Never enough time

i admire people with focus, or more so continued focus. Guitar players, airbrushers, stripers........ anything that took that special focus and dedication. I love to airbrush, stripe, reptiles, work with metal, glass, play guitar, autos, build things....... but could never find the continued dedication towards mastery of one craft, even knowing you never truely master anything. I spawn one off to another, one path becomes many. I find it both a blessing and a curse, a frustration and a joy. I told my wife just the other day that perhaps i should sell off everything "hobby" related and be "normal". She asked "how well do you think that would work for you?" My reply..... "i dont know, never tried it" Her: "What would you do?" "I dont know, watch sports or something" and i am not a sports fan. This "stuff" i do is both a master and a slave........ so many projects i want to accomplish, so much to learn with a continued process of coming up with new things........

On a positive not deep thinking note, i did accomplish more experimentation with nucleation.  Media etching created HUGE nucleation results.  I was like a Co2 reverse waterfall in my beer mug !    Visually it was very pleasing, and kept the head up on my beer, but it did not produce the image i had etched in the bottom due to this.  Next up is to repeat my earlier smiley face success.    I was also able to start and finish the layout of a customer requested beer mug.  I am not, and will not go through any approval process on the artwork.  This is for two reasons  1.  I dont really care.  2.  I think its cool enough, that if he doesnt buy it, it will well elsewhere.  

For my latest "Blogged Brilliant Fing Idea:  Start working on pint glasses.  Its long over due actually, and i have not seen any "one off" etchers out there working on them.   I find them a very pleasant glass to drink from, and of course, they are a beer standard, with suitable sizing for a mixed drink.  

SUCCESS !!!

I have achieved controlled nucleation !   Using a finer etch produced ZERO results, but changing liquids to beer over sparkling apple juice allowed nucleation to happen over my previously etched area !   You can see a smiley face in the beer foam........ the smiley i had etched to begin with.  Granted it looks a bit like a Picasso, but its visible :)   Next up on nucleation process will be to media etch with a courser media and see what happens............ SCIENCE AND BEER !!  I am being both entertained and educated........ i hear that is the best way to learn.  The beer is a local brew, Mother's Brewing Company, Winter Grind.  It produces a fantastic head, but for this, i slow poured into a slanted glass, and then allowed it to settle after taking a few sips :)

Nucleation ????

Blog brilliant Fing Idea #2.  

Nucleating beer mugs.  A buddy of mine was explaining how to wash a beer mug or glass for nucleation.....even though he didnt explain what it was, or how it works........ in my mind, i called bullshit on this, so went on a search for knowledge.

Apparently, gasses such as CO2 like to build on imperfections in their container, and then release !  Its part of what makes mentos and diet coke such a wonderful mix :)    The benefit to beer ?  increased and longer enduring head, and release of the aromas !!!   Of course on beers that produce poor heads, it wont be a game changer in experience, in fact, it may just go flat faster.  It will inflate the experience of a quality beer however !

So, being a beer mug artist/ etcher, i think it would be WONDERFUL to make a nucleated beer mug, and of course an added selling point.  Some of the public breweries even have their own pint glasses for this, with their logos and what have you, of course, mass produced, and uninspiring.

Experiments are in progress, first with using a diamond bit......... which failed miserably, as the co2 that was in my sparkling apple cider actually seemed to avoid the areas i etched it.   I am thinking its due to the score being too dramatic, so i have one other option until i have to let it be only to the money people with their laser engravers.......... round two will commence soon......... or perhaps a control test of an unetched glass should be in order first....... perhaps i did nucleate and just dont know it !!

No idea what i am doing here, or going to blog about specifically......... its just my brilliant fucking idea to start a blog...... i have many brilliant ideas, so it will  go along those guidelines, but i don't have focus, unless it falls into my OCD tendencies .  I have seemingly reached a special age bracket where i don't always get along well with technology, so i might not even be able to find my way back to post again......... but i think i have a helper when needed that embraces technology much more than i do.........

Brilliant Blogged idea #1:  To start a blog