So Many New Things, So Little Time!

And it’s another great pairing today:
Mug: Chicago Skyline and it’s already half empty for the first time
iPod Song: “Boom Boom Mancini” by Warren Zevon off of Sentimental Hygiene

I rub my hands together and chortle with glee. Today, I am on top of my game. I got the slides back from my photographer this morning and they are *stunning*. Pics posted tomorrow after I scan them in.

Yesterday I got a piece back from a gallery at Disney World. It spontaneously broke into three large pieces while in their front window—reportedly not even in hot sun! Some, whose glasses are half empty, would see this as evidence the sky is falling and run for cover. Me, I look at the edges of the breaks and go “Wow! It would be really cool to do this fusing pattern, then cut it up and lay the pieces on their sides—like a pattern bar effect—and make a new piece!" So I have something new to try. As to why the pece broke—bad anneal: Half the kiln elements shorted out during the firing and the piece was unevenly annealed. At least that's my guess. I have been having a problem with Big Bertha for some time now. It finally came to the point last month where I ordered a new lid for her from the manufacturer and it will be here Monday afternoon. Will I try to get it installed before the BMAC and risk all my firings before I go? Or do I leave it till I get back when I (hope, hope) have orders that need to be filled with DEADLINES? Sometimes there are no good choices.

But thinking about lid replacement does not make me chortle with glee. Nor does the rest of my task list for the day: finish unloading glass and unpacking frit, continue with the annual studio cleaning and organizing, etch an order of wine glasses for a local gallery and deliver it, ship a commissioned piece to Chicago (photo posted after fuse yesterday—slumped yesterday after photo and it is PERFECT), and call the publisher to discuss differences of opinion about schedule of deliverables.

No, I chortle with glee because I will try a new, more intense Morceaux de Verre layout and firing this morning and then after all the chores (yawn) I will reward myself by getting out my camel hair brushes and experimenting with landscape painting on glass. Two fun firings in one day! I also got some new screen earlier in the week to try another screen drop... Maybe Monday.

About my painting... I suck as a painter right now—no formal training. But I signed up for an introductory drawing class at Emory University yesterday (it starts next week). Move over (insert name of famous landscape painter here)! (See, I really am an art barbarian: no formal training, no color theory, no art history courses—at least not in English). And I ordered a couple of books from Amazon and Borders on painting techniques which will come next week. That's how I learn: I read and try. So it's late and I need to get a move on. Time's a wasting!