September 7

I'm finally going to use my deep bowl mold. First I'm fusing a two layer disk, then I will slump it in the mold. This is a tricky one (bullseye glass, the manufacturer of it said so) I have to put on special green glasses and look in the kiln to stop the slump when the center hits bottom. That will be tomorrow when the disk comes out of the kiln.

The pictures were taken this morning with poor light, it is pouring rain here, and the camera needs to be recharged.

Bottom layer - sliced to let air escape.

Top Layer

THE Mold

UVA colors made by a HOKIE!

Halloween is coming!

A little geometry!

Viking knitting, band aids, and roses.

Monday was good - went to Williamsburg for my lace group meeting. We did Viking Knitting, we had all taken the same class (although we did not know each other at the time) three years ago but none of us had done it since then. It is done on a dowel or hex wrench. The tape at the end just holds the wire on. When finished you pull it through a hole in a dowel in everything evens out. Once you get the first couple of rows done it is easy. Check out page 2 of this link and see the end results http://www.fineartbyrocio.com/vikingknitdirections.html
Late afternoon I went to Glitz and Tommy gave me a great haircut - 3" off feels so good.

Tuesday - this is where the week started to go downhill - if I picked it up I dropped, spilled it or broke it. Not exactly the day I was looking forward to getting blood work done.... but I went to Labcorp (read that as vampire center) on Midlothian signed in and started reading a Janet Evanovitch. About 70 pages later (and trying not to laugh out loud) I looked around and everyone was still there. 2:30pm, an hour later and no one had left the waiting room - there was only one technician. Now I have really tiny veins so I decided by the time it was my turn that would be one grumpy technician so I checked out. I went across town to pick up a piece of glass I ordered and decided to try the the location on Forest Avenue. I only waited only a few minutes and and everyone was pleasant - the technician had "the hand" because I did not even feel the pinch of the needle going in. If you need blood drawn go there. I started to get a migraine on the way home as the barometer was dropping for the evening thunderstorm. I decided to make something to go in the kiln but wound up with 3 band aids from glass cuts. I did not make it to TNK.

Yesterday got better after playing in the garden and cutting roses to bring in I put the designs elements on a plate I had fused and experimented with a new firing schedule so that it would remain 3 dimensional - took it out this morning - success! Here it is - I need to take a better picture but I want to get started priming the hall wall. Wish you could smell the roses.

Nancy sent me a picture of a windchime she is working on - there is a caterpillar on the leaf but I can't see it in the picture. Today she is having a root canal but is here on Friday for a weekend of "fusing fun."

Orange toaster, cheese trays, pendants

Those who know me know I love everything southwest - cactus, dry heat, sunshine and the colors. After we bought this house, while my husband was at High Point, I painted the kitchen turquoise - he was ...surprised! Well my toaster finally bit the dust and I found the best Tangerine Kitchen Aid one. The wall looks blue but is actually a lovely turquoise.

This morning I took out another cheese tray, my 4th this week, and put in a tray of pendants- I took a picture just before I closed the kiln on them and will take another when they come out. I always hope for a pleasant surprise. I did a little knitting while watching Hell's Kitchen last night. It seems that prayer shawl is doing the "fish and loaves" thing and is never going to get done.

COOKING with GLASS !

I have have been away from my knitting needles this week but do have some FO's to show off. These are the pendants that I attached bails to yesterday.

This morning when I opened my little kiln this is what I saw. I hope you can see the little "fingers" on the snowman.

I also made some buttons. The bottom green one was an experiment using clear stringer. I wondered why on earth they put clear stringer in that package but decided to try it anyway. I was happy to see that it did not just fade away into the background. I like the results.

Next are some blue buttons. They are all from cut from the same sheet of glass. I think they would be pretty on a sweater. I bought the glass because it was the same color as my favorite car - it was a 1988 Nissan 300ZX. Oh my, I cannot tell you how many speeding tickets I got in it!

This last one did not turn out as I expected but I do love the tropical colors.

My week started off slow and I did not even make it to my Tuesday night knit group ( I always look forward to time spent with this group of friends)because I was a bit under the weather. Once the barometer went up and the sun came out my energy returned and I have spent time in my "studio", which is really the breakfast area that I turned into my sewing room. It is now my sewing room/glass studio. I love this little area with its five windows where I am drenched in sunshine and can at least pretend it is warm outside.....have I mentioned that I prefer 365 days of summer?