l to r: component pieces of copper reactive glass and strip of copper foil. next is flat-fused blank in pattern and trapping the copper between the treated clear glass components. next is the slumped form after melted into a ceramic mold. last piece is another slumped sushi plate in a swirled solid blue with clear overlay in final form.
the reactivity comes from an âinfusionâ of tin in the texture of the top surface of the clear glass. there is copper in the green and blue glass (and the foil strip - obvs), the elements react in the 1440F firing and turn red. neat trick. useful? dunno.
A bookbinder friend made me an accordion book for my watercolor art toolkit. I took it camping over the weekend and challenged myself to paint some little plant from around the campsite each morning.
Today may have been the pinnacle of my engineering career, because the two of us decapitated that building and got the roof down onto the trailer completely intact. We broke a single 2x4 in the process, and killed zero primates.
ETA: The day that I manage to get it back up onto those four walls will be the actual pinnacle of said engineering career.
I had a couple setbacks, so itâs not as vibrant as Iâd hoped. But thereâs part of an interrupted fern (bottom edge), a sensitive fern (left corner), and a lady fern, and a Queen Anneâs lace flower and leaves. I sprinkled salt on it while it was wet to get the added mottling.
El Pollo Coupe⢠made the journey at full impulse power, and the structural integrity never fell below 97.5%.
What an adventure. I am glad we did that, as it turned out to be the bucket list item I never knew I had. It feels like I checked off an item that Heinlein found too ambitious for his list. All that said, Iâm very glad that weâre done, and Iâm very glad we didnât keep track of our actual time invested.
Thanks, but we only did it for the bragging rights. Some day, at some hypothetical dinner party, Iâll be the only one there who can say theyâve moved a building. And if anyone else raises their hand, I can say âUhh no, I didnât say âI had a building movedâ.â
Okay, maybe we did it a little bit for the poultry, too.
Dude! That is the weirdest thing about language that Iâm always getting on about. My boss (sheâs awesome in most ways) is always saying things like, âwe Painted our house this year,â or, âwe did all this tree work this year.â Before I knew better I was always asking, âoh, did you rent a cherry picker?â Or, âwhat did you do for scaffolding?â (Me and the Mr are very DIY.) Until I learned she meant theyâd âhad it done.â
But itâs so funny to me. She and others I work with, if theyâd gone to the salon, for example, would never say, âI did my hair today,â or nails, or whatever. Theyâd say they âhad it (or them) done.â
Itâs totally weird to me that people use the active voice for certain stuff, even though itâs so inaccurate.
(Minor rant over.)
If you ever are itching to jump into a full-on simmering feud about those distinctions, you can always explore the saga of resentment between the âOwner Buildersâ (i.e. no General Contractor) Facebook group and the âREAL Owner Buildersâ (i.e. No contractors at all unless legally required, and even then, donât tread on me, etc, etcâŚ) Facebook group. The latter, of course, being a splinter group of an exiled member of the formerâŚ
No thank you! but it is really weird to me where people seem to draw the line. Like, theyâd never say, âI detailed my car today,â theyâd say they âhad their car detailed.â
As a sometimes builder, I find I notice it mostly around construction stuff, but it makes me wonder why people feel the need to say it in a way that implies they did the thing in some examples and not in others. I havenât figured it out.
I suspect around construction stuff the divide is between
âstuff people think1) they could do themselves (If only I had the time I would etc, etc)â
and
âstuff people realize2) they canât (and shouldnât) do themselvesâ.
1) They usually think wrong, but thatâs neither here nor there. 2) Thank The Lord for small mercies.
I got used to it decades ago, when I realized that most of America talks about sports as if they engage in them from somewhere other than their couches. âOh, you mean someone got paid to run twenty yards while carrying a ball, oh, yeah, now I totally get why you feel youâve achieved something impressive. Iâll be outside if you need me.â
" âwhat we really need this season is a decent pitching staff!â no, âweâ are going to to be sitting on our ass in front of the tv. as if Deadheads sit around talking like âweâre going to have a tough time on tour this year. weâve really gotta find a decent replacement for Jerry, thatâs key.â "
A snarky but perhaps defensible response: âWow! You [cut down] that [tree] yourself? Damn, gurl!â
Perhaps followed by: âCan you come over and take a look at my [tree]? I was gonna pay some company big $$$, but maybe I could do it myself. What do you think?â
Iâve never even wondered about a term for it (other than âneurotypicalâ) but I think the phenomenon itself probably has to do with mirror neurons. Like porn, but without the resultant change in state that causes the person to go do something else.
Hey art loving mutants, The Jersey City Artist Studio Tour (JCAST) is Fri/Sat/Sun October 1-3 with a launch event on September 30. Iâm helping two artists and one author to host an event in The Heights and would love to see mutant tour groups as you wander around the city. Generally, there is parking in the area, so stop on by.
In my ongoing silk painting saga: I painted my friend a scarf that is also a backgammon board (canât find the pics) and as a thanks, she made one of my older paintings into a throw pillow!
Those plates are lovely!
but it is really weird to me where people seem to draw the line. Like, theyâd never say, âI detailed my car today,â theyâd say they âhad their car detailed.â
