in the groove

It's been a long time since I have spent this much time in the studio. I guess the last time was the first half of 2008 when I was preparing work for our one person show at our local gallery. I've done less than half a dozen pieces in the two years since. With the crash of the economy in late 2008 and our expectations of finally breaking the collector barrier dashed and the gallery that had been taking our work to the big shows dropping us from the repertoire, well, it took the wind out of my sails. That and having racked up a considerable debt going to these shows for the previous five years that we no longer had expectations of paying off with the cast work sent my focus back to the etched architectural work. Fortunately we had some of that to focus on.

Two years. I wondered at one point if I would ever get back to it. I made a few half hearted attempts but quickly lost interest. Today though, I see the work stretching in front of me. I have a growing pile of finished waxes and more still to complete and many more to start. I'm working on a small box right now that I am trying out a new approach on. I've been trying to come up with a way to do some larger pate de verre boxes without a lot of grinding and recasting and I think I have a way to do it using inlays. I've done this on a few pieces, very simply, with good results. This little box will be a bit more complex. I also have two other series of pieces I have started on. I might even try a few more sculptural vessels, a form I abandoned years ago for a variety of reasons.

I'm not sure what I am going to do with all the finished work once I have it. It will take some time to complete. The shop is still spread out between here and Houston but I want to start casting the small components. I guess we'll be making a foray into the city pretty soon, if for no other reason than to get the materials to start making molds.