I Run Amok

I take a deep breath and relax into the beginning of this post. It has been quite a time so far at Casa de Verano Griffith. In the spirit of Glass Incarnate, I'll start with the glass news first. But, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have to say that glass business takes a back seat to loads of other things in the Montana summer.

A couple of weeks ago the J and I drove up past Kalispell to Whitefish and hand-delivered a big order to a new gallery (new for me) called the Purple Pomegranate. It is a lovely little shop on the main street in Whitefish--a quintessential summer and winter (lake and big ski area) resort town. I am looking forward to continuing my relationship with them--they're my first Montana gallery!

On the way up J spotted a monster truck (one of her obsessions) at the local Toyota dealer and we just HAD to stop and get a picture. She really wanted to go to the monster truck show over the weekend, but, lucky for me, she forgot about it.


Spent the first weekend after arriving in Missoula where I took a class in hand spinning from Janet Sullivan who owns Joseph's Coat Yarns and Fiber. It was a GREAT class as it was really a private lesson for the day, and I was able (finally) to get the feel for drafting (preparing the fiber to slip through your fingers and be twisted into yarn by the turning of the wheel).

I ended the class by renting a wheel for the summer for her and hope to purchase one before going home. Gave Janet a ride home after class and we dropped a spinning wheel off at a friend of hers who is a rug weaver. She showed me her rug loom which she might be selling in the near future. Even I with my lust for new tools can't wrap my head around where to put this loom and how to use it. It's 16 feet long and you weave by walking back and forth across the front. You need a 32 foot side to side clearance for it just so you can get the hardware all in!

In addition to the spinning class, we loaded up on supplies not easily found in Polson including two new shower-heads for both bathrooms; semi-permanent hair dye in cobalt, fuchsia, magenta, orange, lemon, and teal (the pic at the right shows the first pass with magenta, fuchsia, teal and cobalt); fabric and thread for summer sewing projects for the J along with a sewing table and cutting mat; summer books for the J; a hand-sander for a couple of wood-working projects I have; a rented cello from Morgenroth Music for J--and while we were there we picked up a used Yamaha keyboard in pristine condition for a song.

The projects for the sander include a bit of grading-stamp removal prior to sanding my share of the new deck boards for the house and removing the varnish off the flat surfaces of a vanity I bought at a garage sale around the corner here in Polson right after we got here. It's a gorgeous little waterfall style laminated wood vanity with the original Art Nouveau brass handles from the 20's and it was only $10. I messed up a little on the sanding and went too deep into the laminate, but I got some retouching pencils and I will draw the grain back in before I finish it. Though we are having a contractor tear out the old deck and put in the new one, I am doing part of the staining to save a little cash and get the project done faster.

To make sure I had enough going for the summer I picked up some origami paper in Missoula and have been busily making paper cranes when my hands aren't doing anything else. I am going to turn them into a hanging sculpture--or maybe a light fixture. I also brought up the cotton crochet afghan I have been working on for Jessie's room for a couple of months. It's a great project for in the evenings while we all sit around and listen to an audio book (currently Mom J and I are working through Jim Butcher's Furies of Calderon series and are in "Captain's Fury".

Dave--who is here with us for the next couple of weeks before heading back to Austin--got me a jeweler's bench for Montana and I spent a day putting it together. It's SWEET and I am going to be able to get to it to use it as soon as I have finished staining deck boards and refinishing the vanity (which will be a desk for the J). Between the staining set-up, the furniture that normally goes on the deck but which is stored in the garage while the deck is being rebuilt, the vanity, the 13 alpaca fleeces I picked up from RuthAnn at her Racka Paca Alpaca ranch in Kila, and the glass/jewelry studio set-up, the garage is pretty full.


Though alpaca is my new favorite fiber as it is so silky, soft, warm, naturally beautifully colored, and clean (alpaca don't have the lanolin in their fleece that sheep do so the fleece doesn't hold the dirt in the same way), I have been preparing George Edmund's and Irma Amelia's fleeces for spinning too. I washed them, and now I'm picking and teasing them so I can card them. I haven't decided whether to try to blend silk, merino or alpaca with them to create a nicer yarn, or just to make up sock yarn with them. It will definitely be fun to experiment with dyeing and blending their fleece (during carding) before spinning it. And speaking of carding; looking at all of it that I need to do, how long it takes to hand card, and how hard it is on my wrists, I am thinking I may need to invest in a drum carder.

But back to alpaca for a minute: they are adorable, gentle, not too big, and make great pet/fiber animals. Best of all, they are not denied by City of Atlanta code. So what is stopping me from getting a couple? (You can't just get one--they need company.) While it would be fun to say something like "marriage is a compromise" or "my spouse", the reality is that I don't need to do anything to tie us down more geographically than I already have: it is difficult enough to summer in Montana with the chickens and bunnies back in Atlanta. I can't even imagine what 2-3 alpaca would add!

I end this very long post with a thank-you to the universe for a truly lovely July 4th. I got to see good friends from grade-school on with their families, Dave performed his annual marriage proposal ritual (I said yes again), and we got to set off a whole boatload of fireworks--and we still had the baby display here in Little Baghdad on the Flathead.

Happy Summer, everyone. Peace, Love and Joy.

Life Incarnate

Irma Amelia and George Edmund sharing space with Jasmine
 and the rest of the bunnies. Puddy the goat is off eating the picnic table

I enjoyed my 20's more than my teens--but who doesn't? I became an adult in my 30's--finishing school, getting a job, and taking a husband. My 40's started well with a child, but turned rough within a couple of years when I looked back on life to date--thinking it was half over--and was dismayed at what I hadn't done, hadn't accomplished. Now I am settling into my 50's, and life seems to have split wide open and gushes with new things to learn and do.

I am, for the first time, building conscious mental models of processes and knowledge in subjects ranging from mathematics to sheep shearing. I want to study and do everything--glass; ceramics; silver-smithing; black-smithing; spinning; weaving; crochet; wood carving and turning; knitting; soap-making; quilting; candle-making; bee-keeping; food science; goat, llama and sheep husbandry (before I do too much husband-scaring I need to note that a more precise way of phrasing that last desire is to say I want to participate in their care at the East Lake Community Learning Garden and Urban Farm--ELCLGUF--culminating in harvesting their fleece and hair for processing and spinning into yarn); and the list just goes on. I want to take up archery, develop a yoga practice, lose weight, and explore physics and mathematics--I'm sure there is more (Kumihimo, bead-weaving, Tai-Chi, meditation, Japanese, Italian, Thai--language and cooking, mosaics, and dyeing jump to mind), but you get the point. What I am finding in 50 is that things I was blocked on before--things I couldn't seem to learn or do no matter how I tried--I can suddenly do and understand.

Blocks of batik shirt scraps from recent quilting workshop

In high school when math starting including Greek letters, it became, well, Greek to me. In fact I would have had an easier time learning Greek. Physics, with its formulae, was just as obscure. But as I totter into my 50's some veil has lifted, and I am finally beginning to see the models and concepts necessary for understanding and processing these disciplines--and they fascinate me.

One of my first thrown pieces on the wheel

In my 30's I tried to learn wheel-throwing pottery and spinning fleece into yarn, but they were handcrafts that I just couldn't get a handle on so I let them go. But I picked up wheel-throwing again at the beginning of this year in a class at Spruill Center for the Arts, and it came naturally and easily. I could do it.

With high hopes, I brought the fleeces from shearing George Edmund and Irma Amelia last Saturday at ELCLGUF to Montana, and this week I'll finish washing and start carding them. then next Sunday I am taking a spinning at Joseph's Coat in Missoula. When I succeed this time, I'll rent a spinning wheel from them for the rest of the summer.

It used to feel like there weren't enough hours in the day to get done everything I had to do. Now it feels much more like there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do--and I haven't even mentioned playing Minecraft, reading, creating websites, playing Euro board games (better than Monopoly), and sharing everything with Jessie.

Assisting in the shearing of Irma Amelia on my 52nd birthday

Time passes so quickly now! When I was Jessie's age I seemed to notice every minute in a day, a week was interminable, and a month lasted forever. Anything further out than that was beyond y ability to measure. Maybe it's that very perception of time that kept me from going through this intense-desire-to-learn stage earlier. It's not that I didn't have the opportunity--I remember leaning to sew, knit, and crochet when I was little older than Jessie. But I was always an instant-gratification kind of girl, and what I remember from those times is how long it took to get something from what you were doing--the boring parts seemed to last forever.

Shard samples for metal oxides from broken thrown piece

But now, with days and weeks passing in blur, the amount of time it takes to get to the end of an endeavor--to see something from my effort--is so much shorter. I think the difference in perception of time between age 12 and age 52 is going to provide the biggest challenge in homeschooling Jessie this fall. I will have to remember not to get frustrated or disappointed when she doesn't share my wonder and joy in learning about everything and doing anything that takes our fancy. I have to remember that the boring parts--the long, trudging work parts--are going to seem really long to her making the projects not nearly as fun.

So I sit--bundled in fuzzy socks, cosy pants, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt--in Montana and I ponder the summer and life spread before me, and I wonder again:

 Is it time to change the title of this blog to the title of this post? 

Glass Clay Challenges

Waiting for biscuits and gravy to arrive and coffee to kick-in at Radial Cafe listening to "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge with Dave. Had two late nights in the studio in a row working on book project redos and an order whose due date I screwed up, and I am pooped! It doesn't help that it's finally gotten hot here and I am too cheap to run the air conditioning in the studio at night when it's just me. Even with the fans on it was 80 degrees the night night before last in the studio (how did that happen? Lots of incandescent work lights I guess...) and humid.

Yesterday was day one of the outside studio clean-up, and Becky H. came over to help clean out the second hot-shop which is now officially the ceramic and casting studio. Bella--the deep, shiny new dual media kiln--and Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee--the two big, round Jen-Kens I got from Sara and David--are set-up and waiting for Brian the electrician to wire them up this week. We'll be up and running by summer. Well, Becky and Danny will be running--J and I will be in Montana and doing our ceramics there. All that's left to do is install water. I'm thinking a big plastic laundry tub with a garden hose attached to it (we won't use it in the winter and can drain the hose out).

 But it's not time to talk about (or even think about) ceramics yet--this is still Glass Incarnate. On the glass front, yesterday I solved what had been previously an insurmountable problem with the colors in glass clay being dulled by the CMC. Of course it requires a tiny rewrite of the ceramic section of the book, but nothing that should put anyone out. And on the subject of the glass clay, I did a cool piece that's a solid cast face with a clay and fused glass shard mask on it.  The face has several areas of flashing on it from the old plaster mold cracking during firing which--in conjunction with the mask--evokes the image of a scarred super-hero.

I also slumped my first coiled glass clay piece last night. I fuse-fired that piece a few times with undesirable results up until Monday night when I put it in with one of my normal full-fuse loads. Originally you could see all the details in the individual coils, but they shrank and pulled apart leaving holes on the first firing, and the colors were dull even after the second firing (done to patch the holes with more clay). I knew if I did a higher-temp fuse-fire on it I would lose all the detail of the coils so I brushed some black powder into the crevices between the coils to preserve the design, and then I covered the whole thing with clear powder to prevent devitrification. Both techniques worked, and I got bright, shiny color in the final piece! Now we'll see how it slumps.

Now it's time to head off to the studio to change the thermocouple in the glass furnace and to measure space for a new (replacement) medium-sized kiln.

It's Been a Year or Please Universe, Don't Splat Me

I'll be honest, the last year has been pretty rough. And the previous sentence probably should have had a colon instead of a comma.. or maybe a spleen. This time last year I had just missed my first book deadline, we were getting ready to make the annual foray to Montana, and everyone was stressed. And while there absolutely have been some high moments and downtime in the year, they were subsumed by the overwhelming difficulty of the year for all of us. Now, though, it looks like we've all turned a corner and are looking up and forward to what lies ahead.

Dave took a new job yesterday and starts on June 10. He'll still be headquartered in Austin, and he'll have to spend a couple of months there initially, but then it will be back to working from home. I am done with the book (mostly) and I am unable to convey the enormity of the weight of the load that its passing takes off my mind and soul. Jessie is leaving elementary school and the Waldorf school behind for an adventure in homeschooled middle school--complete with archery, fencing, digital photography, weekly museum trips, sewing, French, programming, yoga (and of course language arts, history, geography, art, music--cello and piano--and math). Mom is over the worst of her hip replacement and broken leg recovery--though it's still not easy for her. In all, it's going to be a better year for everyone if the universe will just leave me alone for daring to say everything's getting better...

Kiln-Forming Destination? Priceless.

I have just over an hour before my kiln-forming 3 starts and I am still in what passes for my jammies sipping the first coffee of the day from the Chicago skyline mug. I can either read a bit more Discount Armageddon, or I can post. Much as I am loving the book posting wins.

I spent last summer in Montana on Flathead Lake. My mom--who has lived with us since my dad died--still has her house there, and we are all comfortably settling into a routine of nine months here in Atlanta and three months there. Last summer I was mostly working on the book, and in support of that effort I set-up a small studio in the garage at the house.

My long-term plans are to set-up a a larger studio on the family lake property. Right now there is a small cabin built by my grandfather and a large metal building erected by my father on the land, and some day we hope to build a larger summer home there. Even though the house is not built, because a metal building the size of a two-car garage equipped with two big roll-up doors and one regular door is already in place, there is nothing stopping me from setting up the studio now. And if I have a studio, I can teach. Teaching is on my mind right now as I am enjoying it so much here, and the opportunity of sharing what I love to do AND my favorite place on earth is too compelling to pass up!


Imagine a week of studying kiln-forming techniques interspersed with afternoons swimming in the lake, shopping at the galleries in Big Fork, dining at the Smokehouse surrounded by cavorting bunnies, a drive through the National Bison Range, and a day trip to Glacier National Park. I think I may be onto something!

Out the Door

It's been a good couple of days in the studio. I guess I had more work than I realized that had to be fired as I managed to fill my three biggest kilns and still had enough left over to send home with Dee to fire in her two bigger kilns! I was lucky she worked yesterday and today and offered to fire for me as otherwise I wouldn't have been able to ship everything that needs to go out. I'm even a bit ahead on firing right now as I have done most of the order that is scheduled to ship next Wednesday.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's final class in the kiln-forming 1-2-3 series. I taught it a bit differently this time as I had six very focused, enthusiastic students who were there for all three sessions and enabled me to up my game. I plan to continue the format for the next session and hope it goes as well. Basically the first week is about the different forms glass comes in (sheet, frit, rod, stringer, powder), how these forms can affect your perception of the color (transparent frit looks lighter in color as the size of the pieces gets smaller due to the way the light reflects and refracts off of them), bubbles, and viscosity and flow with the addition of heat and gravity. I meant to teach cutting glass in the second week along with color, but color is such a big topic--how combining results in individual points as opposed to a blended color, strikers, reactive glass, opal vs. transparent and their respective effects on depth perception, etc.--that I never got to it. We're going to start with cutting this week, and then move into more discussion of the direction of flow and how to affect the movement of the glass in the kiln by how the glass is placed in the piece (layering and stacking). We'll finish with an introduction to the kiln and the segments in various firing schedules.

The other big thing I started with this class is beginning each class with an analysis of the pieces the students made in the previous class (they do an 8" square based on the subjects discussed for each class) and how they fit or diverged from the students' expectations based on what they had learned. This analysis takes about 20 minutes, but they all seem to get a lot out of talking about what they did and looking at what others did. It also helps me with what I need to emphasize in the class. FOr example, it's been so long since I started fusing glass that it never even occurred to me that I needed to point out in the first class that the glass isn't going to flow a lot from side to side if you put it down so that you have a uniform piece about 1/4" thick. The students thought the pieces would flow a lot more on the inside of their work than they did.

Now it's time to head to jewelry class so I guess I had better finish. Tomorrow's post: Destination Glass in Montana! Come spend a week on the lake in Montana doing an intensive glass seminar with a visit to Glacier National Park, and art shopping in Big Fork thrown in!

A Quick Post and On With the Day

I am tired to my bones this morning. Last night I was in the studio until after 11:30 getting two big loads into Bertha and Bettina. Then this morning up and running to get J to school while Dan the carpenter finishes the installation of wood flooring in the upstairs of the house. The cleaning people are due to arrive within the hour, and everything is a mess. Anyone who has cleaning people knows that you have to clean before they clean (actually straighten in order for them to clean) and I am behind. Thank you Baxter (Psycho Spaniel) for pulling all the used Kleenex and toilet paper out of all the wastebaskets and shredding it all over the house during the night.

On the plus side, the chicken sheep and goat are out, the rabbits are in, and all the animals (including the baby chicks in the guest bedroom) are fed and watered. It's also shaping up to be a beautiful day in Atlanta--looks like it won't rain today. Three more kiln loads in today, and I'll even be caught up on production--just in time to go into a full weekend teaching. I have kiln-forming 3 on Saturday and a new kiln-forming 1 class Sunday, and both are full. I hope this new batch of students is as enthused as the last group and signs up for the rest of the series (taught over the next two weekends). These are my last two intro series before heading to Montana.

Yep, it's time again to escape what will be the heat in Atlanta for the cooler summer temps of the Montana mountains (and lake). We look to go the first of June, and I haven't even begun to set a final date and make the last arrangements with the house sitter. In retrospect, I think it's the cooler-than-usual spring temps that have delayed preparations this year. Usually it's so hot by now that we are in a hurry to flee. But this year with all the late rain and cold temps, it's just now getting into nice weather--and mostly pollen-free nice weather.

Okay, time to get my butt in gear. More on classes tomorrow.

The Beat Goes On

I am sore, I am tired, and it's only 10:03 am. Today the carpet in the upstairs is coming up and over the next three days it will be replaced by hardwood floors. This is a difficult project as all our bedrooms are up there, but it is somewhat simplified by Mom still living in the office post surgery. This weekend, if all goes well, she'll move back upstairs. J is not down with the new floors even though her room was the most peed in first by the cat (may she rest in peace) and now by the two dogs (who, if they continue their bad habits once the carpet is gone, will also rest in peace... no I wouldn't, but it's awfully tempting!).

The real work of the day for me is to figure out what happened to my manuscript after it left my hands and before it arrived in my editor's. When the copy-editor compiled it, it looks like an entire section was dropped. Now I need to see what else might have changed. I am also going to have to redo some of the projects to get more aesthetically pleasing finished pieces to photograph for the beauty shots. One of the major issues my publisher has is that the glass clay projects look more like clay than like glass--unsurprising as they are made with glass powder and (like pate de verre) will never have the shiny, transparent perfection of, say, cast glass. To make this technique more appealing I need to make it look more glass-like. Maybe the solution is to combine glass clay elements with sheet glass either as windows through the clay or as the support for twining clay pieces. Whatever I do, I need to do it quickly.

It's been a really great spring in the studio with a lot of people interested in the beginning kiln-forming series of classes (kiln-forming 1-2-3). I taught part one last Saturday, and this Saturday I teach part two and next weekend part three. Part one was full, and I only have one spot left in each of two and three. Open studio has also been hopping with students from previous classes coming in and working on their own projects. Everyone is doing something different, and they are all interested in what others are working on and in sharing their own knowledge. This is why I opened my studio in the first place. Now we just need to keep the momentum going.

We're also just about done with our show orders from the Buyer's Market. Once I have them behind me it'll be time to get the new Siyeh Studio website done. That's my big project for this summer in Montana--that and creating glass tiles based on Gaudi's floor tiles and sidewalk tiles from Barcelona. I brought back two different samples of the tile--one in plaster and a larger one in concrete--ten years ago and I am finally in a place where I can start to think about where I want to go with them.

The concrete one has a more subtle, finer detail than the plaster one--for one thing it is not just in two heights of relief as the nautilus shell section undulates in waves--and the motif is also a reverse of the concrete one with the concrete being rendered primarily in the negative. The plaster one has a positive (raised) motif. Both can be found as sidewalks and floor tiles in Barcelona. I love the concrete one, but it is a bit big for glass floor tiles for a bathroom.

Springtime, Sheep, Stitches, Suspicious Chickens, and the Studio

Coffee with ultra-pasteurized, fat-free half and half and Italian Sweet Cream Coffee Mate in the Denver skyline mug... I'm baaaaack! (Emphasis on the baaaa). Springtime in Atlanta--except for a few blissful days at the beginning--means lots and lots of pollen so I am writing from the comfort of the couch instead of the front porch even though it is a beautiful day. The cleaning people are also actually vacuuming the porch as I write as there is so much pollen on it. We even had it pressure-washed after the majority of the pollen fell and it was still covered in pollen this morning. Hello Allegra.

Last Sunday we doubled the size of our flock--though the new additions currently live in Mom's bedroom upstairs (she's still in the main floor office/bedroom recovering from her surgery). They are only a bit over a week or two old so they will be in a plastic bin with a heat lamp for the next few weeks. We have two Polish Top Hats, two Salmon Favorelles, two Blue Cochins (the same breed as Sadie and Half Moon), and two Mottled Houdans.



I'm going to start this next set off with a story about the North Atlanta/Southern Decatur urban farm industry. (Choctaw Bingo anyone? I am clearly counting down the minutes till I see James McMurtry live tonight--But back to the chickens). My right arm is very sore today. The night before last I was in the East Lake Community Learning Garden and Urban Farm (two blocks from our house and my studio) helping round up their sheep when I caught my foot on a nasty cut-off stump and took a major fall. I was lucky I didn't skewer my eyeball out on another pokey bit of wood (it hit me in the forehead instead), but not so lucky that the stumpy thing I tripped over didn't gash right through the meaty part of the ball of my foot. I was wearing my hiking Keenes which are closed-toed and heavily supportive while at the same time are still sandals with openings in the sides for air circulation--hence the gash. I was stunned enough by the fall that I didn't realize I had cut my foot until a few minutes later when (squeamish people stop reading here and skip ahead a bit) I felt the blood pooling in the shoe and squelched when I walked. I was focused on not letting the sheep get by me, you see. Of course I utterly failed to prohibit the getting-pastness when I fell, and they blithely and nimbly zoomed right by as I lay dazed in the muck.

When I got home I was already ate for dinner and the wait at the ER would have been horrendous so I chose not to go in for professional cleaning and stitches, and I cleaned out the cut with hydrogen peroxide, slathered it in Neosporin, covered it with gauze, and wrapped it up tight. It looked like it had already started to close and seal up so I figured I didn't need stitches. Unfortunately the next morning when I went to change the bandage, the wound gaped open and gushed blood. I showered, recleaned and bandaged it, mopped the floor, and headed off to urgent care. The very nice doctore there told me the stitches probably wouldn't hold because it had already been 14 hours since I cut it, but he jabbed me with a few needles and sewed up the cut before giving me a prescription for antibiotics and painkillers. Then the nurse covered the bandage with a bright lime-green stretchy wrap and I hobbled out to the car and home.

So, away from the blood and gore part of the story, why were we trying to catch the sheep? Because we were bringing them to our house for a play date with the bunnies and chickens. Really. Remember as I report this that we live in urban Atlanta--not even in the suburbs. The Garden is two blocks from our house. Unfortunately, over the past week the lamb (one of the three sheep) and three of the five goats were killed by one or more dogs and maybe coyotes in a series of nighttime attacks. The first night three of the goats were killed, and, as their bodies were left intact, it was surmised that it was an attack by dogs--coyotes would not leave the meat. But the next attack was either a coyote (fur left on the fence supports this hypothesis) or a hungry dog as the lamb was killed and partially eaten. Did I say we were away from the blood and gore part of the story? Apparently I lied. So to obviate any more deaths, the parent sheep (I call them George and Amelia, the Garden staff calls them Edmund and Irma, and Dave calls them Kebab and Biryani) were invited to spend some time in our yard, safely penned at night with the bunnies and free to range with the chickens during the day. When the last goat--who thinks she's a sheep anyway and was probably spared in the first attack because she hung with them and they protected her--is released from the vet's today, she will join them here. Welcome to the Siyeh Studio Urban Farm.


But what about the chickens and bunnies, how do they feel about the newcomers, you ask. Well, the bunnies couldn't care less--they just dodge the sheep's feet and don't seem bothered at all. The chickens, on the other hand, are highly suspicious of the new ruminants in their midst. So suspicious, in fact, that said ruminants were not released from the play yard to roam free today*. Yesterday they roamed, and whenever they got spooked (like when we tried to get them back in with the bunnies) they would charge madly through the yard scattering chickens in their wake. Feathers were--to put it mildly--ruffled. The day ended when Dee (another Dee, not our studio elf Dee)--their primary caretaker--arrived and found Pearl (our pearl leghorn) in the middle of Memorial Drive during rush hour after she had been spooked over the fence by the sheep. We were (mostly Pearl was) VERY lucky no one hit her as she was in the middle of three lanes on a very fast, busy thoroughfare.

That brings the current animal count at Siyeh Studio/Casa Griffith to two sheep, one goat, 15 chickens, two dogs, a cockatiel, four rabbits, and five fish. Whew! Hope they get the shelter built at the community gardens soon...

Now this last little paragraph is about Glass. It's springtime which means we are running classes (something we don't do much int he summer as I am in Montana for most of it). Saturday I have a full class (the first of the Kiln-forming 1-2-3 series), we are still in full production from a stunningly successful Buyer's Market show in February, and date nights in the hotshop go on. Open Studio has been hopping with two very focused students preparing new work--one for a show and one for fun. In short, life at the studio is just STUPENDOUS (a last tip of my hat to the alliteration of the day).

*The ruminants apparently roam having been released when the goat arrived. Dave and I are heading out to see them now. Awww, isn't that goat adorable? She's so little!! It must be the perspective of this photo that makes her look bigger. In person, she's tiny-lamb-sized.

Back to Real Life

I hear the coffee brewing, and I am already showered and dressed for the day. In ten minutes I will take the J to school and then swing by the feed store to pick up a metric ton of chicken food. I don't actually know what a metric ton is (it wasn't a quantity with which I had to familiarize myself in the writing of the book) but, surely, the bags and bags and bags I am off to buy qualify.

It's good to back to a normal life (note that normal does not equal either quiet or restful). Orders to fill, a newsletter to write, glass to inventory... Oh yes, and a few more pesky book details to wrap up/projects to fire. The tjantings were fun yesterday, but the initial results were disappointing. Not surprisingly, if something is an advanced technique/breaking new ground it probably won't work out the first time (or everyone would be doing it).

Transitions back into normal life are hard, and I'm actually kind of glad mine is happening at an already chaotic time of the year as the transition has a bit less impact. The past year has been filled with new things--most of them in glass. It has left me with nightly vibrant, active dreams and a restless need to play (mad scientist) every day. But I'm not a mad scientist. Right now I'm a Mom and a chicken feeder--time for posting is up.

The Mad Scientist Has Risen!

Got the hotplate heating a bowl of water for a little double-boiler action and melting beeswax this afternoon in the studio. Also got out my tjantings (shown right) to do some drawing on glass with them. It's really too bad the book is (mostly) done and in the hands of the copy editor as I have visions of creating batik in glass dancing in my head and wouldn't mind adding a section on it. I just know it's possible... In the meantime the tjantings and beeswax are useful for another technique that *does* show up in the book so I'm not frittering my day away on FUN (heaven forbid).

So, done. Wow. I want to revel on that idea for awhile before I have to add the caveat of the first draft is 98% done (I remember writing  finish later in a few places that I am pretty sure the copy editor is going to notice). The photography is also mostly done with just the beauty shots (finished project photos) and a couple of projects I am still futzing with (screen printing and the fused box) left to do. It seems like every time on those two I get to the "this is it, this is how I'm going to do it and write it up" stage, I tweak the process or the materials or SOMETHING a bit and have to work the changes into both the manuscript and the photos.

Today is mostly over in terms of studio work. Managed to ship orders today, and I'll fire another order that needs to ship asap. I think I'll put another glass clay vessel in the kiln (I'm still tweaking the firing schedule on that project, but the clay itself is incredible), go get chicken food, take the child to cello, and prepare for a night of putting photos with text and more editing.

Decided on Saturday to go ahead and do the artist studio show (the Siyeh Sleigh Ride) this year and spent yesterday putting together the email announcement and the web page for it. Tomorrow I will send out the end of the year newsletter and I am going to offer some sweet glass, kiln, and class deals.

Life is good. Off to (live every day as if my hair is on) fire.

One Week--And I Don't Mean the Barenaked Ladies Song

Huckleberry coffee (with Italian Sweet Cream creamer--of course) in the Alaska skyline mug. There is a poetic symmetry there that hums for me this morning. I'll say one thing for the book project--it's kept me too busy to miss fall in Montana! And today begins the countdown of the last week on the manuscript. There are no more time increments--other than days, hours and minutes... and aren't they scary!--into which to break my remaining work. (It's unfortunate when the correct grammatical construction sounds awkward. *sigh*)

As can be gleaned from the preceding almost-paragraph, my mind flits and flies in all different directions simultaneously these days--much more so than usual. I highly disrecommend writing a non-linear book for anyone with the slightest bit of ADD as the activity will just exacerbate the condition excruciatingly.

Today was supposed to be the day when I started organizing all of my my musings and dictations into a coherent manuscript. I was supposed to have all the techniques and projects finished and documented. Instead, I have about half a dozen of them in various states of doneness and a brain full of marbles. But, since whining about it never got anything done, I am going to ruck my big girl panties up, and Get On With It! Off to play with glass clay...

Nine Days, Eight Chickens

Huckleberry coffee in the Chicago skyline mug, the hum of the studio fans and the traffic outside for my morning music. Today is the first of the single-digit days in the countdown to the deadline for the completion of my manuscript. I am exhausted. My mother (my scribe) is exhausted. Dee (the book minion and one of the studio elves) is exhausted. Exhaustion is rampant. And yet, I, at least, am also exhilarated. Barring unforeseen catastrophe, and with all requisite knocking on wood, I will finish on time. I have 191 pages of text out of 240, and we have been cranking out 6-12 pages a day for the past week or so.

But hubris is ever the nemesis. I no sooner wrote the above paragraph than I discovered Baxter had been left in the backyard. With the chickens. And then there were eight. We mourn Willow, and I dread telling Jessie when she gets home. It took time, a shovel and a pick-ax--and I still didn't get very deep--but Willow is laid to rest in the bamboo with a very large rock over her grave. And wasn't I the one who was contemplating eating our girls at some point when they grew old? Guess that's right out when I am this undone by the end of one. And Baxter. Now that he's killed one, he can never be let out into the yard with them again. I'll need to find time this weekend to fix the front yard gates so they both close easily and he can be let out there.


Now I need to gather myself back together and get on with work. Oh this is hard.

Soundtrack For a Book

Yesterday marked one month till the book is due. Nothing exists outside of it--even writing this post is an extension of book immersion. The focus of my world has narrowed to the temporary detriment of family, friends, business, and world. But not the chickens; I still have attention for my girls.

In true obsessive mode, there is a soundtrack for the book. A drumbeat moving me along, a heartbeat keeping me alive and writing. I start every day with it and every night ends with it. I wake up daily to the refrain of "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes as sung by Loreena McKennitt running through my head. Daily. Really.

So here's the soundtrack of my narrow world. Share. Enjoy. Favorites are highlighted:

The Absentee	Crooked Still
Adagio From Fantasy For A Gentleman	Patrick O'Hearn
Ah! Lovely night	N. Polozkov/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band/Col. Boris Alexandrov
Ahi Wela / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
All Souls Night	Loreena McKennitt
Allegria	Gipsy Kings
Ami Wa Wa (Solo Por Ti)	Gipsy Kings
Amor de Loca Juventud	Buena Vista Social Club
Amor, Amor	Gipsy Kings
Angeline	James McMurtry
Annachie Gordon	Loreena McKennitt
As I Roved Out	Loreena McKennitt
Baby, What's Wrong With You?	Crooked Still
Backlash Love Affair	Richard Thompson
Baila Me	Gipsy Kings
Balanco Carioca	Mikael Mutti
Bamboleo	Gipsy Kings
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda	The Pogues
Bandura	I. Savchuk/V. Fedorov/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band/Col. Boris Alexandrov
The Battle March Medley	The Pogues
Bayou Tortous	James McMurtry
Beeswing	Richard Thompson
Before Gas and Tv	Mark Knopfler
Bem, Bem, Maria	Gipsy Kings
Beneath a Phrygian Sky (Gordian Version)	Loreena McKennitt
Between the Shadows	Loreena McKennitt
Billy's Bones	The Pogues
A birch tree in a field did stand	I. Didenko/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band/Col. Boris Alexandrov
The Body of an American	The Pogues
Bolero	Gipsy Rayes
Bonny Portmore	Loreena McKennitt
The Bonny Swans	Loreena McKennitt
Boom, Like That	Mark Knopfler
Border Reiver	Mark Knopfler
Bottle Of Smoke	The Pogues
Breaking the Silence	Loreena McKennitt
Brian Boru's March	Loreena McKennitt
The Broad Majestic Shannon	The Pogues
Buena Vista Social Club	Buena Vista Social Club
Caminando Por la Calle	Gipsy Kings
Candela	Buena Vista Social Club
Captain, Captain	Crooked Still
The Car Was the One	Mark Knopfler
Cé Hé Mise le Ulaingt? (The Two Trees)	Loreena McKennitt
Chaharmezrab, Mahur	Matthew Moadel, Said Moadel & Yahya Moadel
Chan Chan	Buena Vista Social Club
Choctaw Bingo	James McMurtry & The Heartless Bastards
Courtyard Lullaby	Loreena McKennitt
Cry Me a River	Richard Thompson
Cymbeline	Loreena McKennitt
Dante's Prayer	Loreena McKennitt
Danza Mora	Matthew Moadel, Said Moadel & Yahya Moadel
The Dark Night of the Soul	Loreena McKennitt
De Camino a la Vereda	Buena Vista Social Club
The Death of Queen Jane	Loreena McKennitt
Dickens' Dublin (The Palace)	Loreena McKennitt
Did You Sleep Well?	Crooked Still
Dirty Old Town	The Pogues
Djobi Djoba	Gipsy Kings
Don't Crash the Ambulance	Mark Knopfler
Don't Sit on My Jimmy Shands	Richard Thompson
Dos Gardenias	Buena Vista Social Club
Down By the Sally Gardens	Loreena McKennitt
Duende	Gipsy Kings
Dusty Pages	James McMurtry
Easy There, Steady Now	Richard Thompson
El Camino	Gipsy Kings
El Carretero	Buena Vista Social Club
El Cuarto de Tula	Buena Vista Social Club
The Emigration Tunes	Loreena McKennitt
The English Ladye and the Knight	Loreena McKennitt
Escucha Me	Gipsy Kings
Este Mundo	Gipsy Kings
Faena	Gipsy Kings
Fairytale Of New York	The Pogues
Far Away	Evgeny Belaiaev/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band/Col. Boris Alexandrov
Fast Food	Richard Thompson
Fiesta	The Pogues
Fire Line Road	James McMurtry
Florence	Crooked Still
For The Sake Of Mary	Richard Thompson
Forro da Fruta (Bonus Track)	Carlinhos Brown & Mikael Mutti
Freeway View	James McMurtry
Full Circle	Loreena McKennitt
The Gates of Istanbul	Loreena McKennitt
The Gentleman Soldier	The Pogues
Get Lucky	Mark Knopfler
God Loves a Drunk	Richard Thompson
Greensleeves	Loreena McKennitt
Grey Walls	Richard Thompson
Gwenlaise	Scott Cossu with Eugene Friesen
Habla Me	Gipsy Kings
Hands Like Rain	James McMurtry
Hanohano Wale No Na Cowboy / Ka Huila Wai	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Henehene Kou 'Aka	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Hi'ilawe	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
The Highwayman	Loreena McKennitt
Homayoun-Bidad, Soleares	Matthew Moadel, Said Moadel & Yahya Moadel
Hotel California (Spanish Mix)	Gipsy Kings
Huron 'Beltane' Fire Dance	Loreena McKennitt
Hurricane Party	James McMurtry
I Can't Wake Up To Save My Life	Richard Thompson
I Feel So Good	Richard Thompson
I Misunderstood	Richard Thompson
I Ride In Your Slipstream	Richard Thompson
I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day	The Pogues
I've Got No Strings	Gipsy Kings
If I Should Fall From Grace With God	The Pogues
In This Life	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Incantation	Loreena McKennitt
Inspiration	Gipsy Kings
Iolanthe	James McMurtry
Jaleandando	Gipsy Flamenco Guitarras
Jesse James	The Pogues
Just Us Kids	James McMurtry
Kaleohano	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Kalinka	Evgeny Belaiaev/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band/Col. Boris Alexandrov
Kecharitomene	Loreena McKennitt
Keep Your Distance	Richard Thompson
King Of Bohemia	Richard Thompson
La 'Elima	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
La Bayamesa	Buena Vista Social Club
La Dona	Gipsy Kings
La Rumba de Nicolas	Gipsy Kings
La Serenissima	Loreena McKennitt
The Lady of Shalott	Loreena McKennitt
Lights Of Cheyenne	James McMurtry & The Heartless Bastards
London Girl	The Pogues
Low Down and Dirty	Crooked Still
Lullaby Of London	The Pogues
Madame Geneva's	Mark Knopfler
Mahur-Reng	Matthew Moadel, Said Moadel & Yahya Moadel
Main Title	Maurice Jarre
Malaguena, Isfahan	Matthew Moadel, Said Moadel & Yahya Moadel
Malaguena, Isfahan, Janeh Marayam	Matthew Moadel, Said Moadel & Yahya Moadel
Marco Polo	Loreena McKennitt
Marrakesh Night Market	Loreena McKennitt
Mas Que Nada (2011 Rio Version)	Sergio Mendes
Mascara Tears	Richard Thompson
Medley: The Recruiting Sergeant/The Rocky Road to Dublin/Galway Races	The Pogues
Memorial Day	James McMurtry
Metropolis	The Pogues
MGB-GT	Richard Thompson
Mi Corazon	Gipsy Kings
A Mi Manera (My Way)	Gipsy Kings
Mingus Eyes	Richard Thompson
Mona Lisa	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Monteleone	Mark Knopfler
Moon Cradle	Loreena McKennitt
Moorea	Gipsy Kings
Moorea	Gipsy Rayes
Mother Knows Best	Richard Thompson
Mujer	Gipsy Kings
The Mummers' Dance	Loreena McKennitt
Murmullo	Buena Vista Social Club
Mystery Wind	Richard Thompson
The Mystic's Dream	Loreena McKennitt
Navigator	The Pogues
Never Ending Road (Amhrán Duit)	Loreena McKennitt
Night Ride Across The Caucasus	Loreena McKennitt
No Vivere	Gipsy Kings
No Volveré	Gipsy Kings
Oh Eh Oh Eh	Gipsy Kings
Oh, Agamemnon	Crooked Still
The Old Main Drag	The Pogues
The Old Ways	Loreena McKennitt
On a Bright May Morning	Loreena McKennitt
Oops!...I Did It Again	Richard Thompson
'Opae E	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Orgullecida	Buena Vista Social Club
Oy	Gipsy Kings
A Pair of Brown Eyes	The Pogues
Panini Puakea	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
The Parting Glass	Loreena McKennitt
The Parting Glass	The Pogues
Passion	Gipsy Kings
Penelope’s Song	Loreena McKennitt
Pharaoh	Crooked Still
Pida Me La	Gipsy Kings
A Pistol for Paddy Garcia	The Pogues
Planxty Noel Hill	The Pogues
Poor Ellen Smith	Crooked Still
Prologue	Loreena McKennitt
Prospero's Speech	Loreena McKennitt
Psycho Street	Richard Thompson
Pueblo Nuevo	Buena Vista Social Club
Punish the Monkey	Mark Knopfler
Quiero Saber	Gipsy Kings
Racing To The Red Light	James McMurtry
A Rainy Night In Soho	The Pogues
Read About Love	Richard Thompson
Red Dress	James McMurtry
The Rocky Road to Dublin (Live)	The Dubliners
Ruby and Carlos	James McMurtry
Sacred Shabbat	Loreena McKennitt
Sally MacLennane	The Pogues
Samain Night	Loreena McKennitt
Samba de Orly	Bebel Gilberto
Santiago	Loreena McKennitt
Sapo Cai	Carlinhos Brown & Mikael Mutti
The Scaffolder's Wife	Mark Knopfler
Shane And Dixie	Richard Thompson
Shenandoah	Richard Thompson
The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn	The Pogues
Sin Ella	Gipsy Kings
Sit Down By The Fire	The Pogues
Skellig	Loreena McKennitt
Snow flakes	I. Didenko/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band/Col. Boris Alexandrov
So Far From the Clyde	Mark Knopfler
Soldiers' Chorus (from The Decembrists)	Col. Boris Alexandrov/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band
Somewhere Over the Rainbow	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Song For A Deck Hand's Daughter	James McMurtry
Song of the Plains (Meadowland)	Col. Boris Alexandrov/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band
Song of the Volga Boatmen	Artur Eizen/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band/Col. Boris Alexandrov
South Australia	The Pogues
Soy	Gipsy Kings
Standing Stones	Loreena McKennitt
The Star of the County Down	Loreena McKennitt
Starting All Over Again	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Streets Of Sorrow/Birmingham Six	The Pogues
Taking My Business Elsewhere	Richard Thompson
Tango to Evora	Loreena McKennitt
Tell Her To Come Back Home	Crooked Still
Ternuras	Gipsy Kings
Theme from "The Absentee"	Crooked Still
Thousands Are Sailing	The Pogues
A Ti a Ti	Gipsy Kings
Too Long In The Wasteland	James McMurtry & The Heartless Bastards
Trista Pena	Gipsy Kings
True Love Will Never Fade	Mark Knopfler
Tu Quieres Volver	Gipsy Kings
A Tu Vera	Gipsy Kings
Turkish Song Of The Damned	The Pogues
Ukrainian Poem	Aleksei Sergeiev/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band/Col. Boris Alexandrov
'Ulili E	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Un Amor	Gipsy Kings
Undone In Sorrow	Crooked Still
Valsa Carioca	Sergio Mendes
Vamos a Bailar (Live)	Gipsy Kings
Veinte Años	Buena Vista Social Club
Viento del Arena	Gipsy Kings
Volare	Gipsy Kings
Wading Deep Waters	Crooked Still
Walk Between The Raindrops	James McMurtry
The Way That It Shows	Richard Thompson
Where to Now	Tristan Clarridge
Why Must I Plead	Richard Thompson
Wild Cats of Kilkenny	The Pogues
The Wind That Shakes the Barley	Loreena McKennitt
Worms	The Pogues
Y Tú Qué Has Hecho?	Buena Vista Social Club
You are always beautiful	Evgeny Belaiaev/Soviet Army Chorus/Soviet Army Band/Col. Boris Alexandrov
You Dream Too Much	Richard Thompson
Zambra	Matthew Moadel, Said Moadel & Yahya Moadel
1952 Vincent Black Lightning	Richard Thompson

I Live

I can see the promise of fall from where I sit in the Sky chair on the front porch sipping a ginormous iced coffee (the ice is also coffee so it will not dilute--serendipity, not design). The morning is cool and sweet, and--like the promise of spring in Chicago in April--not to last. It will be hot again this summer, but for now, it's beautiful.

I have come up for air but briefly before being consumed by the book again. But I do not lament the coming plunge back into the deep. It may be taking more time than I ever thought possible to write, but it is also incredible. I cannot believe the joy and renewal I am finding in the techniques and projects. Even when I am exhausted (as I always am on Monday after staying up very late on Sunday to finish the weekly pages and send them to my editor) I dream both the creativity and science of glass so energetically and vividly that it is hard to stay asleep.

It's funny how when I look back on first dabbling in the alchemy that is kiln-forming glass I didn't really care about the how and the why; I just wanted what came at the end. But now when I look at a technique from a different discipline that I want to adapt to glass, I find myself wanting to know all about it--the history, the science of how and why it works, and how it is being used (or not) today. Only a tenth of that background will make it into the book, but that doesn't stop me from being Tom Petty: I Need To Know. (Side note: It's been so long since I've posted here that I forgot for a minute how to add a link to text... Brain full).

In spite of the book, or probably, becaue of it, I managed to do a piece yesterday to submit to the Niche Awards. It still needs a lot of coldworking... Actually it probably doesn't need much coldworking at all, but I need to (and am, indeed, looking forward to) coldwork it so coldworking it will get.

Enough of a break: There are lists to make and a few pesky life and studio tasks to get out of the way before I can submerge into the depths again for a few hours (days). Bliss.

Old Age, Not War, is Hell

Caribou Mahogany coffee in the Chicago skyline mug, the faint beeping of the construction vehicles backing up as they build a house next door for background music. Chan Chan by Buena Vista Social Club plays in my head. The book progresses (though slowly), the production work progresses (on schedule), and I spent the weekend learning to make paperweights in production. Making them in production is a lot harder than either making them for fun or making them for retail sale. Paperweights made for fun are always perfect, and if there is something you consider an imperfection in paperweights made for retail it doesn't matter as flaws are in the eye of the beholder so someone either buys it in spite of or because of the "flaw"--or doesn't see it as either--or doesn't buy it. But production paperweights (55 of them) made for the same client need to be perfect... and identical.

Tadashi made most of the paperweights while helping me hone my skills, and this week it's up to me to grind and polish the bottoms--not because we didn't firepolish finish the bottoms, but because I then have to sandblast the client's logo on the flat, polished bottom. It will be a full week. Oh yes--and writing, and projects to write about.

Right now I am sitting at the orthopedic (though they spell it orthopaedic) surgeon's office with my mom waiting for her to get in to see a doctor about removing the calcifications from the top of her foot that have grown into the tendon. Being old is hell. It's not so bad growing old, but I look around me at those who have arrived at old age (at least those dealing with orthopedic issues, which is probably all of them), and it doesn't look any fun at all. I want to live forever, but I don't want my body to wear out along the way (my mind either).

But growing old (heck, maybe even growing up) is for future Brenda. Present Brenda needs to get back to writing about gravity and glass.