Epic failure to GREAT SUCCESS! (Idea Jar Part Two)

The finished product, a great success.
Scroll down to see my epic failure.

Continuing from yesterday, today I sought out to create my idea jar. After a lot of thinking, I decided I did not want to label it an Idea Jar, just in case I ever wanted to use it for something else. I really loved the hounds-tooth design from yesterday, so I went to create my own hounds tooth design for my die cutting machine.

For the project, I needed:

Pretty glass jar, pre-awesome.

There are lots of different choices for etching cream.

I picked the one with the most awesome name.

• A glass jar
• Etching cream
• Synthetic paint brush
• Adhesive vinyl
• Exacto knife
• Transfer paper

This was my first foray into cutting vinyl. Not as easy as the YouTube videos tell you.

After one epic failure:

RIP.

HUGE SUCCESS

YES!

I put a piece of transfer paper over it so I could put it onto the jar easily.

This is a really ugly yellow; that's why I picked it.

Then I 'carefully' (haphazardly and terrifyingly) put the vinyl on to my jar. Important to note that once it's down on the jar, it is near impossible to fix. Lesson learned.

ARMOUR. ETCH.

Then I removed the transfer paper and started painting. I put a pretty thick layer of the cream on it (mainly because I was terrified it wouldn't work.)

I'm pretty sure this is made out of crazy acid.
Don't get it on your skin.

I waited about five minutes, then rinsed the cream off with water.

This is the point that I started to get super excited,
called Ben in the room, and made him watch me take the vinyl off.

Then, I carefully removed the vinyl, and......

TA DAHHHHH! This is the point that I started to feel awesome.

HUGE SUCCESS!

I absolutely love this. It looks like I got it from some fancy yuppie decorator shop in the Pearl (for those that don't live in Portland, the Pearl is yuppie central. Naturally, I love the Pearl.)

Then, since this is an idea jar, I filled it with ideas. (I love paper.)

Thinking of ideas was almost as difficult as working with vinyl.

And here's the finished product!

At this point I realized I really need to invest in a better
camera than by cell phone. This does not do it justice.

Maintaining Speed. (Part One)

I'm starting to catch my rhythm with this project. It started slow, but I'm picking up speed. Most days, I am excited to think of and do my project du jour. But, looking at my calendar for the next two months, I am starting to think there will be days in the near future I will need a little inspirational help.

Thus, the Idea Jar. A jar filled with ideas. Novel.


This cannot be just any ordinary cookie jar. It at least needs to be a semi-extraordinary cookie jar. So, I'm venturing into the art of glass etching. I even already have an awesome jar.

Thank you, Crate & Barrel, for cool stuff.

For today's project, I design my jar. I want something geometric, but fun. I came up with three options. These look a little blocky and too chunky, but you have to remember that they will look a lot more 'delicate' as etched glass. I wanted to make sure the lines were thick enough to transfer well.




Come back tomorrow for my adventure into glass etching, and the final product.