It's Not Just Me

The other morning Dave made some slightly patronizing remark about my not having an automated blog aggregator, aka as an RSS reader so that I can follow blogs easily. Hah. Much he knows. It turns out that Blogger provides me with a very nice reader on my dashboard screen--where I go to write my posts. Out of curiosity--curiosity because it has been awhile since I read through any of the blogs I ostensibly follow (blush)--I read through the first long page of posts and then went searching for some old favorites that didn't show up on the RSS feed. Turns out that several of the people who wrote regularly back when I started up Glass Incarnate have tapered off or stopped writing altogether in recent years. Ren, Jodi, Chris, and Barbara have all been taken by life, and Sue has apparently reset the permissions on her blog as I got the message "It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation." when I tried to read it. Thank heaven for Cynthia, Bill, and Bridget who keep my world constant!

The full-on Siyeh Sleigh Ride is over for another year (though we'll still have goodies to make and buy for those who were too busy stuffing themselves with left-over turkey in some other part of the country to make it on Saturday). Even though I was successful in replacing the relays in one of the glass furnaces on Friday, it's still only pulling 3/4 of the power it should if everything was working correctly, and the thermocouple failed yesterday morning (causing us to limp through the ornament-blowing and dates  during the Sleigh Ride). We shut it off at the end of the night yesterday and tomorrow I'll replace the relays in the other furnace and swap them out so we'll be up again by the time Tadashi gets in for the upcoming weekend's scheduled dates and lessons (and ornament blowing! Can't forget the ornament blowing!)

Today, however, is a day of REST. It is a day of posting, reflecting, reading, weaving, knitting, getting the Christmas tree and carrying all the decorations down from the attic. It's a day of Christmas carols, butternut squash (or whatever variety of squash I grew that took over the weeping cherry tree in the backyard this year) soup, and board games with the family. Ahh, life is GOOD!

I'm Thankful

It's a beautiful, slightly chilly morning after Thanksgiving and I am still giving thanks. Yesterday was a perfect blend of family, studio and friends that left me energized, empowered, and ready to take on today (the last day of set-up for the Sleigh Ride) and tomorrow, The Third Annual Siyeh Sleigh Ride! There is nothing like wrestling to the ground something that makes you feel stupid, powerless and at the whim of fate, and making it cry for its mommy. The thing I stomped all over (with a lot of help and encouragement) was the instability of our glass furnace.

I started the day by meeting Sara from Olympic Kilns up in the parking lot of a BP station off I-85 in Suwanee--half-way between here house and mine. She wonderfully brought me eight relays that I purchased from Olympic on Wednesday but didn't have time to get up to pick up before they closed for the weekend. Without those relays we would not have been able to blow glass ornaments for the Sleigh Ride tomorrow, and we would have also had to cancel today's and tomorrow's dates.

I left Dave baking the Thanksgiving pies with Jessie (she made all of the pumpkin but for the crust), got the relays, met Sara's Dad--who will be blowing glass in the studio this afternoon--and headed home. My one regret was that I had not yet purchased Dragon Dictate or any other means of dictating for automatic transcription so I couldn't start the intro to the kiln maintenance chapter of the book as I was driving back home. When the spirit moves you really need to be able to write--no matter where you are or what else you're doing.

Back at the studio, I rolled up my sleeves, turned off the glass furnace (which was barely holding at 1975 degrees and pulling just over 12 amps of power--the amount it it uses to run one of the four pairs of elements), unplugged it, and started the Great Relay Swap. Brian the electrician was in Wednesday and, after a lot of metering and tinkering and checking, determined that the cause of the furnace not holding power was that the relays were not reliably closing and completing the circuit when they were activated. The elements were fine, as were the controller (a relief), the small 12 V master relay, and the thermocouple, and all the wires were solidly attached.

So I took the controller box off the side of the furnace (carefully as it was HOT), removed the thermocouple from the furnace (slowly as it was even HOTTER), and detached all 16 wires connecting the elements to the relays. Once it was disconnected, I was able to remove the insulation and the steel cover inside the box to expose the relays. Lots more wires there to disconnect, and then nuts and bolts to unscrew to release the old relays. But with patience and fortitude--and by only disconnecting one relay at a time and swapping it out--I was able to get them all done and get the box back on the furnace and the furnace firing in just over an hour. I now feel confident that I can identify and repair (*myself*) 90-95% of what could go wrong with it.

Bad news now is that either one set of elements has gone down or there is another problem as it's still only pulling 38-40 amps with all the relays and elements switched on and it should be using 50-52. But 38-40 is more than enough for our needs and Brian is coming back on Monday night to do a little more trouble-shooting and I'll get him to teach me to check the resistance on the elements so I can be even more proactive in my furnace and kiln troubleshooting and maintenance (and I'll really have a leg up on the material for that chapter of the book).

Now off to put together more deals and give-aways for tomorrow and to post to Facebook about Small Business Saturday again.

Getting Ready For the Sleigh Ride

Quick post and then off to bed. Got the glass furnace working again last night. Changed out one element, fired it up and we were good to go. I wish that were good news... I still have no idea what caused it to go down in the first place. One pair of elements out is not enough to keep it from holding temp, and yet it wouldn't hold temp on Saturday with only one pair of elements out. Today it's holding just fine with only two pairs of elements working. Brian the electrician is coming tomorrow at 10:00 am with his probes and clamps and meters. I hope he can get to the root cause of our problems. It's not elements. It's not relays. What's left? Controller? Thermocouple? The ones in the know (the electrician types) seem to think them unlikely at this point. But what else is there?!?

Though we were closed today, I taught a class for a group of Living Social folk. They were nice, but remind me NOT to do anything like Living Social or Groupon again--it really doesn't make sense for a small business that cares about it reputation and customer satisfaction to do this kind of bargain-basement-shopper program.

Tomorrow is the set-up day for the Siyeh Sleigh Ride. Am I a lesser person for wishing we weren't doing it after all? I have a horrible fear that no one will come even though I sent out the invitation to over 900 people and AmEx has been advertising it through their site (though I'm not exactly sure how... they just said it was part of the package if I registered, which I did). Today I also cut and shipped a glass order to another artist/friend/customer. After I spent the time cutting the glass, wrapping it for shipping, boxing it up and putting it out, I wonder if I even broke even on the transaction... I have GOT to get better (i.e., more realistic) about my pricing--even for friends.

Okay, that's about it. Sad news on the studio chicks and buns front: Looks like Char is a boy bunny, and he and Jasmine had two little babies that didn't make it. I found them in the hutch today, tiny, cold, and eyes still closed. I don't know what happened, but I have closed down the doorway of the hutch so the chickens can't get in it anymore (they were kind of making themselves at home there in the day) and cleaned and spruced it back up for the bunnies. I am sad for Jasmine. I hope she is and will be okay. Char is getting tutored, er,  neutered as soon as I can get an appointment with the vet.

Sleigh Ride

I didn't post yesterday. Twenty days into NaBloPoMo, and I didn't get one out. I *did* get the email invitation to the Sleigh Ride out, but that was the extent of glass yesterday. I played Dominion for the first time with Dave. I took Jessie to Michael's crafts so she could use her birthday gift certificate to buy more beads and wire. She's going to be one of the artists at the sleigh ride this year and sell beaded animal Christmas ornaments. She makes platypuses, bees, lizards, dragonflies, and butterflies so far. I think frogs are on the slate too.

Why the sudden interst in selling her work? J spent the latter half of the weekend trying to figure out all the ways she could earn money to buy an iPad. If she saves half, I told her we'd pay the other half. So far she has her allowance which is $10 a week. For it she must feed and water the dogs and cat twice a day; take care of the chickens and bunnies: letting them out in the morning, filling food and water, putting them [the chickens] back in the coop at night and gathering the theoretical eggs [again, from the chickens only]; clean her room, and set and clear the table at meal times). She has taken on scooping the cat box; helping Grandma with the laundry, and loading and unloading the dishwasher; and chopping vegetables for her father for additional small fees. She charges $2-$4 for an incredible massage (back, hands and/or feet)--I take advantage of this one. She's also opening a "store" in her room selling beaded animals and duct-tape objects. Should I tell her the City of Atlanta will want her to have a business license? I don't want to scar her...

The day ended with a viewing of Hubble at the IMAX and dinner at Sushi Avenue for the whole family. Then home to a shower, two chapters of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone (she is *finally* letting me read it to her after three years of my begging), and bed for everyone but Dave who was still working at midnight. Ah well, we can't all be slackers.

In short, yesterday was a Day Off. Today it's back to glass. I talk to my editor tomorrow about interim deadlines for the book so I need to go over my outline and do some preliminary planning today. The Sleigh Ride is Saturday and I need to figure out a way to increase buzz and traffic for it. I think I might make posters and see if I can get other small local businesses (like Kavarna and My Coffee Shop) to put them up.

And speaking of the Sleigh Ride, I need to decide how much to give away. For the first time I am melding both halves of my business--sales of finished work (mine and others') with sales of materials, tools and supplies. I want to have people interested in buying both in, and I would like to have the much-earlier-promised 3rd birthday party specials running (beginner's kiln-forming outfit, glass specials, glass rod specials, etc.). Guess I should get going on all that and Stop Talking About It!

My Karma Can't Be This Bad

The universe is testing my resolve, that's all I can figure. I should have karma points up the Wazoo right now.

Yesterday I rose (I was the phoenix). I worked like a dog till 11:30 last night and got up and tweaked the website some more this morning. Then I taught my first kiln-forming class of the day. At the beginning of it, one of the young girls in the class (two young girlfriends, one mother and her friend) asked if I had pets. I said yes, at the house, and didn't think anything more of it.

Midway through the class Brian came in and told me we were out of oxygen. He had two full bead-making classes scheduled. To get by, he took the oxygen tank from the hotshop leaving Domenick unable to firepolish any of the blown pieces from the rest of the day's dates and classes, but the bead-making classes could go on.

Not too much later, Domenick came in to tell me that the glass furnace was not holding temperature. I went out and futzed with it (a highly technical process that includes, of course, a reboot). And we all crossed our fingers.

I got through the rest of my class without incident, and then at the end of the class as Judy was walking around the table, she found a smushed pile of dog poo left by a friend's dog who was visiting the studio yesterday. Apparently the girl had stepped in it at the beginning of the class, asked about the pets, and then didn't say anything else. Judy, bless her heart, cleaned it up and sprayed Ozium, but the 45 minutes between classes were not enough to get the smell out of the air (the smell was actually much worse after cleaning--a combination of cleaner, ozium and poo). For the next class, guess who had that corner seat? The pregnant woman. I felt so bad for her and asked if she would like to change places with me, but she said she was fine. I would've hurled had I been in that corner and pregnant.

Halfway through that class--also halfway through Brian's second class--Brian came in to tell me we were out of oxygen. I comped everyone's class and told them they could sign up another day--they were all Living Social 2-for-1 whose coupons expire this week.

A little while later Domenick came in and said the glass in the furnace was so stiff for the end of his class that he thought he was going to pull the crucible out on the last gather. I went out and looked at the furnace, and to my untrained but jaundiced eye, it looked like three of the elements were either out or not getting juice for some other reason. I went back inside and had Judy call the other two dates for the day to reschedule. The second date had already been rescheduled once in August for the furnace being out. They were NOT happy, and I ended up refunding their date night and telling them to reschedule for whenever would be convenient for them and it was on me.

The work day is now over and I am home in the comfy chair with a glass of wine. I could be crushed right now. Arguably I *should* be crushed right now. But I'm in the comfy chair. My spouse is home from Austin. I have a glass of wine and my family around me (well, not Jessie--she's still at a friend's house and will be home soon--but my Mom and Dave). The frosting on my cake is the justifiably cliched "and I have my health". All of those things add up to I have to give "crushed" a pass. Maybe I'm a little squished, but not crushed. Tomorrow, after all, is another day (and the studio is closed!!).

Happy weekend.

Like the South and the Phoenix, I Rise Again

The phoenix is Fully, Gloriously Feathered with no dust required (see yesterday's post for the reference). I spent today leaving yesterday--and the couple of crappy days that came before it-- behind.

In a whirlwind of activity I met with Lori and Judy and we discussed plans for the the Siyeh Glass Resource Center for 2012--highlight: we're opening back up on Sundays in January. I emailed back and forth with another fuser that I am considering hiring to teach classes starting in January and it looks like that will be a go. I spoke with Nancy G. at length about her fusing techniques that she has so graciously offered for inclusion in Le Book, and set-up preliminary deadlines with her. I redesigned our Intro To Kiln-Forming and Intro To Bead-Making classes, put up the schedule for first quarter 2012 classes, and rewrote the pages on the website to match.

Finally, I conferred with my fellow sleigh-riders and we decided to do a short, sweet, intense Siyeh Sleigh ride in conjunction with Small Business Saturday next Saturday, November 26. Got the web page up for that one too.

The highlight of the day was the meshing my realization that the way I have been teaching the Intro To Kiln-Forming class just doesn't work with Brian's description of how Intro To Bead-Making needs to be extended. I can't realistically get out--nor can the students take in--all the material necessary to prepare students to be on their own in open studio, and Brian has the same problem--compounded with a need for longer practicing times. As I put on the classes page:

"Over the past three years we have determined that trying to stuff all the things we think you need to learn in a two-hour Intro to Kiln-Forming or Intro To Bead-Making class doesn't work. We have to talk way too fast, and your brains get way too full--or you just need more time to practice the techniques as you learn them. On the other hand, many of you either can't--or don't know up front if you're ready to--make either the time or the financial commitment to come three weeks in a row to three separate sessions. The conundrum posed us by these issues was great and troublesome, but we think we have solved it (huzzah); Welcome to Intro 1 2 3!

We have redesigned our Intro To Kiln-Forming and Intro To Bead-Making classes and broken them up into three separate sessions. You can take one, two, or all three of them at your own pace, on your own schedule. And because you don't have to decide up front, you can try Intro 1, make a cool project, and if you like it and want to go on, Intros 2 and 3 will provide you with the skills and comfort level you need to progress to Open Studio (working on your own in the studio with your own glass)." 

And here is the write-up on Intro To Kiln-Forming 1 2 3:

"Intro 1: In this two hour class you will be introduced to the basics of fusing and slumping—the foundation techniques of kiln-forming glass—and the various tools and equipment used in them. Learn what happens when glass is melted—how it flows, what happens to air trapped in it, how it combines with other glasses—and apply what you learn as you design and execute your own piece. We'll keep the science to a minimum (viscosity, thermal coefficient of expansion and surface tension can all wait); this first time it's all about compatibility and falling in love. Think of us as a matchmaker: Whether or not glass turns out to be your soulmate, you'll end the class with a gorgeous 8” square plate that you can proudly point to and say, "I made that myself".

Intro 2: You've had the first date, now it's time to start learning all about each other. We start with cutting glass, and move onto designing glass work for the kiln-forming. It's time to meet the parents—aka the kiln—and get to that science we skipped earlier as we find out why it turns out the way it does. But don't worry, you'll still be so warm and fuzzy from the flush of Intro 1 that finding out there will be bubbles in the glass (no matter what) won't daunt you.You'll make another 8” square plate, probably as a gift for a person you love (one cannot live by glass alone).

Intro 3: This session covers everything you'll need to know about being on your own with glass. You'll use advanced cutting tools that enable you to easily prepare your own circles and straight-edged pieces and cut big sheets down to size. We'll discuss the nature of relationships as we delve into the effects of opalescent and transparent glasses on depth perception and color. We'll explore what happens from chemical reactions between different glasses, and we'll see that sometimes the color you start with is not the color you end up with when you use striker glasses. We'll address safe-fusing practices from the design stage through firing. Finally, you'll learn how to prepare a kiln shelf, and load and program a kiln for firing.

Each session in the Intro series is a prerequisite for the next."

 Tomorrow I teach two, full, Intro classes, and I absolutely, positively must get the newsletter done and out for the Sleigh Ride.

Nothing like rising with a vengeance.

The Phoenix

Thank you to everyone who wrote and called with support and encouragement for me today after my terrible week of dealing with the City of Atlanta. I appreciate you more than I can say. Tomorrow, like the phoenix, I will rise from the ashes, dust myself off, and Get Back To It! Tonight a hot shower, a warm bed and a cuddly spouse await... G'Night.

Whinging 2

You whine, you moan, you play a little Diablo... and then you get on with your life--and it's quietly good. I had the Holiday Fair wrap-up meeting this morning. I turned in my expenses, my write-up, gave a report and made recommendations for next year, and I'm done--for the year and maybe for next year too. We'll see. Then I taught an Intro to Kiln-forming Glass II class. After that, off to the optometrist with J, followed by a visit to City Hall to pay for my business license--that whole experience left a very bad, corrupted taste in my mouth, at the end of which I just moved on. Whatever.

In all, the day was varied, full, and satisfying in a gentle, non-flashy way. I was approached about maybe helping make a project with the 8th grade students for the school auction in the spring, and I jumped on it (it sounds way cool). As a result, I had the personal and professional satisfaction of seeing the stunned gratitude on the teacher's face when I said sure I'd do it, and no, it wouldn't cost anything--I'd donate my time and the materials. She hugged me, and that made my day.

Has anything really changed since yesterday? No. Are there still parts of my business life I think I seriously need to overhaul? Absolutely. But I put together the schedule for the Intro to Beadmaking I, II and III classes through March today, and I'll do the same for the Intro to Kiln-forming classes tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll also write a newsletter. I'll start on a new website, and eventually I'll plan an artist open house in the spring (early summer--after the manuscript is due) and skip a holiday show that has to compete with everything else going on in the few, short weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Now I've had a lovely dinner with a good friend and her children (Dave is in Austin), and It's time to go to bed so I can be in court at 8:00 am tomorrow, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, to deal with the farce that is the course of my Atlanta City business license process.

The Times They Need To Be A-Changing

Today has been a very frustrating day. I have been pinged and dinged and beaten down since 8:30 this morning. It seems like everyone wants something, wants money, wants time, wants extensions, wants exceptions, wants special treatment from me, or can't pay me, or something else that leaves me feeling marginalized, undervalued, and under-appreciated. Back in March I wrote that we don't do what we do for the money, and I still believe that to be true. The following paragraph from that post hit me especially hard today:

When we start thinking about how much we're making for our work compared to how much we're working and we begin to feel resentful, it's not about the money--however much we might say it is--it's about the work. Something about the work is not or is no longer meeting our needs. The answer really isn't to ask for a raise. More money for the same work environment is a short term sop that initially makes us feel more self-worth but doesn't address the real problem. The real problem is either that the negative aspects of the job or the job environment outweigh the positives and leave us feeling down at the end of the day, or that we have intrinsic self-worth issues that keep us from being fulfilled and validated external to the job.

In my case, my self-esteem is just fine, but my job has evolved into management and ownership in the most non-creative of ways. When I get the opportunity to create, I throw myself completely into the experience--as in the Bullseye conference workshop on manual 3-D printing earlier this year, or the fall Advanced Beginning Weaving workshop I took in New Hampshire in October. I love those times and I am energized and excited again by what I Do--whether or not I make any money from it. Even the Waldorf Holiday Fair (though Dave will never believe it) was very satisfying for me in spite of the extreme hard work, high level of responsibility, and complete lack of remuneration.

Today's tasks--dealing with the City of Atlanta Department of Revenue (again) over my business license issue, managing orders which were/are delayed, calling customers about paying their invoices that have been past due for over 180 days, filling out and mailing payroll tax forms, and appealing a water bill that was four times higher than it should have/ever has been--were almost more than I could bear. But the real cherry on the top of the day was answering phone calls and emails from the never-ending stream of people who purchased our class deal through Living Social last November and waited until the last minute to try to schedule a class before the deal expires on November 24 ("Well it didn't say I couldn't wait till the last minute! How do I get a refund?"). I have quadrupled our class offerings to try to fit everyone in, and I extended the expiration to the end of January, and yet I *still* feel harangued and like they think I'm trying to cheat them. At one point I looked at my Mom with despair (sometimes you've just got to have your Mom around, and I'm very lucky that mine lives with us), and she sympathetically said to me, "Let's run away to Greece." I was sorely tempted.

So what to do? Well, my first step was to cancel this year's Siyeh Sleigh Ride. I have not been looking forward to it, I have been viewing it as an obligatory millstone around my neck--something I *should* do. I am also re-evaluating doing the Buyer's Market show in February--I have three days to cancel. Christine, the excellent former show director, is no longer with the Rosen Group, Wendy Rosen is absorbed by her bid for a Congressional seat, and her daughter Rebecca, who has taken over the show, is an unknown quantity to me. My one exposure to Rebecca was a few years ago when she tried to have a world handcrafts show run concurrently with the Buyer's Market of American Craft. This idea did not fill me with confidence that she understands what it means to be a North American artisan buying North-American-made materials, paying North American production costs, wages, insurance, mortgage/rent, cost of living, etc., and having to compete against third-world wages and cost of living. Yes, it might have been a great idea for boosting buyer attendance numbers--less costly goods are always good for buyers, but it didn't show her to be behind the idea of building up an awareness and appreciation for fine North American-made (and all that that label entails) craft. Would it have been good for their main supporters and the reason for the show--the American and Canadian artisans who have been exhibiting there for almost 30 years? No.

Canceling the sleigh ride and re-evaluating my one remaining wholesale show feel like the baby-steps to bigger changes. If I am not Doing It for the money--and we should all be clear by this point that I am not--then I need to be more true to doing the It that gives me joy, makes my heart sing, and doesn't make me feel a drudge. Guess it's time to shake things up a bit.

Whinging

Not drinking anything, not listening to anything either... I'm clearly in a slump. No, I am slumping something in the kiln, but I am not, myself, in a slump. (Can you tell we have had my uncle the punster staying with us for the past several days?) I promised pictures of Ed's and Susan's first kiln-formed pieces today, but they will have to wait till tomorrow when they are finished slumping.

Today was another transitional day for me. Because it was Ed and Susan's last day, I took them to a late breakfast, then they helped me unload the minivan from the holiday fair, then we visited a little... and then it was time to go to the airport. When I got back I defied popular opinion on Facebook and played Diablo for awhile (I picked up a saved game from three years ago... I really don't get out much).

Now I post and stubbornly put off thinking about the Siyeh Studio website, the newsletter, my court date Thursday, kicking the book into gear, orders, shipping, bills, and Dave going to Austin for three days tomorrow--leaving me to the dreaded single-parenthood (and the Waldorf lantern walk). Really. I'm not thinking about them At All. I am aiming for limbo and the perfect float in time. My aim is terrible, and I dread the resurgence in importance of tasks that have been on the to-do list for weeks (months), but which were relegated to obscurity by the all-consuming holiday fair. Now I no longer have an excuse for avoiding them, and I really am not looking forward to the next few days.

Ah well, enough whinging. Off to bed and bright, shiny, early day tomorrow.

Endings

The weekend comes to an end. The visit from my uncle and Susan comes to and end. The Holiday Fair and my Viking Tales have ended. It's time to transition into thinking about the holidays, and to focus back on glass and glass business. Tomorrow. It's time to do that tomorrow. For tonight I am thinking of nothing. I have no projects, no plans, no duties. I am trying very hard to just rest in the me and the moment. I am not entirely successful.

Like Ellen, I am having a hard time posting right now. Part of it is probably because there is not much of interest to anyone but me in the lint in my navel--which is about all I have resting in the me and the moment. Sadly the lack of projects, obligations and deadlines did not stop me from a wakeful semi-anxious hour in the middle of the night last night, and I can feel another one coming on tonight. I had the hardest time trying to convince my subconscious that there really wasn't anything triggering a dark anxiety attack, and I I am bummed that I feel it lurking again tonight.

I really am not very good with the transition between projects/balls-to-the-wall activity. When I am in the throes of a Big Project, I yearn for a time of rest and a cessation of activity with all my being. But when it comes, I twiddle my thumbs and think, "Now what?" The only good answer to that question is one of the chocolate chip cookies Dave and Jessie made today, but I think we took them all to Jessie's cello recital this afternoon. Darn, I could really use some anxiety-repelling chocolate about now.

Tomorrow, before and after pictures of the kiln-formed pieces Ed and Susan made in their lesson in the studio today.

A Day of Rest Cometh

There would have been some wonderful red wine in a Riedel stemless glass introducing this post, but Dave took the last of it. My background music is the sound of family desultorily chatting after a big dinner and movie. The Waldorf Holiday Fair is over for another year, and 257 people came through the Viking Tales event earning an etched and fused glass rune stone (handmade by moi). My feet are up (my dogs are a' barking!) and I am even considering heading to bed. Heck, I'm over considering. I'm off. More tomorrow.

Oh Fudge...

I forgot to post again last night! Between holiday fair prep, teaching at the studio, and company in from out of town (this week my uncle and his girlfriend) I completely forgot. I am not so good at NaBloPoMo. However I am *very* good at holiday fair prep! Tomorrow there will be pictures--maybe even a movie.

The activity begins with a journey through the time before time in viking mythology. Back when neither our world, nor the universe, nor the stars existed. There was only Nifflheim, the world of ice, Muspleheim, the world of fire, and the Ginnungagap, the great void between. You navigate the stalactites and fog in Nifflheim, the eerie black lighting of the Ginnungap, and the roaring flames of Muspleheim before arriving at the great giant Ymir from whose body came our world, Midgard, the universe and the stars in the heavens. After you pass under the legs of the great Ymir, the next part of your adventure begins.

In part two, you help Odin and Loki as they repay a debt. You gather gold from the dwarf's treasure at the base of the waterfall and you carry it around the corner to where you place it on an otter's pelt. Odin and Loki's task is to completely cover the otter's pelt. As a reward for your help, you receive a glass rune stone. You reach into a velvet bag and take a stone, and the guardian will tell you the meaning of your rune.

Okay, I am officially exhausted and heading off to rest up for a full day tomorrow....

On a Schedule

My post is being timed tonight as there are only so many minutes left of battery-life in the laptop, and Dave is using the communal power cord right now. I take this as a challenge, and I am up to it. Unfortunately, nothing is likely to save me from a boring recital of a post. What can I say? One can't scintillate everyday.

It is a sad commentary on life when the most difficult part of the preparation for the Waldorf Holiday Fair is the making of the glass rune stones. The stencils were interminable to prepare--for Dee anyway; I was ensconced with hot chai and snoring dogs. Then today the etching was just as teeth-gnashing as the last person to use the sandblaster blew a hole in the hose, tried a quick duct-tape fix, and didn't bother to tell me about it. Then I used a bit of spray adhesive as an additional hold for the stencil, and the adhesive was almost impossible to blast off. Dee had been concerned about the age and stickiness of the stencils, but when I finally gave up on the spray in exasperation, the stencils adhered just fine to the glass without it. And the glass was a heck of a lot easier to clean up. Lesson learned.

Tomorrow and Friday I teach intro to kiln-forming classes (the piece at right is a student piece from one of last week's classes, pre-firing), and Friday is also the set-up for the Holiday Fair (I got a fog machine for Nifflheim today. Whoo hoo.) Tomorrow I also head back to Dee's so she can cut all the runes for me on her fancy schmancy tile saw with the super blade. Licha is coming down to the studio to do roll-ups in the morning--I hope Tadashi gets the slabs in tonight as I have been out of the loop on that one and I have not seen him yet.

Okay, time's up, brain's empty--off to bed.

Thankful For Friends

A cup of Indian Spice Chai in a hand-made, blue-glazed pottery mug, and the sounds of dogs who are not mine snoring for my posting music. One of them (Chloe) snores *really* loudly. (How's that, Bill? Were ya missing the intro? :-)

Because I like having pictures in my post, I am putting up this one of the studio chicks and buns. Both bunnies and all the chickens except Sundust are in the picture, eating in harmony. We haven't had any eggs yet (from either chicks or buns), and Dave thinks maybe the bunnies are eating them. I don't think it works that way, but who knows? All I can say is those chickens better get pulling their weight and laying those eggs or Dave may start making stew.

Day 2 of my cold/flu/whatever, and day 8 of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month--not as much fun as National Chocolate Eater's Day, but we take what we can get). I am at Dee's cozied up in chair with my hot chai and a warm cinnamon roll while she makes the stencils for the runes for the Holiday Fair for me. Well, she will be making the stencils for me. Right now we are still debating final size and techniques needed to get there. I think it's time to give up on putting channels in them and making it so they can be either stones or pendants. These are going to be stones. Rune Stones.

There is not much going on in the glass studio this week. Orders continue to trickle in--mostly for Todd--and I am teaching both Thursday and Friday, but in general we are enjoying a slow season. Some might not enjoy a slow season. Some might lament the lack of pre-holiday season rush. Some are not me. I revel in my current lack of speed--and not just because I am sick. Maybe now I will finally get the Siyeh Studio website back up, and the newsletter out, and the planning started for the annual Siyeh Sleigh artist open house starting Dec 3.

Or maybe I'll just go back to napping.

Let Me Explain...

I didn't post yesterday. It was the sixth day of NaBloPoMo, and I meant to post, I had things I wanted to write, my dog didn't eat my homework, but I got sick instead. Really.

Yesterday was my favorite day of the year--the day the clocks fall back and we get an extra hour to sleep in. Sadly for me, I started coming down with a cold the night before and had a very rough night trying to sleep and only partially succeeding at it. I dragged myself out of bed for the final time about 9:00 am to get ready to host the final parent workday before the Waldorf Holiday Fair. I felt so crappy and tired that I could barely focus on what needed to be done.

Turnout for the aforementioned workday was pretty much limited to the faithful friends, but we still managed to patch and paint the paper mache giant Ymir, weight and paint the paper mache stalagmites, dry and finish painting the gold, paint the treasure chest, hang and touch-up the stalactites, and drill and paint the Muspleheim floor. There is still a bit left for me to do this week, but in the interests of not stressing my spouse out any more than he already is about my level of effort in the holiday fair, I will keep that list to myself.

The evening started with a last dinner with our extended family--Dave's parents and his sister all visiting from the north, my Mom, Dave Jessie and me. Dave made his special cassoulet, and it was excellent. But by 8:00 I was so exhausted I wasn't even sure if I had a name--much less was able to remember it. So I went upstairs to rest and post--and promptly fell asleep, thus ending my posting aspirations.

Today was spent on this post (really) and napping (the pets napped too). You can clearly see that napping got the bigger piece of the time pie. For once I let my body shut down and drift without complaint. Yes, my Inbox is still full, and it will be full tomorrow. But for today, I rested. And It Was Good!

A Full Day

Today was the busiest day the studio has ever seen--and Judy took the day off. Bad Judy! Actually, though we missed her, we did okay without her as there was no walk-in traffic and the phones were relatively quiet. It was still the busiest day, however, as I taught two full classes, Brian had two full bead-making classes, and Tadashi and Domenick had five glass blowing lessons/dates between them. That's all the people we can currently run through in a day. And they loved it, and many of them want to come back again and do more glass. And this is why I teach and have a teaching studio. I love the enthusiasm of the fresh beginner. I remember anew the fantastic feeling I got when I worked with glass for the first time and how I couldn't wait till I got to do it again.

It's kind of like falling in love. I remember when I met Dave and I was so in love with him, and I knew I'd marry him, and I was so extraordinarily happy but for one thing: I knew that as long as I loved him--and I couldn't (and still can't) imagine not loving him--I would never have that breathless feeling of falling in love again. I would never have the anxiety and the heights and the depths that come with new love. New love comes and consumes and terrifies and exhorts, and then it either skitters away, or calms down into something daily, deep and rich. Don't get me wrong. Daily, deep and rich are like swimming in dark chocolate--there is nothing better. But no matter how wonderful it is, you can't help but feel a twinge of longing for the knife-edged uncertainty and extreme sensation of New Love.

My relationship with glass is long and deep now. We are 24-year happily marrieds with all the complexity and comfort that that amount of time implies. I may temporarily lose myself in a new technique, or become entranced with a new color, but I know that I'll never again have the all-consuming obsession with glass that I did when I first met it.
And yet, when I teach a class, every now and then I see in someone else's face that fascination, that tactile lust for glass that I once felt, and I bask in the reflected glow of falling love all over again. Today was a day like that for me.

Now I curl up in bed next to my spouse. I feel the deep, warm comfort that comes from 16 wonderful years, and I know that somewhere else in Atlanta, someone is going to sleep alight with the fire of  New Love. New love for glass, to which I provided the introduction. And I am happy.

Happy Birthday Jessie!

Happy 10th Birthday Jessie Cordelia Kathleen Griffith! Yes, there was glass today, and there was glass business. But the biggest order of the day was the Sprout's birthday. All of her grandparents are here as is her aunt Jan. We had Nancy's thin crust pizza, champagne (J and the two friends she had over had eggnog), and old fashioned chocolate cake from Southern Sweets. The girls spent six hours making beaded platypi and duct tape and felt houses for them, and are now ensconced in front of a movie--making more platypi.

Besides the birthday preparations (and the ruana I managed to cut and sew from the wool fabric I wove in New Hampshire), I also picked up the 8-ft giant Ymir that I made with J's class on Wednesday. Here's a tip on paper mache: don't let the flour and water paste ferment before you use it. We had three gallons that wouldn't fit in the fridge and evidently there was a little feral yeast in the flour as the morning after we made it it was already bubbling up. I didn't think anything of it and used it with the kids. Their teacher was very glad that I got it out of the classroom today as it was beginning to smell like a brewery in there (and that's not as pleasant as you might think). My minivan might never be the same. Now Ymir rests in our garage till Sunday when we host another parent work day and I get some people to duct tape his joints up and to patch a few tears from moving him. Then we'll paint him white... or blue... or some other frost-giant-like color.

So was there glass done today? In a sense, yes. I started the day by appealing my $2,000 penalty for failure to file for a City of Atlanta business license. I used the grounds that the penalty is four times the tax and interest due which is inequitable, and that it would be a serious hardship from my small business to pay it and stay in business. My request was granted. Yea!!!

Judy prepared me for a big day in the studio tomorrow as she is taking the day off. Tomorrow I teach two full fusing classes, Brian teaches two full beadmaking classes, and we have five glass blowing dates/lessons scheduled too. Thank heaven my Mom is going to come in and help while Judy is gone. NO MORE SATURDAYS OFF FOR JUDY!

Now it is late and my spouse is snoring dulcetly next to me (really). Off to sleep and tomorrow, another day.

Night and Day

It's another late night posting. Everyone else is off to bed, and I am left with the dogs and the cat, and not an opposable thumb between them. There is a different feel to posting at night; a more melancholy reflective mood--or maybe that's just my general humor of late. Fall is my favorite season of the year. It's also always my busiest, and the one in which I am most likely to overdo. Between the start of school--and all of the volunteering opportunities it brings, Jessie's birthday, the holidays, and all the projects it's now cool enough to do, I tend to get over-committed and over-stimulated really easily. This year--the year of the Great Slow Down--I have been trying to pace myself more reasonably. Unfortunately the feedback from my family is that I am not succeeding and I am just as psychotic as I have been in every other over-committed moment in my life. Not what was either aiming or hoping for this year.

Finished laying tile in Dee's kitchen this morning and shipped the big order I fired yesterday. Tomorrow is Jessie's birthday and I have the ruana I wove for her to finish (the weaving is done, now it's time to turn the fabric into a garment). I also need to pick up the 8-ft tall paper mache giant I made with J's class on Wednesday and run a few errands. Then maybe I'll have the time and the focus to make headway on the monstrous to-do list I have been creating over the past few days--creating without taking any time to complete (and happily check-off) items.

Can't keep the eyes open any longer. Off to snuggle a spouse, if he'll have me.

Time Marches On

Day 2 of NaBloPoMo. At some point soon I will stop counting the days I post in my posts, but today is not that day. Today was a day for Holiday Fair meeting, giant Ymir wire armature creation, paper mache of said giant with the 4th grade (and didn't I send them all home covered in slightly-fermented flour, water, and salt paste), a kiln load for a big, urgent, glass order, and, finally, dinner and an evening with the newly-arrived in-laws.

Tomorrow it's back to Dee's to finish tiling, to the school to pick up the dry Ymir (they have no room in the classroom to keep an eight-foot tall giant for the next week and a half till the holiday fair), and back to the studio to ship the urgent glass order. Folded into that all will be the return of the book contract (yes, Bill, I have my big girl panties on and I'm done sniveling), a deposit, a couple of checks written (bills paid), and a drop-ship order submitted. If I were really optimistic I might add the start of a newsletter. I am not, however, so optimistic.

The in-laws are visiting. Fall is beautiful. I'll get to what I get to.

NaBloPoMo and Writing

If I don't post now I might miss the first day of NaBloPoMo!

I can't remember right now what I did today--it was a blur. There were accounts receivable to reconcile (and calls to make, and emails to send). There were bills to pay, taxes to file, and checks to receive (yay!). It was altogether a non-auspicious start-day for NaBloPoMo.

One thing I didn't do today--in fact I mentally blocked on it--was to print out, sign and fax/mail my book contract in. I appear to be dragging my feet. Why? Well, it's a HUGE commitment and I am a bit afraid of the impact it will have on my life. Didn't I just vow (sometime in the past few months) to slow down? Writing a 240 page book with all high-level subject matter is NOT slowing down. It will consume my life, my time, my business. Dave says it will be fine. He is fully behind me. Has he forgotten what the last book (half this size) was like? Is this like the masculine version of childbirth for him? It must be, otherwise he'd never be willing to do it again (and no one would either write books or have children and our species would become illiterate and die out--take your pick as to which would come first).

I am terrified of the impact this oeuvre will have on my and my family's lives. Right now--to be honest--I am sorry I ever brought it up. But I did. I brought it up and more. And now I have a contract for it and I need to sign it, send it back, put on my big-girl panties and get writing.

Here's to fortitude... (And I thought I didn't have anything to say!).

Happy Halloween!

Too exhausted to write much, but wanted to do a quick post on the day. Today saw me installing fused glass tile made by Dee in her kitchen. Due to a bit of a late start and very careful cutting and piecing around several electrical outlets we didn't get quite done and will need to finish tomorrow. Dan is also coming to the studio tomorrow to build another shelving unit from old Bullseye crates for the new 5 oz frit jars. Never a dull moment.

Tonight was Halloween and I handed out candy while finishing winding the warp for a birthday/Christmas gift of a chenille blanket. The person for whom I am making the blanket doesn't read this blog, but I'm not mentioning any names just to be safe.

Dave took J took a friend's neighborhood for trick-or-treating and she and her friends were all duct tape... somethings. I'm not sure what the intent was, but all three of them made their costumes by covering normal articles of clothing with duct tape. J also ratted her hair (first AND last time for that I'm betting as she was in tears by the time we were half way through brushing it out) and put dark blue (I didn't have black) eyeliner around one eye. Dave's comment was "My daughter evidently going trick-or-treating as "Grace Slick, 1979, face down in the gutter outside CBGBs".

Now it's time for bed. Tomorrow is the first day of NaBloPoMo and this year I'm going to do it!

Time Be Time

In the shower this morning I had, well not exactly an epiphany but close. When I was Jessie's age, time was measured in minutes--minutes till recess, minutes till dinner, minutes in a cartoon. The minutes (about 15) it took to walk to school took FOREVER. By high school minutes had ceded place of prominence to hours--a class period, hours till the end of the school day, hours till a party or a date. Neither of these statements is to say that days and weeks didn't count. The big events--summer vacation, Christmas, my birthday--were still anticipated weeks and days in advance, but the dominant measurement of the passing of time was the hour.

Sometime in my 20's--probably commensurate with leaving school and entering the Working World (entering at least for awhile before fleeing back to school) the class hour gave way to the work day and days began to shape life events--TGIF, I hate Mondays, Wednesday is hump day. There was also a vague grouping into weeks and months (never years unless in the past), but it remained firmly vague.

Side note: I *love* writing. I hated it when I was forced to do it on some else's schedule for class assignments and to conform to someone else's rules (grammar--smack my knuckles with a ruler). Now, the juxtaposition of the words "firmly" and "vague" actually gives me a little burst of satisfied happiness at having found just the right phrase. But time passes as I digress so let's get back to the passage of time.

Now, as I wander the other side of the fifty-year mark, I could care less about hours anymore (an hour, isn't that about the time it takes to sneeze and find the tissues?), and days have begun to clump into a week-shaped blob. In fact days only get recognized when I find or lose them. For instance, last week in my weaving class, on Thursday night as I was planning my last project, I was sure I had two days left to complete it--that it was, in effect, Wednesday night. I was not so lucky (hence working till 1:00 am Saturday). Other weeks I will be stressing because I think it's Wednesday, and then I realize it's only Tuesday, and the relief that floods my system along with the realization is almost intoxicating. Weekends are no longer the days Saturday and Sunday, they are a differential break in the rhythm of Monday through Friday (or not, depending on the studio's work load). Compare it to finding or losing a dollar at age nine to finding or losing $20 now...

A lot of the contemplation (in the shower, as I cleaned the lint out of my navel) that resulted in the post above, was triggered by the realization that I am 50, and 50 seems like a reasonable half-way point in life. The time it took to get here seemed comfortably long. But as my perception of time compresses, are the next 50 years going to rush by? I don't want them to rush! I want more time! Maybe I'll need to live to 150. Time to start working on that goal.

Thursday and STILL Posting!

It's almost a record for this year--four posts in a row! It is embarrassing how little I've posted, but with the new book a reality and no longer just a theory, writing has jumped to the top of my daily to-do's. Today will also see more activity in the studio--though I doubt if I will be firing anything of my own. Houston is coming today so we can experiment with Bullseye powders fired on copper, and Becky is scheduled to whip my books a little more into shape. Tadashi is in the hotshop, and Judy is running the desk/phones. Do they really need me? Well I suppose Houston does.

Right now I pore over my new book contract, comparing it to my last contract. Five years ago there was a section pertaining to "electronic rights" that mentioned "...photographic, video, audio, digital... for copying, recording, or transmission". Now that section has been replaced by a big, shiny, new section on "electronic editions" with a better royalty structure than previously. The royalty structure is also much better than for printed copies. Too bad I don't write fiction.

And that's enough writing to qualify for a post. Now off to so... something else.

The Weaving of Life and Work

Some days are work days with a twist. This theme is really an extension of my writings earlier this week on what work Is and how you Do it. Today I was in the studio for half an hour, and prior to now I was on the computer for about another half an hour, and yet I worked. Though it will make my husband cringe to hear it, I spent the rest of the day today on the Waldorf Holiday Fair and Viking Tales. And it gave me GREAT joy. The morning began with some lively discourse over coffee in front of the grades building at school after I dropped Jessie off (they put out coffee and home-baked bread on Wednesday mornings for any parents who wish to drop by and mingle). She has to be there at 8:00 and I had a meeting there at 8:30 (for said Holiday Fair) so it was serendipitous to have them provide me with coffee (though I talked too much to get to the bread--surprise, surprise).

Then there was a meeting--meetings in my life now that I own my own business are very rare. I meet with the studio staff maybe once every two months so in a way it's kind of a nice socializing opportunity to have the Holiday Fair meetings (and there are only two more this year). When the meeting was over, one of the other parents--in charge of the candle-dipping activity--followed me back to the studio to collect some deadfall from the pecan tree from which to make the candle bases.

Then it was off to the dollar store for bowls and the Home Depot for chicken wire to prepare for my afternoon's activity--making paper mache stalactites and stalagmites with Jessie's class for Nifflheim in Viking Tales. Emded with a quick stop at the recycling center drop-off to scavenge (despite the prominent "No Scavenging" signs) a bunch of newspaper to use in the paper mache. At home I quick whipped up nine chicken wire armatures of the stalcs and stalgs while Mom whipped up five batches of paper mache paste and filled a gallon milk jug with them. That entire paragraph took an hour fifteen to complete (do, not write)--we were like marines on a beach, Mom and I.

By 1:30 I was back at the Waldorf School and sitting down with 26 fourth graders and their teachers to do paper mache. It was a blast!! I think they all turned out really well, and we will paint them at the Holiday Fair parent workday at our house this Sunday. Now it is time to  confess that I have only done paper mache once in my life before, and that was 20 years ago. I have never made armatures before. In fact the word "armature" just entered my vocabulary in conjunction with the Holiday Fair event. My take-away from the experience? Just decide you can do it, go balls to the wall, and it will work out. After the week I have had so far, today was an overwhelming win.

But how does this whole post (and day's activities) relate to Glass Incarnate? Today was also the first day I have ever worked with chicken wire, and now I feel MUCH more sanguine about creating mold armatures--further evidence that every experience, every moment is intertwined with every other building and layering into A Life.

Thus ends my hump day this week. (And have you noticed that I have managed to post every day this week? woot woot.)

Work With a Vengeance

The day started with Dave heading off to Austin for his regular three-day stint and me wrangling the Sprout off to school. When I got home from dropping her off, I realized I had microwaved yesterday's coffee, put it in a go-mug, taken it all the way to school and back without a sip, and now needed to put it back in a regular mug. All for microwaved coffee. Which I microwaved because I am trying to save money. Which I need to save because the City of Atlanta's pound of flesh yesterday was almost more pounds than I can manage. I hope it's not a harbinger of the day. (And can I just say "ewww"? I'm making a new pot and to hell with frugality.)

Yesterday at City Hall getting a City of Atlanta business license took all day, but it's done. I had to go through the Dept of Revenue, the Zoning Dept, the Planning Dept, the Dept of Revenue again, then finally the cashier. After several hours I had a few slips of paper and a Big Bill. Everybody wants their piece of the corpse, er, pie. There are days when I think (no, I absolutely *know*) that it would cost me and my family less if I didn't work. Heck, I have enough of a yarn and fabric stash that I could weave, knit sew, scrapbook (I still haven't done my wedding scrapbook--much less one for Jessie) and garden to my heart's content--probably without ever having to buy another thing.

But that's not What I Do. I run a glass studio and make objects of beauty to enrich people's lives and homes. I make my neighborhood a better place by the existence of my studio and the experiences it offers. I employ five people, adding to their ability to make a living. I give my daughter an example of hard work and perseverance for hard work and perseverance's sake as opposed to financial gain.

Do I sound bitter this morning? I feel a bit bitter. I feel (more than) a bit ripped off by a City Government that needs money and is looking anywhere they can for it--with a poor, but honest, small businesses making a good target for them. Proof of that statement? I have made so little revenue in the past four business tax years that I have had the studio open that my back taxes--even including interest--are almost nothing. However my penalty for not filing a return is $500 *a year*. Had I known I had to register and file not only with the State of Georgia, Dekalb County, and the federal government, but also with the City, I would have done it. I did not know until they told me... four tax years after I opened the business. But ignorance of the law does not mean you don't have to follow the law so I now owe $2,000 in penalties for not filing.

It used to be that the penalty for not filing was 10% of the tax due plus interest on the tax. For a business that makes a lot of money and doesn't cut the government in, 10% is a tidy sum. For a small business that scrabbles along just trying to make it (and which probably doesn't have an accounting and compliance department to make sure all the proper forms and registrations and taxes and fees and, and, and are filed on time) the amount due would be trivial. So who is the government going after by making the fee $500 a year? The big businesses that are depriving the government of a lot of money, or the small businesses who probably owe--at most--$125 in taxes for a year? Bingo.

I got very close to the point yesterday where I said no, I'll just close my studio and lay off all my people. I have had enough being nickle-and-dimed and ripped off by a bloated, greedy, inefficient local government. I will not have a business here. But I didn't. And this morning I reviewed an old post to help bring me back into balance. Yes, I got screwed yesterday, but it's only money. Time to move on (and make another pot of coffee).

Back to Work!

The coffeemaker has been cleaned and filled, the pond is being filled, the chickens and bunnies have been fed, watered and nurtured, and it's time to get to work! While I was in New Hampshire the City of Atlanta, in their Infinite Wisdom, decided to have one of their people drop by my studio and issue a citation *to Judy* for operating a business without some damn registration form or another. Apparently they can cite anyone (and require them to go to court) if that person happens to be the only one present (a Person of Authority) in a business without the right piece of paper. She showed him my prominently displayed state registration certificate, and she showed him my prominently displayed employer registration forms for workman's comp and unemployment, but he wanted more. What, I do not know, but I shall find out today when I trek down to their offices to get the citation transferred to me.

My driver's license is still missing, and I left my GPS in my rental car in New Hampshire. The week *will* get better.

A Week At Warp Speed

Warp speed indeed. I sit, attempting calm, at the gate in the Manchester NH airport after having discovered (at the TSA check-in) that I LOST MY DRIVER'S LICENSE (!!!) sometime during the week. Either that or I packed it. I could easily have packed it (or left it in the rental car) as I am in an exhausted (but happy) fog after a week of advanced weaving with Tom Jipson at Harrisville Designs. Before I write anything else, I have to say that if there is ANY way I can do this again next year, I will (as will most of my classmates--some of whom were repeaters this time).

Some might think that a week spent in a weaving class would be relaxing, calming and balancing--and for some I'm sure it was. But in my usual fashion I threw myself headlong into the class determined to wring every drop of experience from it that I could, and to push my projects to the limits. For example, for the first project we were asked to weave a color blanket to demonstrate perception of color based on the colors' value and proximity to each other. Harrisville has 64 colors of Shetland wool in production from white to black. The looms we worked on were 22" wide so we could, at most, weave 22 1"-wide samples in the warp and then use all 64 colors for the weft.

We could extend the project by doing it on a 36" wide loom (36 colors max), or we could extend it by weaving a black thread in between all the colors in the warp and in the weft. Guess who was the only one (out of the four advanced students) in the class who did either the 36" or the black boundary. And in the interest of full disclosure, I did both. I finished my color blanket the same day as two of the others did (the fourth advanced student was *really* fast), but where they finished by 4:00 pm on day 2, and only worked until 8:00 at the latest on day 1, I finished at 10:00 pm on day 2 after also working till 10:00 pm on day 1.

I had a guilt-free (no fall-out on others if I failed) opportunity to push everything to the maximum--and, as is so rarely the case, I actually finished every task in the time I allotted myself. Which is not to say I did not occasionally have help. Somehow, no matter where I go, I manage to accrue a village. On Thursday night at 11:00, when it was time to wind a humongous warp onto the loom, four of my fellow students stepped up and helped me get it done. I could not have managed without them that night. Left to my own devices (and tears--there would have been tears) it would have taken the entire next day to get the warp on--leaving me no time at all for weaving it as the class ended (for most) Friday at 4:00.

But enough on pushing limits. This time was good for me on so many levels. I had planned to have a single room as historically I have not shared a room well with others (Todd and Dee at the BMAC and ACRE being the exceptions). However I was so happy with my roommate Charlotte that when the opportunity arose two days into the class to move into a single room, I chose not to.

More than half of the class stayed in the old mill boarding house, me included. The boarding house is a large brick building with the town's one daycare on the first floor, artist studios on the second floor, and several bedrooms, two tiny bathrooms, an eating area and a living room for the students in the attic/third floor. None of the rooms has locks on the door--not even the bathrooms. They, at least, have hooks on the inside, but the bedroom doors don't even have those, and the front doors are never locked. The town is not on the way to anywhere, and the inhabitants' philosophy seems to be, if you locked your doors, how would anyone leave anything for you?

Other peculiarities of the town which greatly add to it's charm are the lack of modern businesses: There are no gas stations, no supermarkets, no fast food restaurants--in fact I'm not sure there are any restaurants. I certainly didn't go to one. There is a General Store/ Cafe that has an eclectic selection of everything including daily specials to take home and reheat for dinner. One day I had a pound of stuffed grape leaves for lunch and dinner (with some soup, bread and wine) and they were delicious. The coffee, pastries, sandwiches, and breakfasts were also wonderful. Even the local post office with it's quirky postmaster (the only person working the window) was an exquisite slice of life from another, slower, more community-focused time.

I could go on and on waxing rhapsodic about Harrisville Designs, the class, the town, the people (new Englanders in general), my classmates, the wool--in short EVERYTHING about the last week, but I am home now, and my family awaits. Today we are all pitching in to clean up the basement. When that's done I will be able to get to my loom again, and maybe I will be able to carve out some time to re-create my experience of wonder here at home. You can read more about Historic Harrisville, a truly innovative model of historic conservation, on their website. And of you ever get the chance to visit, don't hesitate.

The Day Flies Already

In the spirit of Posting Every Day, I am dashing off a quick one before getting the kiln loads in. Yesterday really had its ups and downs. I am having great difficulty making any headway on the items on my To Do list. While this sounds like an inconsequential problem as problems go, it is causing me Great Anxiety. Enough anxiety that I was up and stressed at 5:30 am again this morning. Well, maybe "up" is a bit of a stretch. I did get up for a couple of minutes for nature, but I wasn't really "up". In fact I wasn't even totally awake; I was in more of a half state, plagued with horrible, anxious dreams and semi-lucid fears of deadlines looming. I am reminded of one of my favorite signature tags: "I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by." --  Douglas Adams. Only I am not so much loving them right now (where did I put the Tums?).

 Let's move on to yesterday's highlights. The phone rang right after we opened and it was an enameling artist wanting to know about using Bullseye powders for copper enameling. After a few minutes of talking, he announced that he was really more of a visual person and could he come over and see what I was talking about. I said sure, and thus began a very enjoyable couple of hours picking the brain of another wholesale production glass artist/small business owner (jack-of-all-business). Houston Llewllyn has not been making a living at enameling copper art pieces for long, but he sure has built an incredible business. He is so organized I feel like a total slacker--and the quality of both the art and the manufacturing are amazing. He casually left one of his pieces for us as thanks for the time we gave him, and it now has pride of place on our mantle. He left with several bottles of Bullseye powders, and though I fear they are not going to work for him as well as true enamels do (color saturation issues), I really hope they work out and we see more of him. (And I want to pick his brain for the enameling section of the new book.)

But after Houston left, everything went to hell in a handbasket (I can't resist: "Houston, we have a problem"). I didn't have time to get my kiln loads in for the day, and, Primus, the first glass furnace and the one I put back into service after bring both of them back from Olympic Kilns on Tuesday, started acting up again. He errored out on Tuesday night so I had to cancel yesterday's lesson and started his warm-up all over again. He reached temp (2100 degrees F) between 5:00 and 6:00, and the temperature suddenly and inexplicably started dropping. Tadashi and I both tried everything we could think of to figure out what was wrong, but we failed. 

Fortunately, Secondus, the second glass furnace (I just noticed that all the Olympic Kilns are male and the Denvers and the Skutt are female... wonder what that's all about) was ready to jump in and take over... but his cord wouldn't reach the outlet with Primus in the way. Sigh. After a run to Lowe's by Tadashi and some electrical-extension creation, we got Secondus loaded up and he seems to be chugging along fine this morning. Now I need to figure out when I can get Primus back to Olympic for some extended testing (I leave Sunday for a week-long weaving workshop at Harrisville Designs on Sunday).

But I must end on a happy note. Today is my 16th wedding anniversary and I couldn't be luckier or happier in my marriage. Thank you, Dave, for the best 16 years of my life. Now off to load those kilns!!!! 

You Never Know Where You'll End Up On the Web...

We all know the perils of sitting down in front of an open browser window and letting the winds of the Internet blow you whither they will. I'm sure there are people who fell into the Net years ago and someday they will wake, like Rip Van Winkle, to peer blearily around and find decades have passed since they sat down. I try to carefully manage my loose browsing time, but occasionally I'll just surf to see what's out there--usually to see if someone has put up anything new about Siyeh Studio, or to see how we rank in Google for different search queries. Yesterday I found out I am being seriously dinged for using the term "kiln-forming" instead of fusing and slumping on my website. I say dinged because it's the newbies I want to find me, and they most likely think of the technique as glass fusing or glass fusion. (Maybe I need a terminology page on the website and I can say "fusing" there a lot to boost my rank...).

But enough asides. Part of my search motivation yesterday came from a call I got out of the blue from Carolyn Edlund at the Artsy Shark. She wanted to know if I'd be willing to have her feature our Date Night in the Glass Studio in an article on her site. She was also planning to include the video of me speaking on Outside-The-Box-Thinking: Secrets of Retail Success at last winter's Buyer's Market of American Craft in Philadelphia. Video? I didn't know there was a video. I have mixed reactions to the existence of a video without my knowledge, but at least I was apparently having a Good Hair Day and I don't think I sounded too stupid. However it would have been nice to be asked if I minded being slapped up on YouTube. (I got permission from all of our date night attendees before I plastered them all over the Net!)

Last note of the day: It's a good thing I didn't let hubris get the best of me yesterday as I didn't even get through the three things I had on the list--the newsletter lies fallow, the glass order is not yet unloaded, the glass furnace is acting up again (Error-1 last night some time--I think it's balking at heating a solid 80 lb block of glass in a 50 lb crucible), and I didn't get my kiln loads in. Add to that that I ended yesterday's post with the thought that there was something I wanted to start with this morning and I can't remember what it is now (senior moment), and, well, no room for hubris here.

Finding the Saddle

Vacation is wonderful. If it is good, it recharges your batteries, fills your brain with new ideas, and puts you back in balance. If you're lucky, you even get kissed by a sea lion. I just got back from a wonderful family vacation (and as shown by the photo, I even got a kiss from a sea lion--as did Jessie), and it's a good thing it was wonderful as I had to scramble right back into the saddle again. Of course I spent much of yesterday trying to find the saddle...

This morning I am working from Olympic Kilns while they service our two glass furnaces. I should have brought the back-up in for service a couple of months ago, but I was lazy and thus caught with my pants down when the main furnace went down right before I left for the aforementioned vacation. Now I pay the price as I had to schlep two heavy furnaces up here at the same time. When I get back to the studio this afternoon Dave will help me unload them, and then I'll have to charge and fire one up for the dates this weekend.

Also on tap for today is the unloading of the latest order from Bullseye--cullet, sheet, frit, stringer and rod--everything I need for a big fall sale. Dee is coming down to help me unload (hope it's stopped raining by the time we're ready to start). And speaking of sales; the infamous-not-yet-published fall newsletter will feature a great deal on a beginner's fusing and slumping kit which includes our favorite tools, kiln and a selection of glass. What could be better? (I know--actually getting the newsletter done!).

In the spirit of slowing down and being reasonable with the amount I plan for a day, I think I'll stop there. I was going to say I'll round the day off with updating the studio mailing list, redoing the front page on the website, and working on integrating my retail materials/tools/kiln inventory into my point of sale software--including incorporating the barcode system, but, come on, there are only so many hours left in the day!!

Hubris and Happy Birthday

I post from Radial Cafe as I enjoy a birthday breakfast with my spouse (his birthday, not mine). He returned home late last night from his regular 3-day-long-every-3-week stint in Austin. I was (and still am to some extent) exhausted to the point where he expressed concern. I was at a loss to explain my unusual fatigue as I have been doing pretty much my normal amount of work all week (plan curtains and painting--for the house not the studio, make and ship orders, commission new storage for the studio, have it installed and fill it (or, rather, watch as Dee mostly fills it), do a complete materials inventory, show planning... you know, a little of everything). Then I had an epiphany! Judy is also on vacation this week so I have been doing her work as well as mine--scheduling and payment for date nights, lessons and classes, chatting with everyone coming in to pick up the work, and endless hours on the phone. It's no wonder I am exhausted--I have been doing the work of three!

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't realize how much they both do, I just lost track of the fact that, if they were gone, their work would still need to done and I would be the one doing it. Actually I roped Mom into doing it too--she made J's lunch and got her off to school Wednesday while I drove to Commerce to get work from Black Cat ArtWorks, and she also picked her up Wednesday afternoon while I worked at the studio. She also worked in the studio yesterday afternoon while I went to an appointment, she'll work there again this afternoon while I clean up the back yard for Dave's party tonight, and she made dinner and got J to bed last night while I put kiln-loads in. (I bet she's exhausted too!) Even with her help, however, I had a hard time staying on top of everything home and studio-related. I'm glad Dave's home and Judy will be home next week. I let hubris my nemesis get the best of me, and I am sorely chastened.

On a slightly happier note, Book Deux is official; yesterday the publisher approved the editor's proposal for a (gulp) 240 page softcover book to be published May of 2013--manuscript due May 1, 2012. Contract (with advance!) is in the works. The song playing here at Radial is "I Still Believe" by The Call. It's a sign. Let the games begin...

Organization

Dave is getting me coffee (a medium mocha) and a bagel, and I am jumping on the day/week. My schedule for the next couple of weeks is a nice blend of production work, planning (winter BMAC booth location and size), and development (website/newsletter--I can always hope!) with a dash of artist interaction as I spend a day with Dee in her studio playing studio elf for her. There are about 15 things on the to-do list that have been making me procrastinate, and I *will* knock them out this morning (focus, focus, focus). I also need to put some time into (drum roll, please) Book Two.

Book Two is in early stages; no green light (approval meeting at the publishers later this week), no contract yet (after publisher approval that takes another month), but there is a preliminary manuscript deadline (May 1), and a preliminary publication date (May 2013). I have a target length (200-240 pages), and a pretty complete outline. The content will include best studio practices, advanced techniques and projects, and it will finish with other artist collaboration (i.e., roll-ups). That, at least, is the first-pass plan. It will be interesting to look back at this post in seven months to compare reality with plan.

I am much more relaxed, much less naive, and much more organized about the initial processes of this book. This time around--especially given the serious size jump (128 pages to over 200) and the concomitant lack of increase in time to get it done (I either have the same amount or slightly less)--I am proactively, officially setting up an Open Project project plan with resources (contributors), tasks and a schedule (tote that barge, lift that bale!). I even have a trial run to learn Open Project--the Waldorf Holiday Fair 4th Grade activity, code name: Viking Tales. Last year I managed the mummies in an obstacle course through the excavation of a mummy's tomb complete with lots of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. This year I am calling on ALL of the other 4th grade parents to help conceptualize, construct, co-ordinate and staff this year's Viking adventure complete with Norse Runes.

But now it's time to get to that mountainous to-do list so I have time for another glass blowing lesson this week. Last week all I did was blow bubbles for two hours (an example shown at the beginning of this post) and IT WAS FANTASTIC. I really felt like I learned not only different techniques, but the rationale for them, historical/cultural context (Italian vs. Swedish vs. German techniques), and whole-body integration of them. I can't wait to learn more.

A Quickie!

This post must perforce be quick as I have a glassblowing lesson at 11:00! Fall is here and I am rededicating myself to expanding my hot glass technical repertoire--and taking advantage of the fact that I have a master glassblower and a hotshop on-site. Though I doubt if I will ever produce professional work (i.e., worth displaying in a gallery), it gives me pleasure just to do it and learn something new. I am very fortunate to have Tadashi Torii working out of my studio right now, and I am going to make sure I don't let the opportunity to learn from him pass me by because I'm too busy. Pics tomorrow!