cabsGuess what I’ve been doing in my spare time?

I gave myself a goal to make 600 glass cabochons for a project I have at the end of April. And so for the last three or four weeks I’ve been chopping, shaping, grinding and firing dozens and dozens of those kilnformed murrini I’ve been writing about.

And they’re kinda like peanuts: I examine a fresh-from-the-kiln batch, wonder what would happen if I sawed the cane THIS way, or fired an extra 30 minutes, or stacked the glass THAT way…and off I go to try that, too.

A cabochon’s small format is useful–I can try out all kinds of variations without breaking the bank on glass. (And, actually, my OTHER goal was to use as much scrap as possible, so this is becoming a great exercise in recycling.)

Tonight, though, I pressed “Start” on the kiln controller, walked past what is now called the Counter o’Cabs…and for the first time started to count.

578.

Drat. Still short by 22 cabs. Then I remembered I’d loaned Mom 40 of the little beasties to colormatch, up north.

So, actually, I’ve made 618 (rather good-looking, if I do say so myself) cabochons in maybe 20 weeknight evenings.

Done! Yeeeeeehah!

What I’m going to do with the hundred or so blanks currently cooking in the kiln, or the maybe 50 more waiting to be coldworked, I dunno. And I still have about 20 pounds of cane waiting to be cut up…

Uhm….there may be an Etsy store in my future. Cabs, anyone?

BTW, this is part of a series that I still haven’t finished–never knew there were so many ways to make murrini in a kiln. Here’s the rest of the series: