Glass resources update
January 7, 2012
Hey, folks;
I’m in the process of updating my enormous casting resources page and I need your help.
I’m adding new categories such as adhesives & sealants, coldworking and casting instruction (and I mean REAL, intensive glass casting classes). I’m also checking old listings and making sure they work.
Stolen hours, bullies and gloryholes
December 10, 2011
12/10/11. The words of “Save the Country” struck me with almost cosmic force this morning, about the time I was supposed to be judging a kids’ robotics contest.
I’ve got fury, in my soul
Fury’s going to take me to the glory goal
In my mind, I can’t study war
No more
I actually never got to be a judge; the ice making crystalline necklaces out of my back deck spiderwebs caused a three-car fender-bender in my path. By the time I’d stopped and given my name as a witness, officials had rung in an alternate judge and I was out of a job for the day.
Towels on the floor
December 9, 2011
OK, I’m beginning to look like a doting mamma with home videos, but…I kept finding towels on the floor in the guest bath. Wasn’t difficult to figure out who was doing it–not with The Princess Lola and Nikki the Tikkimaus around–but all the other towel racks in the house seemed safe from their depredations.
So I hung the towel back on the rack, grabbed Izzy the ‘Pad (that iMovie feature is really killer), and settled into the bathtub to wait. It didn’t take long:
And I discovered what was going on. There’s an air vent right under that rack (you’ll see the towel moving slightly in the video). Lola was probably first attracted to the movement, jumped up and pulled the towel off the rack, mostly covering the vent.
But watch the video: Lola circles the fallen towel, head down, back and forth, then she settles on a spot and flops over. She does this consistently; I replaced that bloody towel ten times and ten times she circled and settled in front of wherever the hot air was emerging.
Intrigued, I slipped downstairs and turned on the air conditioning, to make cold air come out of that vent. Lola dropped the towel as usual, circled…and jumped back, yowling. She wouldn’t go near the towel rack until I turned the furnace back on.
So…I think Lola is redirecting the flow of warm air from that vent for a cozy nap. Why she doesn’t just sit on the vent and get ALL the heat is beyond me, but I’m noticing that whenever there’s a heater vent to contend with, she usually puts something on the vent first, before she sits.
Or she drops a towel on it.
Sometimes this cat is a little bit scary.
Locasnob
December 5, 2011
Strolling the Pearl (a favorite occupation I hardly ever get to do these days), I spied a big cast glass sculpture in the window and stopped in to see who made it.
“He’s from Israel, really talented artist,” said the clerk.
“Ahh…and that one?” I pointed to a big blown dinosaur-like piece, reminiscent of Tagliapietra.
“Celotto, from Italy.”
Hmmm. “How about that one?” and I indicated a series of flat, fused (ooops, sorry, Lani) kilnformed panels on the usual powder-coated steel stands.
Swedish.
Making a cat gym (AKA “less ugly cat tree”)
November 28, 2011
Savannah kittens make wonderful housemates…if you stay two steps ahead of their inventive little minds. Give them enough “legal” stuff to do, I’m told, and they won’t edit your art collection (i.e., break stuff).
Museum gel only goes so far. I tried giving them a “highly difficult” puzzle, guaranteed to keep dogs occupied for weeks, with treat-containing cups that move along a track. The animal is supposed to slide the cups until they can upend them and grab the treat.
The kittens liberated all the treats in about 15 minutes and then, bored, headed for the bathroom to play toilet bowl jacuzzi (they LIKE water).
So much for games. I made them a cat gym.
[Read more]
Cynthia, cat trainer
November 15, 2011
OK, just had to brag a bit, although I’m not sure if I’m bragging about what a great cat trainer I am (frankly, if I were, I wouldn’t be sweeping up broken sculptures), or the unusually large brains of my cats.
Sit is going well. Stay? Not so much. And we’re working on “shake paws.”
The q-tip that saved a life…maybe
November 10, 2011
Technically, it’s not a q-tip, it’s a buccal swab, and it just played Mr. Toothbrush against the inside of my cheek for a very good reason.
I just joined the National Marrow Registry. You might want to think about doing that yourself.
I registered years ago, before they took this show online. I was never called upon–guess I’m a rare beast who never matched anyone else’s DNA–but I’m re-upping now, for a very good reason.
A good friend has leukemia, and swabbing the inside of my cheek might just save his life. I’m not going to tell you who he is (although if you know me pretty well, you already know), but he’s an incredible artist, won a bunch of awards in a very short time, and I love his work.
I also count him (and his wife) as good friends. The leukemia diagnosis came hard and fast, not too long ago. He’s been going through a rough time with chemotherapy and he’s awaiting a match for a stem cell transplant, and so far all the usual suspects–family members–don’t match. So now they’re looking nationally.
It’s really brought home how little it takes to put your hat in the ring for a fellow human being…and how vital it can be.
Signing up is easy–you simply go to the website, review the terms and conditions for being a donor, and fill out a form. They’ll send you a buccal swab kit in the mail within a couple of weeks.
Once the kit arrives, you simply follow the instructions. Open the package, take out a q-tip, swallow, and scrub it like a toothbrush on the inside of your cheek. Repeat with the other three q-tips, carefully label them with the provided barcodes, then stuff them in the package and drop them in the mail.
That’s it. If you’re a match with someone, you’ll be asked to take more tests to make sure. If you do match someone who needs you, they’ll work with you to take a donation. There are multiple ways to do that, some more onerous than others. I’m not gonna sugar-coat things and say it’s perfectly painless and you’ll never notice them doing it (which would be a lie)…but is that really a huge price to pay?
Please. Think about signing up. The life you save could be my friend’s.
Thanks.
Hallowine
October 31, 2011
Sunday afternoon I went out to run a short errand, took a detour at a richly orange sugar maple, and just drove around for awhile, taking in the foliage.
Holy cow. *I* took a Sunday drive.
It was raining–hey, this is Portland, after all–but the saffrons and umbers and corals gleamed and glittered in the random shafts of sunlight. And I remembered that autumn was, and probably always will be, my favorite season.
Pate de verre in a hurry, Part I
October 29, 2011
How do you give non-casters a taste of pate de verre-making..in less than four hours?
That was the assignment, anyway. It was the Portland chapter’s turn to host the Oregon Glass Guild’s annual state meeting, and we wanted to do something a bit special.
We decided on a theme of Stretch Your Wings, and gave it multiple meanings. First, we meant “stretch your wings by reaching out to the community.” Instead of focusing on personal enrichment, this time we’d make art for the community, a glass quilt to be installed in a local hospital. Everyone who came would make at least one 6×6 inch tile for the quilt.
Ultracats
October 24, 2011
I’ve got it all over Jane Goodall. To make friends with wildlife, she had to go to the deep, dark jungles full of crocodiles, tsetse flies, tents and very poor room service.
All *I* do is go home.
My friend Shelby and I trekked down south a few weeks ago to pick up Nikki the Tikimaus and The Princess Lola. We returned with two carrierfuls of terrified kitten yowling to be let O-U-T. We set the carriers on the floor of the cat isolation center (AKA the laundry room), unfastened the doors and stepped back, expecting to see two furry streaks running past.
Nope. Now the carriers were the safest, most snuggly places on earth. The kittens steadfastly refused to emerge for three hours, hissing and spitting if we came near, and spent the next three days hiding. And I learned the first of several important lessons: Pick a typical kitty trait, triple it, and you have a Savannah.