Last night Karlo and I took a gorgeous hike. We hiked near our house, on a trail that we normally frequent. Only last night the trail was completely unrecognizable. I could swear we were in the Pacific Northwest. It was so different, so green, so lush, so rainforest-like. There were brand new ponds where last time no water stood at all. I called them ‘reflecting ponds.’ Karlo called them mosquito breeding grounds. Just about all the rocks were now covered with a green carpet of moss. I just couldn’t get over the change in landscape in just a few weeks and I wish I had my camera to compare this trail to our recent hikes in the Seattle area. You couldn’t believe the similarity. But, as usual, you will have to take my word for it. Because, as usual, I didn’t take my camera! Although, I have to say, it was probably a good thing. Hiking on the wet and very slippery rocks and roots was very tricky and the occasional slip and fall was inevitable. And on that subject, would somebody please invent some hiking shoes with a sole that mimics a dog’s paw pads? Why is that I was slipping and falling everywhere and Peanut never skipped a beat. That sure-footed little creature had no trouble at all. Well anyway, my camera stayed safe but now I have nothing to show for the hike.
And moving on from the ‘no picture’ portion of today’s post to the ‘bad picture’ portion . . .
This should really be a separate entry called Glass Fusing 101 – What Not to Do. Last week . . . wait a minute . . . two weeks ago, I went to a glass fusing jewelry making class. This is something that I’ve been dreaming about for years. I always had a burning (pun intended) desire to melt glass and now that I finally have a kiln, it was time to learn. The class was fun and interesting. I left there with over $100 in supplies to try it at home. I just couldn’t wait to start cutting glass.
The cutting was not as hard as I had imagined. I did pretty good with that. But the firing didn’t go as planned.
Blunder #1:
The top clear glass slid nearly completely off the pieces. Back to the drawing board. This time I used some glue (just as the instructor advised – should have listened) and this time everything stayed in place. But the result was . . . well, ugly.
Blunder #2:
My third attempt got me closer to where I want to be. Still not too pretty, but at this point I was not using my nicest pieces of glass. I figure I need a few more practice runs before being confident enough to use the good stuff. I’m getting there.
Before firing:
After firing:
1 comment:
we think they are really cool
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