Run! It's a moose!

The International Gem & Jewelry Show was this weekend. It's a traveling show, with a smallish "wholesale" area, and there are usually a couple of vendors I like to patronize. Also, I'd gotten a couple of free passes from one of the aforementioned vendors, so on Sunday, off I went, with my friend L in tow. I had a bunch of $2 off coupons that I handed out to everyone after me in line, which I figure is way better than some cheap chocolate bunny. :-)

One of the vendors cuts the most beautiful and unusual cabachons. His wife does amazing wire-wrapped jewelry, so we have a great time talking shop while I'm drooling over the stones. I bought some really nice turquoise, dinosaur bone, a lovely matched pair of lapis cabs, some nice black and white coral, tuxedo agate, and two gorgeous psilomelane pieces that will become a centerpiece of my "Christmas Collection". Made some really nice deals on kyanite beads and some nice unusual stuff like dyed lava rock. I'll post pics of all my new toys soon.

I got a nice pice of greenish schist tile from one of my Gem & Mineral Society members to cut up so I can mount my silver chasing piece. I just need to go to a tile place and get them to carve it up for me.

If anyone has a DW invite, I'd love one. Right now I'm over there on OpenID.

To spare flists, here is the link to pictures of my first 5 pieces. More next week, including a vase and hopefully a parfait glass. 

Everything I make kind of....leans. I'm sure this says something deep and meaningful about my psyche.

Off to bed.

 The off-hand glass blowing class continues to be made of awesome. I have now made a total of 2 bowls, the Enormous Cup (which is a bowl, really) and, finally, a real glass. I want to make myself several drinking glasses.

The instructor showed us how to put handles on cups, and then said he didn't expect us to do that. I'm glad, because it looked really hard. He also showed us how to "draw" on glass using a long thin cane and a blowtorch. We get to do that next week. I can hardly wait.

I managed to drop molten glass all over the floor yesterday. *facepalm* I'm not used to handling it when it's fresh out of the furnace--seriously, that stuff is gloopy and hard to keep on the end of the blowpipe. But the instructor just picked it up with the pipe and dropped it into the bucket we put the hot blowpipes in after we're done with them--did you know that Very Hot Glass + water equals bubbles...made of glass? (They did not float, alas, they simply formed in the bucket.) They were very cool. I love physics. 

I managed to gather all my colored glass correctly and make the Real Glass--you lay out your colored glass in a small kiln and let it get hot. Then you take your gather of hot glass (which was cooler and easier to handle than the time I dripped it on the floor), and rooollll it across the pretty colored glass to make a pattern. I picked up the entire pattern, and when I was done it looked great. I'll have pictures next week, after the next class, I promise. I'm going to pick up some colored glass from a store the instructor recommended, since I know what I want to do for the World's Best Niece. I promise not to go too overboard, really...

This is a really great video that shows the basics of glassblowing. This one shows how they make glass canes, though our classroom isn't nearly so nice. Or air-conditioned.

State of the Hand: Well, I definitely overdid it Sunday and Monday. The hand is a bit swollen and stiff, though the incision is fine. Have lost another stitch; this makes three. I'm sure I'll get yelled at tomorrow when the stitches get taken out(!), but...glass blowing!