WOYWW 143–More Stencils, Choccie Box Inserts, and Heat Insulation

Thanks again to our wonderful Julia for hosting another weekly hop around the world’s most creative, amazing, tidy (not!) and interesting workdesks. To join in, click on the link in my sidebar which will take you to Julia’s place.

Not a great deal going on Chez Shosh this week because it’s mostly been on the computer, in Inkscape to be exact, working on vector drawings for Sheba, my cutting machine.

Having more or less got to grips with cutting ordinary cardstock, I wanted to branch out a bit, so I’ve been cutting stencils (see my last post). What’s on my workdesk this week is the next one that I have cut – a polka dot design consisting of 1/2-in circles on an A4 sheet. I have been having problems getting it to cut right but I’m on the way now.

To the right of the stencil you can see some recent sample cuts I’ve made with Sheba – my Indian floral border and my silver mirror butterfly on its mat layer, and beyond them, the doileys still waiting for me to do something with them lol! On the left is just a pile of stuff waiting to be put away – nothing a bit interesting.

Above the stencil is the plastic insert from a box of choccies. It fell on the floor upside down (empty!) and when I picked it up I thought it looked really interesting from the back, and wondered if I could make it up into some sort of mixed media art project. The bottoms of the depressions are very thin and flimsy so I’ve been trying to think of a way to strengthen them. I’ve put a bit of acrylic gel medium (thick moulding paste) in one, and although it’s not quite dry yet, I don’t think it’s the right stuff, and anyway I shall end up using far too much of this rather expensive stuff! After doing it I remembered my Polyfila that my hubby bought for me last year for my mixed media stuff, so I’m going to use that. Once the depressions are all filled and the stuff is dry, I shall paint the surface with gesso and take it from there. I want it to end up totally unrecognisable as a chocolate box insert!

Back to the drawing board now, and more work on my stencils (really struggling with the flower one but have some thoughts on how to proceed, having slept on it) and also my designs based on Indian fabrics.

One thing on my workdesk that you can’t see, because it’s under my craft sheet, is a new heat proof mat that I got this week. It’s made of a substance called Cogetherm, an asbestos substitute made from mica, which is supposed to be extremely heat proof and insulating. I have yet to put it to the test. You wouldn’t believe how many green cutting mats I have warped – if you look at the top of the photo above, you can see my latest effort (that’s quite a new mat…) – that wasn’t done particularly carelessly either, as I had a glass cutting mat (heat-proof, kitchen variety raised off the surface with little feet) and then my non-stick craft sheet on top of that, and I was using a heat gun, admittedly for quite a long time. I’ve warped mats by leaving my melting pot switched on for quite a while, also standing on this glass mat, and the radiant heat is enough to warp the mat. Although non-stick craft sheets are always advertised as “heat proof,” they are only resistant to heat themselves, and they offer absolutely no protection for what’s underneath.

I thought it was time to think outside the box, because no craft suppliers seem to have addressed the problem of heat insulation. I found this rigid mat on the website of Presspahn and thought it looked a good bet. I’ll let you know how it fares.

Have a great week, everyone!