From Dusty Shelves

the hiss of gas...
the scratchy click of a manual flint striker..
the shower of sparks over the torch..
the fwoosh as it catches
the living hiss of a live torch as you balance the flame
the quiet creak of the stool as you shift and feed your first rods, already turning, into the flame.....

it was pretty awesome......

( more and pictures too! )

All in all it was a lot of fun! I learned a ton of new things and met some great people.

So I started looking for studio space for glassblowing, putting out some feelers and I got a recommendation.

( look under the cut for more, and pics even! )

Now I'm going to have to come up with a glassblowing avatar ;)

Went to the visit the studio up north of me...

nice shop.. I really like the way they have it laid out.



I talked with one of the owners a bit, eavesdropped a bit and it sounds like I may be able to work there. There's a chance that I can get into a position to do a bit of apprentice work with them. Trade out work, I would assist them a couple nights a week in exchange for furnace time on sunday. We'll see if anything pans out there. At the very least, there's things to be learned there. Opportunities to follow. I'll schedule a session with them sometime in the next month and see how it goes from there.

I haven't picked up a pipe in more than a year...

This could be a lot of fun.

so there's a local glassblowing studio that offers pipe time now.....
perhaps a place to go and see if my hands can still remember how to make anything...

I wonder if they need any computer work done...
hrmmm

So last night I started looking at all the stuff stacked around and on my kiln.

I've got a bowl I've promised someone more than a year ago now that's never been slumped.

I spent a couple of hours last night just moving things around, unstacking, dusting, reassembling, stacking and now I think my large (for me) kiln is in a position to be used again.

I rummaged around my glass storage and managed to find a nice spectrum blue ripple "champaign" glass that will mike a nice single sheet fluted bowl for me to re-learn/test my notes on again before the promised bowl. Dug around my two glass tool/supply cupboards that I haven't been into for more than a year until I found my circle cutter. Managed a fair score, then ran a few other scores by hand with the other cutter and started to break out the circle. Not bad, for the most part my 9.5 inch circle came out. There are a few flairs/points, because for me, breaking out scores around a circle hardly ever break clean. Cutting circles has NEVER been my strong suite. I'll grab the grinder this evening and touch it up.

Found my fluted bowl mold and it's sitting in the kiln, ready for the glass. Hopefully tonight I'll touch up the circle on the grinder than start the slump.

The whole process was nice last night, even the work part of just finding a place for everything else. Clearing out, making room, cutting glass, planning.