progress being made

Plugging away at the second diagram, almost finished. I'll be cutting the first stencil next week. I'm really dragging my feet, keep finding small distractions, counterproductive to my desire to get it done and over with. Some of the dawdling is because I really don't know how to do this job, how to translate these photographs into etched glass, and I have to make DECISIONS. The decisions I make now determine how it is going to look in the glass, whether it works or not.

I've also been working on the cast glass. I filled the mold for the leaf plaque Tuesday and it came out of the kiln yesterday. I used transparent green in the leaves and then backfilled it with black and yes the black will overpower the green and make it very subtle. Which is what I want. The moonflowers bloom at night.

It's been de-molded and I have washed it in vinegar and the green is very subtle. I was thinking I may have needed a thicker layer of the green but now I'm not so sure. A good light will pick up the green more and I think once I do the cold work and polish the leaves a bit it will look perfect. I've balanced the moonflower on it's little pedestal on the plaque and it looks really good. Though I just had a thought about my whole plan to float the flower above the plaque on the pedestal. The whole weight of the flower and the shear force and the small surface to surface area of the pedestal to the plaque...hmmmm. Should have put a hole in the wax model for the pedestal to sit in.  Well, I have decided to have a stand made for it instead of having it be a wall piece. That could change though.

I finished the diagram or nearly enough. I was going to start the stencil today but I think I'll wait til Monday and spend the day doing cold work on my castings.