What a Wonderful Sunday

I was nervous - I admit that - but my fears didn't come to pass. My team, my own Denver Broncos, succeeded, and they will be one of the two teams in the Super Bowl in two weeks. It was a heck of a game and New England gave them a real fight. As a result, it was a really fun game to watch and came down to the wire. I'll happily wear my Broncos gear for another two weeks.

Two weeks of hype now start. The Super Bowl is a media
frenzy leading up to the game. If the players focus on their
play instead of the press, it might be a great game. I'm
just happy my beloved Broncos are in it this year. 

We will be playing against the Carolina Panthers and their game against Arizona was a rout! Carolina was the team to beat all season and had the best record. If yesterday's game was standard for them, it's no wonder they are as highly rated as they are. It's going to be a hard fight, but hopefully a good game. The #1 offense - the Panthers, will meet the #1 defense - the Broncos. I only hope for a good game. If the Broncos manage to win this one, I'll be over the moon, but I don't want a blow-out.

The wax melting pot looked very similar to this hot glue melting
pot, and for $2.50 it was well worth the try. It works really well. 

DH needed a method of attaching his stones to holders so he could shape them. He's been playing with his Cab King shaper, and had been frustrated by the glue not holding things well. So he wanted to try some dopping wax we had purchased a few years ago. I brought the wax home from the shop on Saturday and he needed to get a few things, so we went on a hunt on Sunday before the games started.

I found a funny little thing. It's a glue pot - apparently made to melt hot glue sticks into a small puddle so that many flowers or whatever can be dipped into the molten glue and attached at once. I thought it might work as a dopping pot, and it was on clearance for $2.50. I showed it to DH and we took a chance. It worked a charm! It melted the wax beautifully and he was able to continue working on his machinery. He was very happy.

We went to Old Chicago for pizza. A deep dish medium Thai Pie
in the back, a small thin crust Chicago 7 in the foreground.
It was SO good and well worth the calories. We paired the
pizza with a couple of craft beers. Heaven and a really fun treat. 

We treated ourselves to pizza for an early dinner (or late lunch) and had some fancy cupcakes late in the evening. I had blueberry cheesecake cupcake and added a lot of fresh blueberries to my plate. So good! All in all, the weekend was great, even though I didn't get a chance to meet Johnny Weir who was in town at the US Figure Skating Championships. They were held just down the road at the Xcel Center in downtown St Paul. I caught the women's finals on Saturday night, but couldn't watch the men's finals on Sunday because I was watching football. Oh well, can't have it all.

The pool is calling. Happy Monday to all of you and Happy Birthday to my favorite astronomer in Croatia!

Pic Spam - Time for Pretty Pictures

I allowed myself to sleep in an extra half hour this morning which actually compresses my schedule. So rather than deep thoughts, philosophical arguments, or simple recaps of whatever junk happens to be at the top of the whirlpool of my brain, I thought pretty pics might be the perfect call for today.

Sometimes we all feel open to the elements. It's how we weather
those storms that makes us stronger.

We are shaped by the experiences of life and our sharp edges are slowly
worn away by the perspective of age.

Sometimes we achieve our current position by standing on the
shoulders of those who have gone before us. Sometimes we
are above the crowd because we are supported by our loved ones.

Sometimes we melt under pressure, but away from the heat of conflict we
can reform ourselves into a pillar of strength again.

Sometimes life throws rushing waters at us, requiring us to balance
delicately for a few days. But be strong, be rock. Even if you are pushed over
by the waters, just move with the flow until you can begin balancing again.

Under optimal conditions, even the immobile can develop
the skills to move into a new position.  Don't get trapped into
bad situations because you're afraid to move. Take the chance to
make things better. 

Let yourself be inspired by the rocks while you enjoy their beauty. I'll be at the Minnesota Mineral Club's annual rock show and sale on Sunday, looking at beautiful stones, seeing friends and customers, and watching my DH happily choose rocks to play with over the winter (he has new lapidary equipment to play with). Enjoy your weekend and I'll post again on Monday.

Glass and Fire

What is it about glass that fascinates me so? I think it is the color and the fact that I can melt and form it. I love beadwork - after all, it has been my primary media for most of my life. But there is something so satisfying about painting with glass.

The wires were fused into the disks and I was able to start laying in colors on Saturday night. After the first firing of Laurelin, I think I'll be very happy with it. The first run of colors is fabulous. I'm placing a sunrise sky behind this tree and the bright oranges, sultry purples, pinks and roses, and glows of bright gold are wonderful. I'll put true 24kt gold in the "fruits" and the tree itself is "tea", a nice lighter brown, with golden highlights. The ground of Ezellohar is in varying colors of green, from light darkening to dark at the base of the hill. I think I'll continue work on Laurelin first and do Telperion afterwards. Telperion will be done in silvers.

And we went to the Rock Show yesterday. The PMC demo was OK, he uses a lot of molds, something that I don't use a lot. I bought some very nice slabs of agates and ran into a lot of people that I know. Primarily among them were my sister-in-law, my nephew and his youngest daughter, Emma. Also, VerLaine and her mom Claire, and my customers Amy and Gerry. For a small show, I certainly ran into many people - LOL. Then we dropped by Minnesota Fabric to find a grey wool for DH's cloak - but they didn't have one that worked well for us so I didn't buy anything this coupon. And finally we went to TGIFriday's for dinner. The Vikings won again, so DH is happy. Denver plays tonight - I hope that we can also keep our unbeaten status :-)

Focus...Focus...

Well, DH wasn't tired so he drove through the night, arriving at 5:30 am instead of 5:30 pm. After catching up on a little sleep, he worked for the remainder of the day and then went to sleep again right after dinner. It's good to have him back, but it also afforded me the opportunity to get my wires fused properly onto my silver disks. And happily that worked also. It took me a couple of hours to get the wires transferred from my mock-up drawings, curved to match the dome of the silver disk and then transferred and fused in, but it worked. The wires are now in place and I'm ready to start applying color. I'm relieved and delighted to be able to move on to the next phase.

Today will be a busy day at the shop and then I can relax for the night and for Sunday. We will go to the Minnesota Mineral Club's show on Sunday - I am really looking forward to it. I'll have to remember to look through the slabs that I already have so I don't duplicate too much. I'll also have to check my cash - I really don't have a lot of spare money to be able to buy any additional slabs with, but it's impossible to resist beautiful stone :-)

My hope for all of you on this weekend is that you have the love of family and the satisfaction of allowing your hands to create during this time. Whether it is writing a poem or painting a portrait - expand your mind into paths of creativity.

Goals and Goal Setting

Tonya posted the following today, and this was my response to the primary paragraph:

"What is it that you want to attract into your life? How can you expect to achieve anything if you haven't asked for it. You are a magnet of energy. If you don't know or ask for what you desire how can that energy come back to you?"

My response to the quote above was:

That's the key, isn't it. To be able to focus on a goal and ask for it. But how to do that? You can ask the proverbial aether, or you can ask yourself to step up to the plate and perform for yourself instead of someone or something else. When you do that, you are often perceived as being selfish, self-centered, and a traitor to the corporate or family goals. The key is to walk this tightrope and get to the platform at the end of it. Only one person can stand on that platform - it should be the platform of your personal artistic goals and it should be you standing on that platform.

Catching that Rising Star

I'm often accused of being selfish because I take the time I feel necessary to work on my art instead of spending all of my time, 24/7, thinking about and working with my shop. But I've found, over the years, that my artistic side HAS to be a part of me. So, having my studio days are absolutely essential to me. Yesterday was quite productive. I got a lot of BronzClay formed and drying for the kiln, I painted a lot of copper-conductive paint onto beads and several skulls so that I can start electroforming them next week, I started working on the neckline of my cloak, and I started polishing a wonderfully layered slice of aggregate stone for the front of....something (haven't quite figured that out yet, but ideas are percolating). I just dove right into it when I got home in mid-morning and didn't come up for air until I left for the grocer in the late pm. And I was happy and have a good outlook on my upcoming day.

Oh, and I started working on my E-newsletter for the shop (Stormcloud Trading). I want to send one out every month at a minimum. It's not quite as easy as I had hoped, but I think I'll be happy in the long run. It's going to take some getting used to the software. I really wanted to have it out by the end of the week, but it will probably be next week before I really have it pounded into shape. If you are reading this blog and would like to be included in the address list for my E-newsletter for Stormcloud Trading, feel free to Email me and request to be added to the address list.

Fabric and Stone

Yesterday was my studio day. It was a cold and rainy day, so it was absolutely perfect to immerse myself in my artwork. I had a long list of things that I wanted to accomplish with BronzClay, fabric and enameling (there is never enough time to do it all). Although I did end up with some success, I didn't get nearly enough done. I started out working with a piece of stone that I had gotten last weekend. Looking at it, I think it will make the perfect top on a box or new business card holder. There were two areas on the stone that needed to be ground down level with the remainder. I'd never ground stone before, but I'm game for almost anything - I pulled out my dremel and a grinding wheel and started making noise and dust. It ground down really nicely. Now I need to continue polishing the stone and then I'll make the holder - probably from sheet copper. Maybe I'll enamel part of it. The possibilities are certainly out there. It gave me a great appreciation for people who work with stone, so I thought I'd share this cute product. The artist lives in England and makes these, and other styles, to order. Really nice, clean work and the price is right. Check it out.




The other major project that I've had on my mind (aside from my metalwork) is a cloak. As I mentioned last week, I want a cloak similar to the one that Elrond wore to the camp of King Theoden. I have the fabric and the basic instructions, but I wasn't about to cut into mega-expensive wool without making a muslin mock-up first. I have a 15-yard bolt of muslin for just that purpose. So I cut the appropriate lengths, joined them together to get the right width, and started work on the mock-up. This resulted in a quick trip to the fabric store to get a new pair of dressmakers shears. Then I had to find a room with enough open floor to lay the fabric out on. Geez - this thing is HUGE!!! But I finally got it measured, marked and cut out. Now to make alterations so that it will fit properly and get the hood figured out. THEN I'll duplicate it in wonderful wool and satin.