starting on the cold work

I did the vinegar soak Saturday and started in on the grinding even though it was hot in the shop, my sweat dripping down mixing with the silicone carbide/water slurry. Then we got a little rain for about 10 minutes which cooled things down some.

Turns out it was closer to 1/8” I had to grind off the bottom of the top piece. I think. It's really hard to judge. Took me a couple of hours. I think. I wasn't really paying attention to the time. The inlay looks to have closer to 1/4” to remove. I've already got an hour in on that one.

Went back after lunch better prepared, moved a fan to blow on me and a bandana to tie around my forehead which was wet enough to squeeze water out of by the time I quit.

I didn't have enough of one of the colors of glass I need to fill the mold for the body of the box though. Damn it. I could have ordered it when I ordered the color I needed for the feet if I had gone ahead with my first choice for the box instead of second guessing myself and wanting the inlay cast first. Well, I've ordered it now.

Yesterday I got the corals and feet out of the kiln and de-molded them and brushed them off. They look pretty good, everything cast well though I didn't have enough glass in the crab mold to completely fill the base the crab is sitting on but the crab itself is complete so I'll make it work. The brain coral piece came out really dark, way darker than I wanted but can't do anything about that unless I want to try and do another one which I don't. I'm starting to think using the white mix for the top and the rocks the corals are on was maybe a mistake but I wanted a balance to the white feet. Well, I can always use a bit of paint to tone it down if need be. Here are the corals in the grouping as they will go on the top.

And the feet which have a weird sort of greenish cast to them which I totally don't understand.

And then I worked on the inlay some more, less than an hour, have about 1/8” left to take off but I was hot, my bandana was soaked (again), and I was tired.

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Some sad news...I learned yesterday that Mage of the blog POSTCARDS finally succumbed to the cancer she had been fighting so valiantly for so long. Fly high Mage.