WARNING: FERVENT SALES PITCH AHEAD NON-GLASSISTS SKIP THIS POST GLASSISTS, LISTEN UP!!! Fellow glassists, by clicking on a single link (and having 12 hours of fun), you can save up to $145. When was the last time ANYone connected with glass ever SAVED you money? You can thank me now–I’m part of the volunteer coordination team for GAS 2008, and [...]
Kilnful of molds came out of the kiln yesterday morning and I’m a happy camper who can check off one more promise to herself: I’m getting serious about this glass stuff. Part of being serious is, I guess, learning when it’s OK to compromise and when it’s not. SHOUT (detail above) also came out of the kiln but only 85% [...]
Yuki Japanese Restaurant website Area: West-side downtown, 23rd street Price to fill up two people: About $40 I'm not sure anything is going to top Sushi Takahashi for price, but in terms of taste, this little Japanese restaurant on 23rd between Lovejoy and Johnson definitely meets it. They served some of the best toro (fatty tuna) sashimi I've had in [...]
Check this out: heat-sensitive glass tile. I may be the last person in the world to hear about it. Mom sent over a newsclipping and I investigated a bit. The tile changes color according to temperature, so if it's in your shower you'll supposedly get a continuously changing rainbow while you scrub. The site's kinda info-poor and they don't really [...]
Castuary (that period of anxious waiting while your kiln processes your glass castings) was over last night, and I opened the molds to–as usual–a mix of Christmas and nightmare. Well, maybe not nightmare. Probably more like one of those twitchy, uneasy dreams where you step up to the podium to accept your award and things would be perfect if you’d [...]
As much as I love geeking out over gadgets, there are days when I long for pencil, tin can and string. Days like today. I’ve had Verizon FiOS, their high-speed fiberoptic network, for 14 months now. I know this because last night it died (or rather, the wireless router they supplied me with died) and Verizon said it was out [...]
Live in the Northwestern US, particularly in Oregon? Glassist of any description? You probably oughta be in the Oregon Glass Guild, OGG. Nice organization of really nice folk, have interesting meetings and occasional group discounts on cool stuff. They're helping me coordinate volunteers for the 2008 Glass Art Society's international glass conference, GAS, which will be held in Portland, OR. [...]
So it's back to Castuary, that odd period where life revolves around the kiln, or more specifically, around the molds I'm casting in the kiln. The process of casting glass kinda reminds me of bringing kids in from recess: Controlled chaos that eventually--hopefully--marches exactly to where you want it. Glass casting is a gazillion tasks all culminating in Castuary and [...]
Hypothesis: A glass framework stabilizes a tack-fused stringer construction, requiring fewer stringers (and likely fewer firings). Background: I'm having a fair amount of success with tack-fused stringer projects that build on a glass support structure. Since the support framework is tedious to construct, I'm wondering if it's really contributing enough to be worth doing. Test: Make a stringer vessel without [...]
This post was originally published on my old blog in 2008. I thought it deserved a replay. It’s also inspired me to go find the sample piece I’m showing here, one of my hosta bowl series, and see if I can’t finally finish the thing. I’m not a great fan of the waxes used in lost wax casting, mostly for the [...]
