Random thoughts: Summer, summer, summ-errrrrr time….

Remember this old Will Smith song? 

The video was a slow-rolling, old school rap about all the fun activities that make summers a blast: bbqs, music, hanging out with friends and family, enjoying the weather, roadtrips, etc. 

I had a pretty fantastic summer this year and now with the coolness back in the air (yes, already – it’s Ottawa), i’m slowly winding down (or catching up on) all my summer projects and preparing for the long, cold, hard winter that’s just around the corner…

Concerts:  saw a TON of those: Gladys Knight (fantastic entertainer), Naturally7 (unbelievable a capella!), Jully Black (awesome Canadian singer but PLEASE someone get her a new stylist!), Fergie (can’t sing but fun to watch), Boyz II Men (yes, they’re still touring and still good), Snoop Dogg (don’t ask), Akon (not bad), Joan Armatrading (still awesome), Celine Dion (all her french songs in a 250k strong crowd) and many, many more…

Road Trips: A packed car and a long highway with good times and friends waiting for you at either end.  Is there anything better?

Summer Projects:  yeaaaaahhhhh.  those didn’t get done – waaaay too much other fun stuff to do.  Some serious catchup planned this month…

Torch time:  didn’t have much of that.  I was either too tired or completely unmotivated.  My mojo left me sometime around the end of June and I’d find myself sitting in front of the torch rolling rods of glass in my hands but with no fresh ideas.  I’m hoping it gets back soon.

Glass, glass and more GLASS!!!:  I stocked up.  twice.  and LOTS!  (there’s more since these pics) I keep fondling all of it cuz i still can’t believe it’s all mine.  When i first started torching, with only a small bin of single rods to my name (you can see it in the centre pic), i dreamed about one day having a fully stocked studio filled with all the lampwork glass, tools, toys and books that peaked my interest.  I’m there now.  Yeaaaaaah baby.

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See Meech?

I’m not the only one… ;~D

(This post is purely for my cousin who thinks me calling certain colours of glass “lickable” is completely and totally certifiable.)

Photo is from Sarah Hornik’s Flickr photostream of her trip to Murano, Italy. 

One particularly cool photoset of hers shows Italian glassmaster Lucio Bubacco demoing how he makes his incredibly detailed soft glass figures: Lucio’s demo. wow.

Got a package. Wanna open it with me?

box 

Since i only torch part time, I don’t get to order glass supplies very often.  But when i do it’s soooooooo exciting when the package finally arrives – almost like Christmas!

Now this particular box is four, yes FOUR months late in arriving (don’t ask) so my emotions are a bit mixed: on one hand i’m like a kid in a candy store cuz i just LOVE getting new glass stuff but at the same time i’m extremely ticked that it took this long to arrive.  aaahh well, time to move on.  (sigh)

Let’s open this sucker up!

Open box

oooo… styrofoam, exciting stuff that.  i’ve got a garbage bag full of these bits in the basement cuz i can’t bring myself to throw them out.  reduce, reuse, recycle, right? (or am i kidding myself?)

Dots, dots, dots book

I didn’t order this, the supplier sent it as an apology for being so late with the shipment.  What do you think, should i accept the apology?  (And i wonder how they knew my dots suck?)

alabastro rods

Look at those rods.  Aren’t they scrumptious?  i keep stroking them, they’re so delicious i almost want to lick them.  my imagination is going wild thinking of all the cool things i’ll do with them… They’re a special type of Italian glass called alabastro – supposed to give a translucent effect similar to alabaster.  (duh?) Sounds fantastic doesn’t it? 

reaming bits & cubic zirconias

some longer bead reamers (yay!) and square cubic zirconias.cubic zirconias

I can’t wait to try these.  the trick is to embed them in the glass without causing the bead to crack – sorta like a faux diamond.  sparkly glass and diamonds.  can a girl ask for more? 

  Corina Spotlights

These Corina Spotlights are classic technique booklets in the lampworking community. I’ve heard great things about them and after a quick run through i’m quite impressed at how much information is stuffed in those few pages.  I hope she starts making them again…

silver wire

30 gauge fine silver wire. crap. i forgot i’d purchased these and ordered a pile from somewhere else last month.

stringer control dvd

Haven’t watched this dvd yet, but lots of people recommend it on the forums.  You’ll be able to judge for yourselves over the next few weeks if it really does help me improve my stringer control…

alabastro rods side view

just another gratuitous alabastro rod shot.  side view this time, just cuz i love them so much.  i tell ya, completely, utterly, deliciously lickable…

Contemporary Lampworking

This is a highly recommended, two-volume collection of probably everything i’ll ever need to know about lampworking.  I quickly scanned through both volumes and there’s such great info it’ll be a while before i get fully through them.

black nebula frit

one last thing…some boutique silver glass frit.  cuz really i can’t justify paying $100/lb for glass rods (yet).  If i can get this to do its magic, maybe then i’ll reconsider…

gratuitous kitten shot

and just cuz i can, a random kitten shot.  That’s my kitty Busta.  He’s just so cute – dumb as post and worst hygiene of any cat i have ever owned but still so darned adorable i can’t help but love him to death.