Cigar box DIY poker chip case

Had an old cigar box that I did not want to toss so I had to think of something else to do with it. Bought some trim from Lowes and cut it to fit the box.

some of my favorites from art all night 2010

Click to see them big.
Squid sculpture
Its (almost) never lupus

Art All Night 2010

Brodie and I just dropped off our art for Pittsburgh's amazing Art All Night Show.
ART ALL NIGHT
This year has a sweet location at the old iron city brewery.


Here are some photos of our two pieces.

This is a lost foam foam zinc casting. Click here for how I make lost foam with packing peanuts.

And Brodie's

This is a clay positive plaster investment zinc casting. Pretty much the same process as this belt buckle. A better photo post patina will be coming as soon as I get down to the show and take it.

Some other pieces I wanted to bring but could only bring one:
My crayon sculptures.
Lost wax jesus
The infamous tapsticles
the first lost foam bull

Lost Foam Bull #4

Here is the original in foam. Glued together with hot glue

I add a pour spout to get a mass of metal to fill the mold.

here it is coated in plaster. Note the straw. Any "high" points need to be vented in order to fill. In this case the important point is the tip of the nose. I then drill holes through the plaster. This allows the steam created when the hot metal hits the plaster to escape.

I heat the mold in a fire to burn out the foam in advance. (not the standard method for lost foam) Then I bury the mold in regular play sand.

The metal is heated with this simple diy home casting furnace using regular charcoal and a normal can that food comes in. Zinc can be scraps or from Rotometals.com.

I then pour in the molten zinc into the mold. A video of another pour back when I used a regular fire.


Here it is after pouring the metal. The little spikes are where the mold was drilled

After this the bull is cleaned with a wire brush and given a coat of clearcoat.

lost foam bull #3

Lost wax bull with packaging peanuts

This was another failure where the mold blew out. Just wanted to post the image in wax so you can see what it would have looked like. This was done but making a silicon mold of a few packaging peanuts. making a ton of copies and then assembling. An aside to the whole lost foam bull fiasco.

Northern brewer 10% off entire order

April 13th - April 19th

Hops shoots with garlic and oil recipe.

I guess it is suggested you cut back to about 5 shoots per plant for best yield. The internet suggested that you can eat the hops shoots. So I did. Only the nice purple ones that had not spread leaves tasted any good the others were much too tough.

They can be prepared like you would asparagus. for me that means coated in olive oil with garlic salt and pepper. Then I broil on high until they start to change color.
What do they taste like? garlic olive oil and salt.
Is it safe to eat hops shoots? I plan on updating this blog later today or tomorrow. If there is another post the answer is yes.

Discussion on eating hops shoots on the grow hops list here