A Contest!

The coffee is brewing after a grinder-malfunction scare, no music. I post quickly before heading up to shower and wash hairs. Today is packed with appointments of a mostly non-professional nature, though I am making a delivery to the new gallery in East Atlanta which has picked up my work, (Sabra).

Yesterday I cured the fiber blanket mold for the wall sconce project in the kiln. I don't know what the people who wrote the instructions for rigidizing molds were thinking. They say to air dry the mold for 3-5 days. I tried that this summer and it took weeks. This being winter, cold and damp, I decided to kiln dry. It took four firings to get it dry! You can only heat it to 175 degrees (don't want to risk it bursting into flame), but even so I thought four hours would be enough.

Au contraire. Then I went for eight, then four, and still denied! Did a final eight and got it, if not bone dry, pretty well dry. And release doesn't work too well with it either. The instructions say to use 50/50 dish detergent and water, or non-stick cooking spray. I tried cooking spray in the summer and dish soap this time and got sticking both times... But at least it's done and I can get on with making the glass part.

My latest mold order from Bullseye will be here Monday. The mold collection grows. Any piece the Art Institute is interested in I have to be able to produce quickly in large quantities. Can't be doing onesy twosy slumps. I am considering limiting the shapes and sizes I offer--at least for catalog work.


Finally, I redid my price list for 2007. I still have to come up with a name for the new series I am doing. So far the prime candidates are Quarried Glass and Vitreous Stone. Some of the pieces in the series are shown here. I need to get this decided by the end of the week, uh, tomorrow... maybe Monday. So here's the deal. If you have an idea for the name, post it in the comments or send it to me in email by Sunday night. If I use your idea for the name, you get an acknowledgment in the book and a piece in the series. Yes, it is a big prize, but I am desperate!