more shop talk

I've been working very diligently all week doing the cold work to finish these pieces and still they are not finished but I'm a lot closer.

The moon box needs it's 'stars' that go inside, small pieces of frit heated up in the kiln until they ball up. Need to get the kiln-wash brush back from my sister and I hope she still has it so I can kiln wash the shelf to fire the frit.

The wren box needs two feet cast to replace the ones I broke. I have the waxes ready for firing. It also needs the excess glass ground off the top. That will take an excursion into town to work in my friend's studio on her big flat lap. I also need to get the stick cast in bronze that goes on the top. I could cast it in glass, but I really want to do it in bronze.

The top to the memory box needs to have the excess glass ground off it as well and I need to work on the images for the pictures that go inside. Once I have the images ready, then I will have to get emulsion stencils made to sandblast the images on pieces of thin sheet glass. Rubbing a little paint or stain into the sandblasted surface will bring them out. On the other hand, I have two 'letters' that I cast and never used. hmmmmm

I'm back to square one with the moonflower box. I just don't like the way the box part came out (big error on my part caused the mold not to be made in two parts but I tried to salvage it to less than stellar results). I've been trying very hard to like it but I think I'm going to have to re-do it. I may not even put the vine and leaves on this time. I'm thinking it just distracts from the top which is beautiful. Also, I decided it needed four feet instead of three. The fourth is cast but it too needs the excess glass ground off. So any opinions on if I should make the new box plain or with the vine of leaves?

While I was at it, I flattened the backs of these little face baubles for a friend of mine who is a jeweler. A little surprise for him.

I had the gallery send back the bee box. It hasn't sold and now I think I want to glue the flowers onto the outside of the box. That was my original idea several years ago when I first made this piece but then I kind of liked the way it looked with the flowers scattered on the shelf around it. Now I'm thinking that keeping up with all those loose little flowers might be a deterrent for a buyer. I haven't even started on this one because I need to do a little grinding on all the flowers and glue them on as I go.

I also tried to make a reproduction mold of one of the leaves I'm doing for the upcoming gallery show. I used silicone caulk which works great for some things and I figured out how to make a two part mold, which this needed but unfortunately, the quality of the reproductions is crap so this is not the way to go. I'm shelving this idea for now and am going to go ahead and cast these models. Maybe I'll pursue it again later when I have the right materials for the reproduction mold and time to make the models again. Don't have time now as I need to get these pieces finished for the show.

Hopefully I'll have everything I need cast by the middle of next week (except for the moonflower box) and can head in town for a day at my friend's studio. Then all I'll have to do is assemble everything.