Cynthia

Wow. THAT was fun.

Spent the afternoon demonstrating pate de verre techniques at Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Part of the museum’s month of glass, it’s sponsored by the Oregon Glass Guild. Supercompetent Bob Heath (president of the Portland chapter), played assistant the whole time which made a LOT less work for me (thanks, Bob).

It was also an exercise in emergency management, as the tragic demise of my kiln cost me the two pate de verre sculptures I was planning to demo. So I pulled together a bunch of other work, quick-like-a-bunny made three more pate de verre molds this morning. I tossed it all in the car with a few pate de verre books, whole bunch of Bullseye frits and tools and, well, improvised.

I expected just a couple of people and would have happily sat there alone, all four hours, simply filling my molds. But people started showing up, the joint got hopping and I got a steady stream of interesting questions: How hot do you fire the kiln? Why does it take so long? Could you do this with broken beer bottles? Don’t you worry about different melting temperatures of all those colors–will they go together? Couldn’t someone invent an pneumatic tamping machine that packed the frit so you didn’t have to do it by hand?

We talked about the French society that birthed modern pate de verre, the intensely precise Japanese PdV methods, firing techniques in rural India, the reason you use frit tints instead of pure colors…all kinds of things. All the while, I shook boxes of sticky-wet frit to blend colors, packed and tamped frit into molds and passed around samples of my work to demonstrate points.

Those with more stamina stayed most of the three-hour demo, which was gratifying. Hopefully, they’ve gotten some inspiration to actually try this stuff, or at least to better appreciate what goes into making glass art.

Anyway. Had fun. Need to do that again sometime. Now back to designing the new kiln…

I need to get me some new cusswords. The old ones just don’t have enough oooomph right now.

Toiled mightily for the last few evenings finishing up two pate de verre pieces for tomorrow’s demonstration at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland. Things went swimmingly, albeit without much sleep, and when I checked the kiln late last night it was right on schedule, heading up to process temps. It would be down to room temp about 3AM tomorrow, giving me plenty of time to decant the pieces in the morning, knock off the rough edges and do some rough coldwork as part of the demo.

Hummed through the morning, went out about an hour ago to check the kiln again…and the controller was dead. No lights, nothing. Worse, when I popped the lid the molds hadn’t completed burnout–I could see dark spots where the gum arabic had started to burn but not completed the process.

Not good, not good at all. [Read more →]

Full weekend ahead: I’ve promised to demonstrate pate de verre at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland. It’s part of the Oregon Glass Guild’s month of glass at MoCC. Last week Richard Glenn did an interactive mosaic, and we’ve had torchwork, fusing, all kinds of stuff.

Anyway, once I got my head past the sore-tooth-and-painkiller-hangover bit I tore into the demo thing, but was ‘way, ‘way late. Did a fast 11×14 model (below) for a pate de verre panel, invested it, filled it and got it into the kiln in only 15 hours, which has to be a record. Now I’m working on models I can use to demonstrate stuff, and figuring out how to do a little flipbook of pictures showing various stages, if there’s time.

So far the gods of glass have smiled and stuff’s on schedule, but I suspect my kiln is on its last legs. Time to get earnest about the new casting kiln design and see if I can figure out kilncams and humidity sensors and stuff like that. Oughta be fun…if the kiln will just hold out a little longer.

Anyway, if you’re in Portland over the holiday, stop in and say hello.

My dentist’s office windows are slightly below street level and there’s a tallish brick wall between office and street. On a nice sunny day like today, all I can see of the people strolling down the sidewalk are their heads, rolling along the wall. Puts me in mind, in a nice way, of guillotines and overflowing baskets during the French revolution.

It’s a tad mesmerizing, a good thing, as I was there to have a painful back tooth extracted from the jaw that NEVER gets numb. Fortunately, I have a great dentist (with tiny fingers), who knows just how to jolly me along until the corner of my mouth droops and she can get to work.

So, tooth is gone, she showed it to me in all its cracked and gory glory, and assured me that removal was absolutely the correct decision. She’d given me a choice between spending $4,500 to visit a specialist and see if the tooth could be saved, or spending $220 to yank the sucker out. No brainer, that. Still, it’s nice to know that my frugal ways resulted in euthanasia, not murder.

I mentioned last night’s laugh fest and how the pain completely and mystifyingly disappeared when I laughed. She nodded. “Natural endorphins, best painkillers in the world. You can get them from laughing hard, or from sex. Personally, I recommend laughing. It lasts longer.”

Good to know.

Addendum to my post last night: Laughter is a great alleviator of pain…but it’s relatively short-lived.

I hope the dentist has enough chisels.