sexy_romulan: (Default)
So aside from the inferno-like heat and me still feeling crappy, Art in the Park was great. Sold lots of small and medium pieces and one of the big ones. I may have even turned a profit (although not having kept very careful track of my material costs, I'm not 100% sure about this). Learned a few things, most importantly: colour scheme is more important than image...illustrated by the fact that my crazy quilts were the first things to go, which surprised me, given how straightforward and abstract they were. But yes, people seemed to like the colours. Nice to know that all my scrap glass has a profitable use, anyway. I may try a couple of those nice intricate art nouveau abstracts too. Also, people were really interested in the mirrors, of which I had only a few this time. Will have to make sure to pay more attention to those next year. I should also get my butt in gear and make a fireplace screen, because I bet that's something most people wouldn't even think of looking for in stained glass and I bet they'd love it, even if it cost $700.

I also got a lot of questions about custom work, especially putting stuff in transoms/sidelights/other spaces. I pointed these people towards another glass artist instead, since I am really not comfortable with the idea of trying such large projects for the first time for mad profit and on a stranger's property. BUT it is clear that I am losing business by doing so. Therefore, over the next year I need to take a crack at some such big projects so as to gain experience. SO, f-list, I invite you to take a look around your house and see where there are interesting spaces to fill, because I will take the case pro bono (or for very big projects, for shared cost of materials). For example...[livejournal.com profile] iclysdale, y'know those little transoms above all the doorways in your place? [livejournal.com profile] arndis and [livejournal.com profile] tchang, I think you have them too. It could be awesome!
sexy_romulan: (Default)
RAWK.

I ♥ Art in the Park.

Now, I sleep.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
I have felt like CRAP all day today and ended up going home after lunch to sleep for the afternoon. Said nap plus grapes and saltines have perked me up enough that I am trying some pasta.

Dear universe: this had better not be the shape of things to come, got it??? I need to be smiling and selling stuff this weekend, not curled up in green-faced misery in the grass, kthxbai. I suspect getting to bed at a decent hour (as opposed to past midnight like yesterday) will probably help.

Tonight:
* make stuff-to-bring list
* frame crazy quilt panels
* fused doodads x 2 or 3
* paint om

Tomorrow:
* get cash
* fire and frame om
* get more lead and finish framing if necessary
* test run for new tent and display
* polish all
* pack car
* cook
sexy_romulan: (Default)
In the madness that will be the next few days, do not forget to:

* scout around for a bulletin board
* bring pics of previous work home from the office
* print copies of Art in the Park flyer to spam neighbours with
* assemble pattern/inspiration books and worden pamphlet for potential customers to look at
* check into how exactly to use those freaking credit card slips
* make checklist of stuff to bring, including sample box
sexy_romulan: (Default)
One more week till Art in the Park!!! Must...stop...dragging...feet and get ass in gear. Yes. RAHR. Am taking Friday off in order to get last minute preparations taken care of, at least.

There was a community garage sale day in the village on Sunday (rained out on Saturday) so I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and bought some plant pots, an Eric Carle book (The Very Quiet Cricket, to go with our copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar - I mean, really, how could I resist?) and a big potful of johnny-jump-ups, which for some reason I have had no luck starting from seed. I also spied a really cool cat condo, but its vendors wanted $110 for it...yeah, not likely, kthxbai.

Booked the afternoon off today to go to the doctor - have I mentioned that I fucking hate needles, btw? Because I really fucking hate them - and then squandered the extra hour or so of free time this netted me by watching The Coolest Cop Show Evarrr, aka The Wire. Went to check out the aforementioned used couch set, which was deliciously cushy and comfy for curling up in as well as looking good, and which the vendor is willing to hang onto until we can get it into the new house. SWEET.

Also in the SWEET category: my peonies are almost blooming! No sign of botrytis returning so far (knock on wood) - and each plant has a good 4 or 5 big buds on it. C'mooooonnnnnn peonies, you can do it!!!
sexy_romulan: (Default)
Ugh. Tired. Don't feel well. Not Friday yet. Should be working on glass.

However: antique store in the market where I had inquired about old window frames called yesterday. Today I am the proud owner of a lovely 10-light window that will be perfect for covering in stained-glass ivy. Probably can't do anything with it in time for Art in the Park anymore, though. Oh well.

Also: seller of this lovely set of furniture may be willing to hang onto it until mid-July, when we will have space for it. Niiiiiice. Making arrangements to go check it out.

Snack, then studio. Bleh.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
I was ABOUT to go to the studio and discovered that Corey has my keys. Thus am I sucked back into the vortex of unproductivity.

I could work on more designs, but I feel singularly uncreative tonight. Soldering is about the best I can do. Bleh. How did I do this last year again??

So far I have managed:

3 medium crazy quilt pieces
long skinny morning glories
painted nude
magnolia mirror (mostly)
moon and star suncatcher (mostly)

I have 6 weeks left to accomplish everything else on my list, namely:

spring tree
autumn tree
art nouveau mirror
bee mirror
balloon mirror
om suncatcher
little bevel suncatchers
pentacle suncatcher redux
trefoil suncatcher redux
painted seagull panel

Would have liked to do another large piece, but I don't think I have time anymore. Well, we'll see. If I can get the suncatchers done this week and the other stuff designed, I will be more or less back on track.

Miscellany

Apr. 13th, 2008 09:18 pm
sexy_romulan: (Default)
Man, watching a season of BSG episode by episode instead of all in one shot is awful - the suspense is going to kill me, except it had better not, because then I'd never find out how this damn show is going to end. I wanna know what happens next, dammit!

It is really a shame that last night was the last performance of The Pirates of Penzance, because it was hilarious and I would totally have recommended that everyone go see it.

Finished the first painted nude today. It didn't turn out half bad. The paint didn't seem any the worse for wear for the flux and solder, at least. I don't know if it turned out quite as mind-blowing as it should have considering the amount of fucking work that went into it, but whatever. On to the next one. Need to test the purple glass to make sure that paint is actually going to show up on it...otherwise I'm going to have to find a substitute colour.

Didn't get any of my other grand glass schemes accomplished today, though. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time kicking my ass into gear. I think part of it is my work hours having switched since last year - I can't just drop by the glass store after work anymore, which means I either have to send Corey on an errand during the daytime or wait for the weekend to roll around so I can stock up on whatever miscellany I'm missing to continue my project. Opaque white glass and zinc came are on the list right now (and of course I forgot about both when I was there on Saturday to get neutra. Dammit.)

We noticed half a duplex go up for sale in the village this weekend, so I poked my nose into MLS out of curiosity. The same place was asking $275K within the last couple years. Now it's up to $315K. Sweet merciful crap. The listing says they've done a lot of upgrading, but even so. I guess it's a good job we bought where and when we did. I think I'd be surprised to see anything listed in the village for less than $300K unless it was a knock-it-down/gut-it-and-start-over special. And there aren't even a lot of those left...I think my studio is located in one of the last few.

Played squash with Corey both yesterday and today. My hips are a little sore from my constant lunging after the ball, but otherwise I'm not too badly beat up. I am a very bad sport when I feel outmatched, so I'm lucky Corey is such a good one; he actually managed to teach me enough this afternoon that I scored a few points against him before being abjectly defeated.

Sigh. Bed, followed by Monday. Bleah.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
Phew. What a week.

It is now APRIL, however. And sunny. And forecast to be around 10 degrees all week. I saw tulips coming up on Sussex drive this week...and a pair of robins very cutely singing to each other in a bush on Britannia road. THANK GOD FOR SPRING. Now all this damn snow just needs to melt.

HowEVer, I can already see one of the garden beds again! And my seeds are busily sprouting in the sun from mom's south-facing patio doors. Last I checked gaillardia, marigolds, pampas grass, digitalis, basil, and mimulus were all showing green. Grow, my pretties!! Ahahahahahahaaa!

Shopping list for glass store this morning:
* solder
* 4 - 2" x 3/4" bevels
* new grinder head
* zinc came for framing

Painted nude #1 is ALMOST freaking done. Holy crap did that ever take longer than I was expecting. Two more layers on one more piece and I am ready to foil and solder. Morning glories are likewise almost ready to go - need to cut out the end pieces and finish the foiling - so I should be able to finish them up in short order. I have a lovely design for the magnolia mirror so can start on that, and have pieces cut out for the moon suncatcher. BY GOD THERE WILL BE PROGRESS THIS WEEKEND.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
AUGH so behiiiiiiiiiiiind

Today, following Cora's breakfast, I will:

* Finish chopping out morning glories
* Finish firing painted nude #1 and do final coat of paint (well, except for the one piece that I forgot about in the kiln, accidentally fusing it into bubbly globbiness, and will therefore have to redo - goddammit)
* Chop out moons from spiffy $20/sq-ft uroburos glass
* Design tree to make out of gorgeous kokomo glass with deep ripples and streams of green and pink, which cries out to be a flowering tree of some kind (oooh and with the remaining kokomo green-gold from last year I could make a fall tree to go with said spring tree YES IT WILL BE AWESOME)
* Design magnolia mirror

Raspberries and bacon will fuel my genius. Up, up and awayyyyyyyyy!!
sexy_romulan: (Default)
To do tomorrow (well, today :P)

* greasy spoon breakfast
* solder last crazy quilt panel
* fire last piece of tracing black
* paint first layer of shading and fire a few pieces
* cut out moon and morning glories

First: bed...sweet, sweet bed.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
I have ingeniously managed to blow a fuse at the studio, thereby screwing myself out of an evening's worth of work. No soldering, no grinding, no firing, and not even any chopping, because the one project I have ready to cut needs the lighttable, which is likewise out of commission. Dammit. Note to self: there is a REASON why they told me the kiln should be the only thing on the circuit.

So instead I will bake and foil bevelled stars. I need to make cookies to send with Corey to my former boss in Montreal, whom I need to thank for a recent reference and general helpful awesomeness while I was jobhunting. And since Corey is hilariously making intensely kahlua-ful chocolate icing to go on the last couple squares of my attempt at [livejournal.com profile] amazon_syren's fantastic chocolate cake, I think maybe I will make another cake to go with it.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
So this morning I went through the results of my art classes and picked out a couple of drawings that worked reasonably well. I spent a few hours tracing and messing around trying to figure out how to break these up into pieces that will fit in my kiln. Surprisingly challenging, this. Naked people don't have a whole lot of convenient hard lines to follow with solder, and in any case, I don't think most painted glass gets made in an 8"x8" firing chamber. Plus it's just hard to refocus my eyes on solder lines vs. drawing lines and still keep them all working together.

Nonetheless, I have a couple of designs that I'm more or less happy with and will try out. The man was much more difficult than the woman, mostly because of the pose in question - there's a long expanse down one side where a solder line just doesn't look right, but the whole piece would be 2x too big for the kiln. So eventually I just threw up my hands, gave up on following the figure, and just broke it up into a whole bunch of cubes and stuff, over which I will paint the figure without regard to solder lines. I'm not sure if the result ends up being stupidly stereotypical (flowy lines sort of hugging the woman, whole bunch of right angles superimposed over the man...bleah...) but maybe I can figure out some way to offset that with choice in colour. Would anyone even notice that connotation, or am I oversensitive?

Well, whatever...if the flux eats the paint off it's a moot point anyway, so I'd better do a trial run and see what happens.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
Spent a very nice couple of hours in the studio tonight. I had trouble making my brain shut up - grinding, like knitting, is so tedious that it's not very helpful that way. Nonetheless, I am resolved to spend more time there now that I've zombied my way through January. Especially now that Art in the Park is set for June 7 and 8, and registration is underway - must get cracking!!

So tomorrow, I foil with movies, and also my mom is supposed to come over and help plastic the windows in an effort to prevent another $500 hydro bill. Also I will call Wallack's to find out if they carry the brand of matboard I was looking at before, and make haddock with vermouth and mushrooms and delicious cheesy rice for dinner. And I'm going to try to start doodling some of the designs I've been thinking about.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
My neighbour has commissioned me to make a second lampshade - sweet! I think I even still have the glass for that. Might have to pick up a couple more cream-coloured pieces, but that won't be more than about $10. Must get cracking on that tomorrow, provided I'm not too stupidly hung over.

Also, I have made a mix tape for a new year's exchange. (It's actually a pile of MP3s, but whatever - it's still a mix tape!) It's all zipped up, so if anyone else wants it, let me know and I will send it to you via yousendit...if you have a mix to send me in return, that would be doubly awesome!
sexy_romulan: (Default)
Wow...when they said "massive winter storm" they weren't fucking around. Getting to work tomorrow is going to be a joy. I kind of wish this had held off until tomorrow - then it would have generated an actual snow day instead of just being a big fat pain in the ass.

Glass chopping is 90% done. Ahahahahahaaaa! I will return tonight to finish up and start grinding. Meanwhile, my book is calling me.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
Designed to match some of the shapes in neighbour's headboard and the colour scheme in her bedroom. I need to get a better camera.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
sexy_romulan: (Default)
Well, real estate madness is cancelled for today due to tenant's family emergency. Possibly to be rescheduled tomorrow, although if it's later I won't complain, because it will be that much closer to whenever I hear results from that competition.

So what am I going to do with myself instead? Cook and finish neighbour's lamp, I guess; I will go to the glass store and get a harp so as to gauge where to put the spider. Also must get groceries. I am going to try bringing sandwich makings to work and see if that might stop the $$$ I've been hemmorhaging on lunches.

I just had an awesome mirror idea. I made a little spiral mirror this summer; if I make the background green and string little leaves on the wire curlicues, it could be super cute. Maybe I will also go to Sassy Bead and see how much they want for leaf-shaped bead thingies.

Bleah. I feel very lazy though. Mostly I just want to sit here and blither on LJ.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
I have mostly soldered my neighbour's lamp, and it is gorgeous. Ahahahahahahahaaaa! I should do panel lamps more often, I love how neatly and beautifully they work out. Just need to do the top and bottom edges, touch up the faces, and then mess around with harp and spider to figure out where the spider needs to go so the light bulb sits in the right place.
sexy_romulan: (Default)
Not very productive today, for all that I've been trying. Had enough solder to do the outside seams on one candleholder, but got a goddamn heat crack for my trouble; poked at painting one suncatcher, but screwed it up and ended up washing it all off. At least I finished attaching the jewels to the trees, which are looking pretty cute. I will go back later and cut/grind that other tree I've been meaning to do, and then I will polish the lot of them later tonight. Other than that...bleah. Having trouble staying motivated. This stupid show has really taken it out of me. I think I will finish my neighbour's lamp in the next 10 days or so and then take a couple weeks off before launching into christmas projects.

In other news, we will be telling our landlord when we go pay the rent that we will be switching to month-to-month in order to hopefully buy a house in the coming year...how freaky is that, I ask you. Technically speaking we could start shopping now, since closing dates are already into February and March judging by what I see on Grapevine. It just wouldn't really be the path of wisdom. There's always the chance we may have to haul ass to some other city for Corey to find work, and even if we stay here both our salaries will hopefully be going up substantially in the next 6-8 months (which makes a big difference to what and where we can buy).

I dunno. Much like thinking about having kids, thinking about this makes me feel dumb. Like I'm playing house or something. I'm not sure what to make of that. Do I feel ill-prepared? Am I just self-conscious because so few other people seem to be making the same plans? Am I defensive because I expect other people to think I can't handle it?

Well, regardless, one of the things I got to thinking about while puttering around this morning is what kooky projects I could get up to in a house of our own. I could make an honest-to-god stained glass window, fer instance. Or transom/sidelights around the door. Or put stained glass in all the cabinet doors and add backlighting. I would love - LOVE - to have a suitably period house to do such messing around in, like that gorgeous little arts and crafts cottage on Britannia Road that backs onto the conservation area. God only knows how much that thing would sell for, even if its current owners did have a fit of insanity and put it on the market.

I adore arts and crafts architecture, it strikes this beautiful chord between rusticity, elegance, and warmth. E.g.:




If I couldn't track down and purchase such a thing, given dream house funds, I would track down some period plans and build it from scratch.

Profile

sexy_romulan: (Default)
sexy_romulan

April 2017

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
910 1112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 10th, 2025 10:45 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios