Selling books to Powells
June 30, 2009
Turning points, paradigm shifts, whatever you want to call them, there are maybe a dozen in my childhood and one was the night that Dad bought a huge box of books, at auction, for a quarter. That small thing started me on a writer’s journey.
I thought about it Friday as I stood in line to sell a few hundred books to Powells. I tried to decide if I had come back, full-circle, to Dad’s box of books or if I were simply committing literary murder.
Saving (a) face
June 28, 2009
So you think that lifecasting is the EASY way to get out of sculpting a face? HAH. I’ll take sculpting any day.
Case in point: My cousin Jeff called the other night, “Hey, can you make a mold of my face?”
Jeff’s an inventor (and a whole bunch of other things), so brainstorms and projects with him are usually fun and a bit off the wall. “Sure,” I said casually, “Just let me know when you want to try it.”
“I’ll be over in the morning,” he said.
[Read more]
The Joy of Coldworking (book)
June 27, 2009
The Joy of Coldworking
A guide to grinding, smoothing and polishing blown and fused glass
Johnathan Schmuck
$49.95
Available through warmglass.com or the Bullseye Resource Center (although as of 6/27/09 it wasn’t listed in their online store)
No, the book’s title is not an oxymoron, at least not for author Johnathan Schmuck. The dude actually likes to grind and polish glass, and since his writing gives no sign of mental deficiencies I must conclude he knows what he’s talking about.
David
June 26, 2009
“That’s a gorgeous sweatshirt,” I said admiringly.
David smiled, wide and delighted with lots of teeth. “Thank you very much,” he said, and stopped to chat, “I’m David.” A frail-looking man in his 60s, he was wearing a black pinstriped fedora with fashionable glasses, neat brown oxfords, highly polished, and worsted brown slacks with the creases carefully pressed in. And the sweatshirt made the outfit.
Winding down a week of glass (BEcon 2009)
June 25, 2009
Draaaagged awake Sunday morning, post BEcon and Saturday night’s Lehr-B-Q. OGG had a pre-daddy’s day demo this morning and if the instructor had been anyone but the famous Marty Kremer (or maybe Keith Richards) I’d have stayed in bed. I was tired.
Fortunately, it was Marty, who’s a pretty bright guy as well as a consummate glassist, so I enjoyed myself immensely. Anybody who skipped that class missed out bigtime; at the end Marty held a drawing for his demo pieces, and several students got very lucky indeed. We ended up at Campbell’s BBQ for nearly three hours of ribs and conversation that ranged from the Israeli glass scene to annealing cycles.
It was the perfect end to a very glassy week.
Newscan: June 25, 2009
June 25, 2009
There’s a period in summer that journalists used to call “silly season,” when housewives meet up with aliens, cafeteria workers enshrine a pizza that looks like Jesus and two-headed dogs become wealthy daytraders.
Not much point in silly season news when the real news is so much weirder. Consider the following: [Read more]
Glass, relaxed
June 24, 2009
As much as I love the pate de verre processes I’m investigating, they can get kinda intense, tedious and looooong. And they don’t exactly happen overnight.
It’s amazing how nice it feels just to quickly FUSE something for a change.
BEcon, finis
June 21, 2009
Apparently, I am 32, 6 foot 10, built like Morgan Le Fay (or maybe Wonder Woman) with waist-length coal-black hair and a princess conehead hat thingee. (think Frazzeta’s women) I walk around with a computer on my head and a chunk of glass in one hand while the other hand does tiny Queen-like wavelets to the populace. Or so folks meeting me at BEcon thought before the cold light of reality struck. (i.e., they met me)
They got the computer and the glass right, anyway.
This BEcon (i.e., Bullseye glass conference) was a showstopper in many ways, but the best part, as usual, wound up being the people I met and remet.There was as much sharing outside the conference as in, and I met a lot of generous people who were more than happy to clue me in on casting stuff I needed to know. [Read more]
BEcon, second day
June 20, 2009
OK, there's a sculpture in here some place. (Taken on the PSU campus)
You measure the quality of a conference by deltas. That’s delta as in change, not large-muddy-lump-guarding-the-Mississippi. The delta between your pre- and post-conference who/what/which/how knowledge should be at least as great as the trouble and expense you’ve invested in going.
As far as I’m concerned, BEcon’s day two deltas pretty much paid for the trip. (And you can also read about the first day)
BEcon, Day 0.5
June 19, 2009
Artlovers’ tip: When attending a busy Bullseye Gallery reception and all those warm bodies raise the temperature to sweatworthiness, visit the work in the front window. That’s where the best air conditioner vent is positioned and, since the art in the window is generally a showstopper, you can enjoy both a warm contemplation and a cool breeze.
Just don’t expect to be there alone; an amazing number of the throngs attending the BEcon opening reception tonight seemed to know that trick. I met quite a few of them already hogging my spot.