Skip the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone--On To Lost Wax

I admit, a bit of sake passed my lips in the past two hours in the course of a lovely dinner at the conveyor belt bar (similar to a sushi bar, but a bit more post-modern industrial Japanese...) at Bluefin. I walked in to find Leslie Rowe-Israelson sitting at the bar, and not too long after I sat down with her we were joined by Kris Korn and Cindi Shaffer who wandered in after their class. We had a lively group dinner of $1.50 a plate Japanese delicacies right off the conveyor belt (and some of the best sushi I've had in recent memory). Now I'm back in my dorm room listening to the bass beat from next door (it's a step up from some of the things that wake me up emanating from that room at 3:00 am) and I'm ready to finish up the BECon posts.

As Lani said, Morganica has already covered the high points, the low points, and everything in between from BECon (I was honored to be listed as a high point :-), and that frees me up to expound on an observation I made that led to a theory about the similarity between the professional evolution of someone who works in glass and the taxonomy of the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. Really. Or I would, but every time I have tried to talk to someone about this (I thought brilliant) conclusion over the past two days, they have looked at me funny and gone off (as quickly as possible) to find something to drink. Huh. So if you want to hear my truly marvelous conclusions, you'll just have to ask me nicely. Or be around me and a glass of wine for more than 10 minutes.

So BECon ended with a bang (the ribs out of the lehr were the best I have EVER had--and I've had me some serious BBQ having lived in Austin for six years). I had my day of rest, and today I began my lost wax class with Linda Ethier. Bliss. Just bliss. I did get up at 5:30 this morning to get in three hours of work before class, and I'll likely do the same tomorrow--no rest for the witless. But it's no hardship to rise that early as it is so very light here long before 5:30. I'd forgotten the lovely languid days of the northern summer. More bliss (and cooler than Atlanta right now by a long shot).

I made my first lost wax sculpture in 35 years today. It will be... interesting in glass. I console myself with the reminder that the goal in this workshop is not to make High Art. The goal is to work on technique and learn it well enough to create High Art later. Tomorrow we cover our wax with plaster to make a mold and we melt the wax out (hence Lost Wax). Then we'll fill the molds created by burning out the wax with glass and cast them. Pics of the class in tomorrow night's post.