HOT HOT HOT Glass in a Hot room

Summer has arrived with all of the humidity of the south...We went from highs in the mid 60's and with in a week we had temps of over 90 and in a hot room with 4 kilns going makes for a very HOT room. There is talk of either closing the craftroom for a few weeks due to the heat or closing for the night if the temps for that Tuesday are above 85. I would hate to have the room close but no one wants to be up there when it is that hot. I have been leaving early over the last few weeks cause I cant stand being up there in the heat. But the numbers have been going down - not sure if its the heat or people are on vacation for the summer, even the regulars are not there. I will take the extra space when I can get it.

Updates on glass requests- Mark from Hoopla called to say that someone had requested cufflinks for Fathers Day. So I made a special trip up to the hill on Thursday night to drop off 2 pairs. Now lets just hope that they will sell. Sales this week for me have been good, 2 sales at the office...Kaki called me this week to say that she had dropped by the GPS alum office and they started to ask about my glass. She told them about awareness ribbons that I had started to play with. So now there is a request for a special one to be made for the Fall. Turns out that Susan G Komen's sister is the opening speaker for the next school year, which just happens to be the centennial anniversary of GPS. And they would love to give a piece of glass to her as a thank you for coming to speak. Now that could take off and go some where - but those are not simple to make at all and I still need time to play with the torch to get the loop going the way that I want it to. It might be a good thing that I know now and will have time to play with it... there are some extra steps that you have to take to get the glass to do what you want it to do...you have to tack fuse them first so that they will lay flat and then you have to fuse them again with the cover if you want the shine...but playing with the torch still makes all of them unique and that's what counts...

Summer Glass

Last week I was still sick from the stomach bug and took the night off to get ready for a trip home to TN. Sometimes you need a break from class and all of the craziness in life. I went home for a wedding and made one sale while I was there to an old friend who was blowing glass at one point. The find of the weekend was at the new market at cricket pavilion on Sundays, a blown torch work pendant for $15...I got home and someone wanted it - no you cant have it - it look like a turtle without the flippers. I will have to figure out how he was making them later. The depth and colors change with the light...Got to love glass.

Last night I was late even for me getting up to the studio (rita even called to check to see if I was ok) but in the end it was good timing since I had to wait for Kathleens kiln to cool before I could get my stuff in there. When I pulled to the parking lot the number of cars seemed to be on the small side however I think they all belonged to people in the craft room. As I was driving up there I had some peanut butter toast do a face plant on to my jeans, looked nice and pretty but at least it did not get on the nice clean detailed car. I walk into class and what do I see over on the snack table but a box of KKDs and to top it off a chocolate covered one with sprinkles. I have NO control when I see a box of KKDs and even less when they are still on the fresh side. It turned into an earlier night since Tom was around and staying late, so I was out of there by 10.45. It was a fast night up there but sometimes those are what you need.

The last time I was up in the studio I had been playing with some different glass, limiting the amount of dichroic and using textured and chop stix glass as cover pieces. Ever changing and experimenting with scrapes of glass. Someone said one looked like a hotdog (yellow, red and green) there is a hidden sail boat on one that you don't see until it is against something dark. A few more of the double layers with the clear waves on top. Long skinny ones and the small ones made up for most of the glass that I pulled out of the kiln - Last night I tried to make a few repeats of the time before, not sure how they will turn out - guess I will have to wait and see next Tuesday.