Orbs for inspiration

My dishwasher has been on the fritz for a while. This means a lot of handwashing of dishes, as well as a lot of letting dishes pile up in the sink.  Since I end up spending a lot of time at the sink, and haven't quite figured out how to fix the dishwasher, I've decided the view out my window needs some arting up.  There's a photinia tree out there, and I've been trying to keep its undersides trimmed up.  I've also come into some steel strapping.  I had a vision to make these orbs and found the hardest part finding a way to drill through the steel.  I discovered that Mike's Merchandise had some hard metal bits, and those seem to do the trick.  I cut the strips to the size I wanted, and made orbs of a few different sizes, held together with pop rivets. One key is to clamp the pieces together and drill through both.   A little bit of spray paint in bright colors, and a little fishing line to hang them in an unobtrusive way, and now I have something pretty to look at while I wash dishes.

The view out my kitchen window.  You can't really see the orbs out there but they're there

Here they are, with my chickens. I use that pallet for a step ladder into the canopy.

Orange

Yellow-green

Green

A little oblong red one

And a big purple one

More lanterns

I've been busy crafting during this Xmas season and break from academic duties.  This year I've been giving out a lot of my can lanterns, and making a bunch more.  I've moved my can stamping rig inside, which consists of a sawhorse with a dowel clamped to it, and a desk light.  To improve my precision and save my fingers, I've taken to keeping the nail I stamp with in a vise-grip.

I really like using painted cans, from exotic foodstuffs like El Pato sauces, coconut milk and other Asian delicacies. 

Some tasty sauce in a beautiful little package

All lit up

I've also tried going back to working with stencils, starting with one of my favorite subjects, giant monsters. 

Godzilla and King Ghidorah battle at the Cafe du Monde

I have a couple of Cafe du Monde coffee and chicory cans laying around,  which seem to lend themselves to some monster mayhem, using stencils and the painting on the can.

Godzilla descends upon the French Quarter

Wind Chimes

I saw this idea on Pinterest, of course. I had been scavenging the bins at the local thrift stores for spoons, forks, and knives. As it turns out, forks were the hardest to find, and butter knives are available in great abundance. The ecologist in me is always looking into these patterns of abundance and distribution. So I had a bear of a time getting the right tool to drill through stainless steel. None of the Dremel bits I could find were doing it. I tried a titanium bit and a cordless drill, and finally came upo. A cobalt bit that managed, though it got worn down quickly. Mi do not have a drill press in my life, obviously. So these wind chimes are what I came up with, using bailing wire to hold them together. I will probably come up with a better, more aesthetic design, but for now they function, even if they don't peal like the bells of St John's.

Yet more can lanterns

Another can lantern

I've been working on this one for a while. Originally started with nails and tonight I used the Dremel to carve out the snowflake patterns. This is actually a big old number 10 can.

Can lanterns

I recently got a Dremel and have been having lots of fun playing with it. But I've found with these lanterns, a hammer and nail is the best way to go. The cans are painted so I just use the painting on the outside as a guide.

Instead of freezing water in the cans to keep from denting them, I use a section of dowel like an anvil.