Bringing It All Together

My hotplate was available today, October 4, 2019 and although I had already shopped at Walmart and given in to the lure of chocolate, almonds and cream, I returned to fetch the hotplate for my encaustic work.  I had picked up a couple of items at DI when I went back to donate several small heated pots that only got a little above 114 degrees and therefore were useless for my purpose.  Instead I found some dishes I could use for a double boiler and a strainer.  I also found some pans that make lovely little disks about the right size for the tins I purchased.  I can stack two or three of them in each tin and have a good supply of medium that is delicate enough to melt relatively quickly.  The glass sheet works very well to insulate and designate the space I'm using.  I also found the glass crusher I somewhat reluctantly bought for crushing glass to be very efficient at crushing Damar resin.  Both types of work need something of this nature unless I want to mess around with towels and plastic bags and hammers.  I completed 24 disks of medium after stirring the mixture over water on the hotplate to keep the temperature within range.  I added some salt to the water to raise the temperature because, as I understand it, the Damar resin and the small amount of carnauba wax I added make the melting temperature a little higher.  I avoided putting in a lot of resin or carnauba wax in order to keep the wax from becoming brittle.  I got a battery for the slick little kitchen scale that looks something like an electronic tablet.  It worked quite nicely to weigh the proper proportions of beeswax and resin.  One purchase I made today may be either very useful or sort of foolish.  I used a 40 percent off coupon at Michaels to purchase a crayon melter, a pen like device that uses electricity to melt crayons so they can be applied like paint or marker.  Even if I am limited to using Crayola crayons, the ability to make a long, definite mark could prove very useful. Although I had a few minor setbacks, I'm fairly certain my choice to go way out of bounds of my chosen way of eating had something to do with setting a new low weight record from before I was a college student.  Fortunately I still am most fond of good meat and I scored quite a bit of it today at Day's Market.