Thursday, October 16, 2008

Almost Ready For Friday Fieldtrip

No beverage--just back from dinner where sauvignon blanc played a role though, the sound of the dryer for music. I was harangued (HARANGUED!) by Stacy for not posting earlier today, but, hey! I was busy! Today was the dress rehearsal for the 7th grade field trip in the studio tomorrow. Actually it was both the dress rehearsal AND the planning meeting... some of us aren't very good at doing things in advance. After J has gone to bed I will head back to the studio and put the example pieces we made today for tomorrow in a couple of kilns to fire. The fieldtrippers are going to do both tack and full fuse projects to observe the effects of time and temperature on the way glass melts and fuses.

For the concerned out there, I have eliminated the vitrigraph part of the program for the day. I figured that it was not a good idea to have 24 12-13 year olds playing around with molten glass on their first day in the studio when their parents haven't signed any release forms for them... I replaced it with painting--glassline paints and mica gum arabic mix. Should be exciting.

I wish it were still light outside as I would love to take and post a photo of the way Becky's friend Todd wire-wrapped my trashy treasures from the studio and hung them on the fence. It is so much more artistic a presentation than just using Ace Hardware plate hangers would have been. Todd is the one who was roped into presenting the painting sessions tomorrow.

So the fieldtrippers will be in the studio for 2-1/2 hours. I am going to do a half hour at the beginning of the visit on studio safety, an intro to kilnforming, a brief demo of cutting and making a Morceaux de Verre piece including a side-by-side of pre and post fired pieces, and I'll finish with a tour of the studio. I'll also make sure they know that my book is sold in the school shop, if they're interested in learning more ;-). Then the 24 will break up into four groups of six to through three 1/2 hour work sessions and lunch. Todd, as already mentioned, will lead the painting session. Dee is going to demonstrate combining strips, shards and circles together to fuse into open pieces (no base glass under them). Becky will show how to use base squares of clear irid to hold shards, stringer, frit and dichro chips either tack or full fused onto them. All the ornaments made will either have loops fused into them or be wire-wrapped after firing. I'll float from group to group and answer questions. All of the pieces made tomorrow by the fieldtrippers (four or five each) will be sold at the Waldorf School of Atlanta Holiday Market on November 15-16, come on down...

The glass arrived from Bullseye today, but there was no way we could get it unloaded with all the studio prep for tomorrow. I was all sanguine about leaving it out as the sky was blue as blue could be all day today, but I just saw it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Grr. Got to find the tarps to cover it tonight.

Dave is going to run buy a couple bottles of champagne for me now--I promised Dee, Becky and Todd that we'd have it at 1:30 tomorrow when the field trip ends. I may not post tomorrow, Stacy, but I'll get photos and a day-in-review up over the weekend.

3 comments:

Bill said...

I'm not sure that champagne will be strong enough. I'd recommend Everclear.

Becky said...

hope the field trip went well!

Dee said...

we survived in remarkable shape! ;) these actually were very well behaved kids who were really interested in what they were doing. and the reward of pizza and champagne was wundebar! some of the structures they made in my room should be interesting when they come out of the kiln...