A couple of months ago I found out about Airbnb.com kind of a social network where people list their extra bedroom, couch, guest apartment, hammock, etc., for travelers looking for inexpensive accommodations. People leave reviews of their experiences staying in these various ‘b’n'b’s’ which for obvious reasons helps when you’re looking for a quiet, off the beaten path, non-smoking place to stay (or maybe you’re looking for a loud, smoked filled party house!). Regardless of your preference you can find it!
So, I’ll be staying next to the Vondelpark in what my ‘host-to-be’ calls, The Garden House it looks and sounds amazing! With a beautiful garden-patio off my room.

It’s ground floor which is fantastic bc we’ll be renting bikes and wanting to bring them in over night for the first couple of days before we venture out of Amsterdam to Gouda on our way to Brugges!
Work Cycles!! I’ve been coveting these bikes ever since I purchased my Batavus several years ago.

At this point we’re uncertain of whether we will really have the time to bike all the way to Bruges however, we will most likely cycle to Rotterdam and then catch a train to Ghent and cycle from there.
Chocolate, cheese, waffles & beer, here we come!!

I’m hoping to check out local metalsmiths and glass blowers/flame workers while I’m there….I don’t know of any but maybe someone out there does? maybe even rent a space for a couple of hours at a local flea market & sell some hearts!

Meanwhile, it looks like I’ll be visiting a dear friend in Iceland in a week or two and, fingers crossed, heading to Finland later in the summer or fall.
More to come!
Check out the Etsy treasury I made ‘imagining’ my trip ahead:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/OTE3MDh8MjIwMjM0NDUwNw/iceland-amsterdam-brugges-berlin

Just. Managed. To get the last of the orders out!! Good thing too as I fly out tomorrow for Montreal!

We’re only there for a couple of days but it will still be nice to get out of Toronto. Plus, we finally captured a reservation at Au Pied de Cochon… which is funny actually considering I’m not eating meat these days. We shall see what transpires… there’s a beet salad, and plenty of poutine on the menu.

Meanwhile, the house is trashed! The studio looks as if a bomb went off!! Ugh.. I’ll clean when I return and prepare orders to ship out for Boxing Day, last minute late gifts AND Valentines!

I landed a prezzie early Too large to fly with us to Montreal so Andrei gave it to me early Brought back some fond childhood memories. 

Too cool. Here are some images taken from a couple slides I’ve been observing. Oh! Andrei also gave me a digital microscope attachment!

I gave Andrei an early gift too. A gift certificate towards a tattoo at SpeakEasy with Lizzie!!  HA! That’s one way to kick someone’s butt into getting something finally started!

It’s Thursday evening. Tomorrow is the last day actually, morning and afternoon left before set-up begins for toronto’s annual City of Craft. Many stumbling blocks for me such as, new displays not arriving, kiln coming several weeks too late, glass order never being delivered, etc., etc. yet some how I’ve made it through!
Going to be a hugely fun weekend over at the Theatre Centre so if you’re in toronto and you’re reading this, hope you come by booth #12 and say, Hello!

Tonight I’ll tack fuse the frit balls shown in the image above then drape or slump them.
Meanwhile, I need rainbow bed sheets or fabric, AstroTurf and to finish up the sound cloud. As I write this Andrei is in his studio working on generative music for, Wonderlandish.

So, I’ve set the kiln for a twenty minute hold. Back soon….

This time I poured the powder onto some Bullseye kiln shelf paper (thin fire).
Lowered my fusing temperature 1490 to 1480 with a ten minute hold.

Massive devitrification. I’m not sure if the temp was to high for this particular colour? At first the glass appeared to have the Thin Fire stuck all over it. I’m hoping that it has nothing to do with the kiln shelf paper and is just the nature of the transparent turquoise (001116-0008).

At the moment I’m firing up some Bullseye opaline. For this I’ve set the fusing temp to 1420 hoping to get the glass to strike yet stay translucent. Sunday evening I’ll try another Bullseye powder on the Thin Fire and see if the results differ.

Then I remembered I had to pick up kiln shelf paper (!!!) and drop off waxes to be cast so, I booked a Zipcar and headed out.


Lol, back from city driving hell… I spent several hours cleaning/scraping off the back of the glass piece with kiln shelf primer stuck all over it. It just needs fusing again then I’ll drape it over the wok meanwhile however, I couldn’t help myself and purchased a couple other colours to make more spongy glass! I think I’ll fuse some transparent turquoise tonight, red tomorrow and hopefully Monday the opaline glass I ordered will arrive and then I’ll make some frit balls.

This time I’m going to spread the powder out on kiln shelf ‘paper’ and hope it doesn’t stick to the glass like the primer did. A mentor and friend (Janis Miltenberger) suggested I try using Whiting for these experiments. Later when everything is fusing away I’ll conduct a search for a local Whiting source.

Better than I expected! As I knelt down praising myself and the universe for one experiment turning out I noticed the crack. Then another, and another gradually forming as the air hit it. Or, so I thought. Dang it all!! The shelf primer is stuck to the back of it similar to when you cast glass. The only issue here is the piece is extremely thin & delicate.
Ok. I guess kiln shelf paper is the answer.
I’m going to see how much shelf primer I can clean off without destroying the entire piece. Hopefully I can salvage this piece!

Meanwhile,
My Petri dish experiments so far:

Normally I wait until the last minute, stress out and feel like buying a flight out of Toronto before the event… This has nothing to do with me not wanting to be prepared, or not wanting to be in the event! It’s just a bizarre phenomena that takes over my whole being. I’ve been fighting it for years!!
Thankfully, Free Will astrology came to my rescue this year:

“Progress isn’t made by early risers,” wrote author Robert Heinlein. “It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.” That’s exactly the kind of progress you are in an excellent position to stir up in the coming weeks. You don’t have to match the stress levels of the Type A people who might seem to have an advantage over you, and you won’t help yourself at all by worrying or trying too hard. The single best thing you can do to supercharge your creativity is to think of yourself as a “happy-go-lucky” person while you go around dreaming up ways to have more fun.

Phew! Thanks Universe.

OK. Really, I am working everyday on some part of something….

Building up spores, fungal growths, fruiting bodies, mirroring glass, plating objects..

this image shows the fruiting stalks of a black mold. (SEM x1,890). This kind of fungus can cause infections in humans. Materials: borosilicate glass.

Going into the kiln later this evening is the following:

I’m hoping that the powdered glass will pull away in the thinner areas creating a textured sponge-like effect and the thicker glass pieces layered across the powder will appear branch-like. If successful the glass will then be draped over a stainless steel form, in this instance a wok I picked up in Chinatown for cheap!

instead of kiln priming the wok then coating it with kiln shelf primer I’m giving Boron Nitride spray a go! Seemingly less of a mess and should yield a smoother finish on the glass (no brush strokes).

This the time of year when my studio becomes super full of students and artists during Open Studio making holiday gifts and preparing/finishing work for holiday shows! It also means my studio looks like a bomb went off in it! A giant tsunami of creative energy has struck down!