Happy Birthday USA & Le Tour de France

What a wonderful day. Not just the 4th of July - a day off from work, a holiday, fireworks, grilled food, fun!!! But also the beginning of the 96th Le Tour de France - Lance Armstrong, Alberto Cantador, Carlos Sastre, and many many more. I'll be glued to my TV for every day I'm in town watching Le Tour, and those stages that I'm out of town for I'll be catching what I can on my laptop before or after classroom hours.

I'm also down another pound. I'm starting to get happy. I want another two off before I leave for my conference at the end of next week. That shouldn't be a problem.

Just a short posting today - back to the time trials of Le Tour. Happy!!!!

High Gear

Time to switch into high gear. I have a lot that I need to accomplish today, so I'm cashing in my "certificate" for an extra day off. It gives me the chance to do more enamel work. I'm hoping to get the charms finished today - but everything has to work out perfectly for that to happen.

After looking carefully at them under daylight yesterday (and giving my arm a day to recover from the abuse that I gave it on Wednesday), I decided that I needed one more coat of color before I paint the details in the final fuse. That means, unfortunately, that I will need to stone the sides and faces of the charms at least two more times today and that hurts. I'm going to have to see if there is a way that I can use my left arm more for that today or repetitive stress injury becomes a possibility.

So, one more coating of color (I hope that one more will be sufficient and I won't need two), then mixing up my colors and using my pens and brushes to put on my logo and paint the details. Then the key will be getting everything fused on properly, having the temps accurate, and not losing the pen work to the fire. I am SO looking forward to an intensive day of playing. And then I get two more days off! It is such a rarity. I hope all of my readers have a fabulous 4th of July while I wish the USA a Happy Birthday!

Pain and Art

I hurt today. My arm is really painful and my wrist would rather be sleeping. I can blame it all on my hours of enamel work yesterday because of the clean-off between firings that each piece has to go through. Let's see - 8 sides per item, three to four firings for each piece = more than 1200 individually stoned sides, not counting the fronts and backs that got stoned. Repetitive motions are problematical for anyone, but I'm suddenly grateful that I don't have my next day of enameling until Friday. A day of different movements for my broken arm will be much better for my healing routine.

The charms are turning out really cute though. I'll look at them again today in daylight to decide if I want one additional coating of front color before I add the back and front graphics. I have to admit, though, it was so much fun firing up the kiln again and just diving into glass. The techniques that I want to use tomorrow are techniques that I just learned at Bead & Button Show, so I'm a bit more nervous about them - there is more that can go wrong. Additionally, they have to be thoroughly dry before they can be fired. I think I'll be using my hair dryer or dehumidifier to make sure that everything is properly dry. It might be another 6-hour marathon...but what fun!

Charms, Charms, Charms...

I have 49 charms fired and ready for their enamel. I have a kiln that has a coating of icky black fine dust from the activated charcoal and the stainless steel firing container that I used for said charms firing. So, after I get my outside errands done today, I'll be hauling the vaccuum downstairs to vaccuum out my kiln. Then I'll get to work putting a back and front onto each charm so that I can begin working on my enamel painting. I'm cashing in my Holiday certificate (take one extra day off work of my choosing) that my DH gave to me because I need more time to accomplish this. 49 charms is a large amount when each one needs four separate firings. I have a total of Wednesday, Friday (my certificate day) and next Wednesday to accomplish all of this since I would rather not work on my enamel work on Sunday. I guess we'll see how efficient I can be today, but there is also drying time to take into consideration.

Since the charms are copper clay, they are more porous than standard sheet copper would be. So I have to be very cautious with pickle. Therefore, I will be trying to fire both the front and back of the initial firing at the same time to get a coat of clear on the copper. After that, I can do one side at a time without a problem. I'll have to mix up some gum arabic to hold the underside properly. The top will be totally transparent colors, but the bottom will have its' second coat be opaque, so I can hide a bit more with that. I've run through the process I need to follow in my head over the past few days and I think I have the procedure and order nailed. I guess I'll find out as soon as my kiln is ready to go today. I am also very grateful that the temperatures are mild today. Working the kiln when the temps are in the 90's or more is extremely uncomfortable, to say the least, although sweating through the process might allow me to lose a pound or so. I'm just so happy to be able to get back to my enamel work!

Jealousy or Creativity?

Yesterday, out of the blue, my DH started asking me questions about enameling. Now, my DH has not enameled since his High School days. But every item that I make he criticizes sharply and he doesn't like what I've made up to this point. OK, I'll grant him that his outlook is different than mine. But all of a sudden, he's reading my "Glass on Metal" magazine, looking through my Corrugated Metal book, and thinking about enameling to make what he sees in his own inner eye. So, last night I asked him..."Why are you suddenly so interested in enameling? Do you feel it necessary to do and try to better everything that I do?" He didn't like the questions and stormed up to watch the baseball game at the bedroom TV.

I'm all for his exercising his creativity. In fact, I encourage it. I just don't understand why he feels it necessary to do what I am doing, when he has many things of interest to him that I could care less about. Why does he have to try and prove that he can do things better than me? I have my own vision for my art, and he could do his for 100 years and not truly duplicate it, but he treats his tools, workbench and supplies like trash and I don't want my equipment or supplies misused or not replaced if their quantities have dropped. I have worked with him in the past and it was disasterous. I hope that won't be the case this time.

A Bad Time To Be A Celebrity

The deaths keep rolling on. Within the past 30 days, the "entertainment" industry has now lost five people. This started with David Carradine (so Bill was finally killed ) Then Ed McMahon passed followed by the double-day deaths of Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. And then, yesterday, pitchmeister Billy Maze also was found dead. I think I'm suddenly glad to be a relatively unknown woman living in the Midwest of America.

Over the weekend my kiln was busy working for me. I will pull out the last of my copper clay charms this morning and stick everything into the kiln. Then, on Wednesday, I can begin the enameling phase.

And I also had the cable guy over on Sunday morning to hook up one TV that I forgot about when I had my internet service cared for 1-1/2 weeks ago. I never watch the TV in the den - it's a room that I have my sewing materials in, but when I'm using those I usually am not listening/watching the TV. My DH uses that TV though when he's on the treadmill and he was not happy that the cable was off. Now he can be happy again. Then we had a lovely dinner and purchased a few items at our local Barnes & Noble. And, since the weekend was so nice, I'm SO set for a smooth and creative week. A good thing since I need to have the charms finished by the end of the week.