All fired up!

Woo Hoo, big day here at homestead, we finally got all the basics in place and FIRED UP THE TORCH for the 1st time, Yah! I'd be doing the major, highstepping happy dance if I weren't so darn sore from all the work.

 

We had to have an additional electrical line run out to the garage as the kiln draws 20amps all by itself and we knew the existing electrical in the garage was inadequate.  Craig dug the trench and I filled it after our contractor laid the conduit.  We also had the house windows replaced this week. Between sanding, painting, cleaning, assembling furniture and shoveling dirt all weekend, I am just too sore tonight to make use of the lovely,new workspace.

However, I did spend at least a half an hour walking around in glee that it's finally ready to go.

 Now I need to accessorize with lots of pretty, shiny glass, I can't wait.

The creativity will start flowing as soon as I come through this lovely, new glass door to the garage studio.

Studying at the school of fish

Arrow Springs finally got the GTT Lynx torch I ordered a while ago, I have been super excited about getting the stuff (torch, regulator, hoses, etc) and went up there Monday to pick it up in person.  I'm still waiting for a few more items to get hooked up in the garage, mainly the ventilation fan and hood, so cannot actually start running the torch at home, probably until this weekend.  The kind people at Arrow Springs could see how eager I was to get going and make good use of my vacation time and they let my use their Lynx in the open studio (for free, shush, don't tell). This is a picture of the beautiful little torch.

I know I shouldn't be concerned about looks, and truly I did choose this type of torch for the technical specs, but as an added bonus, she really is a beaut!

In the Arrow Springs studio I got all set up at the torch, carefully sorted all my glass by size and color, got the frit (small crumbles of glass, like breading) all ready to go, picked out some interesting tools and started making the first fish.  There was another lady there working on soft glass, she inquired what I was working on and what kind of glass it was.  I responded that the glass was borosilicate, she then asked about my safety glasses and of course I explained what I using.  Suddenly she muttered something to herself, got up in a snit and informed the people at Arrow Springs that they needed to move me as the color of the flame was hurting her eyes! Mind you, she didn't actually ask me to move, no, she simply demanded that the shop do it!  Argh, the nerve, I was halfway into fishy and quite happy thank you, when the shop dude apologetically talked to me and moved all my stuff. To his credit he did it all lickety split and with a smile. He also patiently answered all my dumb, newbie questions with a veritable wealth of glass color chemistry knowledge, thanks Joe!

After I got over my irritation, it was all good and we even struck up a decent conversation about what we each were making (but in my head, I still think she was a bit too much of a princess about the torch, I mean really, if the light hurts your eyes, DON"T LOOK AT IT!!)

So, anyway I had a grand time making little fishies. All of them are made from borosilicate glass (AKA Pyrex) using Glass Alchemy colored rod and frit.

First, I used clear glass to make the fish body, mashed it into the Exotic Red frit, then added the fins with Ruby Strike glass (strike means it changes color in different heat profiles).  I might try to strike this again in the kiln as the red came out kind of an icky liver color in a few small areas.  I had some trouble making the tail as the top and bottom fin edges got in the way.  Perhaps next fishy I make I'll try adding the tail fin first, then the top and bottom.  Also, this guy has huge and somewhat uneven bubble eyes as I had trouble getting them centered and kept adding glass to try to even them out.  The effect was kind of the opposite of a bad home haircut. Come on, you know you've all done it, cut a little more off this side, then, "oh damn, the other sides too long now" and so on until you're cropped like a Marine!

I dub this one "Whistling Dixie"

Mr. Dixie is your basic management type, you know the one who is always spinning the bad news to make it sound good.  His last "inspirational" speech at the office was about how layoffs were really a good thing as it meant production was getting more efficient, thanks to all the good ideas of the workers (and he didn't get the irony of that statement :)

At this point Joe came over the check on me and directed me to a cool tool that pokes indentations evenly on both sides of a piece, perfect for marking where the eyes should be! This next fishy was made with Multi-Color frit and Kryptonite color fins. I am pretty happy about his fins, I still had trouble with the tail, but I like the transparent color.

and, of course, he shall be named "Clark" for obvious reasons

Clark likes a good party, for sure, but he knows when to get serious and is a good guy to have around in a pinch.

And, finally this fish, he was a pain in the a**, for sure.  I must have been getting tired, because he was the hardest by far even though I used the same techniques. The Green Carnival fins were stiff and just wouldn't flow on like I wanted.  I poked a hole in him so he could be hung as a sun-catcher, then forgot to add eyes before attaching the punte (little holder rod), not a big deal, but when the punte cracked off unexpectedly he crashed to the table and the tail cracked off, aahh!!  So now I had to grip him tightly with tweezers to re-attach the tail, make the eyes and mouth while not burning the crap out of my fingers.  Mission accomplished, but in my frustration and fatigue I forgot where the hole was and made the eyes, etc. upside down.  Now he has a useless hole in his belly.

And so he will be known as Butch

Butch is an ex-con (did a dime for aggravated assault at Pelican Bay) who works as a carnie now for local Cirque Du Soliel wannabe outfit.  He runs the coin toss booth and feels no shame about consigning his goldfish buddies to an uncertain fate in the grubby little hands of the punky kid winners.

So long, happy swimming in the stream of life

The magic of etching

as promised, a comparison of the etched vs unetched glass I tested in my new Cheapo sandblasting rig

 

 Etching clear glass helped disguise the hole in the middle.  The sandblasting is quick and easy, but I wouldn't like to have to do too many at one time as it could get tedious going one by one.  I guess I'll just cross that bridge when I get too it.  I still don't have a torch so having too many beads is not even possible at this point.

Redneck Sandblasting Cabinet

After admiring innumerable beautiful glass artwork on the Internet, I realized that sometimes the pieces had been etched to create a frosted finish.  This treatment can be done with a chemical etching bath on soft glass (COE >80), but apparently borosilicate glass, which was developed for laboratory work, is quite resistant to chemical etching.  Thus, the only way to achieve the etched look on boro is to subject it to mechanical etching, or sandblasting.

What follows is the redneck/cheapster version of a sandblasting cabinet for small pieces of glass.

repurpose hubby's dusty, never used airbrush compressor (puts out about 40 psi)

 

purchase cheap "Air Eraser" mini-sandblaster gun from Harbor Freight.

 

purchase jar of 220 aluminum oxide grit from Harbor Freight

cut up an old plastic box from the garage to make a DIY sandblast cabinet

in the spirit of reduce/re-use/recycle, I found this empty plastic box in the garage.


using the trusty Dremel drill to cut armhole and a vent hole.


cut out a couple of "viewports" in the lid


insert a cheap (99 cents for 3 at Harbor Freight) dust mask into the vent hole to allow for air to escape box but not the dust.  

 

Redneck tip - the remainder of this process makes liberal use of ductape, the all purpose adhesive and "hidden treasures" AKA junky stuff that should have been thrown a


re-purpose some transparency film to cover the viewports on the lid (because who really uses transparencies anymore in this age of Powerpoint).


holey socks for the with the toes cut off for the handholes (I had no issues with "blasting my skin", this air compressor and grit gentle enough, even for a delicate flower like myself, to do with bare hands. The socks are just to provide a seal around the handholes to keep the dust inside)


and voila, a cheapo "sandblasting cabinet"


Air Eraser - $20
Aluminum Oxide - $7
household junk - $0
weekend entertainment value - PRICELESS

oh, yeah and it actually works. Later I'll post pictures of a glass stuff I actually tested this whole rig on. The finish is a beautiful, satiny etch!

Two Shoes Tuesday (any 2 will do)

Just a normal Tuesday morning, get up, get over the "oh my gosh, it's still only Tuesday" feeling.  Head off to work, all good and normal so far, and then mid-day I have occasion to actually look at my feet and what do I see??

yep, that's right, apparently in my "gotta go to work today" stupor I selected any two shoes that fit and have walked around the entire site all morning not noticing anything amiss.  So far, no one else has noticed (or commented anyway).

Happy Tuesday : )