Panic

Still crazy busy. I have two or three commissions to work on. Sales in the shop have picked up since Thanksgiving and I have to get some new work out too. I'm starting to panic about Christmas already. Yikes!

Crashing

It is one of the busiest times of the year for me as the long silence can attest to. I have been working in the studio a bit, mostly just finishing up some commission work and doing some annealing for hire.

I recently finished up my first repair commission. A friend of mine had the cap break part way off her pendant stained glass lamp. At first, I thought this would be a very easy task, but the longer I worked on it, the harder it became. Stripping the old solder and foil off the glass was a bit of a challenge, but getting it off the cap was even more difficult. Eventually I learned, through trial and error, how to do it. And clearly, if I had known how to take the actual electric fixture out of the equation, it would have been soooooo much easier.

It was a long operation, partly because we undertook a studio rebuild right in the middle of it, partly because of my inexperience at repair, and in large part because of creeping equipment failure. But I finished the job and it looked really good. I was very proud of my work and sweated the whole way in the car, driving down to North Carolina, that it would get damaged somehow from the way I had packed it.

This lamp must be cursed. Not five minutes after I returned it to its rightful owner, after having spending six months in my shop under repair, it tumbled to the ground and broke. That crash damn near broke my heart.

A Successful Event

There are times when we take on a task we feel that we will be able to accomplish without flaw. Then life steps in and reminds you that there are no perfect moments, only the hope that we can acheive our goals.

I can tell you that I am a very lucky person. The Art Fair I hosted this weekend went far better than my expectations. Much of this was due to the sponsoring body coming together on the last several days and throwing themselves on the work that needed to be done. I felt almost superficial when the event was determined a success.

One of the highlights for me was the success of the artist who took up my challenge to produce a secular leaded and stained glass window that might have been commissioned for a great house in the 15th or 16th centuries. As a stained glass artist, I know exactly how difficult my challenge was and found that the artist who chose to take me up on it was able to exceed my expectations. She even exceeded her own and was able to produce a piece that everyone who saw it was able to pronounce a gorgeous work of art.

I am proud of the success of my event. The head of our group came up to me afterwards and thanked me for proving him wrong. He never believed that my concept would work, but he did believe that my previous track record made me the best possible person to make it work if it could.

Originally this was going to be a one-off event. However, everyone I have heard from both at the event and since has stated that when we do this next year that they will be there. I am actually considering doing it again. Call me crazy, because it will be hard to top this year's effort. Wish the crazy lady luck!

Where Upon I Go AAAAAACKK!

I haven't had a lot of time to do glass over the last week because I am running an artists' exhibition on Saturday and the details have sort of taken over my life. Right now, I have about 50 artists scheduled to show up and I'm still scrambling for prizes and dorky stuff like extra toilet paper and paper towels for the bathrooms and making sure my caterer has everything she needs because she's driving 4 months pregnant all the way from New Jersey to do it.

Usually I really enjoy running stuff like this. I'm a regional arts officer for the non-profit I belong to and these functions are my bread and butter. For some reason though, I really can't get into this one. Maybe it's because of the time of year. I always get depressed in the fall, which is odd because autumn is my very favorite season.

At any rate, this close to the event it can be compared to a rockslide. It's going to happen whether I'm ready for it or not. I only hope that my artist friends are happy with their experience. Wish me luck!

What's up in the Shop?

I made a new sushi plate this weekend in shades of blue. It's patterned after a green one that I did that was very popular, but I don't like it as well in the shades of blue that I chose. I think that I will focus on doing some round dishes for a while. The square ones are boring me.

I bought some xanthian gum to make liquid stringer last week. I need to boil it up and let it sit before I can use it, but I'm really looking forward to trying it out. There's definitely some cold combing and some freeze fusing in my very near future.

Ornaments seem to be really popular right now. I sold out all of the ones I posted already so I might think about doing more for the holiday. It depends on whether or not I have any fiber board left. though I suppose I could make a mold out of something else if I put my mind to it.

Anyway, those are just a few ideas I'm playing around with now. My creativity seems to be somewhat renewed with the colder weather. Heck, I'm even contemplating setting up the torch! It will be interesting to see how badly out of practice I have become.

Made of Win!

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I won the drawing for a tripod from Leah Glass? Well, here it is - proof positive that it was a fo-sure fo-real deal. There stands my brand new (and it really was NIB) tripod.

I've used it a couple of times now and it has really improved my pictures. I rarely have to retake shots because they are blurry. Seriously, if you were on the fence about using a tripod before, I'm here to tell you to go ahead and get one. This thing is awsome!

Now, before you get down on yourself for missing out on the prize, Leah does give-aways all the time. The current one is for a really cool boro pendant. All you have to do is visit her blog at http://leahglass.blogspot.com/ and make a comment. Go for it! You might be the next lucky winner.

Columbus Day Plans

Tomorrow is a Federal holiday and that means I get to work in my studio. Whoopee!! Number 1 boy will be in school and number 2 boy will be at the sitter's house. I have tons of plans. There are beads to anneal, a custom sushi plate to cut and fuse, a lamp to reassemble and a bunch of recycled beads to make into a project.

Plus I need to clean the shop and run some errands. Clearly, I have more projects than time.