Extruder woes

I am trying to learn something new all the time.  When asked to be part of the PC guilds round robbin next month, I said sure. And when asked what I will do, I picked something I really don't know that much about figuring it will be a good learning experience

 So today I have been experimenting with my clay extruder in preparation for the guild presentation.  I have not been too successful.  First I tired to figure out how to use the core tool...all I could get was strings of clay coming out of the four corners of the die.  Not a good way to start.

Then I to make a flower cane, using the teardrop shaped die. Not horrible but more time consuming that using my hands alone.  After lunch, I was trying to repeat a trick that Christi Friesen had showed me last week using the die with the small holes in it.  I could not figure out why the strings were coming out in varying lengths, long and short....it hadn't done that when Christi demoed.

So I got fearless and took it apart. Lo and behold the cylinder BEHIND the pushing part was filled with clay!.  The washer had broken.  After cleaning out I put on a new washers (I always wondered why the extruder came with a spare washer...) and tried again,

This time it worked well, but I really torqued the heck out of my wrist. Back to wearing  the carpel brace.  So, I learned that I really think I will do a different presentation for the guild - something less hard on my wrist.

I also learned how to create a personal signature.

 Pretty cool huh? I followed a link from a blog to another blog to yet another blog that lead to My Live Signature.... (oh, no ... relapse of Blogistis!!!)