ask.

          Heck no! Once it’s been covered and marinated in the clumping litter for a while, all I do is scoop. If it looks like poop, it’s poop. If it’s a lump, I assume it’s pee. I don’t study it too closely.

          We went right over to the vet and dropped it off. We probably won’t hear anything until next week.

         I took a few road pictures for you.

          Two more road pictures taken from an early trip to town.

          Ice cakes on the Susquehanna.

           The sunrise reflecting off the steam from one of the factories.

“What’s Bondi up to this week?” you wanna know.

          Bondi is indulging in two of her favorite pastimes in this picture. Pulling the stuffed critters down and tormenting Spitfire. She’ll keep barking at him and pulling the blanket around until he finally has enough and leaves.

          I had a big icicle hanging from the kitchen patio awning. I pulled it down and when it hit the ground, it broke into pieces. Bondi went to investigate and picked a piece of ice for herself.

          “What are ya gonna do with that?” I asked as she trotted up to the door. “Okay, but it’ll melt,” I warned.

          She found a spot on the rug and went to work, crunching it into smaller pieces.

          I left her to it.

          “If you see a wet spot on the floor, Bondi brought a piece of ice in,” I told Mike.

            Bondi, The Great and Mighty Protector, removed another threat from our house this week!

We found 100% cotton sheets on the Walmart website for half of what they are in the store. When they came, there was a piece of air-filled packing plastic. I didn’t take it out before leaving the box for Bondi and Blackie to play with. In hindsight, I really should’ve known she’d rip it to shreds. She had fun, I cleaned it up, no harm, no foul.

With that, let’s call this one done!