Thursday, March 5, 2015

moving on and fixing up


botanica erotica 20 partially filled mold

I filled the last Botanica Erotica mold this past Tuesday. The final four went in the kiln yesterday. I feel detached from these last four. I still did all the fussy work but I'm less emotionally involved in how they turn out. It's like, I'm done with these so as long as they don't come out terrible, I won't be disappointed. So far, I am only really disappointed by two of them. I do still want to do one more about 18 – 20” square but I want to use clay for the model and the weather is going to have to be warm for that and also I don't feel any real urgency to do it. Which is good since I have three, possibly four, etched glass commissions pending.

botanica erotica 19 partially filled mold

I guess I'm going to be working on two new bodies of work at the same time for a while, well, after I get all the cold work done on the pieces in progress. I have a collection of ideas for pieces titled River Stories that I want to do and also the 9 x 9 idea in which each 'piece' will be 9 variations on a theme. For instance, 9 different tree barks.

Some of the things we discovered after buying the new shop 'as is' is that the toilet leaked from the bottom and that the walls and windows leak in places so that when it rains, we get puddles on the floor and nothing can go against the walls in those places. We haven't really figured out where the leaks are. I think it's at the top where the walls join the roof as there is no eave whatsoever and I hope a little judicial sealing will take care of it. So far it's either been too hot, too cold, raining, or too busy on the good days to test out my idea.

The windows were leaking from bad putty so I set about to reglaze the two windows in the big bay area of the shop yesterday, scraping out the old stuff and cleaning the dirty rusty metal framing. I got one done and then the other one 2/3rds of the way done and it started raining. The one window did not leak and I don't know if it was because the caulk was hardened enough or because it didn't leak in the first place. But the one I was working on did and now I am going to have to scrape out parts of it and start over when it's dry.

While I was working on the windows, Marc was pulling up the toilet, cleaning it, and resetting it with a new seal. So now we don't have to run back to the house to use the bathroom which is a major improvement, especially in the winter when it is really cold and windy, like today. We had two warm days this week, still overcast, and then the temperature plunged to the high 30s last night and it's going to be even colder tonight. 

 It's March. It shouldn't be getting this cold still. I'm beginning to think that 5 days of spring we had were just a cruel joke.




13 comments:

  1. It's 21 degrees below normal here. A lot of grumpy people in town.

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  2. Going to get cold again here tonight, too. Not freezing but cold.
    And it rained again this afternoon. It's a bumpy ride into spring this year.
    I can't wait to see how those botanicas come out.

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  3. SOOO glad to see the sun today and blue skies! the snow and sleet we got overnight (again) melted quickly today! now, come one spring!

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  4. The weather, as you know, can be cruel, but it doesn't seem to be stopping your productivity, which is impressive.

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  5. I'm sitting all cozy in my chair at the end of a workday & you just seem entirely too industrious :)

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  6. The weather here in the KC area has been dry and very cold. We had an icky snow "storm". They called it a storm, I said it was just a dusting and wasn't pretty at all. I'm so done with gray skies and cold weather. Your pieces are incredible. I love them. Excited to see how your botanicas come out.

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  7. The river and bark projects sound exciting,look forward to those - and good luck with the repairs though it is always useful to be creatively handy at these times.

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  8. I am always impressed by do-it-yourselfers. I grew up in a household of them and very little talent fell my way! I do hate that, as I could get stuff done faster rather than trying to find someone to do it!

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  9. We're still in the "in like a lion" part of March, so don't lose hope!

    It's funny how sometimes we just feel DONE with a certain project, isn't it? I'm getting that way with Bleeding London. I just want it to end.

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  10. It was just a taste of spring, but lets hope there is more to savor

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  11. All we can talk about is the weather--we don't like it. Not a good thing; it's like the continent is depressed. I know I am.

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  12. We have see sawed back and forth so much in the past three weeks. Warmish, bone cold, cool, balmy......yep it's March here in NM

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  13. How tedious to be working on window glass when you could be crafting more of your beautiful glasswork. Just goes to show your amazing versatility, I guess.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.