craft project disappointment #2

I wish I had better photos to illustrate my point here, but...

Here is a picture of two table lamps, made from custom frames that I ordered in:



Which one do you think was made from special, expensive, adhesive backed card specifically designed for making lampshades?

Which one was made using plain white polyproylene?



It's hard to see here (taking photos of lighting is haaaard), but the one on the left glows a hideous orange colour, no matter what the fabric or bulb is. The one on the right is perfect. You'd be forgiven for thinking the perfect one was made with the fancy card. But oh no - that would be the ugly orange one.

I think I've had it up to my ears with H***works now. Not only are they badly located and the staff are often rude, but they also sell an expensive and inferior product. I spent $70 on this stuff only to find it was really crap.

Lesson learnt - stick to what you know works well, even if it is a bit more fiddly.

That all said, I'm really happy with how the good one turned out. Exactly how I pictured it in my mind. I'm going to make a few more to sell ... somewhere.

craft project disappointment #1

Yep, #1. I have had two big craft project disappointments this week, both due to supplies that just don't live up to their expectations. Here's the first:

Gocco printed twill tape:


I've had this plan for ages to gocco print or stamp some twill tape with cute designs to sell in my shop. I decided that gocco printing would give the best results, so I bought some gocco fabric stamp ink online.



So disappointing. For ink that's especially designed for the gocco and high mesh screens, it was way too runny and bled heaps, and impossible to get a consistent print. The same design printed with paper inks was crisp and perfect. It might not look so obvious in the pic, but here's the original illustration for comparison purposes:


Freshly made screen ink blocked and ready to go.

Any suggestions of what I might have been doing wrong? I tried both stamping and squeegeeing but no success :(

I think I might try again with a rubber stamp.

#2 to come soon...