Hey, do me a favor, please…
April 28, 2008
I’m trying out different image display systems, and I think I’ve lit on one I like very much. For those interested, it’s called SlideShow Pro, works from either Flash or Adobe Lightroom, and comes with a pretty robust (I hope) content management system called SlideShow Pro Director. I’d thought about just embedding a Picasa or Flickr slideshow, but the interfaces were kinda nasty.
FYI, Morganica is actually becoming a collection of three sites, morganica.com for my art, i.e., photography and glass (plus the bloghome), glassery.com for all those lists of glass resources, schools, and galleries that I used to keep, and a TBD site that’s focused on Web, tech, and dayjob. The result is probably going to look more like three online magazines than personal website (you can’t take the journalism out of the girl, apparently).
Right now I’m playing around with different designs and cross-site look & feel (emphasis on “playing”), and looking for ways to make the sites rich and (to some extent) self-updating and easy to maintain. Sorry it’s taking so long, but I’m having trouble squeezing sleep cycles into my task list and I’m only giving the sites snatches of attention.
Anyway, imagery plays a huge part in all three sites, and I’m still trying to figure out how the blog will fit into the home page. In many ways it should BE the home page, but I’m not entirely sure I’m ready for that step–I like image “covers” too much.
So…here’s where you come in: If you don’t mind, please jump on over to morganica and let me know what you think. I’m specifically looking for answers to these questions:
- Do you see the above Web page with a Flash movie displaying a bunch of images (mostly flowerparts)? They should pretty much fill the page, and transition smoothly from one to another.
- All but one of the tabbed links are dead for the moment. But when you click on the blog tab, does it take you directly to my blog? (And yes, once I settle on a design the blog will integrate)
- There should be a semi-transparent box of text in the upper left. Can you read the text, click on the word “blog” to visit my blog, and see photo detail (faintly) through the text box?
- Do you like it? (i.e., colors, concept, design, navigation, etc.) It’s pretty simplistic, but I kinda want the content (images and blogposts) to take center stage.
Anyway, if you could help me out here, I’d really appreciate it. Please post a comment, ESPECIALLY if you have trouble viewing any of the above, and let me know what browser and operating system you’re using.
Thanks!!!!
–cynthia
Glassist’s birthday cake: A recipe
April 27, 2008
Serves 12… if you can find the plates
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Blow the dust off your old recipe box and pull out that superb three-years-in-development recipe for your award-winning Triple-Chocoholic cake. No recipe. Recall the time you were late for the hotshop, needed a couple of index cards to line up colored powder on the marver like cocaine on a mirror, and the recipe box was right by the door…
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Find new recipe.
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Prepare three (3) round cake pans …uhm, who’s got my third cake pan? Discover cake pan down in coldworking shop, currently holding water when carving small pieces of glass. Briefly debate cleaning out all the swarf…
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Prepare TWO (2) round cake pans by lightly greasing them with…where the heck is the Crisco? Remember that Crisco, combined with beeswax, made an excellent corrective goo for recasting that pate de verre… head to the store for more Crisco.
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Lightly grease the cake pans and take two sheets of parchment paper…which unfortunately was a good substitute for heavy-duty tracing paper. Back to store for more parchment paper, then cut and fit rounds of parchment paper into the bottom of each cake pan.
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Place mixer on counter. No bowl. Sorry, but a KitchenAid mixing bowl is perfect for deep slumps, which is why the mixing bowl is covered with kilnwash and BN spray. Head for the kitchen store, buy another mixing bowl.
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Measure dry ingredients into sifter…uh, when last seen, measuring cups, measuring spoons, and sifter were full of investment mixtures in the studio…
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Forget measuring, WEIGH out dry ingredients and…sigh. Realize you can’t possibly get that much plaster and glass powder off your digital scale… back to store for measuring cups, spoons, sifter, and a new digital scale.
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Measure and sift dry ingredients into a bowl…No, I don’t know what bowl, whatever bowl isn’t full of glass, slip, investment, wax, or rust! …head back to store for a cheap set of mixing bowls.
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Measure and sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Cream together butter, sugar and eggs, gradually adding dry ingredients until smooth and creamy. Beat on high for 10 minutes.
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Turn out batter into cake pans with a spatula…I am NOT going back to the store for a lousy @$@#) spatula!
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Did you know that your hand makes an excellent spatula, once you get the hang of it?
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Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 50 minutes, or until you can poke a toothpick…grrrrrr…or until you can poke your FINGER into the cake and watch it spring back (the cake, not the finger).
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Turn cakes out onto unused stainless steel potmelt racks. While they’re cooling, prepare white chocolate ganache filling.
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Split cakes in half and put the first half on a cardboard cake round—drat—DINNER PLATE, and set on a rotating cake decorator’s stand—gnash!—the COUNTER. Using a decorator’s spatula—aw, c’mAAAAAAAAAn—BUTTER KNIFE, frost the top of the first half-layer with ganache. Set the second half on top, frost it and repeat until all six—sigh–FOUR layers of the cake are stacked and filled. Do not frost the top.
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While debating whether to replace the missing cardboard cake pans, rotating cake decorator’s stand and decorator’s spatulas—I mean, this is costing a lot of money that could be spent on glass—prepare fudge frosting and let it cool. Frost the sides and top of the cake.
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Now comes the fun part. Get out your cake decorator’s set and…I give up.
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Cover cake with fresh flowers or leaves (or grass clippings, for all I care) and stick whatever candles didn’t go into the wax pot on top.
Then grab those very useful cake pans, head back down to the studio, and get some real work done.
Performance issues
April 25, 2008
I don’t know if familiarity breeds contempt, but it sure makes you more likely to trip the ragged edge of dangerous. [Read more]
Angel eyes and vaporizers
April 23, 2008
Lani of Bullseye posted a short on how the company uses cryogenics and vaporizers to cut their natural gas use. I had to chuckle because I have fond memories of that equipment.
You see, when those vaporizers were installed I was sitting about 20 feet away, taking a class from Catharine Newell. That class was hitting my brain like a 10-pound sledgehammer.
I was there to learn her impressionistic, watercolor-like techniques with glass powders. Yet strangely, that week I learned less about technique and a whole lot more about voice, vision, and putting “me” into my work. Thanks to that class, my work took a genuine turn for the better (thank you, Catharine).
And I experienced a curious side effect: That week I shot some of my best urban photography. Creatives live for the times when our brains kick into high, the world springs into focus, and everywhere we look there’s miraculous art. A photographer friend calls it “seeing with angel eyes.”
And so there I sat, seeing Bullseye’s vaporizers with angel eyes and a little point-and-shoot camera…
BTW, if you want to see a bigger slideshow, click on one of the images.
The value(lessness) of old gadgets
April 20, 2008
Anybody wanna buy some old camera equipment for a lot of money?
When it comes to depreciation, cars ain’t got nuthin’ on gadgets. Took a stroll down to the local serious camera store yesterday, got all het up over a camera (well, actually two cameras, one brand new and one about 35 years old), and–thinking fast–asked the really nice and knowledgeable guy behind the counter if I could bring the price down by selling them my older cameras and lenses.
Surprise!
April 19, 2008
OK, we’re nearing the end of April, and this is what’s happening in my backyard:
Most of what you see is a heckuva lot of hail. Now it’s snowing, albeit anemically. I get that this is common in Minnesota. But Portland?
Whole lotta stackin’ goin’ on. (ChevronBowl)
April 19, 2008
Peem Kaew Thai in the Pearl
April 17, 2008
- PKThai website
- Location: Pearl district (Park and Everett)
- Cost to fill up two people: $30-$40
Despite a toxic mood, unassuaged even by an hour-long bubble bath up to my chin (long story), I headed down to the Pearl tonight to meet Robyn for dinner at Peem Kaew Thai. The folks at Bullseye Gallery had recommended it the day before, as a gallery favorite. I figured that excessively hot chow, sweetly served, might quench my curmudgeonliness. (Plus, I really wanted to see if there’s anything in town that beats Typhoon’s Beef with Grapes, currently on my top-ten list.)
Usual parking woes, but inside it was calm, nice art on the walls, and good conversation with Robyn that started my mental detox. And while it’s not quite beef with grapes, the food at PKT is very tasty and a bit less expensive than Typhoon. [Read more]
Lisa M. Robinson, photographer
April 17, 2008
Just a brief note. In the course of our meanderings yesterday, Gary and I stumbled across Blue Sky Gallery’s exhibit of “Snowbound,” an exhibition by Lisa M. Robinson.
More accurately, I stumbled across her c-print in the window, “Valhalla,” and was mesmerized. Obviously I can’t post the shot here–it’s hers–and it’s nowhere near as effective onscreen as it is in person. But if you get a chance to stumble across it, do.
You’ll find the gallery in the lower reaches of the Pearl, 8th and Davis around the corner from the Museum of Contemporary Craft and on the way back from Powell’s Technical Books. That area is turning into a nice little hive of fun activities.
Mio Sushi
April 17, 2008
- Mio Sushi website
- Location: Pearl district (Hoyt/13th)
- Cost to fill up two people: $30 to $40
Gary and I hit up the Bullseye Gallery yesterday, some neat glass there right now. I got a kick out of Gary’s trick of asking gallery (and museum) personnel which piece they’d personally remove from their burning building. The answers were intriguing and not at all what I’d thought. (And as a bonus that question sent the guard at the Museum of Contemporary Craft all over the exhibit seeking unique PoVs for us…but that’s another story.) [Read more]