best laid plans

This week has not gone quite like I planned. My main accomplishments were supposed to be finishing the full size art work for the job we have and meeting with the art consultant to discuss the sketches I emailed him on Monday.

For one thing, I discovered on Monday that I had made an error in my math concerning the width of the three panels and so the enlargement I had had made was not large enough. Small errors like that were just annoying when we lived in the city and I could just dash over to the reprographics place and get it done over. Now, out here in the middle of nowhere it's a major problem. I have to make a trip into the city.

For the other, the art consultant is out of town til tomorrow. And who knows if he will have time to meet with me this week. I'm going to aim for Friday since I have to be there on Saturday for the first meeting for a probable job, a pair of interior doors.

Add into the mix that it is cold and overcast, our coldest weather to date, and I can't think of anything clever for the letter B and I am thoroughly disgruntled.

Also, I found out that our friend who does the fused glass and who I am depending on to complete the job we have and the job the church is getting funded, had a stent put in his heart last week. He had had two instances of serious jaw pain while exercising so went to the doctor who referred him to a cardiologist who did the procedure on him the very next day. He showed up at the clinic at 5:30, was in surgery by 6:30 and home by 1:00 PM. They went in through his wrist he said, no cracked chest, no heart surgery. I don't know about you but I find that frickin' incredible. Through his wrist! And I'm delighted my friend will be here to help me with these jobs (and not just because of that). As we all get older I'm beginning to realize just how dependent I am on others to be able to do my own work.

Speaking of which, as if I'm not slow enough already, this cold weather just isn't helping. But here's another peek at the wren box as it progresses as well as another I'm working on that I refer to in my head as the memory box.

left: wren box, cast with plaster removed but not cleaned

right: memory box, cast, cleaned but still needs excess glass ground off bottom

the two boxes with their respective inlays

I still need to cast the feet for the wren box and the tops to both but I've already cast the feet for the memory box. In it will be half a dozen or so photos that are etched on thin pieces of glass. The inlays don't fit perfectly yet. I'll have to do some grinding on both the inlay and the indentation, sort of like fitting a dental crown.