Another Marble

This is a fantastic marble, and it's for sale on ebay

It's been to cold to blow glass the past week. Our hotshop is in a covered surrounded deck, so it's mostly fine -- protected from the rain, wind and can vent through a skylight when it gets too hot, but it doesn't protect enough when it gets really really cold.

Fortunately, it doesn't get that cold here but once or twice a year. We rarely even get snow. But this past week... Brrr... It's like being back in the midwest.

I don't do well in the cold. I don't have much of any blood pressure, so my temperature drops to about room temperature. When it's this cold, my hands freeze up and my muscles start to spasm. No fun!

Plus, while most of the hotshop is in the surrounded deck, the furnace (glory) is a bit outside of it. Still covered, but you have to get from there to inside the deck, and when it's this cold, the glass just skins up so darned fast!

It's warming up though, so we should be able to blow more in the next few days. I have these great marble techniques that I just started playing with, so I'm ready to get back out there and see what else I can do with them!

Peace,
Joy

Bank Bailout, Auto Bailout..What about an Artist Bailout?

I fully understand the reasoning behind the financial bailout and the auto bailout. I don't completely agree with them.

I think that the auto industry has had decades of being really poorly run and making on-the-crappy-side cars, with an emphasis on the huge SUVs that are suddenly unwanted. Other car companies have factories here in the states and they aren't asking for bailouts. Toyota and Nissan seem to be weathering the depression without whining for free money.

As for the financial bailout... If the big banks are getting tons of cash, why are they upping their fees and rates on all of us little guys? Bank of America, whom I quite dislike, recently raised my APR from a reasonable 9% to 21% for no readily apparent reason, and then they dropped my credit limit too. Of course, as soon as they dropped my credit limit, my debt to limit ratio was much higher, so that triggered another rate increase!!!!

Just like the restrictions on the auto makers, the banks should have had restrictions put on their windfalls too. Yes, there are new restrictions to take place the middle of 2010(!) now, and woohoooo, that'll help us alot, if we're not all homeless by then.

Whew... Thanks for letting me vent. I've been stewing on this for a loooong time.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas,
Joy

My Cat Pees in the Toilet!

After getting out of my shower yesterday, I heard a strange watery tinkling sound. I looked around the corner and saw Dobby, my cream tabby with a curly tail, shown here:
was hopping off of the toilet. I went over and looked in and sure enough, the water was moving, pee colored and had some fresh bubbles in it!!

I didn't even train him to do it. Usually, I've heard of the little trays that you fill with litter and start training your cat to use that and then slowly take it away, but not Dobby. He just up and used it! And I've noticed colorations in the bowl before, with no clue where it came from, so I think he's been using it for a while! What a smart kitty!

Now if I could just teach him how to flush....

Merry Christmas,
Joy

We Got SNOW!!!!

We Got SNOW!!! Isn't the place beautiful?? It snows so rarely here, it's really great when it happens. It's only about once every two or three years and then it only lasts maybe a day. As I write this, the great snow of this morning is mostly all melted away now.

I come from Michigan and Indiana, so I'm no stranger to snow -- huge drifts, shoveling, scraping off windshields, getting my little bug stuck on the snow between the lanes carved out by much taller vehicles.... I don't miss that part of it, but I do miss being warm and snuggly, wrapped up with kittens and looking out on how pretty it is. I wish it was going to be here tonight so that I could see our pretty Christmas lights reflected in it.

The kittens do NOT like snow! Dobby was the first to try it. He gets cold easily and is mostly an inside house elf, so he was happy to come right back in. Larry, on the other hand, with his big Maine Coon paws, tried to make his way out, shaking his hands and feet after each step. Alas, crossing the deck was as far as he ventured and he too came back into the warm coziness.

And I'm making stew in my crock pot, so it's an extra warm cozy feeling in here today. Business may be down, we may be behind on bills, but this place is beautiful and our work is great, so it's got to turn around here soon.

Peace and Merry Christmas,
Joy

Great Swirlies Marble

This small marble has some great stuff going on in it. I put on a general salmon color over the whole interior, but then I mixed on some deep ruby and let that swirl around the salmon. I then added small opal white frit over the ruby. While it was all hot and gooey, I grabbed sections of it and twisted and pulled. The colors wrapped around each other and the opal white thinned down to little bitty wispies! Very pretty.

After it was all swirled, I added another gather of hot glass over it and then gently rolled it in some more opal white to get a delicate smattering of little white dots over the exterior lower half.

Very nice technique. I would like to use this with some golds in with the ruby. I think that would look fantastic.

Peace,
Joy

Beauty in glass

Isn't this one just fantastic. The color swirls are amazing. And it was fun to make. I'm going to do a lot more of these types, cause.... wow.....

Peace,
Joy

An Amazing Marble

This marble is just fantastic. It's 1 3/4 inches across. The interior has this really cool shell thing going on, made out of a deep salmon color that swirls around and then spreads out and fades into the shell shape. Then the outside of the shell is coated with little tiny bubbles and then the whole thing is encased in glass.

The itty bitty bubbles make the interior shimmer like it's got all kinds of little lights going on inside. The exterior has small dots of red around the middle and then swirling down to the bottom.

The shell thing though is just fantastic. I keep looking at it for long periods of time, it's just so freaking ccol!!

Peace,
Joy