Friday, January 1, 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE ! !

Hope you are having a relaxing New Year's Day. Are you watching the Rose Bowl Parade? It's about 10 minutes from where I live and it is COLD here! The forecast for today is 60 degrees, so that's an improvement, and the sun is shining brightly. Can't imagine how cold those people were last night who slept on the parade route!!

I started my new Cuff class with Leslie Kail Villarreal a few days ago. Have done everything I can while working inside the house. The garage has been in the 40's, so it's much too cold to work out there. I tried my little heater and even borrowed another from a friend, but they had no "poop" in warming the garage. I know how effective my big Skutt electric kiln is once it reaches temperature (around 1500 deg. F.) and you prop open the lid with a small post. So yesterday I prepared two glass projects, fired the kiln, and once it finished I had a warm and toasty garage and was able to start soldering elements to my cuff.

But, back to warming up the garage .... and the projects I fired in the kiln.

Here's what I did. I broke two mineral water bottles that my friend supplied me, arranged the pieces on thin fire paper on the kiln shelf. Here's a photo of one of them, and a photo of the leftover pieces of the bottle I didn't use. The pieces were arranged in a 6-1/2" square.

So yesterday was a WIN-WIN day. I got two glass pieces fused and was also able to work on my cuff. Today or tomorrow, I'll slump the two glass pieces in molds and have another warm place to work. I love them!