Production Mode

The good thing about deadlines is that it forces me to quick fooling around and just DO! I've spent every possible minute outside in the sweltering heat winding glass onto mandrels. I hope there's some truth to the notion of sweating being a good way to remove toxins from the body, as then I'm getting healthy while I work. Who needs a sauna when you've got a glass studio??

I've made lots of the warm-up beads, as I call them -- the stringer work cones. Now that I have a big pile of them, I love them even more. They are so simple that they are addictive; no thinking required.

I also painted and fired four fish tiles, then wrapped those into finished beads.

I made a few bird vessels, including one from Bullseye glass, a stiffer glass that makes it possible to do stringer decoration without so much breakage (I've lost quite a few recently trying to get fancy). And I made a few odd vessels to electroform.

I also tried some of the new ideas from my sketchbook. I get the best ideas when flying. Keenan pilots the plane, and I draw and scribble notes to myself. He noted that they always involve birds and suggested that it only stands to reason that flying should provide great ideas for flyers. The swallows from my fabric painting are now flitting around my beads. Tricky to photograph though, since they're curved. Maybe I need to find another shape.