foiled work and finish work

I was all set to start on the serious roof repair Tuesday instead of the poking around and 'let's see if this works' approach. I had the rust inhibitor, the expanding foam, the fibered tar, the aluminized paint, and a new battery operated Dirt Devil but the day dawned foggy and drippy and rain was predicted for Wednesday so I finally started on the cold work for the last seven Botanicas instead. As it turned out the rain actually passed us by.

The first thing I do is use the upright grinder to take off the excess glass from the casting that sticks out around the bottom. Then I use the diamond flat lap to smooth down the sides from coarse to fine and finally the composite disc which gives the sides a smooth satiny look and feel. I don't go to high polish because this work already takes so much time and besides, I don't care for shiny glass all that much. This takes longer than it should because all my discs are worn out but it is hundreds of dollars to replace them. I really need to get a new 60 grit plate at least.

I didn't get quite finished, still had four of the small ones to do on the composite but it was getting dark and my hands, thumb joints really, were screaming at me and my fingers were cramping up. This arthritis sucks.

Yesterday I got that part finished and then used the flex shaft grinder tool with my diamond bits and polishing points to work on the surfaces. All I need do now is go over each piece one more time with the fine polishing point

You might remember that one of the last two big ones has a crack which we are really at a loss to explain since the other three pieces came out just fine in the same firing. I've decided to go ahead and do the finish work and then reinvest it and re-fire it. Hopefully the crack will heal and disappear. Sometimes though, a crack will heal but it will leave a scar. We'll see what it looks like after and if I have to do another one, sobeit.

Once I get all the finish work done, I can get the frames made and then I will be done with this body of work and can start on some new things after I get these two etched glass commissions finished. I'll get the peach box finished and I might even start on the blue heron box.