Groan

Coffee in the New York skyline mug, "Looking for a U.F.O" by Adrian Belew on iTunes. I have never heard this song before. It is from a cd Dave had when we married that I ripped to our iTunes library. Perky. Unlike me. Let's talk about yesterday before I whine about today (song is now "Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden segueing into "Don't You Feel Small" by the Moody Blues... iTunes has a sense of irony this morning). Did *four*, count them *four* kiln loads yesterday including a combing between 9:30 and 10:00 pm with my trusty spouse and side-kick to hold open the kiln. Pic of said combed project (a mask) at right. Then the night went to hell in a hand basket.

Starting about 11:30 pm with two kilns firing, the biggest thunderstorm I have ever seen came rolling through. Seraph (the female deerhound) hates thunderstorms and we decided we would try to let her sleep in the bedroom during it last night but she had no interest in sleep. After the fourth nose in my face (and the same number in Dave's) and a couple of attempts to join us in the bed (90 lbs of deerhound--not going to happen) I put her down in the studio. Then I went back to bed and watched the lightning, waiting tensely for the power to go out while Dave snored gently beside me.

The big kiln will pick up where it left off due to power failure when the power comes back on. So as long as it is not out too long, the firing will be fine. The medium kiln, however (the one with the mask in it) just flashes "error" after a power failure. Sure enough about 12:30 the power went out for a few minutes. When it came back on I went down to the studio, comforted the woebegone deerhound and reset the kiln. The storm lasted a long time, but I finally fell into a restless sleep until 2:00 when Jessie came in with a tummy ache. She stayed, flailing around the whole time, for about a half an hour and then Dave spatulaed her back to her bed. Then at 3:30 Baxter (the cocker spaniel in his crate in the breakfast room) started whining and barking and fussing. Got up and let him out--it was still raining so he really needed to go badly. Side note--why do we always end up with dogs that hate the water?

Jessie came back in from 4:30 to 5:00 (her visit coinciding with another power failure--I'm sure it wasn't her fault) and was sent back to her bead again after pulling the fine little hairs at the nape of my neck. It was an accident, but a very painful one that I was uninterested in chancing repeating. She came back for the third time at 6:30 and the night was declared officially over. I am still not awake and look to remain sluggish for the day, but the sun is shining, and the whining is done. Now on to the conundrum.

This is a picture of the necklace I have fused for the book. Dave is over the moon over this piece and doesn't want me to do anything more to it. I think it needs a little something more to give it the final polish. It will be wirewrapped with either gold or silver wire and hung from a gold or silver chain. I had planned to paint squiggly lines of either gold or platinum across the surface of the pieces, but Dave is right--there is no undo function on such an action and I could ruin it. Finished dimension are 4" X 2-1/2". Any suggestions?

This morning--maybe in the next half hour so I had better finish up and get dressed--another artist with whom I did a trade will be dropping by to pick up her piece. It is a 24" X 16" hanging panel in Morceaux de Verre "Ocean". It turned out really well and I am thinking of adding it to my catalog.

And speaking of catalog, the rep from the Art Institute wrote last week inquiring about new work for their spring web assortment. Dave suggested the necklace, I would like to offer the fountain but it is too much work. I'll see how the screen melt piece turned out today (an S-curve platter from pieces of the original melt) and maybe I'll be able to work a new series around it. And now off to work--the box, the pattern bars for the mirror, the support posts for the fountain, a bunch of pieces to slump and some paperweights to cast today. All three kilns going again. I hope they fire on more cylinders than I am.