Lab Crafting

Yup, I do not only craft miniatures, but scientific crafting too!

My dear husband is so so busy these days that I pop in at the lab when everybody else is gone to keep him company. But I like to help if I can, and this is what I have been doing lately for him to use in his experiments. Bear with me, because this is long...

He taught me how to use this lathe so I could make holes in the bottom of little Petri dishes.

Dish before the process. The part on the left is the cover.

You secure the dish in the lathe:

And using the blade of the right (and much caution) you make a hole:

Dish after the cutting

When you have made holes in 20-25 dishes, you clean them up, scratching the rests of the plastic that have not come out. If you skip this step, cells get poisoned by the scraps and then they die :(

When you have finished cleaning them, you line them up in the table and take out 30mm round glass microscope covers. You can see them inside the big round dish:

These covers have been previously treated - you clean them 10 minutes under distilled running water, and leave them inside sulfuric acid overnight. The following day you clean them again under distilled running water and put them in a stove to dry overnight. You take the glue and put a circle on the bottom of the dish:


Then you take a glass cover and stick it to the glue:


You have to squeeze out the air bubbles:

And then you put them under an UV light for one hour on each side to cure the glue. Then there is no way the glue breaks or falls. Yup, the same UV that gives you a tan in a tanning saloon (and because I know how UV lights work, you will never see me in a tanning saloon).

Whew! What a work! Good thing is, doing this saves a lot of money for the lab. A ready made Petri dish with glass bottom costs around $10 - yes, research is expensive-. And this is a nice way to lower the costs.

Oh my, what a nerd I am :)

Wow, it's been so many days?

Sometimes life is too hectic and you forget to write even just a little bit... Well, here are some condensed news.

Hubby and I had to go to Washington DC to do some paperwork, and we stopped at the National Museum of American History; I wanted to see Faith Bradford's dollhouse. And we did! We were lucky, being a Thursday the museum was practically empty and we had some time alone in front of the fabulous dollhouse. I tried to take pics, but with the glass in front of the windows and the low lights was not very easy. Anyway, here is a sneak peak:

Mrs. Lovett's kitchen has not changed much lately. I have not had time to sit and really give it some working time; just a bit here and there. Although I bought some new things for it:

Two metal plates and a set of silver ware. I also made a bottle of gin.

And there's the new kitchen. I made too the "flour covered" dough and working board, as well as some "unbaked" meat pies.

My mom was jealous of my kitchen, so she has made room for one in her dollhouse. She moved outside the sewing room and bought new furniture to decorate it. Of course, she asked me to make a lot of things for her - and so I did. Jennifer's Free Dollhouse and Printable Minis has a lot to offer for a kitchen; grocery and laundry products of different times - both modern and vintage. My mom was so excited when she got my package in the mail yesterday! Here are a couple of pics of her new kitchen:

I stained the barrel for her. The cheese and crackers board and the bowl with the eggs are mine too. She made the white and pink apron.

The Fairy and Persil boxes are from Jennifer's web page. I made too the grocery basket's contents. And you can see in the wall the calendar with the "Kissing on VJ" picture. She made the pink cloth with roses that is hanging on a hook.

Of course, I have not finished yet. She still wants crates with fruit and vegetables, a bucket with water for the mop, a mortar and pestle, a basket with mushrooms... Oh, what did I do, introducing her in the mini-world?

...And more thank you!

Thanks very very much to Gaye for giving me the Kreativ Blogger Award! Wow!

The rules for this award are:
1.Thank the person that gave it to you
2.Copy the logo and place it in your blog
3.Link to the person who nominated you
4.Name 7 things about yourself that nobody knows
5.Nominate 7 kreativ bloggers
6.Post link to the 7 blogs that you nominate
7.Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know that you nominate them

I'm passing it onto...
1- Julia of Bearcabinminiatures
2- Carmen of La ventana a mi mundo
3- The Sunny Hours
4-Savannah of Miniature Mumblings
5-Jonna of BuggaBoos
6-Deb from Deb's Minis
7-Julie of Diary of an Edwardian doll's house

Seven things about me:
1- I collect plush animals - specially sea creatures
2- I always dreaded the crafting class at school because I found it very difficult; and my hands did not want to cooperate
3-I made my mother a miniature addict - and I am her supplier!
4-Scary movies make me laugh out loud
5-I have never been afraid of the dark, not even when I was a little girl
6-I still miss sometimes my first pet - my German Shepherd dog
7-I want to live in a castle; if it is haunted, much better

Thank you!!

Thank you so much to Lara for giving me the Sunshine Award! It's the first one that I get and I feel honored! :)

The rules for the Award are:

1. Post the award on your own blog

2. Name 6 blogs you enjoy in a blog post

3. Let the 6 bloggers know you are passing the award on to them

I am happy to pass it on on the following people:
1- Arancha of Las Miniaturas de los Talis
2-Ara of Addams Family Mini-Mansion
3-Kate of The Whittaker's Miniatures
4-Annie of Obsidian Hall
5-Christel Jensen
6-Vanessa of El mini mundo de Vane

Maybe some of you already have it; if that is so, sorry! Or be happy you got it more than once ;)