Happy 4th of July! And Kettle Corn Recipe

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It’s a holiday, so you know what that means, a recipe! Our new family tradition for the 4th of July is making homemade Kettle Corn.

We made it on the stove, using our heavy steel wok:

1/4 cup of vegetable oil (canola, corn, whatever)
1/2 cup popcorn
1/4 cup sugar
salt

Heat the oil in the wok, toss in a couple of kernels to see if the oil is hot enough. If it is, pour in the rest of the popcorn and the sugar. Stir a few times, then put the lid on and shake the pan until all the popcorn is popped.

Immediately pour the popcorn into a large bowl, add salt to taste and stir to mix. If you don’t have a large bowl, you could use a paper grocery bag.

To see what happens to popcorn when you squish it in the hydraulic press, see this post.

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Call for Entries: 2009 Spectrum Awards

Deadline: September 26, 2008

Platinum Honors, Best Use of Pearl, Fashion Forward Honors, Manufacturing Honors and the Cutting Edge Awards (for gem cutting, faceting and carving in six categories).

Must be an AGTA member.

See all the details at AGTA.org.

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Cool Steel Working Set Up in Nairobi

I’m a sucker for nifty hand made and scrounged tools. Super cool bellows here made out of an old bicycle wheel.

Check it out at AfriGadget.

via boing boing

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Source: Fun Biz/Networking Cards from Moo

Rachel Cave MiniCards

MiniCards $19.99
Buy this on MOO.com

Read Wendy Piersall’s post about Moo and making fun, memorable business cards at their site. I know, most jewelers and artists/craftspeople are more concerned with being taken seriously than with “fun” cards, but for lots of us, there’s probably an appropriate time for these.

Check it out at Sparkplugging.com (formerly eMoms at home).

And, check this out, kind of like an Artist Trading Cards trade, artist-blogger Lelainia Lloyd of Tattered Edge is hosting a Moo card exchange! Check it out at her blog: tatterededge.blogspot.com.

Robyn of Iggy’s Jingles uses the mini cards, with a hole punched, as a tie on with her products. See her etsy store here: Iggyjingles.etsy.com.

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Jewelry Site but No Sales?

Tammy Powley at about.com has a helpful post about what to do about it when you have a jewelry website but no sales. She’s got some great insights and hints for you.

here.

via Jewelry and Beading

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The Business Benefits of Silkscreen

Print Gocco Machine

Ah, the things you find on your computer while looking for other things. Here’s an article I wrote in, oh, I think 2005 on the Print Gocco.

Product Review: Print Gocco

by Elaine D. Luther

We all know the value of color printing, a unified professional image and all that, but carrying out those values can get expensive.

One tool that can help you lower some costs is the Riso Print Gocco thermal silkscreen machine, another fabulous product from Japan.

What is it? It’s a thermal silkscreener. If the word silkscreen makes you think of photo emulsion and mess, try to forget all that. The way this silkscreen process works is with pre-treated screens, flashbulbs, and photocopies.

I use it to:

* print T-shirts, mostly for gifts
* print multi-color earring cards (printing all colors at once)
* print the backs of 4 color postcards for a specific show or show
season

It can also be used to make custom labels for quilts, if you have any quilters in your life. And it’s used by lots of people for making cards.

You prepare your artwork, photocopy it, one mark darker than the auto setting, then set it in the machine with the blue photocopy filter. Then flash the flash bulbs, which burns the image into the screen. Now where ever there was black ink, the ink will flow through.

Printing on paper is easily done with the same machine as the one that makes the screen. It really is easy. T-shirts can be done with a nifty little tool that seems incredibly over priced, but it makes printing on fabric really easy.

For jewelry, you can use it to print your own earring cards, printing multiple colors at one time, and you can print your logo onto those cardboard jewelry boxes (if you have the T-shirt accessory tool).

The Print Gocco can also be used to print a special resist onto metal for etching. The blue resist is available from Rio Grande. (though many people seem to prefer Press ‘n Peel paper, commonly referred to as PnP paper.) I have tried both and for me, the PnP works better since it allows finer lines than the Print Gocco with blue resist.

Possibly the coolest thing you can do with Print Gocco is to silkscreen on fabric. Now you can have your own logo imprinted clothing at your next art fair.

And, in your spare time, it’s great for making gifts.

I originally bought the Print Gocco over ten years ago from Rio Grande, when they sold it in the Display and Packaging Catalog as the “Multi-Color Printer,” and in the tools catalog as the “Rio Etch Master System.”

I bought it to print multi color earring cards and etch resist. It has really been worth the money. Over the years I have used to print show announcement cards, the aforementioned earring cards and lots of custom T-shirts and baby onsies.

Through my volunteer work, we used the Print Gocco with high school and junior high school age kids and they did great things with it. It really is easy. I encourage you to try it.

The limitation of the machine is that you can only print images that are smaller than 4 x 6 inches. There is a larger machine, but the price increase is significant. The 4 x 6 inch size machine can be purchased for around $100.00. The consumables for each screen aren’t cheap either: about $5.00 per screen that you make. So it makes the most sense for something that you want a lot of copies of.

You’ll need to buy inks; different ones for paper and for fabric. For fabric I’ve used official Print Gocco inks and Speedball brand. The safest bet is to use Print Gocco inks, though I’ve only ever had one problem with Speedball inks. One can of ink was too thin for the Gocco screen and too much ink came through.

What about convenience, quality and cost?

Quality is very good, as long as you take care with your original and your printing. The cost per item printed depends on how many you print of each item per screen that you make. If you make a screen for a gift T-shirt, and only make one, your cost will be $5.00 plus ink for that one shirt. If you print your own earring cards by making the original and then printing 200, your cost is 2 1/2 cents each (plus ink) per earring card. Plus the cost of the pre-purchased earring card.

The earring card in the picture is printed in two colors, which were printed at the same time.

What doing it yourself gives you is flexibility, control and the ability to do short runs. And the more professional look that comes from having materials that don’t look photocopied.

For more information, see my post, “Are You Loco for Gocco?”

Where to take classes in Chicago: Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts, Paper Source.

To buy the etching resist to use with Print Gocco: Rio Grande’s “Blue Etching Resist,” item no. 118-119.

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Free Tutorials and Videos: Etching

Stephanie Lee at Semi Precious Salvage has posted a tutorial on etching brass using hydrogen peroxide and muriatic acid.

See Stephanie’s method at Stephanielee.typepad.com.

Read more about muriatic acid here.

Read the Wikipedia entry, most especially the safety section, here.

MUST READ: always read the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) before using any material or chemical. Read the one for Muriatic acid, aka hydrochloric acid, here.

After reading the MSDS sheet, I think I’ll stick to etching with ferric chloride, but for those of you with access to a safe setting for the stronger acids — such as an acid fume hood at a college — I’ll post this information anyway.

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Lillstreet Art Center Wins Readers Choice Award!

by Elaine Luther

The readers of the Chicago Reader weekly newspaper have chosen Lillstreet Art Center, where I’ve taught for years, as the place to go for “Best Art Classes for Amateurs.” Congrats to Lillstreet!

Check out their classes at Lillstreet.com. They’ve got metalsmithing, metal clay, lampworking and so much more. In addition to clay and metals, the kid’s department, summer camps, birthday parties, textiles and printmaking departments are all huge successes.

Oh, and did I mention the artists’ studios and the gallery?

Though they were highlighted in the reader for best classes for amateurs, the advanced metalsmithing class, stonesetting and wax carving all offer something for the aspiring professional. And, the Metals Department head brings in guest instructors from all over the country, about once a semester for professional level workshops.

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