File this one under "Art vs. Craft." Or maybe "Appliances." Ripley's just announced they've acquired a new artwork: A reproduction of Da Vinci's famous Last Supper...made from dryer lint. It's 14 feet long (the original, below, is about twice as long, but hey--paint and canvas are probably a lot easier to find than the right shade of dryer detritus). The [...]
Bullseye's new product catalog is out, informative as ever but with my same old (minor) gripe, which I'll get to inna minnit.
Glassland is either jubilant or downcast because the Ducks didn’t win on Monday night. The emotional confusion stems from the sadness of losing a championship despite the thrilling honor of being asked to play in the first place. Apparently. I’m pretty sure they were playing football, but that’s about all I know; I’m not the world’s biggest follower of team [...]
Last time around, I talked about murrini cane, and the most obvious way to make them in the kiln: A murrini rod mold, AKA "rodpod." As I've said, I'm not pretending that anything I discuss here is my invention or brand new stuff: Murrini-making is one of the oldest glassmaking techniques. This is just a compendium of methods I use [...]
Weather report for today said mostly cloudy, not much in the way of precipitation. So, naturally, it's been thundering and sleeting and hailing for the last 30 minutes. The ground looks covered with snow to about a half-inch, but it's actually ice pellets. You learn pretty quickly that the glassland gods really love to tweak the weatherman's nose--if you plan [...]
"Would you please put a sock in it?" I called wearily, "It's 4:00 in the morning, Nate!" Whatever Nate the Mouse was doing in the living room obviously took precedence over my good night's rest, because he'd been doing it for hours. At last, I stomped downstairs and turned on the lights, to scare him off. Didn't even slow him [...]
FINALLY I'm back in the studio, messing around, after a six-month hiatus. And I figured I'd start with something easy: Making components for bigger sculptures. Then it turned into this bigger thing, i.e., exploring how to make murrini in a kiln. I'm trying several methods here, and this will probably be a three-parter. Sorry about that. So...I've got some ideas for cast, figurative sculptures and vessels that incorporate murrini, bronze and other things. First order of business: Make enough murrini for easy playing.
Jane Goodall and I have a lot in common. I'd have made a pretty good wildlife scientist, living alongside my furry, tick-ridden subjects, eating the food they eat, sharing their miseries--drenching rain, biting gnats and hungry tigers. In fact, I'd probably be doing that right now if room service wasn't so sketchy in the jungle. Despite my great love of wildlife, however, I never invite it into the house. And so the mouse in my living room is a bit of a problem.
I'd like to thank a dear, talented artist friend for inspiring this one. (I'd name names, but I'd also like to live to see the New Year.) Have yourself a little more dichroic (Apologies to "Have yourself a merry little Christmas") Have yourself a little more dichroic Fling the bling around From now on your glass sales will be out [...]
I'm sittin' here, reading through a couple dozen of these things, and thinking that they betray a certain bias on my part. Oh well. Do you hear what I hear? Said the little kiln to the fuserman Do you see what I see? (Do you see what I see?) Blinking on my screen, fuserman? Do you see what I see? [...]
