blow by blow

This past week found me with little free time. I have tried to at least keep up with my reading in blogland to more or less success but finding time to post has been beyond me. This is how my week went.

Saturday – we spent the afternoon turning this

into this

in preparation for the electrician scheduled to come out on Wednesday to put in a plug in the garage/shop for the kiln.

Sunday - my unscheduled trip in to Houston to help the g'kids with their science projects. I helped the girls organize their research and experiment results with an outline so they could transcribe the information in a composition book. This was the weirdest thing. Instead of doing an outline (which apparently they don't teach students to do anymore), the teacher wanted all the information in a composition book with tabbed sections. Essentially, an outline but a totally different form. Then I helped one of the girls make paper as part of her research. For someone who had never made 'handmade paper' before and didn't have the right equipment exactly and didn't know how it was supposed to look or how thick it should be, I think Autumn and I did pretty well.

Monday – revised three drawings, worked on proposals, followed up other business stuff and preparing for my day in Houston on Tuesday.

Tuesday – another day in Houston working in our friend Gene's studio. We are collaborating on a series of pieces for the upcoming annual open house that our glass blower friends have every year and graciously invite others to participate. We are doing three sets of the drawings we did the samples from for the fused glass art panels we are proposing for the church. One set (one of each flower) done thick in different layers, one set done fused like the samples for the church and one set done kiln carved. This day we got two of the deep pieces and the three fused pieces in the kiln.

Wednesday – oh happy day!

The electrician showed up and got our 220 plug and 50 amp breaker installed. I spent the day cutting out the various flower pieces out of the fiber paper (a refractory material) and it took me til long after dark to finish.

Thursday – headed into Houston (again) to work in Gene's studio for an hour or so to get the kiln formed set (kiln carved – slumping over fiber paper) in the kiln. Next we headed to our in-town shop to collect the kiln (our other kiln is at my sister's house here in the country). Couldn't get it out of the shop, the door was about an inch too narrow. Don't ask how we got it in, we couldn't remember. Anyway, Marc had to deconstruct part of the door frame which wouldn't seem to be that big of a job except that we hadn't brought the tool box with us. So he mangled it apart with a leatherman type tool, a pipe wrench and a pair of pliers, got the kiln out and then had to put it back together again with the same lack of tools. On our way out of town we stopped at a potential client's house so I could show them the sample (we're doing a kiln carved piece for their window) and the final proposal, got our deposit and headed home.

Friday – today we wrestled the kiln out of the truck

and got it moved and plugged in.

I am taking it easy and organizing all my glass frit. I have molds to fill!