Tag: glasswork

Mission accomplished

Project completed! Many, many thanks to Carmela Patriotti for her patience, her kindness, and her willingness to share her art.

I’ll be hanging it up in the back hall window — tomorrow, I think.

Photo by Carmela Patriotti:

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I changed my mind and hung it up tonight. Fingers crossed the cats will leave it alone.

Glass work stats, ’cause some folks wanted to know size: It is 14.5 inches across the widest part and 10.5 tall. Weighs +/- 2 pounds.

Next project, as some other folks asked — something with straight lines. I’m eschewing opaque glass for the moment, therefore, cathedral glass. So, the next project is! Straight lines and clear colored glass.

This is a busy week, and the busiest day is Wednesday, when I have to get up at Stupid O’Clock to take the car to Charlie’s for its annual inspection and putting on the new plates. I’m figuring to make a day — or at least a half-day — of it — Charlie’s, breakfast, Glass Express, maybe even Longfellow’s.

Which is to say, we’ll all know more, later.

Coon cat happy hour is very nearly upon us.

Everybody have a good evening; stay safe. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Glass babble

Let’s see… Sunday? Let’s go with Sunday.

Snowed on the overnight; seems to be raining now. The cats have got Classic Rewind on LOUD, so I guess it’s gonna be that kind of a day.

First load of laundry is washing. Rice is cooking. I need to strip the bed, and clean up my “business desk.” Again. Honest to ghu, I’m never here and still it gets shored up with papers and…Stuff. I’m not sure how I ever kept this under control, because let it be said that Steve did not do the paperwork.

Going out after lunch to finish up my glass piece.

Speaking of glass, I watched three? I think three — photos, food, light, robots — so that’s four episodes of the first season of Blown Away last night. I am pleased to report that my Art Antenna is still Finely Tuned.

One of the judges Questioned the Color Choice used on a project (color was not part of the brief for this project), and I had just drawn in a sharp breath to yell “foul!” when they flipped to a clip of the artist, saying, “That was so inappropriate!”

So — yeah. It was.

They also put down another artist for producing a piece that “you’d find in a gift shop,” which — artists gotta eat, says the SciFi Writer, and producing something that someone else will look at and say, “Take my money,” is not to be sneered at. Also, in the case, the artist had been attempting something very challenging — and it broke off of the punty. He should’ve gotten points for diving right back in at the last hour and making a professional piece.

I remember that time that Steve and I wrote the wrong book — which we discovered as we were going through it prior to printing out the submission copy. EEK. And also, “OK. We can fix this.”

There was one person eliminated — the very first person eliminated, in fact — who did deserve a bit of harshness. His piece also broke coming off the punty, and instead of trying to see if there was anything he could rescue, he picked the piece up off the floor, and dropped it again, deliberately smashing it. He was disqualified for having given in to the sin of despair, which — I understand why he did it? But a deep breath would’ve been in order.

The other thing that’s kinda bothering me — is this fascinating or what? — is that the hype is: you gotta make this in four hours, folks, and then the pieces go into the annealer, and you’re left with the feeling that they came right out after time’s called and set up in display, instead of having cooled at some preposterous temperature — 1000F? Like that — for 12 hours.

So the schedule is: The artists get a Hell Day where they’re competing. The pieces go into the annealer. The artists go back to the hotel and drink. Next day, they come back, get their pieces out of the annealer, and participate in staging the “show” for the judges.

. . .I’m done now.

What’s everybody doing today?

We who are about to brain…

Proof of well-supervised work happening:

Did a lot of braining today. And laundry. Braining means less words, but better results. Laundry — well. You gotta have socks.

So, I see that DoorDash has lost a lawsuit 4 years in the trying, in which they were proved guilty of privateering during Covid. They gotta pay money to Almost Everybody, which is of interest to me because!

I have money on account with DoorDash, thanks to kind friends, and I am very careful to use it when I really need it — I’m on a drop-deadline, or I’m sick, or I just got back from picking up a cat in New Hampshire and drove home in the snow — you know: emergencies.

Over the last two days, I’ve been getting messages — and I’m talking about a lot of messages, “reminding” me that I have $X on account and that now! would be the perfect time to DoorDash a Big Mac. Or maybe I’d like a milkshake? Or somebody to pick up some Tday groceries for me? Or, or, or —

In other Convenient Food news, I got a gift card — included in the cat litter delivery — for $140 OFF my first box from Factor. How much do these things cost that they can give me a week’s grocery money off?

And third? Came in today’s mail and these folks are playing for keeps! They’re not only gonna send me premade dinners, they gonna give me a FREE “smart oven” to cook ’em in. All I have to do is open the box, sprinkle Stuff over what’s cooking, put the pans in the “smart oven” and scan the QR Code from the box. The oven will then smartly cook my meal to perfection.

The future is a lot weirder than I thought it would be.

Anyhoots. Coon Cat Happy Hour has been served. I am a tired woman, and am going to go pour a glass of wine and try to find the first season of the glass-blowing show and see if that’s less … people-y. I know that people make glass, and that it’s a competition, but I want less posturing, and more thoughts on the art or the process when I have to listen to the people, and more of the actual Happening of Art, which I think is more interesting than the finished pieces.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I’ll check in tomorrow.

Art takes a rest

Earlier this same day: Wrote about 900 words while Sarah was here. Finished soldering the back of my glass piece, but couldn’t work out how to solder the edges, not having three hands, and came upstairs to look up how that’s done, exactly. Duh. So, I’ll do that after the Fidium guy has come and gone.

I guess I ought to get some lunch…
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Somewhat later: So, I’m stopping here, it being the best I can do. I note that the piece is not perfectly oval, but on the whole it’s looking much better than I had assumed it would.

I did have a moment of inattention and burned a BIG hole in my Styrofoam work surface (sigh). Note to self: soldering irons are hot; that’s kinda the point. I have another piece of Styrofoam. I also have lots of funny little pieces of Escaped Solder, which, as I was gathering them, it occurred to me that I’d done this before. My father was a solderer by trade, on the production line at GM in Baltimore (Spot Welder being the official title), and he had a soldering iron and pertinent equipment in his workshop. More than once, I was put to work gathering up the leftover solder and putting with all the rest in a big iron pestle.

The Guy from Fidium has been and gone, after giving the diagnosis of No Problem Here. Which . . . OHkay. Things seem to be working, so I’m not complaining.

What I’m doing instead of complaining is refilling my cup and taking it with me back to Steve’s office. Maybe I can write another couple hundred words.
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SNIPPET:

“How did you find Jen Sin?” Ren Zel asked, handing Miri a glass of wine.

“Awake. Complimentary, too. Said Val Con wasn’t an idiot.”

Ren Zel choked, and put his glass down hurriedly.

“He’s not wrong, after all, Beloved,” Anthora said.

“Yes, but – ” he waved a hand. “One wonders how the subject came up.”
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Now:  Well. That got to be a busy day. 1,440 total new words, for those keeping track at home. Tomorrow is a writing day. I’ll be finishing the scene I started this afternoon, which will be the final bridge I need to build in this part of the WIP, and get back with entering corrections.

It’s funny how, when you ask people why they want to be writers, nobody ever says, “Because I love entering corrections into the manuscript.” Which is, arguably, one of the most important parts of writing.

Go figure.

The cats are informing me, loudly, that it is Happy Hour. The cats, regrettably, are wrong.

I’m — tired. The Plan for the evening is to serve up Coon Cat Happy Hour on time then snuggle down on the couch and watch “Blown Away” on Netflix. There may be a glass of wine involved. Or even two.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I’ll check in tomorrow.

Art Goes On

Thursday Night: Nasty outside. Rainy and cold.

Spent most the day with the WIP, entering correx, writing scenes, removing scenes, fine-tuning. Ate a late lunch, because class isn’t over until 8:30, so — late dinner. And I need to get up earlyish tomorrow to pick up for Sarah, who’ll be by around 9ish.

I know, I know — the excitement.

In a bit I’ll get myself together to go to class. Trying to think good thoughts about my art. I have learned a bunch of stuff, so there’s that. And I do have a soldering iron and wire and flux, so maybe if I can master — for values of “master” — the basics, I can be let loose to finish whatever’s left at home. And honestly, I have no idea how long soldering will actually take. I’ve been watching videos, but they’re by people who know what they’re doing, which would not be me.

I clipped Rook’s claws the other day while he just laid there and purred. Today, I got Firefly — who is NEVER going to SPEAK to me AGAIN for this violation of her innocent kitten trust — and most of Tali’s. Tali used to hang out with a Siamese, which I think is where she learned Those Words.

I’ll just bid everyone good-night now.

Stay safe.
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Friday.

Business First: Civilized Behavior is an “Amazon Best Seller”! Number 1 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Kindle)
Number 4 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Books)
Number 5 in First Contact Science Fiction ebooks
I hope you guys are enjoying your books, and!

Obligatory Reminder to leave a review, please, on the venue(s) of your choice.
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Hokay. Glass class. After some frustration, a pep talk, and a tutorial by the instructor, I did re-burnish my foil (I had not used a firm enough touch, first time), and soldered the front of the piece. It’s like magic! It’s now A Thing, and not a scramble of little pieces that won’t stay where I put them. Take that! scrambly little pieces!

My homework is to solder the back, and on Sunday another student and I will meet the instructor at her house to finish up.

So, the Plan is that I’ll work on soldering after Sarah leaves, and finish up after the Guy from Fidium, assuming that there IS a Guy from Fidium, leaves. Saturday will be devoted to writing. Sunday, a little writing in the morning, then out for glass project finish-up.

In service of the Plan, I have turned on the heat and the lights in Foosball Studios.

I was asked last night, semi-officially, if I’d like to teach Adult Ed writing, which — I’m thinking about it. I need to poke around and see how much of my teaching stuff I still have, and how much of it is still relevant.

In coon cat news, apparently Tali informed Rook that his mama wears snowshoes — which would not be inaccurate — an assertion to which he took immediate and violent exception, and the back hall was briefly filled with — y’all remember the rolling, cursing Tumbleweed Of Violence from, oh, Tom and Jerry, or The Roadrunner — yeah? One of those. Tali’s now having a wee dram of cat food and Firefly has discovered that I have picked up the cat toys, and is thinking about this.

Rook is cleaning orange fur out of his mouth.

I think that catches us all up, pre-breakfast.

How’s everybody doing?

Below, the State of the Project: Front side top, back side bottom

Snow cats and book drop

Business first:  Tomorrow! CIVILIZED BEHAVIOR: Adventures in the Liaden Universe(R) #36, featuring three short stories set on Colemeno of recent memory, a speech, and an author’s forward will be released tomorrow in ebook from All of the Usual Suspects, and! in trade paper from Amazon.

Wednesday. Trash Day (holiday schedule). Cold and still. It snowed! overnight.

sigh

Breakfast was naan and hummus and grapes. I haven’t had naan or hummus, either, since Forever, but I went to the Other Grocery yesterday (where I got carded*, all 73 years and every silver white hair of me), because I was so tired of the Usual Grocery’s mediocre veggies and fruits, and also because I thought the Other Grocery would be a surer source for turkey fillets.

I was wrong about the turkey fillets, but I may have gone overboard on fresh stuff, and the problematic bottle of wine, and the hummus was right at my eye level as I turned a corner, and they had helpfully staged the naan right with it and — I was doomed. And it made a lovely breakfast, and I regret Nothing.

Today is another Real Life Day — Physical Therapy in a little over an hour, then a visit to the Usual Grocery to get the stuff the Other Grocery doesn’t carry (or, to be fair, that I forgot about yesterday). Then I have some phone calls to make — Fidium again! All three of the — repeaters? — are out, what fun — and then I need to adjust my Anthropic claim on account I have to Prove that Steve is dead.

I hate having to prove this particular equation, though to be fair, I’m not having to do it nearly so often as I had to, last year this time.

Tomorrow is also my last stained glass class, so I hope I’m discovered to be a soldering wizard.

Friday, Sarah will be by in the morning to help the cats clean up, and it looks like after that I’ll have Friday afternoon through Monday morning cleared to write new words.

If I was a smart writer — a point often in dispute — I’d not only work on doing the correx from the six-day sprint, but also sketch in the scenes that need to be written going forward.

I tried to watch TV last night, but had no brain (this is pretty bad, when you don’t even have enough brain left to sit passively and be spoon-fed a story), so I cuddled on the couch with the cats and listened to music until they jumped down for a snack and I went to bed.

So! All that said — how’re y’all doing this morning? Any snow at your place?

Wednesday morning cat census.
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*Busted:

In which art is hard

Earlier this same day: Spent an hour in Foosball Studio. Got a little bit of foiling done. My back started to hurt so I am now upstairs in my comfy chair having a cup of tea. It used to be called buttermint tea; I don’t know what they call it now — maybe vanilla mint?

I’ll likely go down for another session. My goal is to finish foiling half, and there’s only another six pieces to go.

So, Rook escorted me downstairs for my second session in The! Studio! — and was waiting for me, almost an hour later, when I came out again. He ran over and flopped on my feet, showing me his belly, which was awfully nice of him.

Upstairs — it is dark. I — am not really sure I can do the dark this year. Not that it matters, particularly; I don’t except anyone to install a Celestial Light Bulb for me, but…things are dark enough, surely?

Regarding the glass project: I have ten biggish pieces left to foil and two so tiny they might as well be slivers. If my errands don’t take me too long tomorrow, maybe I’ll have a go at finishing the foil, so I can get a Flash Lesson in soldering before glasswork is over.

Tuesday will largely be eaten up by the Guy From Fidium, who is, so I’m told, expecting to be here at 8 am and his visit will encompass at least two hours. Argh. And the last glass class is on Wednesday. That was a fast six weeks.

Having gone to all the trouble of setting up The! Studio! it would be a shame to declare this art is not for me. On the other hand, I’m not feeling that I have any real competence, or maybe I mean affinity. I love glass, but this experiment hasn’t ignited me (ahem) the way working with hot glass did. And, no, I am not doing hot glass in the house.

What I may do, since I have so many glass scraps left over, is to try something smaller and simpler — a geometric pattern, maybe — and see if I’ve actually learned anything.

The cats are insisting that it’s Happy Hour, which, of course, it is not. I think this is my cue to wander around the house, close curtains, turn off and on lights, and wash the pans.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I’ll check in tomorrow.

The state of the stained glass:

Saturday Night

The foil almost makes it look like I know what I’m doing.

SPOILER: I do not know what I’m doing.

That’s about an hour and a half and I’m all foiled out. Time for a cup of hot chocolate in a comfy chair.
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Put the laundry away; washed the pots ‘n pans; locked Rookie in a closet; let him out again.

I think I’m done on the day. My back is grumbling, so I’ll be taking the hint and retiring to the couch with a book and the heating pad until its time to serve Coon Cat Happy Hour, which is coming right up.

Tomorrow, I plan to write, foil, curse the time change — and that should be enough for the first Sunday in November. Monday, I have errands which I guess I should get done early.

I should also sometime tomorrow or Monday make an order at Harney’s as I’m almost out of the oil that greases the wheels around here — Irish Breakfast Tea. I got sidetracked today into wondering if I might not like Scottish Morn, instead, which is said to be darker, given that I drink tea as a replacement for coffee… Well. Decisions for later.

Oh. The Sekrit Project is a Sekrit because the contract hasn’t been signed.

And! I do believe the mail has just been delivered.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I’ll check in tomorrow.

The Saturday cat census and editorial chastisement committee photos may be found here

Sunny Friday with embroidery and glasswork

What went before: Finished embroidering my shirt:

Friday. Sunny and coolish.

Slept late because went to bed ditto. Woke up with a backache, because of course I did.

So my glassworking teacher came out and said last night that I had chosen a very difficult design, but that was good, because I could be an Example for the rest of the class. Which I guess is a thing you never outgrow.

Those who have been following along will perhaps recall that I broke the starfish twice while I was cutting it, the second time much less catastrophically than the first. I took what remained of that sheet of glass to class to see if I could be taught better.

The teacher took the glass and the pattern and broke the starfish three times during scoring, all worse than my second attempt, so! keeping my second attempt in the design.

I also learned last night that something that I had subconsciously been depending on — that any errors in scoring could be adjusted in the grinding stage — was … optimism. Apparently, grinding is only for roughing up the edges so the foil will stick, and not a fix for shoddy cutting.

Homework is attaching the foil to all the pieces, which I’ve already forgotten how that’s supposed to go, but that is, after all, why Google gave us Youtube.

I finished reading The Women last night, and am cleansing my palate with Blind Date with a Werewolf before going on to Remarkably Bright Creatures.

I have taken naproxen and baclofen, which is somewhat nerve-wracking, since the last time I had back pain severe enough to hit the drugs I wound up in the ER (because the drugs didn’t work on the pain though they made me plenty sick, and the shot of steroids administered by the clinic kicked my blood pressure into the stratosphere, so not doing that again). So far, neither drugs, nor ice, nor heat seem to be helping, so my next act will be to clean the cat boxes while I can still bend over, and then try to figure out what I can do to keep the pain in the region of “uncomfortable,” the goal being to not wind up, weeping, in the Command Chair.

Standing up and sorta leaning into my desk isn’t actually uncomfortable, so I may work on the Sekrit Project, if I can’t think of anything to do that will actually mitigate the pain. Clearly, wrapping a zillion small pieces of glass in foil is not an option.

Tali has been sitting on me when I sit or lie down, and purring, while Rook takes up a station in the same room. Firefly is off-duty and sleeping in the sunshine in my office.

So! How’s Friday treating you?

Gothic Monday

What went before ONE:  So that’s +/-1,320 words on the morning. I’m not reporting the impact of these words on the WIP total because I don’t know exactly where they go.

The cats were all waiting for me when I got to Steve’s Office, and they stuck with me until I said, “That’s a wrap,” whereupon Rook and Tali got up, stretched, and followed me to the front of the house.

It’s now time to have lunch, then go downstairs to perform one’s duty to the cats, and monkey around with my glass for a bit.

The cloudy morning has become a sunny afternoon, though still cool.

And so it goes.
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What went before TWO:  Aaaand that’s enough fun for one day! I have finished cutting what glass I can. As Was Predicted, I did break the starfish — twice, but the second time much better than the first (Do not laugh. The bar we’re using here, as Miri Robertson once famously said, is the one that’s buried in that snowpile over there). So, rather than run out of glass, I shall take what I have with me to class, prepared to Learn Better.

There’s a horrifying amount of glass pieces in my scrap box. Honestly, I should go into the kaleidoscope business.

Also, the project got its tithe of blood today, so I was glad I had wimped in and taken my silly little first aid kit down to The Studio.

But! All that said — I’m for a cup of tea and a bun, and then I do believe I’ll read.

Everybody have a good evening. I’ll check in tomorrow.
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What went before THREE: New entry in Steve and Sharon’s Excellent Adventure, for those who are reading along: Eager Street
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Um. Monday? Cool and damp; rain in the forecast.

Updated my books read list — I have read my 50th book, which is something of a relief; I really didn’t think I was going to see that many.

Read the first eight chapters of the book club book last night. I really can’t tell if the … predictability is a feature or a bug. As in, yes, this; yes, this, too; no that’s pretty flimsy, but it gets us where we’re going; ok, yeah, they lied, what a surprise — is just the entrance ramp into the Real Story* (feature) or if, having begun, this is how we mean to go on. Well. I’ll find out.

In other news, I was inclined to feel Poorly Used when I got the news that my health insurance will be going up $30 a month in 2026, but that was before I read the newspaper and found out that this same insurance provider is dropping membership for half the state. Yes, the half that needs it the most, why do you ask?

Sigh. It’s possible that Mondays aren’t good for me.

P’rhaps I’ll go find a cup of tea and something for breakfast.

How’s everybody doing this morning?
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*I almost had a fistfight on a panel regarding the beginning of The Goblin Emperor, in which,** and my fellow panelist was insisting that it was Bad Storytelling because Basic Security mandates that you Don’t Do That, and my equally empassioned argument that this was just to “explain” how we got to the Unlikely Situation which was the Actual Story the writer wanted to tell. Wow, that was an exhausting panel.
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
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**The Emperor and all of his sons are on the same airship when it blows up.