I’m stuck in a sticky web of my own creation

In an attempt to make myself a little more crazy, I began the shellacking process on Sunday. As I mentioned in a not so past post, I have been drawn into the highly textural surfaces that Jim Gottuso creates on his pots. I wanted to “practice” on a few pots before I subject all of the mugs I have been working on to this process. So I took some bowls that have been kicking around and have yet to make it to bisque and began shellacking. I started the process at around 9:30 am on Sunday, and managed to get 3 bowls all finished by 3:30. 2 of them just had very random patterns that were more of a “how much can I scrub” test, and “how much detail can I get” test. The one I spent the most time on was what I was going to call my paisley pot, but after it was all said and done, it might be more of an embryo pot. I freehanded in pencil the initial paisley nuclei all over the pot and then filled them in with shellac. I was not sure how long it would take the shellac to dry/harden, and was quite surprised to find that it went from tacky to try in no time flat, but did put it in front of a fan just to be extra sure it was hard. I did find that if the shellac was not quite thick enough, it would erode with the scrubbing, so I tried to keep the scrubbing to the absolute minimum. I then repeated this process and outlined each paisley just a little bit more and then again eroded the un shellacked surface to reveal another step down. Repeated ad nauseum until it had a bit of a malachite look to it, except the central nucleus is a paisley, or in some of them, slightly embryonic…I ended up doing about 6 layers of shellac.
Previous to the shellac, I got to excited to wait to get the flakes and did a few mugs, but used the wax resist instead. It worked pretty well, but you need to use really, really, really cold water to help keep the wax from getting soft and wiping away too easily, so my hands would get really, really, really cold I could have used heavy rubber gloves, but that would have been too easy and would have required a little bit of forethought and planning.
In my impatience to get the shellacking started (I like the word shellacking), and then of course the interruption of my afternoon on Saturday by an Irish Leprechaun that required my ingesting 3 pints of Guinness, I did not get to the hardware store as planned to buy the requisite parts to fix my shower. This is however coming to a head pretty quickly. I was standing in scalding hot water and showering in relative tepid water with intermittent bursts of cold water this morning.

FFWD a couple hours...I went to Lowes and picked up what the dude said should work to replace the diverter (first mistake)
This is what he sold me

Maybe I should say that it was the second mistake. The dork that tiled the bathroom a few years ago managed to block the diverter in its hole with grout. I was able to chip it out but I had visions of having to rip out all the tile
Anyway, after I calmed down and got it out, this is what I found:

As you can see, the diverter stem is much longer than the new one. However I discovered what the real issue was anyway and luck would have it that in past plumbing adventures, I had a few spare o rings that thankfully fit the business end.

The broken o ring was actually stuffed in between the stem and the outer casing.

Looking forward to a 1st world shower tomorrow.

Ay Carumba, Oy Vey and for crying out loud!

I woke up the other day to go to work, which is in and of it’s self, usually a chore. Not only did we have to put our clocks forward for that ridiculous daylight savings nonsense (which causes me to feel so discombobulated for at least a week or 2 in the spring), but I have never ever, in all my living memory, been a morning person. I can probably count on one hand, the number of times I have woken up with vim and vigor ready to “take on the day”. Anyway, I wake up, wondering why it is so dark outside ( you turned the clock forward dummy, it is 6:00 am in your head, but it is 7:00am according to the freaks that make us change our clocks), stumble into the bathroom (I am pretty blind until I poke the contacts into my eyes), turn on the taps in my tub and pull on the shower diverter knob thingy….nothing…..yank, swear, twist, push, pull, etc. Diverter is stuck I think, how can this be….I get it pulled out far enough so that water is diverted to the shower head, but not enough to prevent water from still come out of the faucet. Whatever, I am going to be late if I fool with it, and with my luck, I’ll break the pipe. So I jump in the shower, and although the pressure is a little wonky, I manage to have a shower and get myself to work on time.
Today…similar story. I have not yet fixed the diverter as I don’t know if I can do it without a plumber and was going to wait until the weekend when I can spend more time in the bathroom. I had taken off the collar to check out the valve doohickey to see if it would be a simple or a complicated fix. Looks like a lot of mineral deposits have deposited themselves all over the stem valve

and it will probably require a lot of coaxing with various tools, none of which ar meant for this job, swearing, WDForty, Calcium Lime and Rust remover, and bleeding knuckles (which I am sure that the various chemicals I will need to use to dissolve the minerals will be good for). Anyway, I turned on the shower and fiddled with the hot and cold until it felt kinda right and jumped in. It was a bracing shower that definitely got the blood pumping. The water pressure is ok if you jack around with the knobs, but it seems that it sometimes only lets cold water go to the shower, and others only hot, and then a little bit in between at times. This change in temperatures happens all of a sudden, not a gradual heating and cooling. One minute it is just right, the next you are freezing and then you are at a rolling boil and then back to sub arctic, and you never know which direction it will take you. So that is what I will be attempting to do this weekend. I will be working at Ceramics Canada, and then off to the pub for some Guinness to celebrate St. Paddy’s day. After a few beers, I should be in perfect shape to fix a shower, right? Maybe I will blog about the experience so others can share the pain, tears and potential exhilaration when it all comes together and culminates in my being able to have a comfortable shower (don’t worry. If not, there is a YWCA down the road from my house sorta on the way to work. Wonder if they would let me use their shower?

On another note, I purchased my first bag of dried lac beetle excretions. I mixed up an 8oz jar of shellac in a 2lb cut ratio last night. Alright, I guess I need to admit that I guessed at the quantities, I roughly split the 4oz bag into 2 portions by sight and feel. The bag I bought was a 4oz bag, and according to the website that gave me the directions, I “measured” out 2 oz of the flakes, and then added 8oz of isopropyl alcohol (cheaper than using the drinkable kind). I knew it would take a while to dissolve, so I put the lid on and went to bed. I woke up this morning to check on my shellac and there is what appears to be a solid mass of shellac at the bottom with a rather amber coloured liquor on top

I did not attempt to stir, but vigorous shaking would not dislodge the mass. I will poke at it tonight when I get home. The next step is the task of straining out the potential bug carcasses that may be present, as advised by the instructions in the bag. So I will set up a coffee filter straining rig tonight too. I am excited to start using this concoction. I only mixed up half of what I bought, as I found out online that shellac made from un waxed flakes will only be good for up to 6 months. After that, it may not harden as well. I am pretty sure that I will not go through it that fast. Hmmm…just had a thought, I wonder if I could shellac a projected image onto a pot. I could make memorial mugs of all of my grandparents for all of my relatives with a stylized portrait of sorts of each of them. I tried doing this with a mason stain and linseed oil lithography process, but my home made gum arabic went moldy (I tried dissolving the powdered form (from a cake making supplies place) in water, and it worked (after I heated it in the microwave), but did not store well, who knew), and I could never find that perfect image to transfer, they either came out too dark or too light. If I handle all my practice mugs tomorrow night and loosly cover them, they may be dry enough to at least begin the initial shellacking. On top of all this, I have 2 paintings on the go. I had a bunch of clear plastic tubing that I had used to siphon off my terra sigilatta last year that I washed out, cut into short lengths and glued onto the canvas with heavy gel medium. I initially laid down some colour and then the tubing thinking that it would act as an interesting element that would allow the eye to “see into” the painting. I applied a layer of Liquitex modeling paste to hide the cut ends and not so nice areas. This also adds extra dimension to the canvas that can then be painted over. Talk about a lot of projects.