I have roughed out my next suncatcher - one with stars. The hanging stars were relatively easy to cut out. I actually cut out a star-shaped hole in the lid of a peanut-butter jar, and used that to to get them the same size (more or less). The top swoosh was just done freehand. The tricky part was cutting out the star shapes inside the swoosh. (I know you can't see them very well in the picture, but they are there.) They're about the size of dimes. The hacksaw that I got won't cut it (haha) for something that small. I ended up using the etching tool on the dremel, which worked ok to rough out the shape, but it left rounded points. So they look more like starfish than actual stars. *sigh* I can't have everything.
The texturing and coloring went better. I think I'll need to buy more sanding disks soon, as they give a wonderful swooping swirling shiny texture to the metal. And I'm getting better with the blowtorch too - that really is my favorite part of the process. I'm not sure if you can see in the pictures, but I'm getting some brighter colors, especially orange and magenta. And one of the stars is almost all green! Now that's fun!
Not EVERYTHING went well, though. While doing some etching, my dremel slipped and jumped into my hand. I was suddenly very glad I was wearing gloves. Even though it tore up the rubber coating and even through some of the knit, my fingers weren't bloodied at all. I was very thankful for that. I've managed to get this far without any serious injuries! A couple nights ago, I did have a bristle from my brass brush fly into my mouth as I was polishing some pieces. I guess I sit there with my mouth gaping like an idiot when I'm concentrating!
With any luck, my car will start tomorrow (with or without a jump from a towing company). If I have less luck though, I'll finish up this suncatcher. And perhaps I'll try my hand at photographing my works in some daylight. Wish me luck!
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