Glass art by Rafael Cauduro:

 

The art glass we use for fusing is made by Bullseye Glass Company in Portland.  They have sales on their glass twice a year, and the next one starts this coming Tuesday.  Aquila Glass, where I go to "play" with glass and then leave it to be fused, takes our orders, picks up the glass for us, then brings it back to the studio where they provide us with room to store it.  They sell it to us at the same price we'd pay at Bullseye, so it's win/win for us.  The only drawback is that sometimes, particularly when they come out with new colors, it's hard to visualize the glass from the little 2" square pictures in their catalog.  So....to get a sneak peek at the colors, I met Melinda at Bullseye today, and then we went to lunch.

One piece of art that really grabbed me was the one above.  Above is the front; it has a flat surface:

Below is the back.  Hard to see in the photo, but it's hollow.   The glass is fused around a molded face.



Bullseye is giving a class on making these molds later this year.  It costs $650.  I'm afraid I won't be attending.

I couldn't get photos of the subjects of this posting, but I always have photos of my favorite subject.  (His eyes are closed because he knew the camera flash was coming.)

Another beautiful, sunny day today.  I headed to the glass studio in Portland.  Crossing the Columbia River, on the bridge, I had a perfect view of Mt. Hood.  Of course, I was on a bridge...an interstate bridge....so no photo.  A few miles more, I crossed another bridge, this time an elevated railroad bridge, facing north.  In front of me was Mt. St. Helens...and off to the right, way in the distance, I could see Mt. Adams!  Since Mt. Adams is about 90 miles away, you know the day is clear when I can see it.  Again, I was on a bridge, so no photo op.  And once I was off the bridge, I was no longer elevated, so I couldn't see any mountains.

Driving home later, I was thinking about how different the scenery here is from that in the Buffalo, NY area.  Just as I was thinking that, I was passed by a truck loaded with huge tree trunks.  Nope...never saw that in Buffalo.  A minute later, coming from the opposite direction, was a long, long trailer truck.  It's load was something metal and looked like an oddly-shaped cylinder.  It wasn't until I got to see the whole long thing that I realized what it was....an airplane wing!  (I had just passed Portland Airport.)  I suppose I could have seen something like that near Buffalo Airport....but I never did.

Tomorrow is the first Wednesday in February.  And that means it's Donnie time!!!!!!  I'm so excited.

Cecille suggested that I make some small pieces (translation:  less expensive) that she can use as hostess gifts.  I was having a low-energy day, so these were the result.  They're 4-1/2" x 4-1/2", and they're a great shape for pillar candles.  So she can give them just as they are, or she can get candles to make them more "gifty."

I feel the need to stretch my creativity a little bit...get away from the confetti for a while.  Bullseye is having a glass sale in the next few weeks, so I'm looking through their catalog, trying to think of some different things I want to do.  Confetti is still my first love with glass, and I still have a lot of things I want to try with it, but I feel like I'm getting stale.  (I've also seen something new that I want to try, but I'll keep it to myself until I'm sure I can make something decent.)

In the meantime, it's a beautiful sunny day here!  They tell me that the snow we had in December was unusual; by the same token, this much sunshine in the winter is highly unusual!  I'll take it though. 

This was my newest piece.  You can't tell from the photo, but it's an indented bowl, 5" x 8".  I hate it.  I hate it because I just picked random pieces of scrap glass in black and gray streaky,  and red and white streaky, and I laid them out.  There were gaps between the pieces, so I used some red frit (crushed glass) to fill some of the gaps.   Then used some scraps of black, white and red which I laid over some of the major gaps.

The problem is that the glass doesn't actually melt in the fusing process.  If you look at the red, white and black pieces in the mosaic part, you'll see that they have rounded edges, rather than crisp angles.  That's not the effect I wanted.  Ergo I hate it.



This, on the other hand, is the back.  I like it!  It has crisp angles.

I've already paid to have it fused and then slumped (two "firings).  But I've decided to make the back the front, which means it has to be slumped flat, turned over and fused again (because the back is no longer shiny), and finally re-slumped.  Three more firings.   It's turning into a very expensive piece!

Let's say you have a friend whose son is getting married.  But the happy couple already has a house and the "stuff" married couples need.  What can you give them?

On the other hand, let's say they're Bills fans.  And let's say you love playing with glass.

 

Today my Christmas gift from Cecille and Jim arrived.  (And Donnie will tell you it's from him, too.)  It was just coincidence that Cecille and Donnie stopped by to have lunch with me, so they were here when it arrived.

Just so you know, that light spot on the upper right of the sofa is just that...it's a spot on the photo, not on the sofa.

It's gorgeous!  It's very comfortable.  And if it gets dirty from Fritz, I can just wash it.  YAY!

Have a wonderful day, Son!

Your cards and gift are "seasoning" on my dining room table.  One of these days they'll make it to the post office.

Just think...your last birthday as a single man.  YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Remember this?  It's a restaurant that was the object of a misguided contest I had here about a year ago.

Today, for the first time, I went inside.  Cecille was working, so Donnie and Jim took me to lunch there.  I'm pretty sure the food was very good, but I was so busy looking around that I'm not 100% sure.

This was a view directly across from where I sat.



A boy and his jungle Jim.







This is in the ceiling.  It's a complete circle...I just couldn't get low enough to photograph the whole thing.  The flowers go all the way around.  You can't tell, because the part where they are is recessed from the trim.  Yummy looking!



He loved this bell.  It must be wonderful to be almost-three-years-old and to find such joy in everything.

 

 

 

For me, it just doesn't get much better than this.  If Scott and Paulette were here instead of in Florida (lucky them!), then it would be perfect.

I'm still pretty much snowed in here, although the snowfall hasn't been more than about 6" total in 10 days.  But no plows = compacted snow and ice on the roads.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  I got out with the family last night...to their church, then to a fantastic restaurant for dinner.  But Jim drove, and more power to him!

Temps are supposed to rise, as high as 40 degrees by the weekend, so maybe things will go back to normal.  Eventually.

 

 

 

This bowl (my Christmas gift to Scott) has the Buffalo Sabres logo, cut from copper foil, in the center.  I wanted copper "confetti," too, so I snipped pieces of copper foil while I watched some mindless TV shows.  The copper turns color when it's heated in the kiln for fusing and slumping.  There are no guarantees on what color it will become. 

OK, Western New Yorkers...get ready to laugh...or cry...or both.

In my corner of town, we've had, at most, 5" of snow.  Then we had rain, and then it froze.  There hasn't been a plow in sight, so all that lovely snow and frozen rain is compacted on the streets.  I have a hard time wrapping my brain about the "no snow plowing" concept.  But there are no plows.  This is the most snow this area has received in FIFTY EIGHT years.

Yesterday I drove to Safeway, the supermarket that's just a few blocks from here.  I drove on roads that were ridiculously slippery for the little bit of snow that has fallen.  About 2 or 3 inches of compacted snow and ice cover the road, except for the trenches where the utility companies have shoveled out access to manhole covers.

Schools are closed for the holidays, but they were closed for several days last week.  Libraries are closed.  No garbage collection this week.  AT ALL.  Churches were all closed on Sunday.  Highways are closed.  Many are still closed to cars without chains.  I've gotten around on better maintained roads when there was a foot of snow.

On the other hand, I now realize why my property taxes are so much lower here than in Tonawanda.  Can you imagine what it costs for a city to own plows, buy road salt, hire plow drivers, and maintain insurance (for all the property damage the plows do)???

Fritz and I are snug.  Most of my Christmas gifts are bought (but the elves haven't gotten here to wrap them yet).  I have plenty of food, my house is warm, and I have the internet to keep me amused.  I'd be happier if I had some novels to read, but I've finished off my supply of new ones this past week.  The biggest crisis for me is that McAfee (virus protection) has decided that all the Big Fish games are infected with Trojans, and it deleted all the games and won't let me reinstall them.  The upside to this is that I've better organized all my kitchen cupboards.