I Made This

Here's my youtube channel, if you are interest, https://www.youtube.com/@usamafirdous8729

(Does this community allow posts about product restorations? I didn't forge these skillets, but I did make them usable and appealing again.)

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/30170080

(long time lurker, first time poster)

A few months ago, a friend convinced me on the benefits of cast iron skillets. Having only used Teflon-coated non-stick pans, I figured it would be worth a try, if I could find one at the thrift store. Sure, I could have just bought a new Lodge skillet, but that's too easy lol.

So a few weeks pass and I eventually find these two specimens at my local thrift store, for $5 and $8 respectively. It's not entirely clear to me why the smaller skillet cost more, but it was below $10 so I didn't complain too loudly. My cursory web searches at the store suggested that old Wagner skillets are of reasonable quality, so I took the plunge. My assumption is that the unmarked, smaller skillet is also a Wagner product.

10-inch skillet ($5)	9-inch skillet ($8)

It's very clear that both these skillets are very crusty. Initially, I tried to remove the buildup using a brass wire brush. This was only somewhat successful, so I switched to a stainless steel wire brush. That also didn't do much, except reveal some of the inscription on the bottom.

Some research suggested I could either do an electrolysis tank, a lye bath, or try lye-based oven cleaner. For want of not over-complicating my first restoration attempt, I went with the oven cleaner method, using the instructions from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pvf0m9jTeE

For both skillets, I had to apply the oven cleaner six times to finally shift all the crud, each time leaving the skillets in the garbage bag for a full day-and-a-half in the sun. In between applications, I would brush off more buildup, with the handle root and the skillet walls being the most stubborn areas. The whole process smelled terrible and hunching over the garage utility sink to brush pans is not my idea of a pleasant time.

Nevertheless, having stripped both pans, I proceeded with six rounds of seasoning with very old corn oil -- it's what was handy -- at 450 F (~230 C) using my toaster oven. This happened over six days, since I wanted to use my excess daytime solar power for this endeavor. I wiped on the oil using a single blue shop towel, to avoid the issues of lint or fraying with paper towel.

I don't have a post-seasoning photo for the larger skillet, but here's how the 9-inch skillet turned out. I think I did a decent job for a first attempt. And I'm thrilled that these are as non-stick as promised, with only minimal upkeep required after each use.

My sister in law is very hard to shop for, but she knits and crochets. She also makes kimchi throughout the year, so I painted the ingredients for kimchi on some stitch markers she can use with her knitting projects.

The head is a spoon as well

I have wanted to send out Christmas cards to my friends for some time, but was never able to get a festive photo to use for such purpose; so this year instead of trying to convince my partner to take the appropriate pictures, I decided to illustrate the card instead.

As for the envelopes, I realized I did not have access to any A6 envelopes and it looked like it would take a long time for them to ship to me. Originally I was going to cut the envelopes out of standard construction paper, but I realized if I made flat-flap envelopes instead of triangular-flap envelopes, I would be able to cut the card out of a single 8.5"x11" sized sheet. With this in mind, I decided to design the envelope myself as well since I could print across the entire envelope area.

The pattern for the card was illustrated in Procreate (but the text was added via Illustrator). The envelope pattern was designed entirely in Illustrator (including the cutting template). The cards and envelopes were printed on card-stock and cut out using my vinyl cutter.

Obviously I didn't make the watch itself, but I have a different style to me, so of course I needed to make a custom band.

Don't ask how much it costed me, too much, but plenty of extra material.

Mod: Customizable Player Models Game: Minecraft

This new player model i made is more detailed and even has digitigrade legs and a tail with 4 segments (not visible in the screenshot)

Celebration card thingy I doodled up for another site. I really do enjoy drawing teeth and mouths way too much haha. Felt a little refreshing to draw in this lined style again since I love using different line thickness. I hope you all enjoy! 😃

Had to upload the video to Internet Archive since Lemmy doesn't like largeish file sizes. Zbrush's UI is a little bit weird, and definitely takes some time to become accustomed to, but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out!😃

Game: Minecraft

Shaders: BSL Shaders

Mod: Customizable Player Models (Fabric)

Original art is from the brain slugs of Futurama.

Based on this Adobe Stock image of a knight and Wilfredo Rafael Rodriguez Hernandez's picture of the Kent gate from Quebec (Creative Commons).

This dragon showed up at my house a few months ago and hasn't left. I feel this project captures his attitude well.

It's a representation of Shiva I got from rijksmuseum as "king of dance", performing the Tandava, which is "described as a vigorous dance that is the source of the cycle of creation, preservation and dissolution".

In my own personal interpretation, this is to be understood metaphorically as a means to gain awareness about how things come into our lives, run their course, and then eventually end, opening space and possibility for new things to take their place and continue the cycle.

To me it's a reflection about impermanence and renewal. I don't know about that whole past lives thing, but i find the metaphorical concept of death and rebirth being closely tied together cool.

The cosmic background is an upscaled and modified creative commons image.

Darker version for vampires (You know who you are).

Hope you like.

Never done this before, turned out to be a lot of fun :)

I wanted to do something for Halloween. This is the result. 

I started by slapping some plastic wrap on the front of an anatomical skull model. This provided a form for the paper mache model, which I built up in layers using strips of newsprint and a PVA glue mixture. 

After the paper mache was dry, I popped it off the form and filled it with spray foam. Since I knew I wanted to use phosphorescent paint for the eyes, I painted the inside of the eye sockets with white gesso.   Once the gesso dried, I applied a few layers of phosphorescent acrylic paint to the eye sockets. 

I then poked holes for the mouth stitching and glued strands of sisal twine into these holes (I should have done this part before filling the back with spray foam, but for some dumb reason I thought this way would be easier).

Once the stitches dried, I gave the whole piece a series of brown and blue acrylic washes, then dry brushed accents with bone and white. Next came the arcane symbols, which I slapped on with hobby acrylics. 

The final step was to give the whole piece a few coats of matte acrylic sealant.

I'm not sure what I'll do with this yet, but I had fun.

Yes, these already exist, usually without the colors though. I just thought it would be fun to make a dual purpose cube by Dremeling and coloring the dots in myself, while still keeping the colored decals.

Hello,

I been working on this website/app these last few years, basically trying to show that there are a lot of very hard working people trying to make the world a better place and the news you choose to focus on has a big impact on your mood/life so try to not get too absorbed into the negative sensationalized media. My website/app offers an alternative way to stay informed. Would love to hear feedback on potential improvements.

Sincerely, Happy Daze