Ohhhhh fire…
We are wrapping up the money raising activities for my step-brother’s kidney transplant. If you knit be sure visit Laurie’s Art Fire shop; she has generously put everything on sale and marked the proceeds for my step-bro. As a final attempt to help on my part I’m raffling toothsome fish. Tickets are $1 each. Leave a comment telling me which fish you’d like a ticket for and I’ll send you my mailing address. THANK YOU (and thanks to Laurie) for your generosity.
…a little glass? There have been fish as beads (one of the ladies at the studio wants to wear them).
There has been a fat owl and a wee bird.
Lots of lentils.
My first official set; Jupiter’s Eye.
And my end all do all favorite…Toothsome Fish!
Hysterical, right?
It’s early, and I’m vertical…barely. I promised you a glass photo (actually I promised several but I’m pretending you didn’t hear that). This is what happens when someone asks me “Can you do something with cats?’ I kinda dig ‘em.
And with that I’m heading north! I’ll see you next week!
When you set up an Etsy shop one of the questions you are asked is will you consider doing custom jobs and it’s a question that gives me pause. On the one hand the whole idea is to sell things and to let the hobby support itself. On the other, working under a ‘to-do’ list is not only stifling but it can be super aggravating because as we all know you just can’t please some people. It might be different if I could work from home but I doubt it. My studio time is exactly that ‘my time’. What I like most about it is that I spend a few wonderful hours thinking about nothing but what I’m doing right that second. No bills, no dirty toilets, no piles of laundry, no phones, no stacks of paper … just the torch and the glass. Furthermore the things I make when I work on a whim always seem more successful than those made under the gun. As you might have guessed I answered the question ‘no’. How would you answer it?
I often walk into the studio with a laundry list of things to do. Usually they are promises or homework or things for the gift shop or Etsy. I don’t mind, really, but sometimes having all of those promises hanging over my head lowers my interest in the process and when I get to that point I take some time off. Not from torch, mind you, heavens no! Just from the promises; and I let lose and play.
Sometimes I try things I have no business trying like a feather murrini.
Don’t see it? The blob…that’s it. OK, yeah fail. So, I tried again.
Closer, sorta, if you squint and tip your head to the right. So I dropped it for the time being and tried something else, a seahorse.
It’s huge, its wonky and its so worth another try.
Hmmm …. better. One more time maybe?
Ahh, now I think I’m on to something.
There was one fish for the gift shop and even he benefited from my ‘time off’ attitude.
Note to self…love that frit on light periwinkle – delish!
And finally I tried something I’ve wanted to do for a long time; a bird. A bluebird to be exact.
Oh my giddy aunt, is he not the cutest? I have a short list of things I’d do differently next time and I seriously can not wait to try another (Cardinal anyone?). Yup, I must remind myself to play more often its good for the glass and good for my soul!
A quick note. The seahorse, bird and feather murrini are not my designs or ideas. I read tutorials on both before giving them a go. The seahorse was inspired by Kim Affleckand her tutorial which she offered to registered users of The Flow Magazine’s website. The bird was inspired by Kim Filds and the tutorial she offered in The Flow Magazine. Be sure to visit both Kim’s they make some truly amazing things. Thanks ladies for the great tutorials!
The feather murrini – which I so badly butchered – is from a tutorial by a lady named Claudia Trimbur-Pagel which she was kind enough to post on Lampwork Etc. Also a great tutorial, even if it was far beyond my abilities. Thanks Claudia! Be sure to fish around on her site for what it was supposed to look like.
I’ve been plumbing all day and all I have to show for it is a muddy hole and a sprinkler manifold that I assembled completely backwards. Have I mentioned I hate plumbing?
Luckily yesterday went far better; well after cutting Duncan’s toenails. That was a little like putting pantyhose on a water buffalo. Torch however was wonderful and I had a chance to snap a few photos.
This is the Gallery where we show things, its little but very nice.
My thimbles are there in the case in the middle, and the fish are in shadow boxes similar to those you see on the walls. Here’s what was entered:
And this is the classroom where we work.
Its a shared space so there’s all sorts of interesting equipment scattered around. We mostly use the kiln, which is in the back right corner behind the lady in the black shirt, the oxygen tanks and the torches.
Like this one which I used Saturday. Hopefully I never pick it again because it ‘pops’ when you light it. You know ‘Snaps‘ those little paper wads of sand and a combustible that explode when you hurl them at the sidewalk? That’s the noise, and though I was expecting it I didn’t much like it. Evidently its no big deal, just a little oxygen leak (far better than a propane leak). I should have taken another photo of what my work space looks like after I’ve been working for four hours; you’d be really impressed by the mess I can make, but I was off for margaritas with the girls before D, Duncan and I headed out to DrJ’s for a visit with one of the college kids back for the weekend.
As you can see, the ‘do nothing’ weekend we’d planned failed miserably…but it sure was fun.
Last night was one of my worst nights of sleep ever. I went to sleep ok but did a poor job of staying there and about 12:15 I gave up and got up and went to my sewing room and turned on the computer. Right away my email dinged and I looked to find that I had one from BeadMistressK, my lampwork instructor. She was writing to see if I’d read the memo stating that we had a group meeting this weekend and that I had won both 1st and 2nd place in the show (1st place went to one of the fish, 2nd place to a thimble).
April Fools?!? Nope, I really did win and on top of that another thimble sold yesterday during the judging; I don’t know if that means to a judge or to a bystander but it’s another couple bucks in the ‘torch fund’ – woowee! I’m bustin’ pleased with myself today and excited to get a sneak peek on Saturday of what else is in the show (please don’t let me be the only one – hah!)
Spring (what little of it Florida has) is definitely springing around here; the tree outside my office window would appear to be the avian equivalent to a singles bar. Today alone I’ve seen several pairs of house sparrows, blue-grey gnat catchers, crows (who appear to be building their nest solely from our mulch based on the bales worth they have carried off), jays, doves and mockingbirds. There have even been a few celebrities, like this red shouldered hawk that visited yesterday and sat on the signpost outside my window for several minutes.
And today I finally got a shot of this painted bunting who I spotted for the first time ever on Monday and have been trying to ‘catch’ ever since.
I guess I’m going to have to break down and actually put some food in that feeder.
Spring flowers are also creeping into my glass … sunflowers are spring-ish, right? How about lady bugs?
Ok, maybe I just wanted to slip a little glass into the post.
With that in mind how about a whole lot of glass?
Thimbles! Why so many? I’m trying to get six ‘good ones’ together to go into show at the studio that starts in early April. Of the lot shown I have only one favorite and one runner-up. There’s a lot to do and practically no time left; how very typical of me.
In other news D and I were invited to a surprise b’day party Friday night. We were originally told that there was a dinner before (we weren’t invited to that) and a gathering after at the nightclub around nine (holy crap, out after bedtime! The. Horror.) but a few nights ago we got a call asking us to attend the dinner as well. I suspect that some drama at the campgrounds on Friday night either caused a cancellation due to embarrassment or caused and ‘uninvite’ due to not wanting to be associated with such silliness. In any case we accepted, verified casual was ok and went our merry way. Last night we get a call that casual does not mean jeans…as in “No Jeans Are Allowed In The Country Club”. I checked the closet this morning, guess what? A dress from the cruise – evening, too dressy. A skirt – no matching shoes or acceptable top to wear with it. Fourty seven t-shirts and umpteen jeans. For me dressy-casual means black denim…oops. So I’m off to shop. I can hardly stand the joy.
I bet you thought I was really on the blogging ball last week with a post every (or nearly) everyday. I’ll also bet you’ve been wondering what’s up this week. Well the truth is that last week’s posts were all written on the prior Sunday and set to post automatically throughout the week. This week I’m just going to have to rely on a Friday Wrap-Up bullet post because there just isn’t much going on.
Ok, I’m wrapping this up. Our building is being primed for paint and clearly the fumes are beginning to get to me. Have a wonderful weekend and I’m sure there will be photos of something some time soon.
Just when you thought you might get away with a whole week without looking at my lampwork…
