I’m going to post twice in a weekend!! Woo hoo! 

This post is going to be a little shorter though…

Over Scheduled!

I didn’t realize when I signed up for things, that TCQ Block of the Month, the Glacier Star class and Open Torch (glass bead making) would all fall on the same Saturday…..

Normally, I go to the 10, or even 11 am session for Block of the Month.  The Glacier Star class is 10-2, and Open Torch starts at 1:30… so, 9 am session it is.

I call the Second Saturday of the month:  Busy Saturday.

Normal “Busy Saturday”

·         8:00 – get up

·         9:00 – Block of the Month

·         9:45 – leave TCQ

·         10:00 – Glacier Star at Glad Creations, start on the new month’s technique

·         1:30/2:00 – leave Glad’s

·         2:00/2:30 – Open Torch

·         5:30 – done

Today

·         12:15 (night before) – return home from dinner and finish the blocks that have to be brought in to get the new fabric

·         4:00 – go to bed after writing blog post and other stuff

·         4:45 – while reading in bed, discover lump in breast (cyst most likely, but still annoying and worrisome), use ipad and Allina ap to schedule appointment

·         8:15 – get up

·         8:30 – discover that the milk has gone bad

·         9:00 – block of the month

·         9:25 – sudden realization that all the fabric for Glacier Star is sitting in the living room

·         9:30 – grab handout for Block of the Month and race home

·         10:00 – Glacier Star  (Note, I’m doing two – one in Batiks and one in Black and White)

·         12:00 – casual conversation while sewing… I ask the group when “Scrap Tamers” starts up… the answer is NEXT SATURDAY… Yikes!  So not prepared!!!  I haven’t even told Michelle that I signed her up!

·         1:00 – finish up LAST month’s blocks for ONLY the Batik version (yea, I’m behind)

·         1:10 – Start on last month’s blocks for the Black and White version… discover I don’t have enough back ground fabric with me (it’s at home).  Set that aside

·         1:15 – Start on the current month’s technique for the Batiks quilt.  Discover I’m five inches short on one of the fabrics I want to use…. (I don’t need to find more of it, just pick another fabric)

·         1:20 – admit defeat on Glacier Star for the day

·         1:30 – leave for Torch work

·         2:00 – discover that the majority of my beads from last month didn’t turn out.

·         2:30 – noticeable burn on my wrist

·         3:30 – burn on my thumb (not as bad)

·         5:30 – done…..

·         Spend the evening trying to cut out and organize the Glacier Star blocks…. Decide that I need to go to the fabric store and don’t achieve much more than making a mess in the living room.

Beads

I lead into beads, so I better show them here!

Let me give some context around this first.

I’m not an “organic” artist.  My daughter, Brandie is.  She can sketch, draw, paint, make things look real, etc. 

Ana and I are geometric types.  We function well when math and ratios are involved.  That’s why we quilt.  That’s also why I’m drawn to fused glass.  There are people who work with it who do very organic things, but I cut straight lines and organize to my heart’s content.

Beads are far more organic, and I will never be very good at them.  However, I enjoy playing with a 2500 degree torch and making an attempt to make round and cylindrical things that I can wear.  I figure I do a lot of bead stringing – I need to make a few in my lifetime!

Plus, a woman wielding a torch is hot….!  (No pun intended)

Torch work, also called Lamp work, is expensive.  The studio I do most of my fusing at charges $12 an hour to use their equipment….  That’s a lot for something that I’m not good at.  I had a bead failure last time, and only have six or so beads to show for over three hours work… you do the math….

Another studio that I’ve taken classes at is in North East Minneapolis, and as part of an Arts initiative/Open Studios at their building day, they offer “Open Torch” once a month, on the second Saturday.  This special day is $15 for up to four hours of time.  It’s a much better deal for someone like me who is just wasting time and materials doing this!

The studio is in NE Minneapolis – about 6-7 miles from my house, and out of the way for my normal travels.  After making beads on the torch, they are then put into a kiln to “anneal” overnight; they don’t come home with me.  This means that I generally pick up my beads from one month when I go in for the session the next month.

July Beads

In July, I went gung ho with playing around with color, decorations, etc.  Here are the beads that I made that day:

And here are some close-ups of some of the beads:

August Beads

After picking up those lovely beads (some are pretty darned good if I may say so myself!), I set about making more!

I knew even before I left the studio that things weren’t right…. I didn’t feel good making them, things didn’t feel right….

I should know to trust my instincts…

But, before I go there, let me tell you what happened in/out of the torch work session….

First of all, while at the studio, I attempted to burn off the tip of my finger.  A ¼ inch x ½ inch strip on the top of my pinkie on my right hand turned completely white and hurt like hell.  The cause was touching the hot end of a glass rod by mistake. 

It hurt for hours… I hand to wash my hands with my pinkie extended – like in drinking tea from fancy cups.

Before I left, I picked up some of the failure of glass.  Sometimes, when trying to melt a rod and get a good gather to make into a bead, one turns the rod wrong, or something, and drops a chunk of glass.  These bits cool into interesting shapes and I’ve got a few of them.  Some day, I want to take them, and all the broken beads I’ve got, and tack fuse them onto a 12 inch piece of glass.  Said piece will then become a hung piece of wall art entitled “Failures”.

I digress… so, I picked up the chunk and put it in my pocket.

Left the studio, and went out to a movie with Daughter Brandie and Son-In-Law Matt…. As we were standing around talking, I’m doing my usual thing of fidgeting, etc…. I’m playing with the chunk of glass in my pocket, and my thumb starts to feel …. Wet…. Hmmm… pull it out…

My thumb has a good sized gash on it and is bleeding quite well….

I found the one little sharp spot on the chunk of glass…

Luckily, I carry Band-Aids at all times….

All this was simply foreboding…  

I picked up the beads from that day, today, and there were several broken ones.  I started to take them off the mandrels (steel rods) and more than half that were still intact fell apart easily.

Take a look at the picture of the few that survived:

Notice the one in the bottom right?  It’s visibly cracked and probably won’t last long.  I think that this was actually more of a kiln/annealing failure or something else than just me.  I guess when I pick up beads from Today’s session; I’ll have more of a clue as to the blame.