wrens and work

I've been quite busy the last week and a half, what with watching the wren family and keeping an eye on the cat and watering the yard daily. It is so dry here. I can't even remember the last time we had a good rain. We had a teasing rain earlier in the week. Barely got the driveway wet, much less the ground. It's not that it's not raining at all, I have seen good rain in the distance, moving around us, it's just not raining on us.

The wrens have stayed pretty close to the house, moving from large shrub to large shrub. They've been in the photinia in the little side yard outside the back door for the last two days. I can hear the baby chirping as I type and see the parents foraging.

I've been feeling pressure lately, something in my head telling me 'get it done, get it done'. Not the pressure of a looming deadline but more like the pressure wave that precedes a large moving mass. A feeling that I had better get these projects finished that have been lingering for so long.

Mock Dogwood With Bee

6”wide x 2”high x 4”deep

To that end, I have been working on my various cast pieces. No more model making for a while. I got a piece finished (out of three that I started...didn't like the way one came out and the other needs something else) and sent off for the show at Kittrell/Riffkind gallery that opens the end of this month.

I also made two of the six models (working in clay) and molds to fulfill my end of the trade agreement with my (lesbian) ex-trainer. They are Venus pieces (mildly pornographic perhaps if you consider girl parts to be pornographic). Right now I have a test piece in the kiln for those pieces, trying out the way I thought to layer the glass in the mold.

And I've started assembling the wren box and the memory box (no more pictures of these two until they are completely finished). I have a glass stick for the top of the wren box but I really want it in bronze so I've got a call in to an art foundry. The memory box still needs me to finish grinding the excess glass off the top and make the photos that go in it. A little serendipitous (or syncronicitous) thing happened when I emailed the glass resource center in Houston where we teach asking about fusible photo transfer paper. Bob (the proprietor) offered me standing room only to observe the image transfer workshop that's being taught there on Monday and Tuesday of next week. The next day he emailed me that a student had dropped out and he offered me the spot. So Monday and Tuesday I'll be learning how to do the thing I need to finish the memory box.