Martian Margarita's Craft Show

 Tomorrow I have a craft show I will be vending at.  Its being hosted by Martian Margarita in Aurora, Texas.  I'm so excited margaritas and shopping is there a better way to spend a saturday??

There will be a silent auction that I donated a set of coral bowl candleholders, they came out beautifully and just out of the kiln this morning.. Yes, I'm a procrastinator 🙈...

But here's a picture of the candle holders

And here are some images of what will be available in my booth!

Come out and see us! There'll be a silent auction, food truck, bouncy house, and shopping!

Hope to see y'all tomorrow!

Recycling Fused Glass into Coasters

 The cool thing with working in glass fusion, is mistakes and broken pieces aren't that big of deal.  Well they are from an emotional standpoint but they can be recycled and re-fired into a different creation or sometimes into the same depending on the break.. 

When my job closed (yes due to Covid) I got a fair amount of fusible glass.  Some were old samples some were scrap but there was a fair amount of it.  Unfortunately it's not the *COE (Coefficient of Expansion) I generally work with, which basically means the glass I got from work would not work with the glass I typically work with. Mixing the 2 *COE's would be very bad. So I have to not mix them EVER.  So what can I do with all this glass, can't sell it as mine as I didn't make the samples. Not a fan of some of the designs created, so what did I do???

I had a mold, that's basically a coaster or tile mold. I actually have 2 ones a single square and ones a 4 square (so big that its the only thing I can put in my kiln when its being fired). So I chopped up a bunch of the glass and laid it in the mold fired it and taa daa! Coasters, really cool coasters. 

pre fired coasters, just the glass in the mold

after firing in the kiln, glass is all melted and fused together

finished coasters

so many different variations

close up view of one

same close up view but different angle.

DEFINITIONS:

COE or Coefficient of Expansion - how much a material will expand for each degree of temperature increase.

coral bowl candleholders

3fatesfiber.com 

Abandoned Building Across the Midwest.

 On our 3000 mile road trip we saw a lot of abandoned buildings. I always wonder what is their stories? How do they become abandoned and why?  Was it economic, death, or opportunity? Abandoned buildings always fill me with a nostalgic and sad feeling, but also a want to explore the insides and maybe find a treasure of "frozen in time" images.

Mid West Road trip, Vacation

 In July we went on a spontaneous drive in my husbands Nissan GTR, through the midwest.  It's always fun to take that car out, its a show stopper and people tend to react to it.. usually by taking pictures and hanging out of their cars for a closer look.

We went from Texas to Minnesota.  From Minnesota we decided to go to Devils Tower in Wyoming.  I love Wyoming, I lived there briefly when I was 9. I have quite a few fond memories of there.  I chose to go see Devils Tower again because when I was 9 we went there and I fell in love with it. There is truly something totally majestic and wonderful about Devils Tower.  We stayed in a little cabin in Hulett, Wyoming for the night.  On our way to the next leg on our trip we actually drove by the town I lived in when I was 9. Wright, Wyoming, pretty cool to see though we didn't stop to visit it. 

Devils Tower 

Where we stayed.

The next leg of our trip was to Estes Park, Colorado.  We decided to stay at The Stanley Hotel.  It's a beautiful hotel.  I was actually shocked with the area.  I was half expecting a grand hotel in the middle of the mountains with nothing any where near it. What I got was a grand hotel with Estes Park pretty much up to the hotels dooryard.  But the area was GORGEOUS and The Stanley is a beautiful hotel.

the grand staircase

our view from our room

morning view from our window

The Stanley Hotel

Just a view in Colorado

The next day we headed home, unfortunately no ghostly encounters were had at The Stanley.  We say a lot of abandoned buildings and many beautiful sites in our 3000 mile 9 states drive.  We'll need to do it again.. Ill do another post with some of the abandoned buildings and sites we saw.. It was a wonderful and fun trip with my best friend and husband, Craig.

PUMPKINS! Is it too early for fall???

 I love pumpkins, they're so representative of the fall season, as well as just a playful and a varied fruit. They actually fall into the same family as melons and cucumbers. 

You can get tiny ones, large ones, you can decorate them, smash them, paint them, bake them, steam them and can them so many fun things to do with pumpkins.. Most of the pumpkin is edible.  

No matter their legends or uses; pumpkins ALWAYS remind me of fall and are a nostalgic memory trigger for my childhood.  How many of you have the same memory trigger? 

Making frit cast pumpkins garden stakes

My favorite pumpkin🎃🎃 recipe is;

No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese softened
• 1 cup milk 
• 1 TBSP milk
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 1 TSP vanilla
• 8 oz whipped topping
• 1 prepared graham cracker crust
• 15 oz canned pumpkin
• 2 pkgs instant vanilla pudding [4 servings size each]
• 1 TSP ground cinnamon
• 1 TSP pumpkin spice

Instructions

• Beat together:  cream cheese, 1 tablespoon of milk, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Fold in ½ of the whipped topping and spread in the graham crust.
• Whisk together 1 cup of milk, pumpkin, dry pudding mixes and spices until creamy. Spread over the cream cheese layer.
• Top with the remaining ½ tub whipped topping and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

TBSP = tablespoons

TSP = teaspoons

OZ = ounces

Frit Casted Unicorn, A Fused Glass Project

 I'm a horrible blogger.  I need to learn to make and take time to do this.  I tend to post more on my instagram which, if you'd like is instagram.com/shawnidarling.  So this video is of me creating a fused glass Unicorn using a frit cast mold from Creative Paradise Inc. 

She will be available in my shop in the next few days..  My shop is 3fatesfiber.com.

I will try and get better at posting.. 😉😀

handmade fused glass Christmas ornaments