This week I have two great big thank yous: One to Bob Heath, who kindly loaned me the use of his kiln when mine croaked, and one to the guy that invented fiberglass. THANK YOU […]
Wow. THAT was fun. Spent the afternoon demonstrating pate de verre techniques at Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Part of the museum’s month of glass, it’s sponsored by the Oregon Glass Guild. Supercompetent Bob Heath (president of the Portland chapter), played assistant the whole time which made a LOT less work for me (thanks, Bob). [...]
If you ran into me at the Portland Art Museum on GAS conference opening night, you would have seen me sporting a T-shirt admonishing glassists who use the term “warmglass” to describe “kilnforming.” (Incredibly nice-looking T-shirt, BTW, so many thanks to Ted for sending one my way) The T-shirt went with the really wonderful Klaus Moje retrospective at the museum, [...]
I wonder if there's a word for "beyond exhausted?" I'm certain there are words for "beyond contented." Pleased. Delighted. Charmed. Enchanted. Yep, those work. So...the Portland 2008 Glass Art Society conference (mostly) ended last night, and I'm pleased, enchanted and plumb wore out. Learned a great deal, got all kinds of energizing ideas for new work and validation (or redirection) [...]
Whew. Long, fun day at the Glass Art Society’s Portland 2008 conference, an impressive opening day. Some great talks and demos, still meeting old friends and discovering new ones. Inspiration abounded, but I have to admit that the technical exhibits held the day for me. I love having this many manufacturers in one room, ready to solve my problems. The [...]
Pre-conference day at GAS, and it was a GAS. Unless you’d signed up for studio tours or somesuch, all there was to do today was register at the Portland Hilton (and if you’re a volunteer, wend your way to my table to check in), and see who’d already showed up. Well, that and–if you were among the select few who [...]
I was shooting the iris–great stuff–but the angry buzzing in the rhodies behind me was finally too distracting. Apparently wet rhododendron blossoms don’t lend themselves to easy nectar gathering. As I watched, bumblebees tumbled out of blossoms, righted themselves and headed back for more. They slid down the soggy petals, scrabbled for footholds, got stuck and buzzed themselves out. I [...]
55F and rainy today in glassland, and the glasslanders were out in force trying to prove that it’s warm. As I’ve said before, born and bred northwesterners have been genetically modified to perceive “chilled and wet” as “warm and dry,” and there’s no sense in trying to convince them otherwise. An amazing number practice what I call “calendar-based dressing.” Calendar-based [...]
So I get home tonight and run to check on my venting kiln–it’s the mold moisture release phase of the cycle–and close everything up for the duration. Thanks to traffic jams I’m very, very late, so the kiln is up to 1300F instead of where it should be. The inside ends of the firebricks propping up the kiln lid are [...]
And I thought the British were the masters of understatement. They ain't got NUTHIN on the Canadians, apparently. Here's a story about poor Fournier, the skydiver who's trying to break the freefall record. He planned to send himself aloft on a helium balloon, break off at 130,000 feet and freefall down. Just for reference, that's about 24.6 miles high. Airliners [...]