I can be a real cheapskate!  If there’s a tool or some turning supply that I want to buy, it takes me forever, because I have to look through every tool magazine and website I can find before I can make myself make the purchase.  The unintended side effect of this approach, is sometimes, while looking through all those vendor sites, you can stumble across really good sales.  Do I need another wood-worm screw chuck?  No, but at that price…  Do I need an alcohol dye pipette?  No, but at that price…  Do I need a <fill in the blank here>.  No, but at that price… I was looking at the main site I buy items from and they have a clearance section where they get rid of things, sometimes at ridiculous prices.  I bought a dozen acrylic turning blanks for bottle stoppers, for about 75% off, and some stainless steel bottle stopper parts at an introductory sale price.  Had I ever planned on making yellow, acrylic bottle stoppers with stainless steel drops?  No, but at that price…

Awhile back, while I was looking for something in the shop, I came across the box of bottle stopper parts and that project came back into my mind.  At about the same time, one of my daughters introduced me to the joys of buying cheap, Chinese made knock off craft supplies, bought from an app that offers free shipping.  For a cheapskate crafter, this is like crack!  I came across some glass cabochons (glass domes pieces) that have images attached to them and thought, “I wonder what these would look like inlaid into a bottle stopper?”

This weekend, I got the chance to put all the pieces together.  The result is the “acrylic peacock series” below.  Some things I learned is that turning acrylic is not easy!  It’s really hard, so it dulls the tools, quickly.  Every scratch will show and the only way to make it look good is to sand it down to 20,000 grit paper.  It takes about twice as long to make one of these stoppers as it takes to make one made from wood.  Even so, I think I really like the way these turned out!

Given how cheap the cabochons were, I have other lots on the way that look like eyes (dragon, snakes, daemon…), galaxies, constellations,  and I’m sure there are some I’ve forgotten I ordered.  This could easily become my next turning obsession…