A Permanent Situation!

Ok..so I am bored! Christmas is over (what little I did do), visitors have all gone home and there are still mounds of baked goods keeping me out of the kitchen. I am bored! It has rained all day so I could not even venture into the Bayou for a bit of entertainment. To break this boredom, I thought that I might get a bit creative. I would get a jump on next year's Christmas gifts and be ahead of the game! Now that was using the old head! I started looking for a craft project..something simple yet effective. Something that I could finish in a under an hour so I would be encouraged to do more. I scanned all of the many "craft" boxes and decided to make a glass cabochon encrusted candle holder. This should be relatively easy if I used the pre-made votive candles and just glued the glass pieces onto the existing cup. No problem! I opened the box that held my store of cabochons. A rainbow of color leapt out at me! I was getting excited! Ooooh! I pulled out several dozen assorted colors of the glass cabochons and unwrapped a new votive candle. This was a bit bigger than the normal votive candles and would allow me to use approximately four dozen cabochons. The candle was blue so I decided to make the holder in shades of blue and green. The candlelight would shine through the cabochons and make for a beautiful, serene light.



When I do projects like this, more oft than not the floor is my work space. It is just far easier to spread out the materials and if I do happen to drop something, it is still within reach! My first thought was to use the glue gun. This would allow me to place the glass pieces at a breakneck speed and I would be finished in no time at all! On a second thought, it occurred to me that not only would I be able to apply them at great speed..they would fall off at an equally remarkable pace. The lighted candle would inevitably warm the glass to the point that it would also warm the glue. The warmed glue would then allow the glass pieces to drop like ice in a hailstorm! I opted for another type glue..this one said it would glue glass to glass so I figured it was a good choice. It also said that it was permanent and to make sure the items to be glued were exactly in place. That did not worry me as this was to be just a random placement of the cabochons so if one was a bit out of place..who would know?! I set to work gluing the cabochons to the glass cup. After about ten minutes the cup was covered and was absolutely gorgeous! I was thrilled! I knew better than to move the candle as the glue needed drying time so I decided it was a good time to cook a bit of supper.



After supper, I went to check my masterpiece! I could hardly wait to light the candle and be enthralled by the sheer beauty of flame against glass! It was going to be spectacular..these would be next year's gifts...these were stuck to the floor! Huh??? The glue had run down to lie in ripples near the bottom of the glass cup. Most of the glass cabochons had dropped off of the glass and onto the floor. There they lay...stuck...glued to my floor! Oops! I nudged one of the bits of glass..yep! Sure was stuck! I pushed harder...yep! Definitely was stuck! In a panic now, I poked at the bit of glass with the point of my scissors! That thing was not going anywhere! I looked at the glue bottle..PERMANENT! Oh, how I hate that word! PERMANENT! I stared at the thirty or so colored glass pieces that were now PERMANENTLY adhered to the wood floor and pondered just how I was to remove them. Then a thought..always before, I have managed to turn mistakes into an abstract piece of art! Glass studded floors are good ....right?....right? Oh, man............