my weekend full of parties

office party friday night

christmas party saturday night.

sunday i realized the holidays are coming soon and I don’t have anything for my boss or coworkers. so i cranked out a little dish and a candle holder. tonight (hopefully), i’m fusing a bowl and a tray. tomorrow i’ll slump at least one of them (hopefully).

plus, get to the bank. and pay bills. and buy catfood at walmart. and wrapping paper.

i have to go. i have a lot to do.

beach glass bowls, asap

so i’m churning out bowls as fast as i can. every night i’m either fusing one together, or forming it into a bowl, or attaching feet, or preparing the kiln for the next bowl. every day.

the orders are coming, which is great, but now my list is backing up. what list? the list of things i want to make.

the clear pieces with imprints of real leaves.

the pieces where i use the melts i’ve done.

the pieces with silver mica between the glass.

the wall hangings.

the coasters

the textured bowls

the glass melts

the layers all fused together and cut apart

but, i’ll wait, because for now, i have beach glass bowls to make.

last craft show of the year

I signed up for this one a few weeks ago, without much hope that i’d do well, since the last 2 craft fairs I did… well, they sucked.

I got there super early to get a good spot, something i seem to be terrible at doing, but i found out our spaces were pre-assigned. I was in the back. next to a woman selling really dopey looking christmas ornaments and across from a woman selling dog treats.

i set up and then sat there for almost 2 hours for it to start at 10am. at around 9:30, another vendor came over and asked me to set aside 4 pendants for her to buy later.  Sure, that’s great. but what if she didn’t come back? At 11am, i had already made almost $100 in sales and brought her pendants to her and asked if she still wanted them. she did.

I finished the day with $450. Not bad. another woman there made $700 with jewelry sales. she had nice stuff. that’s ok. i wish every craft fair was like THAT one but damn am i tired.

goodnight.

“Mom! Help! Quick!”

Nobody wants to hear those words, but that’s what I heard tonight.

My son was taking the garbage down to the bottom of the driveway. He loaded it into the back of the pickup truck and the next thing i knew was my phone ringing and my hysterical 16 year old boy crying for me. i asked what happened and he kept saying, “i don’t know. hurry.”

I ran down, in my pajamas and crocs. There is my son sitting in the truck. door open. engine off. He’s crying and shaking. I look around, expecting to see an animal or a huge dent somewhere. There’s nothing. Then i look under the truck and there it is. The drive shaft. twisted. broken. hanging down. smelling bad.

“what is THAT?” i asked.

he said he couldn’t take his foot off the brake. I said to put it in park but he said it was. the emergency brake was on too and the keys were out, but if he let go of the brake, the truck was going to slide back down the driveway, into the road, and hit the guard rail. (we’re on a curve on a mountain road).

I slid in next to him and he slid out while I kept my foot on the brake. He looked and started crying more. he kept saying he didn’t do anything, he was just driving up slowly. so i calmed him down enough to help me, because I really didn’t know what to do, and he went and got straps to tow with, which he hooked up, then slid back in and kept his foot on the brake while I went and got my truck and hooked it up. then i was able to pull us both up our second driveway enough so that he could slowly let it back down and stop against a fallen tree we dragged into place ahead of time.

we went inside, with me being shaky and my normally super calm son being in tears.

we go inside and I head straight for the xanax, and he heads straight for the cookies i made. apparently, nothing ruins his appetite.

work sleep work sleep work sleep…

I don’t really know why i’ve been so tired lately. maybe it’s from getting up early and trying to work a bit extra for the holidays, but even that isn’t exhausting, as i sit at a desk all day. i even planned some easy dinners this week so i wouldn’t have to make my daily stop at the grocery store on the way home.

but then i get home and check the mail and take care of the dogs and talk to the kids and change my clothes and all of that, make dinner, clean up, maybe have a bit of time in my studio to pop something into the kiln, or apply some kiln wash and do a little grinding, and then its time to prepare for the next day, pack an order or two (hopefully), and i’m off to bed.

Yesterday i got one of my bowls featured on etsy- just in one of the many treasuries there.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=16892

hopefully it will sell. i priced it cheap, but i really want that bigger kiln, and I swore to myself that I would earn every dollar towards it.

i did sell another beach glass bowl today, and someone in my office wants a vase, which i’ll make tonight and charge… i don’t know what. She knows she will have to pay for it, but how much? i just told her i’d bring it in tomorrow… and I chickened out telling her how much it would be. she didn’t ask, so now i’m wondering if she thinks its free.

here’s my cut finger from last week. a little gore is a good thing, i always say.

“Oooh. I’ll take one.”

It seems to be a problem for anyone who makes something or has some kind of talent. Eventually, someone will say, “I love that. Can you make me one?” And then i’m left with the dillema of whether I should remind them that i don’t work for free, or if they already know that. most times, people want something without knowing what it even costs.

I was wearing a pendant I made yesterday and a coworker said she would love one just like it. Well great, but how do i respond to that? “alright, sure. that’ll be $60 payable in advance and since no two are exactly alike, i’ll bring yours to you and you have to buy it whether you like that version or not.”

Otherwise, it’s my evening spent making their pendant (or bowl or platter or vase), firing it for 2 days, then bringing it to them just to have them be shocked at the price, or tell me they don’t need it after all.

i made the mistake recently of telling someone that I sew. Or, really, that I know how to sew. i could see the wheels in her head turning. so today she comes in with a shopping bag to my office and says, “i need to ask you for a favor. i’ll pay you.” (right. like i could ask for payment for a favor). She wanted me to shorten some straps of a dress she wanted to wear on saturday.

1. i don’t have time to do that.
2. i don’t want to do that.
3. if i had time or the inclination to sew, i’d be sewing my own things. or cleaning.

i told her my sewing machine is packed away and that I don’t really have time to do it. she just looked at me, i guess thinking that if she looked at me long enough, i’d just do it. so i said, “it looks easy though, you could probably do it.” she laughed, which i guess meant that she doesn’t have time for things like figuring out how to sew. like i do.

tuesday, after a 4 day weekend

last week was thanksgiving, and i spent 4 days just sleeping late, lounging on the couch, working in my studio, napping, and running small errands. no schedule, no clocks. so monday morning comes around and it felt like it was the middle of the night, but I could hear hubby saying “don’t you have to wake up?”

I was thinking, “why would i have to wake up?” and then i realized that it was monday. work. school. lunch money. dinner.

I’m back in the swing of things now. I fused some beach glass last night. I still have to slump it, but i’ll do that tonight. today i have a round piece in the kiln that i painted and fused the other day. i loved it too much to turn it into a vase, so i’m making it into a plate either for myself or a gift. and since i just got a dinner plate mold, i think i’ll be making a series of these, after my vases and beach glass bowls. pictures to come soon. for now, here’s another type of bowl i like to make:

time consuming, but worth it.

ok. back to work for me. it’s like a sauna in my office and i wish i was home by myself. i think i hate people.

my first post

first of all, i should tell you that i rarely bother with capital letters.

that’s pretty much the end for now, since I have dinner in the oven, and glass in the kiln and I need to watch both. I’ll be back later.

ok. i’m back. neither one is ready. anyway. i’m calico. wife, mother, artist. I make kiln fused functional art, like pendants, plates, bowls, platters, vases, etc.

some things i sell at craft fairs (which can be very tiresome) and some things i sell on etsy ( http://calicoglass.etsy.com ) or i give them as gifts.

i’m saving up for a new kiln. i’m not the best saver around though, so for now, my work isn’t as big as i’d like it. i’ll get there. tonight i’m making a beach glass bowl for someone who sent me a message that they would like one- different from the one i have listed for sale. tomorrow i’ll form it into a bowl (slump) and then i’m making a plate or vase from some glass i painted and fell in love with.

first, i have to figure out this blog thing though.

here’s a picture of my beach glass bowl: