Making a Child's Handprint on Ceramic TileWritten by Dy Witt
This is a fun craft to do with a group of moms and their kids, one child per adult works best. Each mom will need: ---One soft brush, any size but 1/2" works best ---One jar of "One-Stroke Ceramic underglaze", either Duncan E-Z Stroke or Gare One-Stroke. (Of course they can share these, but it's best if they have at least 3 colors to choose from. The best are a dark green, a dark blue or a dark brown. One jar of each color will do 50 hands altogether) ---One pint jar of "clear gloss glaze", which all can use. ---A sponge ---Paper towels and a washcloth ---One blank UNglazed ceramic tile, 4-1/4" (for kids 2 or 3 yrs. old or so) or 6" (for kids over 3) Unless you know someone who does hand-painted tile as a career, these would have to be ordered in cases of 100 or so. The best thing is to call hobby ceramic stores, where you will get underglaze and clear glaze, and ask if they have a "molded greenware or bisque tile they sell", and order quantity you need. Tell them you would like them "fired to bisque." The most important thing is that childrens' hands are scrubbed with soap and water, then dried well. Salt, sugar or oils on hands will prevent glaze from bonding with tile. Make sure to wipe tile well with a clean sponge in plain water. Allow to dry a few minutes. Tell kids that it is like hand-painting only without wiggling their fingers. Make it fun, some get scared. Hold their clean hand gently over a tile to make sure their hand will fit, fingers spread out a little. Pick right size tile and paint one wet coat of glaze across flat of their open palm, not too runny but not too dry, follwing instructions for mixing on bottle. Try to keep their fingers from touching, more still they keep their hand, better clarity. A good print will show fingerprints! But if it smears, it usually does, it's all for fun anyway. If it starts to become a battle with child, let him go, when he sees other kids having a good time he will offer his hand to be painted. (I say "he" because it is usually boys that wimp out, girls are more adventurous. lol)
| | Where is your website? Why is it invisible? We can help you be seen.Written by malcolm james pugh
The QuestionsIts amazing how many businesses have spent good money on website design and still are getting little or no return on this investment. Try answering these simple questions. How much have you spent on you website? Maybe £5,000 ($10,000) or have you gone for all singing all dancing £15,000 ($30,000) site with animated pictures, frames and rolling pages. But question remains - what business benefit are you deriving from your site? How much more business are you getting because you have your website? Can you quantify and track incremental business you have received for investment you have made. When you search on what you consider a key word or phrase associated with products/services that you provide, where does your site appear in page rankings? Try Google, MSN and Yahoo, and try and find your site. If you are not on first page, ask yourself question - how many people searching for my key word/phrase will bother going to second page of results? .Now look at companies that are getting a high position in results - do you know why this is? These organisations are your key competitors and are taking business off you every day of week, in fact its 24/7 because net is always available across globe. The Answers The answer to this problem is quite simple. You have paid for someone to design a pretty website, not get you onto first page of results page. But its even worse than that, some of techniques they have used to make your site look nice may actually reduce your ability to be seen. Yes, that's right you have paid good money to become anonymous to your customers!
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