How do I deal with my scrap?

Today I continued to attack my scrap glass piles (its all gems of colorful goodness, just dirty and sharp and needing TLC). This time I took pictures!

Above you can see how I am dealing with a bunch of blue scrap. The blue bin was so full that I had to deal with some of it - otherwise I couldn't sort any more scrap bucket cuz there was no room for blue in the blue bin! Oh no! So what I do (and I am much more productive when my dear Aimee helps me!) is cut the funny shaped bits up into regular sizes of squares and triangles. These bits are then put in containers for quick access.

Today I even cleaned the glass as I went!! (clearly this is not something I enjoy doing) For a while I had been lubricating the scoring device with mineral spirits, but when I realized how freakin' toxic the fumes from this substance (thanx Jan for educating me!!!) I switched to vegetable oil. Then my friend Denis invested in some great blue glass cutting lubricant that is water soluble (so it washes off the glass really nicely!) - that is what I use now, so most of the scrap is really easy to clean. However the scrap that was covered in vegetable oil now is covered in dust and dirt and glass splinters. And the vegetable oil/silica combo has turned into some sort of strange resin. Its not easy to clean off. I tried the normal glass cleaner (a vinegar water concoction), then warm soapy water, finally I scraped the shit off. The ironic part is that the toxic brain killer mineral spirit I was using in the first place would make a great cleaner to get the strange vegetable oil/silica turned resin off the glass. Hmph. I hate cleaning.
Anyhow - here I am sorting out the bucket... big paint bucket filled weighs 50lbs... I sort it by color so I can then use the glass up. You can see I have laid big crates around to collect the glass bits, they stack nicely and hold a lot of pieces... I've used smaller plastic ice cream tubs for the colors I have less of (like white)...

Then the next step is what was pictured first... I take the glass and clean it up a bit and cut it up more into pieces: square and triangles in sizes that I use to make mini mobiles and earrings.

What's in My Drawers

As a follow-up to my Ode to Trays, I thought I show whats in my drawers.

After accumulating a large stack (10) of plastic drawer inserts from Ikea, I finally broke down and bought the metal drawers that the plastic trays were meant to go in! Two of these drawer units and a piece of wood from the ReBuilding Center and voila - a desk!
I put this together for myself over a year ago and it has served me well. Not only does it organize the bits for me and get the trays off the floor, but its a good desk! The yoga ball makes an excellent chair also.

Here is what the tray looks like empty: its nice and deep, its inexpensive, the individual compartments aren't overly small (those bead/fishing plastic organizers have such small compartments) and I like the variety of sizes of the 5 compartments in each tray.

And heres what the trays look like in my drawers:

Sneak Peak Into My Studio: Trays

I use a lot of trays. Some of them even get friendly labels :) I love my label gun thing too.

I use so many different types of trays. Mainly for organizational purposes, but also because I like to work in my lap, so trays make it easy to have a good work surface and carry things from room to room.

The following are some pictures of trays that I use... the first is an awesome set, mostly just because it is orange.... and it is 3-in-1 which is just great. I keep my O-rings and S-hooks in these (handmade O-Rings, to see how I make them click HERE)

This next tray is a favorite of mine, found it at Ikea, its sorta small, but great for assembling the parts needed for a project.

Oh these bamboo trays are fantastic. A friend of mine found them at the Dollar-Store and now I have a dozen of them, which really, quantity alone makes them very useful in my studio. They have a slotted bottom which is sorta a PITA (little things fall thru), but like I said, I have a dozen of them stacked up in my closet, and this just comes in handy.

The next trays I found at the craft store, actually there were 3 in this embedded-wooden-tray-set... the third tray has gone m.i.a. You can see in the next picture that the bottom tray magically fits my labeled packages for mini mobiles. The top tray fits the stuff that I need to prep the packages...

see... the clear plastic bags with labels stuck to them and fishing line already inserted inside (I always include a little fishing line in the package to help hang the mobile) are all snug and happily waiting in the bottom tray

This next tray is one of those drawer-inserts that can be found at Ikea... I use them to organize bits for mini mobiles...

The next tray is just a simply cheapo found at the local store in the Rubbermaid section... very useful, I have a handful of them. This one had prisms in it at the moment...

these are also a Rubbermaid find... I like em'. I think they are supposed to be used as inserts in drawers to organize stuff. My mother always used these in our kitchen drawers to hold things and keep it all looking good and pretty.

The last two trays are from Ikea. They have a whole section of trays that I am always getting lost in. Why are trays sold to hold cocktails? I mean, that is a good use for them, but so single-minded. The crafty-person like myself uses these trays for much more than just a drink. For realz

I have a couple of nice wooden trays, this one has a handle, which I thought would be great, but its pretty big, so once I have it loaded down with glass pieces its quite heavy. I have another wooden Ikea number that is sort of boat shaped... its beautiful but sort of useless... everything rolls to the center.

Alright, that is my ode to trays.

I do love trays.
I always keep my eye out for them.
If I see a tray in the store and its cheap, I tend to take it home with me.