Making a Charm From Spare Parts by GreyPuffin

You can see more of GreyPuffins work here http://www.etsy.com/shop/greypuffin

For the purpose of this post, I’m making a charm out of old broken watch parts, one of my favorite mediums. To make it I used scrapped watch parts, E-6000 glue, tweezers, toothpicks (reusable ones work fine), scrap paper (old flyers, in this case). You can always get blank necklace findings at jewelry or craft supply stores as well.

I started off with the base as my inspiration, which is actually the back side of a day date wheel (part that says what day of the week it is). It already had holes punched in it, so I didn’t need to worry about that. The gears from an unworking parts that would fit in theme with the base, as it has a gear in the middle already, and just as importantly, that would actually fit on my base.

After that I prearranged it on the base to get an idea of how it would work, and how I wanted it to look. I took a picture of the setup to be sure I remembered how I wanted it (and to document it). As this piece requires working with an adhesive, I wanted to be sure to quick reference it so I didn’t have to stop and worry about placement, or moving it around after attaching it to the base.

As I mentioned before, for this piece I am using an adhesive, E-6000. Any strong glue works well, or epoxy, such as Loctite Instant Mix. I place a dollop of glue on an index card, both because I don’t need a lot, and that way I don’t have to continually open the tube. Using a toothpick to take a small portion onto each gear work the glue around the sides evenly, and as the pieces can be small, make sure not to get too much on, or it will smear when placing on the base. While putting glue on the pieces, I use tweezers to hold them, more to assist in placing the gear without it sliding around and smearing glue.

After placing the gears and making sure they are fully touching the base, you wait! To be sure that the glue does take full effect, I usually wait at least overnight, but check the instructions on your adhesive. After that, it’s a matter of testing the gears to be sure they all properly adhered, and then attach it with a jump or chainmaille ring, or however you decide!

You can see that the final product didn’t turn out exactly how I had placed it, and that does happen sometimes. The actual pre-placement gave me at least a rough idea of where I wanted the pieces at. If I had been completely unhappy, and wanted to change it, all I would need to do would be to take off the gears and wipe off the glue to ensure the next attempt wouldn’t have a glue buildup. Check your adhesive instructions as many will quick set (begin to cure and harden) in 5 minutes, but will also explain how to remove residue in case you need to.

Vegan Strawberry Fudge "Cheese" Cake Recipe

I found this recipe on www.webveg.com by vicesqd69 and though I should share it!!

Vegan Strawberry Fudge "Cheese"Cake

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

1 vegan graham cracker pie crust

16 oz. vegan cream "cheese" (I use Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese)

1/3 cup sugar

4 EnerG Egg Replacer "eggs"

1 teaspoon vanilla

juice of 1 lemon

strawberries

vegan fudge

Directions:

For the filling, combine cream "cheese", sugar, EnerG Egg Replacer, vanilla, and lemon juice, and blend until creamy and smooth. Then, pour into the pie crust. Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until set. Let cool, and place in the refrigerator and chill for about 6 hours or more.. until nice and cool.

Topping: Melt the vegan fudge in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Pour on the "cheese"cake and then add strawberries.

Serves: 8-10

Preparation time: Depends how fast you are in the kitchen

Anarchist Morality by Peter Kropotkin

This is a really awesome essay that a friend showed me a couple years ago, and I thought I would share it!

"Written in 1897, this study of the origin and function of what we call "morality" was written for pamphlet publication as a result of an amusing situation. An anarchist who ran a store in England found that his comrades in the movement regarded it as perfectly right to take his goods without paying for them. "To each according to his need" seemed to them to justify letting those who were best able foot the bills. Kropotkin was appealed to, with the result that he not only condemned such doctrine, but was moved to write the comrades this sermon"

you can read more here...

http://libcom.org/library/anarchist-morality-peter-kropotkin

or learn more about Peter Kropotkin here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin

Vinyl Record Flower Pot Tutorial

So far, I’ve sent in the application to Etsy and am anxiously waiting to see if our team gets approved before putting too much work into it. The look of the blog is still not as good as I want… If anyone out there knows how to make it look better PLEASE HELP!!!! Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

It is my personal goal to do one post a day, and I would love for the other team members to contribute as well. So that being said, here is a quick tutorial for how to make flower pots/plant containers out of records! I’ve seen many places making bowls out of records, and figured the hole in the middle would make them even better for plants.

First set the oven to 200° (A quick tidbit of information that I just discovered – you can make a ° symbol by pressing alt 0176 on a PC keyboard)

Grab something that can withstand high temperatures, (I used a pint glass, and it broke the next time I did dishes 0_o) place it in the center of the baking tray. It is best to use something tall, so that the sides of the record melt down to help form a bowl shape.

Let the record “bake” for 5 – 10 mins. This will soften the vinyl to make it more pliable. You must work quickly because the record will harden within minutes! Don’t worry though, because you can reheat it as many times as you need!

New Etsy Punks Blog!

So we have decided to move from wordpress to here.... I wish there was a way to import everything, so I don't have to do it manually... Oh well... Here we go!!!