Focus on OneThing, or Many?

Is it better to focus on one thing, or allow yourself to do many different things? There is usually a consensus that if you do one thing, you do it well. If you branch out, you'll never be a master at anything.

I don't know if I agree with that or not. Sometimes, I feel like if I did just focus on one thing, I would get extremely good, but I just don't have the attention span for it. When my brain is working on a painting and gets stuck, it helps tremendously to go and do something completely different. It's like it lets that part of my brain sleep and recover and then can wake up with new ideas, while the rest of me is still creating.

Here are some extremes:


This is an itty bitty painting, only 6 inches across, done in watercolor. It is of my beautiful little cat, Shadow. Painting releases stress for me, and I tend to get lost in a painting and the time flies by.

The other extreme: Big friggin glass sculpture


This big thing is the Lifetime Space Achievement Award for the Space Foundation. That's me and my partner, BJ, with award recipient Jim Lovell. Jim is holding the individual award that he gets to keep. (It's on display at his restaurant north of Chicago)

This type of building feeds the engineering part of my brain. Figuring out how things will fit together, and then creating the pieces and carving them to complete a larger whole piece is more complicated, requiring me to keep a lot of portions in my head at a given time. The thing I *don't* like about this process is that I'm really bad at seeing progress. I see things finished. If I'm making slow progess, I tend to get discouraged and think I'm not getting anything done. And than all of the sudden, one day the whole thing gets done, like a surprise to me.

I certainly don't think I'm a master at any one thing, but I *do* think I'm pretty darned good at a number of things, and if I had to choose which one to focus on and become a master at, I think I'd go insane. Also, given my temperament, I *still* don't think I'd become a master at the one thing. I'm just too hard on myself. And anyways, I feel like if you finally DO think yourself a "Master," then you're closing yourself off to growth and learning, and what fun is that?

What do you think? Do you have experience with Many vs. One? Please post a comment.

Peace,
Joy

It's Country Livin'....

Yes, I know I live in the country, so I should expect things like this on occasion, but when they actually happen... It's a bit of a shock! We have a mountain lion. Right here, in our yard.

I have always had a big family of pets. Growing up I had cats, dogs, chickens, guinea pigs, and fish. Now, I have just cats, but a good number of them. Since I live in the country, and we have a pretty big yard, the cats get to go outside during the day. I try to bring them all in at night, since we've heard rumor of mountain lions, and I've seen bobcats, foxes, raccoons, skunks, possum and a slew of smaller critters. A couple of our cats are explorers though, and don't like to come in. They have radio trackers on them so that I can find them easier and bring them in at night. They're not very old, so aren't very "Street smart".

Last night, I went out to find Larry, our beautiful tuxedo Maine Coon. He knows the sound of the radio beeper, so came running from the next hill over, Observatory Hill. I stood on the deck, waiting and watching him running towards me. He got into the gate and stopped cold, looking to the left and then up at me, back to the left, back up at me. He's played this game with me before, where I have to come down and the Chase Is On!! before he'll finally be "caught" and brought in. So I started heading down to get him. It was dusk and he needed to come inside.

As I rounded the big pine tree, I saw what he was looking at. About 20 feet away, a large deer had been killed, partially ripped apart and was laying there. YUCK!!! Larry ran and I had to chase him, but was completely freaked out by what I'd seen, and of course, hearing every twig and leaf crackle as some huge beast right next to me. I caught him and brought him in and BJ and I went out to investigate the deer. Read BJs account here: http://blog.imperialearth.com/

There were large signs of strangulation and it was eviscerated with very large claw marks in it's rump. That was it. I was freaked! I went back in and had a very vegetarian dinner and even locked the doors! Like that would make any difference at all...

Later, as it was dark, I did NOT go outside, but shined a big flashlight down to see if I could see anything. Two enormous glowing eyes shined back at me! YIKES!!!! WHAT THE HECK IS THAT????? It was mostly behind the pine tree, so could only see the eyes. We got the binoculars and watched for a bit. I guess it relaxed that we weren't any kind of threat, so it moved out to where we could see it better, sat down for a while just staring up at us. I was freaked out, but oh my gosh, it was beautiful. It was a huge mountain lion. The tail was a good 3-4 feet long, with a big black tuft on the end. The eyes were about 6 or so inches apart. He was about 20 yards away.

As he sat, he was about 3 1/2 feet tall. After a bit, he turned around, stretched out and laid down. WOW. What a sight!!! Even rolled over on his side, showing off his big tummy! Just Beautiful!!! Tried to take pictures, but it was just too dark. The flashlight wasn't enough for the camera, and neither of us was going to go out for a closer look!!!

All I could do was keep saying "WOW!!" I'd seen them in zoos before, but never one just out in the yard.

After a bit, the wind and rain picked up. I looked again for him, but he'd gone to seek shelter. Somewhere... Then I was freaked out again.

I went down past the tree today, and the deer is still there, moved into the rocks surround now, and more of it eaten. I'm figuring that the lion is still hanging around though.... close to his meal. I started hearing twigs and leaves crackle again, so high-tailed it back into the house. None of the cats have been let out today, cause they'd just be a lion mcnugget in a flash. I'll be watching for him tonight. I sure bet he'll be back.

Peace,
Joy

The Rocket is Complete!

The fins are finished! They were cut from solid cherry boards with my radial arm saw and trimmed up with my bandsaw. The blade on that could use some replacing.... Cherry is so hard that mostly the bandsaw blade just burns it while it's trying to cut. Funny, burned cherry wood smells exactly like popcorn. Now I'm hungry!

Anyways, the fins were roughed out with the saws, but then mostly hand carved to shape on a flat belt sander. I often use the end of the sander to do curves and ripples, so used that to get the curve on the underside of each fin to match each other.

They are just loosely propped in place in the photo. I have a lot of work to do on the rocket body before I can finally attach the fins. In fact, since I've taken this photo, the rocket is now cut into its 10 pieces along the guidelines you can see above. Each little piece will then get a slight channel on each end for the bearing that goes between, and then will get a hole bored through the center to accept the guide tube. When they're all cut, the tubes will nest inside each other and rotate on the bearings, hopefully centered on each other .....

I can't yet cut the channels and bore the holes, as my bearings have not yet arrived. So I move on to another section of the project - the motor drive!

Peace,
Joy

Continuing the Rocket for the Orrery

It's finally stopped storming, so I can continue to work on building my rocketship today. Why does it matter if it's storming? Some of my equipment (lathe, drillpress among other stuff) is out on a covered deck. The covers keep them protected when it rains, but I'm not too good with my hands when it's cold and wet. I have very low blood pressure, so if my hands get cold, they don't work very well, and that's not something you want happening when you're working with a high speed drill press, or have a large gouge aiming at a huge piece of rapidly spinning wood on a lathe.

So when my hands start giving me trouble, I choose warmer, indoor work, which I certainly have enough of.

But I WANT to get this rocket done! And today is warm(er) and dry, so I'm going to take advantage of it!

You can see in the picture the carved rocket body next to a spare turning block in case I screwed up the first one (and it still isn't too late to do just that....). These pieces are 20 inches long and 4 1/2 inches wide and weigh about 10 pounds each. Pretty massive, really. I drilled the holes for the arms and weights into the top pieces before I turned it (cause once I turn it, I don't have a flat surface to go perpendicular to anymore). I also routed out the channels for the fins before I turned it. You can see the channels at the base of the rocket. There will be 4 fins that I am going to start carving today. Oh, and I'll also sand the top of the rocket to a nice cone.

The rocket and the fins are carved from solid Cherry, a hard and beautiful wood. One of my favorites to work. Once I get the fins carved and fit and make sure that the rocket stands like it's supposed to, I'll start doing more tooling to the rocket body itself, but that's for another post. One thing at a time!

Peace,
Joy

A Rocket is Born!

I got the rocket carved for the Orrery that we're making!!!! Yay!!! It was cold though, but not raining. You can see me all bundled up. I actually have three shirts on and two pairs of sweatpants, and gloves. I'm coated with sawdust, as is everything else. It gets in my hair, up my nose and under my contacts, but it's actually a lot of fun to get so messy and see something come out of nothing.

The section I'm working on is the top of the rocket. The wide section to my right is the part where the fins will come out. I haven't carved them yet. The dark lines that I'm cutting in the photo is the separations of the sections. I carved the smooth shape of the rocket first and then put in the marking of where the rocket will be cut into 10 pieces.

Why cut it? There's the base piece - the fatter part that the fins will attach to, and then the very top cap which holds the rod to the Sun globe. The other eight pieces are for each of the planets. Each piece will have a rod coming out of it that goes out to hold the planet. You can see that in the website picture.

So after the rocket is carved and sanded, then it is cut into the pieces that can rotate on their own. I'll then take each one of the pieces and drill a hole in the center to hold the tube that goes down to the gearing. Complicated huh? Yes, it makes my brain tired if I think of too many sections of it at a time. I'll most likely start carving the fins tomorrow and figuring out the gearing system (yikes!).

If you like these, please become a follower here.

Peace,
Joy

This is Why I Like Being an Artist.

Granted, I haven't tried a slew of different jobs. I did a lot of retail and office work in college, and of course the obligatory doughnut shop waitress in high school (oh, how I hated the smell of doughnuts...). Once I got out of college, I mostly worked for myself, doing costume design for various theatres and then artwork fulltime, never wanting to work for "The Man". I do much better by myself, with maybe a partner, but not a boss.

Mostly, it's the diversity of the life. Recently I've done a lot of glassblowing, and then the subsequent polishing. Some days I get to work on glass casting, some days writing (like yesterday), and today, something totally different -- I get to drill holes into wood to start making a 20 inch carved hardwood cherry rocket! It will be drilled first, because once I do more work on it, I won't have any flat sides to line up with anymore. Then I'll start to turn it on my lathe to get the right shape. I haven't been able to work with my lathe for a long time, so it will be very fun.

When I do lathe work, it's quite messy, with wood shavings going everywhere. It's a loud job, so I get to wear my earphones and crank the tunes. It's outdoors, so I can sing loud with no one being bothered and I get to be in the fresh air (which hopefully will warm up a little by then....). It's fun to see a big ole block of wood shaved down to a sculpture that's hiding inside.

If it gets too cold to do the turning, I'll go down into the shop (which isn't heated, but at least it's enclosed) and start cutting and carving the rocket fins with my macho radial arm saw!

Doesn't get any better than that! OK, maybe if I had a chocolate pizza down there with me.....

Peace,
Joy

Wine Stopper Collection is UP!

Many of the wine stoppers are now online at http://losturemarbles.com/wine-stoppers.html I have still about 30 of the "Classical" style to polish and then photograph, but there are some real beauties already up. It seemed to take longer to put together the photography and website than it did to blow the glass pieces in the first place, but I guess that's probably because the blowing part was fun and went so quickly. The above wine stopper is in my favorite colors - Violet, Lavendar, and Purple! The violet interior adds sparkles to the whole thing. I love it!


This is one of BJ's ribbon wine stoppers. The way he colors them and then twists them into a ribbon is just amazing. You get the different colors swirling together, but then also you're looking into the ribbon and seeing the other colors on the other side. These are just beautiful and in our "Expressive" category. A wonderful treat for the wine enthusiast.


This beauty is by BJ, but it's using my arrangement of purple colors. It's in our "Elegant" stopper category as it's a large, wonderful piece. BJ used a mold to create lines of color and then added a bubble to the end of each, circling the whole piece. It's a great effect and makes an awesome work of art, and doubles as a useful wine accessory! Doesn't get any better.

I hope you like these additions and check out all the others on LostureMarbles.com. I'll extend a special I have running for my facebook fans to here - 15% off your order, just type in "facebook" into the coupon box on the order form.

Now, I'm off to polish more Classicals!

Peace,
Joy

More Amazing Wine Stoppers

OK. How much fun are these???? This one is one of my favorites today. It's on the larger side, nearly 2 1/2 inches wide, with blues, creams and some wispies of purple floating through. It's just outright gorgeous under a light or in the sun. Wow!

This one is fun too. I asked a friend what her favorite colors were and she said "Purple, purple and more purple!" Oooh, those are three of MY favorite colors too! So I had fun with this one, incorporating an opal lilac, lavender and a rich violet. MMmmm. Yummy!


This one came after the rich dark purple ones. It uses a bit of the violet, but then adds some alabaster and a little bit of a sky blue. Very pretty -- it's soft, subtle and elegant.


And then there was this one!!! How much fun is this??? It's Garnet and Gold, with then the creamy pink added in. I swirled it differently so that the trailing ends would look like tendrils or flames. Very effective!!! This is the first of this technique and BJ came out and said "Show Me HOW!!!" cause it was just so darned cool.


But he never does anything small! This one is a beauty though, at a little over 3 1/2 inches tall. It has emerald and golden yellow, with some shoots of brilliant blue. He mixes and twists the colors and then puts the pattern on the outside and the twist so that it looks like ribbon. Mesmerizing with all the little details.

And the stopper bottoms are made of stainless steel, so it will never rust or pit or anything, no matter what kind of bottle you are stopping. It has rings of rubber to hold it securely in place.

Getting the cart, pricing and website set up takes a long time, especially when most of the day is spent processing the photos and movies and doing the photography itself. I think BJ is getting the site about ready to put up though, so it shouldn't be long now. As for pricing, they're going to be in the range of $65-75 for the regular ones and up to $125 or so for the larger ones. If you'd like to get one before the site goes up, just send me an email with which one you like and I'll send you a private link to be able to purchase it. And they're signed by us, so will only increase in value as works of art.

Let me know what you think of them.

Peace,
Joy