diggingout1.jpgAs I’m sitting here digging investment out of tiny little nooks and crannies in my latest glass casting, I’m suddenly struck by the immense number of glass casters whose work runs to sensuously smooth, unadorned imagery.

Do you suppose that’s because, unlike me, they’re smart enough to realize what happens when you put lots of @#$)*^#@%! tiny detail in a mold and then melt glass into it?

Do they have an innate understanding of the equation “lots of holes=lots of #@*#&$! plaster to clean out of said holes” and therefore craft huge, featureless expanses of solid glass that are easy to clean and polish?

Apparently I lack this ability.

Tell me: Has anyone out there invented an investment that NEVER gets stuck in carved detail? Would you please drop me a line and name your price?

Or come beat into my thick head the following mantra: Smoooooooooooooth and flaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

And to the investment stuck in my casting: You have exactly 30 minutes to LEAP out of my glass or I’m buying the biggest bottle of LimeAway you ever saw.

–sigh–

P.S. Years after I wrote this post, I discovered the most wonderful power tool on the face of the earth: The power washer. I am only partly exaggerating when I say that this tool literally changed my life. What used to take hours and hours of meticulous digging now happens in about five minutes with a power washer.

powerwasher

Whew.