"Tessie!!! Drop the Match!!!"

It was a close call! I found Tessie trying to build a campfire in the attic this morning!

I got there just in time and wrestled the match and box away from her. She didn't even heed the warning to close the lid. The tea shop would have been a pile of charcoal if I had been a minute later.

I swept the kindling away and she whined, "But I was using a mat between the wood and the floor. I need a place to brew and stew."

I knew that I would get no peace until she had a place to cook. "OK Tessie, we will make you a hot plate."

"What do you mean by 'we'?" she asked. "Is Zar going to help? I don't want one of his weirdo contraptions. I want a real electric-ricity one. I want a plug and a place to plug it in. Instant on."

I decided to go for it. First I Googled "electric hot plate" in images. They were all pretty simple. Just a square base, round heating coil and a couple of knobs.

Here's Tessie with all of the pieces that I used. I didn't really measure. The base is about an inch square and around 3/16" thick. I rounded all of the top edges and corners.

I used a piece of Dark Annealed Steel Wire from the hardware store for the coiled burner. I don't have the package for that any more, but it looks like #20. I coiled with a pair of needle nosed pliers and kept it as flat as I could. I used #24, coiled around a toothpick for the cord.

Beside those pieces, I used two black flat beads for the knobs and a #6 black bead for the plug. I also picked out 4 white seed beads for the feet. That jar behind Tessie comes in handy for all sorts of odd beads.

I found a piece from one of the watches that was a round circle just the right size for the burner to sit on.

I painted the block white and glued the ring and then the burner to the top, the two black beads to the front and the four white beads to the bottom for the feet.

I glued the #6 bead to the end of the coiled cord and glued an extra, short piece of wire into the hole for the other prong of the plug.

Then I glued the other end of the cord to the bottom of the hotplate.

Now that it's done, Tessie is anxiously awaiting the test firing. Please excuse the pun. She keeps wailing that the bat wing stew is going to get cold and not properly cooked if it isn't plugged in soon.

I have to go make a place for her to plug in the hotplate. She is threatening to find the box of matches if I don't hurry.

See you tomorrow.