Guatemalan refried black beans

1/2 Onion
2 cloves garlic
Vegetable Oil
1 Can refried black beans

Chop the garlic and onions and fry in oil for until clear in nonstick pot.
Add beans and fry on medium for 30min stirring occasionally.
Toss the beans in the pot until it forms a log.

Cheap DIY Screen Print your own Minnesota in the style of Metallica shirt

Saw this shirt at a D4 show and could not find it anywhere on the net so I thought I would make my own.
For a more detailed DIY screen printing method check out this post: DIY Hat Screen Printing

you will need:

Blank t-shirt.
Screen printing ink.
Cardboard from paper pad.
Printer.
Iron.
Paint brush
corrugated cardboard.
razorblade.
Masking tape.

Print out the image at the bottom of this post.
Pin it to the cardboard and cut out the letters with an razor.
Stretch the t-shirt over the corrugated cardboard and center the stencil over the middle and pin it all together.
Cut Masking tape out to fill the "O" and "A".
Brush the paint onto the stencil.
Let the paint dry.
Disassemble and Iron the paint as instructed on the paint container.

Ethiopian Pizza.

1c lentils
1 onion
1/2 green pepper
2 cloves garlic
mozzarella
berbere
salt
1tsp lime juice
1tsp mustard seed.


Lentils:
Prepare lentils as directed by package.
fry copped onion, pepper and garlic in olive oil.
When the lentils are ready add the garlic, onion, pepper, mustard seed, lime juice and salt to taste.
For spicier lentils add berbere to taste.

Spread lentils on the pita add Mozzarella sprinkle on the berbere.

Bake at 350 till cheese browns.

DIY: crayon sculpture carving

All of my crayon sculptures






If you see the images of what people who are really good at this do the idea is intimidating but it is really not that hard to make some cruder forms.

You will need:
crayon
mechanical pencil OR a sharp pottery tool like this one


This is a fun project that takes nothing you do not already have in the house.
Just sharpen the pencil by rubbing it at an angle and go to town.

I like to work from the head down so that you do nothing after making the very delicate legs.
Next up a Crayola nativity scene.



cephlopod fans make sure to check out the giant squid crayon carving

heaviest flat rate priority shipping box ever

44lbs of zinc have arrived. Is anyone aware of a larger mass being sent in one of these boxes? Comment.



As a bonus my table looks like Fort Knox now.
got my zinc bars at rotometals

Lost Foam Napkin Rings

I buy my zinc for casting at Rotometals.
If anyone knows where to get scrap zinc that would be great to hear from you. Please post a comment.

2" and 1.5" round drill bits make the rings from insulation foam.

The letters are added with a thin cut of the same foam and the the entire model was coated with tape.

A spout is added and also taped around.

The model is buried in play sand and the sand is shaken to get a tight fit around the foam and tape.



Molten zinc is poured on to the foam.



A jig saw is used to cut off the pour spout and the edges are cleaned up with an angle grinder and the residue of the tape is cleaned off with a wire brush.

the full set

lost foam casting

I just cut a shape out of pink insulation foam covered all but the one side of it in masking tape and buried it in play sand.
The results were fairly crude but so was my starting form.
Definitely something I am going to keep working on.
The zinc was melted in a can in a charcoal fire. and poured onto the insulation.
The final cast is painted with Testors enamel.




This little men are incense holders.