Glass Blowing Pensacola Florida

I guess it would help if I put a link up.

2011-02-23T10:41:00.003-06:00

Strongstreetstudio.blogspot.com

That should help.

Scott.
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Strong Street Studio

2011-01-31T09:18:00.003-06:00

I don't really know how much I have talked about my move into changing this hobby into a business. I do however know that about the time that I started to think of this as a money making idea my posts to this blog dropped to almost zero. I became very protective of my new idea and my new venture. I became a parent to this studio and I wanted to protect that. Silly but very true.

I am sure by this time I have lost pretty much everyone that was coming here to look at what I did next or what kind of mistakes I had made. I know you where not here for the horrible grammar, spelling mistakes, and typos. This place is interesting for me to go back and look at if for no other reason than to realize the baby steps I took for many years. That it was a layered process that has me now working in what is my own studio and my own side business from my day to day job. Strong Street Studio is no longer an idea but a functioning business that is making money and out of all debt as of this year.

In short if you find this blog you can look back and see someone build a glass studio from start to finish over a couple years. From knowing as little as one can know to lighting up his first gather in his own shop. It is a painful read but it is there. How I funded it, how I purchased equipment, how I ran electrical it is all here. I am however going to start a new site. I don't really feel like I am new to this anymore. I am not expert, hell I am not even seasoned, but I am no longer new....that is for sure.

So this is the last post at New2glass. I will leave this up for anyone in the future that gets a itch to build a studio. Maybe something in here will inspire them or help. Maybe they will venture over to my new blog. StrongStreetStudio.blogspot.com and have a laugh at what is sure to be a string of all new problems and errors.

Thanks for the support and laughs. Hope to see you at the new digs.

Scott.
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Know your WOAH!

2010-09-01T18:35:00.003-05:00

This is my new favorite phrase that I have come up with recently. I think I will have shirts made up. It is very universal.

Think about it. Know your WOAH! can be used anywhere.

Out drinking, you all know the woah voice from somewhere in the middle of your body that says "woah man...." you know when you are laying into someone and the voice tells you "woahh woah woah...ease up" when you are falling "woah, Woah, WOAH!!!!" as you fall.

It is my new montra...know your woah. KYW!

Scott.
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I found this glass, weight loss boot camp, my pants fit!

2009-12-01T16:16:00.006-06:00

Boot Camp rocks, over the last 15 weeks I have lost a staggering 27.5 pounds (252.6 down to 225.1)and my timed mile has gone from 9.45 to 7.31. That is a lot of ground to make up in 12 weeks! I am completely stoked.

I am in what they call the "Blast" camp now which is just a short 3 week course between the bigger boot camps. After that I will get on my 3rd camp and hope to get under 220 and get my timed mile down under 7 minutes. This blast seems to be focused on a little more cardo so I hope to drop those last 7 pounds off and reach my 3rd set goal. If anyone in Pensacola wants to go to this boot camp I can't recommend it enough.

Fixed on Fitness

Ok, enough about that lets talk about glass!

I have started back up on the "I found this glass" movement. I have already started to put things out in the wild for people to find. I am even thinking about doing a little GEO-cache one if anyone is interested. I have already put the first one out at one of the parks downtown.

I will put one out tomorrow at the same park but a different place...There is a wonderful bar on the corner...first drink is free on friday and Bobby is the bartender.... that is a clue!

Thursday I will put one out in a park in East Hill that has a couple of the regulars that bark at people if they get excited.

Friday....well it will be in one of the trees downtown outside my Friday happy hour stomping grounds on Palafox.

Good luck!

Scott.
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Flippy Flop.

2009-11-13T15:56:00.003-06:00

So for those of you that know me you know why this blog has been a little left in the cold. For everyone else, I have been freaking busy!

2 pumpkins parties
1 Gulf Coast Arts Festival
1 Booth to Build
Tons of stuff to make for the above
Work got crazy just to add to the stress
Belmont Crazyness, partly my fault but was there none the less
Selling a Truck
Purchased a Truck
Started a new company, Strong Street Studios - YEAH!
Lost about 25 pounds
I could keep going but lets just say it has been a bit of a run as of late.

I honestly don't know how my wife was dealing with my constant level of GO GO GO as well as her constatnt level of GO GO GO! Hats off to you Mini, you are the glue baby I am just the loose stuff looking for something to latch onto. I would be lost without you. MUH!

So I have used the last week to completely and utterly recharge. Took 3 days off..sort of with the hurricane and Vets day to help me. Just wonderful not to have to do anything beside wake up and workout.

Last night was about the first time that I have been in the shop with pretty much nothing to make that had to be made. Of course I had a couple orders but those dropped pretty quick and I was left standing there thinking...what now?! Before the Gulf Coast Arts Festival I had started to play with a specific way to make an ornament. I bet I messed with that thing for a week straight about an hour a night and only truely made about 4 of them worth selling. Never really got it down and could not reproduce them for my life. I just could not get right.

Last night, FLIP FLOP. I realized I was using way to much of a bubble in the pre-shape part of my steps. It was like magic and I was on fire. 15 in a row and not a one hit the gound until I announced to the backyard "I got this!". The next 3 hit the floor. I laughed as each one hit the ground, rolled off the knock off table, or in the last case flew from my put away tongs after I had finished it perfectly. It was in some strange way funny not to be under the gun to get them done and them breaking just made me giggle. Heck I even made a forth floor model. Finished it. Then promptly droped it just for fun. Giggle, toss it up into the air and laugh out loud when it exploded on the cement. Just turn off the glory, put away the tools, and turn of the lights. Funy how much different my outlook is after reaching the goals and being on the downhill run. Looks good from this side of the hill.

Scott.
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Etsy Glass Pumpkins

2009-10-22T12:49:00.003-05:00

As you can tell in the Etsy wigget to the right I put a couple glass pumpkins up. MiniMolli took the pictures yesterday and put them on Etsy.

Little late in the month but we will see if they sell.

Still gearing up for the Gulf Coast Arts Festival, building the booth, and making vases. It will be very busy the next couple of weeks.

Scott.
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The Ball has rolled.

2009-10-05T13:11:00.002-05:00

The pumpkin party is now behind me.

It was a grand success, even better than last year! Ben Bogan's Metal work was a huge plus to the party and he did very well also. The weather was great and the party was a hoppin!

All in all I am not sure it could have gone any better.

Thank you to everyone that came.

Thank you to everyone that helped!

I will post some pictures in the very near future when I calm down and actaully get to look at some pictures.

Scott.
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Glass Pumpkin Party

2009-09-18T14:01:00.002-05:00

It is on!

New Strong Street Studio Website

New Novota.com Webstie

The ball is rollling!

Scott.
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Pumpkin King back in the swing of things.

2009-09-03T15:02:00.002-05:00

Well the pumpkins are numbering somewhere in the 400 range so far.

I had a minor fubar with the furnace popping the breaker lets hope the pot did not crack. Note to self, don't charge so fast that it overheats the breaker. Either that or I have burner out anouthe DP connector it could go either way.

Maybe I should go ahead and order anouther pot for the furnace....that would be bad but I refuse to think about it at this point.

At some point in time I need to get working on my Gulf Coast Arts Festival stuff. I have a couple of idea but I need Ryan here to do them. Now that I have said that I am going to go ahead and order that other pot. If push comes to shove I can always rent out the belmont but I hate doing that under pressure. I never seem to get the times I want.

I should order the pot and a new set of elements right now before they fail....that will keep them from failing I am sure.

Scott.
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Back from Norway!

2009-08-26T09:29:00.002-05:00

Ok so I did not tell you guys I was going to Norway. Sorry. My bad. Honestly I have a huge fear that if I post something like:

"Going to Norway for two weeks, YEA!" I will come home to find that someone that hates me and like my Flat Screen will rob me blind. Color me crazy but I think like that.

Anyway, with my phobias out of the way I can let you know it was amazing. Truely stunning visual experience. Mountains, glass shops, fjords, Cold Play concert in a old fort...just a really awesome trip. I also got a first hand look at where MiniMolli gets all her beauty....Norway has a really good looking gene pool.

We took 3 memory stick full of pictures that I have not waded into yet so once I do I will post some of the better one in the next post.

Right now: PUMPKINS are being to breed in the shop...I think they are like rabbit they seem to be repoducting in my shop I swear we have more than when I left.

Scott.
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I am KOOL AID!

2009-08-06T23:22:00.002-05:00

OH YEAH!!!!!

I see the light at the end of the tunnel.....Huge break in my downhill slide.

OH YEAH!!!!!

Stone Age Superstitions

2009-08-04T10:23:00.005-05:00

You ever just have a string of days that don't work. I don't mean that you had hardscrabble issues. What I am talking about is that things are for the most part going ok. You wake up, your not ill, you go to work, you work, you come home, you go to sleep. Rinse and repeat.

What I am talking about is fighting for every inch of progress you make. Not the normal everyday needs. Work, your life, your forward momentum is held down or back like your stung up to a giant wind sail in a 40 knot gail.

Fighting against the wind your making inch by inch progress, foot by foot, yard by yard you just slug it out. Railing against the wind. Then you loose a foothold and slip, not enough to knock you down but just enough for the wind to catch, lift you from mother earth, and send you sailing back far enough to knock the spirt out of you.

I am fighting that that fight right now. The wind I have to believe will die down. The path will become wide and my pace will increase. Alas, right now I am looking for four leaf clovers, crossing my fingers, and walking around ladders. Stone age superstitions but damnit I need all the help I can get.

Scott.
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Just looking for trouble.

2009-07-14T20:34:00.005-05:00

I have taken on a little more than I do most of the time. To be honest what I have done is put myself between a bullet and a target.

So many things on my plate right now that I don't have much time to think let alone post on this blog right now. Actually right now I am still up at work which I have been here until the late hours of the morning every morning for about the last 2 weeks.

Deadlines and on a ATO network that needs to be finsihed.

Sigh...no glass just endless amounts of work. Shooting to be done with it before Ryan gets here at the end of the month. If I break loose of the bonds that are holding me at work I will post a picture of a lit glory, a cold drink, and my happy arse out in the shop.

Scott.
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Work.

2009-07-12T17:13:00.001-05:00

Just working guys. Sorry for the lack of updates it is like a zoo around here.

The overtime is good...

Scott.
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Definite Purpose Contactors

2009-07-01T11:20:00.007-05:00

Ok so most of you know that I have been having problems with my furnace as of late. I kind of figured that I just did not know what the heck I was doing but it turns out it was a little bit more than that. I have figured out the big mystery in the furnace.

Definite Purpose Contactors are the poor man solution to the Mercury Relay Switch. What both of these pieces of equipment do is pretty much the same. They are the big switch in the electrical path that either feeds power to the elements(what heats up the furnace) or what turns it off. It is in laymans term a light switch. ON/OFF. Instead of you turning it on and off there is a little computer that opens or closes the switch. It does this to either heat up or cool down the furnace by cutting or powering up the elements.

The problem is DP contactors are loud. They sound like the loud click your air conditioning unit outside makes when it turns on. If you really wanted a real world example of a furnace contoller look at your thermostat in your house. It is basically the same thing but instead of controlling the heat it is controlling the cool! To hot, CLICK it turns on the air and it gets down to 76, CLICK it turns it off. Same thing.

Back to the DP contractors(pictured above) the furnace that I have actually uses a DP contactor that is used in large Air units. They might last 7 years in an air unit but in a furnace...well not so long. In a furnace it is turning on and off about 10 times as often. Thus is breaks ten times as fast. They are rated for only so many on and off cycles.

What I have found out is that this particular DP unit has almost a 1 to 1 ratio with my element life. Two times I have burned out my elements from use. This is normal. Both times inside of a week the DP contactor died. Both times the elements went first, followed by the DP contactor going out about a week later. So to save myself and anyone else that is using this kind of furnace I will start replacing the DP contactor every time I replace the elements. Either that or I am going to wire in a Mercy Relay Switch(pictured above) which is good for about 10 million cycles and makes no sound at all. To be honest I kind of like the click it lets me know everything is working like it should.

Scott.
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A Step forward.

2009-06-26T12:22:00.011-05:00

When I started to blowing glass I kind of always figured that I would either one day get tired of it or as my Uncle Chuck says "Pour the Kool-Aid to it".

As it happens it seems that I have done just that over the years. When I started it was a hobby that produced things that only a mother could love. Alas, I was hooked and the glow of the furnace with moten glass attracted me like a moth to a flame. It was like playing with fire, lava, and time all at once. Everything in glass is really about timing, control, dexterity, and your ability to deal with heat. Maybe that is what drew me in. Maybe it was just being able to play with fire and molten glass. Either way the nexus of those things was like a force I could not pull myself away from.

Flash forward 2 years of every Wed. night rental slots. I could make a cup, bowl, and they where wonky but cool in their own right. Paperweights became second nature and not a problem. I was left wanting more, one night a week was not going to cut it. I felt like everything I learned in the hour and 1/2 vanished by the time I made it back the next week. I had hit a wall. I could not continue on this path without making a change, doing it more, making more, seeing more. MORE!

I started to plan. I started to horde. I started to save. Then I started to buy. Opening up your own shop would take considerable amounts of money. In fact I had the sum pegged at around 12k for a very small limited shop.

Note:It turn into quite a bit more and I will not even start to guess the number of man hours.

I made lists of everything I needed and started to look on ebay, Craigslist, newspapers, glass boards, and pretty much talked about it to everyone non-stop.

After anouther year I had collected a really good start. I had my full set of the hand tools that you use at the bench. I had purchased shaping blocks and stored them in water in the back yard. I had picked up a lot of the building blocks to build the equipment. I was only 20% of the way there. I still did not even have half a shop, but I had started.

Next up was the hard part:

Build a shed for all the stuff in the garage. Done! Knock out the wall on the west side of the garage and build out the shop. Done! Get all the electrical run(could have purchase a KIA Sophie for what this cost lone...I should have been an electrician) and pay it off. Done! Set up the Furnace, set up the Glory Hole(reheat chamber), set up the annealer, order glass to melt, build a bench, marver, and cart for the shop. More stuff, more things, it is never ending but MiniMolli pushed me harder as I got closer.

Then on the Second Annual Pumpkin Patch Party at the house we fired that baby up! I had my own shop...that was much to party over and party we did.

From that point on it was magic time. I could blow glass any time I wanted. It was my shop. It was my time. It was my problem.... equipment problems that is. Learning how to rebuild everything I had because it breaks. Over and over again. Learning to do things without a partner in the shop. Solo is harder than it looks but just as rewarding. Skills improved at a really fast pace once I could do it 3 and 4 times a week. I was in heaven.

2 years after I built my own shop I started to take some chances. This leads to now.

Today I got news that I was picked to be in the Gulf Coast Arts Festival as a glass artist.

I know this is not a big deal to a lot of people that make a living doing this. This to me is anouther stepping stone. Something when you started out you marked on your list way way up toward the top of things you strive for. Goal reached and I feel like something has been realized.

So now it all starts over again. I need to get crack'n and get ready for the event along with the 3rd Annual Pumpkin Patch Party a month before it. I am excited and stressed all at the same time but would not have it any other way. I am smiling, becasue I need to make a new goal for my glass progress.

Today I no longer feel like I have a hobby. It is now progressed past that and it feels good...really good. I might have to change the name of the blog to something else because I think today...I am not new anymore.

Scott.
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Furnace problems!

2009-06-22T15:00:00.003-05:00

Man I am getting tired of fixing this furnace.

Second set of elements.

Second set of DP connections.

Strange problems everywhere. I just need to really rip this thing apart and rebuild it. Fuses, wires, everything.

Life is really busy right now at work with our current load and project time lines so I really have not blown glass for about 2 months now with any kind of regularity. I am just short of renting a block of time at the Belmont to get my skills back in shape before I do the rebuild.

Maybe I will take this time to really just rip it apart and rebuild it just how I want it. More insulation, better lid....hum....not sure.

Scott.
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Drive By post.

2009-06-04T09:46:00.003-05:00

Furnace is back on.

Glass will be made.

Time is hard to come by.

Soon, pictures will come.

Scott.
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Hot Glass Cold Beer. Plugging the Belmont Arts Center

2009-05-21T11:40:00.004-05:00

This one is going to be a big one guys.

Scott.

BELMONT’S POPULAR ‘HOT GLASS COLD BEER’ SET FOR MAY 22
Event to include special musical guest ‘Wave’

(May 12, 2009) PENSACOLA, FLA- Organizers of the Belmont Arts and Cultural Center’s “Hot Glass Cold Beer” have announced the next event date for Friday, May 22 with special musical guest “Wave.” Doors open at 6 p.m. for glass blowing, pottery, glass bead making and mosaic demonstrations. Participants can make a suggested donation of $25 for non-members and $20 for members to receive a hand-blown, souvenir glass and *complimentary beverages throughout the evening. In addition donations of $15 will be accepted for Red Stripe cups. The all-ages Wave show will begin at 7:30 p.m. and admission is $5 for those not participating in the Hot Glass Cold Beer event; event participants will be admitted free to the show.

For more information, contact 429-1222.

The Belmont Arts and Cultural Center is a nonprofit center dedicated to excellence, experimentation and education in the visual, performing and literary arts, while being a working studio center for artists. Since 1999 the Belmont Arts and Cultural Center has been a part of a revitalization effort to transform the Belmont-Devilliers community into a thriving artistic, commercial and residential area. Through multidisciplinary activities the Belmont Arts and Cultural Center is able to contribute to Pensacola's art scene by offering exposure to local, regional, national and international artists, thus enhancing the culture of the Greater Pensacola area.

*All ages are invited to attend, however patrons must be 21 years of age with valid photo ID for consumption of adult beverages. Please drink responsibly.

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More Iftg out.

2009-05-07T15:23:00.002-05:00

New piece dropped off at the navy air station at lunch.

http://iftg.blogspot.com/

Scott.

flojos!

2009-05-05T16:25:00.002-05:00

Old school Flojo flips.....oh how I missed you and just this month they started making you again. I shall see you in a couple days my long lost friends.

Scott.
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I found this glass.

2009-04-27T10:32:00.003-05:00

The I found this gas blog it going strong. I just let loose a couple new pieces on the world.

A huge vase and a pumpkin got thier walking papers.

http://Iftg.blogspot.com

Scott.
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New Music Thursday.

2009-04-23T14:10:00.002-05:00

El hombre y la tabla - The man and the surfboard.
Uploaded by surfilmfestibal7

The video is just a bonus. I really love this song. Hit play then pause and give it a second to get out in front of you download wise so you don't get skippy video. Enjoy.

The Presets - Girl and the Sea.

Scott.
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Return to Sender.

2009-04-17T15:26:00.002-05:00

Way back when I had a contest. I was told the prizes to South Africa did not make it. I was bummed, but not as much as the people looking for them.

Well I got them back. It seems that either they did not make it into SA because of customs or they where shipped back. What is really interesting is that I had sent new replacements about a week before the Return to Sender Red stripe cups came back after a 3 month round trip.

Shrug...I now have a couple or red stripe cups that have seen more travel distance than me. I will drink to them they have been a long way from home.

Scott.
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New glassblowers by the handful.

2009-04-16T10:19:00.002-05:00

I had a whole truck full of my family show up last night at the shop. My mothers side of the family who I have not seen for at least 15 years.

What a blast as I got to set everyone down at the bench and walk them all the way into making flowers and paperweights. I have an annealer full of family glass just waiting to be shipped at this point.

I also let them into the what I am calling The Pumpkin Cave. Mini and I cleaned out what I called the Back40 before because it is where old, junky, or strange things went to wither away and die in the garage/shop. It really had a bunch of stuff back there and if I said "wow I have been looking for that" once I said it fifty times. Now that it is all nice and cleared out I have a place to stash the pumpkins as they are made. It looks like they are breeding in that little space in the back of the shop. Tribels.

I have been blowing glass pretty much non-stop for a week now and my body it letting me know it is time for a break. I will push out a couple orders tonight and shut down early...we will see how that goes...

Scott.

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Glass Pumpkins - Little Brothers - ACTION!

2009-04-08T15:08:00.003-05:00

Ok guys I know that I have been a little on the light side as of late with the blog but there are reasons. I will make them quick.

#1. I am lazy.
#2. I am tired.
#3. Furnace tooks a dump on me. 3 times in the span of 2 months.
#4. Once it got back online I have been a glass blowing machine.
#5. See #1.

Ok now that little bit is out of the way lets work our way into things that are going on. Furnace is kickin it high style out in the shop. It has been so nice for the last week or so that I have done nothing but get back into the shop. I have even been taking my days off from work and going in at night to do "off hour" work because it is so nice. To be honest off hour work is nice you get a lot more done and well no one is around to distract you so you get even more done.

Glass Pumpkins! - Yep you heard it here first. I am back to making them and I figure if I just make 2 or 3 every time that I blow glass I will have plenty when the time rolls around this year. Actually the 20 or so I have already made are looking freaking good...I mean better than some of my best ones last year. It has me stoked. I think I make much better pumpkins when I just have fun with them instead of getting all stressed out and in production mode.

What I have been doing with the glass pumpkins this year is color testing. I have been really working on my color combos and testing out all my new stuff. Really working the combos that are in a color design book I purchased to help teach myself color design. I think that it is starting to pay off this year. I got it last year at the end of the season but this year it will be a major change in my color selections and mixtures. I can wait...must blow pumpkins...must fight the pumpkin voices in my head.... I kid, I kid but it really does add a level of excitment to making them that I have never had. It is kind of like little mini-christmas mornings every morning when I open up the annealer to get a peak before work.

My little Brother Ryan is flying in at the end of the month so I need to start making plans for a second set of hands in the shop. It is not often that I get an experienced set of hands in the glass shop to pull of difficult things. One of the big things that we will be doing is going ahead and getting our dozen "HUGE PUMPKINS" out of the way. I will rent the Belmont for this little effort so that I can get some pumpkins out in the 10 to 14 inche wide range. Once I get them done I will not make anymore of them this year. We will also crank out a whole truck load of acrons again because honestly he is the best set of hands I have had in the shop for assisting with these. He just picked it up like second nature and even made a couple himself that where pretty damn snazzy.

I also have a couple ideas to add to the mix and I need his input on so we can plan for his next trip. I found out that this month Delta is offering up a special for double sky miles so while he is here I am going to try to gift him 30k in miles, which becomes 60k, so I can get him back down before Oct. and keep it easy on the wallet.

Ok, that was just a quick brain dump I hope it all made for an easy read.....

Scott.
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Ok random post.

2009-03-31T21:00:00.005-05:00

Ok it is raining like end of days here. I mean it has pretty much been raining non-stop for the better part of a week. One day we had over 7 inches and we got pretty much 2 or more every other day. Pensacola gets a ton of rain and to be honest it would really put any place else under water. We are lucky that our soil is very very sandy and drians like no one business. I think we even get more than Seattle by volume.

Anyway above is a picture Mini took out off the front porch the other day. We get the strangest things around here. We don't have a farm, or field, or well anything where horses could be kept for 20 miles in any direction but here they are clodhopping down our street. It would be a lie if I told you this is the strangest thing I have seen but I will save that for anouther day.

Update on the furnace! I got all the parts in and I am now pretty good at ripping this thing apart and rebuilding it. In fact it has gone down 3 times in the last 2 months. Once for an element blow out, once for a DP switch blowout, and this last time it was just bad wires that gave up the ghost. I just got done checking it about an hour ago and I am up to about 1900f. So as soon as this weather clears for a bit I am in the shop! I will post a couple of pictures of the rebuild in a couple days. It seems that I now know at about 14 months I just need to replace the elements, the dp switch, and all the wires. I think because of the moisture I expose this furnace to it ages pretty quick and it seem to just be a good idea to fix all this before it fails next time.

Mini just sent me a text so it time to go have a quick drink, relax, and kick back with some friends. I hope you guys are having as good a week as me as everything seems to finally be coming together.

Scott.
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Man that is going to leave a bruise!

2009-03-05T15:42:00.007-06:00

So we got our power bill today.

578! Do you believe that man! That is a new record. Now I started to think that is the biggest that it has ever been and that is seemed a bit well, FRIGGIN HIGH!

So I started to back track to the same month this time last year. Now granted it was not as cold last year this time but still. It was approx 150 dollars less and I ran everything the same way as I did this time.

Hummm, so I started to do a little research. As it turns out Gulf Power of the last 5 years has increased the power bill by 55%(and I am being nice by rounding down). You got that? 55% in 5 years! In 2003 gas cost 1.78, today I put gas in the car is was 1.87. Someone tell me how gas went up 5% and my electrical when up 55% in the same amount of time. Honestly Gulf Power are you serious?

So I started looking into a little bit more. 4% increase here, 10% increase there, 11.3 % for the last two years...They baby stepped us into a really significant change over 5 years. Like compounding interest we did not see it just one day 5 years down the road our power bill is twice as much and I don't know about you guys but my raises don't keep up with that...not even close.

If you had and average power bill of 75 dollars in 2003 it is about 158 now...just crazy.

It hurts.

Scott - 247.
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Independence for the Blind Glass Experience

2009-03-03T08:46:00.003-06:00

I had two classes this weekend and durring the breaks needed to do computer work for the Belmont Arts Center.

First off, let me tell anyone that wants to know. Exporting 2 gig of e-mail from Outlook express to Outlook is not big deal as long as they are on the same computer. Exporting it, reimporting it, then converting it from Outlook Express on one computer, to a new computer, then into Outlook is not fun at all. Anyway that is over and reminded my why I hate desktop support.

Now to the fun!

I had a starter class of two students at the Belmont this weekend from 10 am to 1 pm. I can't tell you the students names because well they have no idea I have a blog and I don't want to expose them to my stalker like fans. You know who you are....Grandma! I see you! That and that one girl way out in Hawaii, I see you also! Although you might be a dude, not that there is anything wrong with that. Seriously crush away is does wonders for my bruised ego. Anyway, they did great and just being two students they really had the chance to get a lot fo stuff done in a short period of time. Paperwieghts, Flowers, Cups...it was nice and they had a great time. I think they will be back.

Now onto the Independence for the Blind Glass Experience. We had 7 teens with vision problems. Each of them had different issues ranging from not being able to see at all, only in one eye, to just a bit of depth perception problems. Either way it did not matter these guys jumped in with no fear what so ever and knocked it right out of the park. Every single one of them really just made my day. I honestly think that I may have been a good teacher based only on the fact that it had to be one of the most reward experiences I have had in a long time. I really look forward to doing it again.

Scott - 448.
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Move it!

2009-02-24T10:47:00.002-06:00

The sick is not holding. Better hold on this is going to be a bumpy ride moving forward.

Things are about to start changing.

Scott - 252.
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So tired of being sick.

2009-02-19T10:17:00.006-06:00

This year is one for the record books. I got a sniffle, that rolled into a full blown Ebola like nastiness right around Turkey Day. I honestly believe that my father gave me this evil airborne life destroying virus. The trip up to my grandparents he was hacking and popping cough drops like candy. Apparently it works on a sliding scale. Anyone over the age of 40 it gives a handicap on getting over it because he was fine and well in a 4 days, me I have held onto this god forsaken death cough for 3 months. I am pretty sure that I have put on muscle due to the amount of hacking I have done. I have the lungs of a 20 year old now you should see me flex!

Anyway, this stuff really really really is getting old. I get over it just long enough to get it again. To be honest I have had at least 4 different colds this year. Each one has been a little bit different and attacked my system in different ways. None of which was any less miserable.

The Drippier:

Starts with a runny nose, then it clots up all breathing passages in the nasal region. Pressure builds up in your head the tune of around 40psi to the point the walking around feels like a 4 year old is hitting you in the head with a rubber mallet while riding on your shoulders. Transforms into a slow crawl/slide of funk into your lungs where it hides like Osama in a cave doing recon attacks on your throat. 3 sneezes on the 5 sneeze scale of nasty.

The Crud:

It hits you fast like Roy Jones Jr. without the foot work. All orifices are clogged. Nasal, throat, lungs. Filled with green phlegm. You actually feel like you are nothing but a factory for this bug and your only job is to stay upright and spread the evil minions of crud to everyone around you. This one renders you helpless and the only, I repeat only way to get any kind of reduction of pain is to sit at the bottom of your shower with the hot water on until you disgorge enough crud to pull in some life giving oxygen. 4 sneezes on the 5 sneeze scale of nasty.

The Drive by:

Now of everything here this is kind of like playing a game. This little jewel is just as evil but is over so quick your not sure you had it. Also it only lands on you on a Friday, never a workday outing for this junk. It hits you hard and is gone. Leaving you limp and withered but functional in 3 days. Maybe my system was so battle hardened from the Crud and Dripper that it dispatched this with nary a nose bleed. What a cold should have been but never was for me. 1 sneeze and 1 sneeze only!

Green Death or The Plague:

The ring leader. The king. The Captain of colds. Whatever name you put on this one it will line up to fill the shoes. It is the king of all colds, the lothario of the lungs, the Terminator of the Trachea, It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. It starts with a little itch on the back of the throat. Just enough that you think "Hum, did I scratch my throat" but not enough that you think "I am about to die!". That is how it settles in, sneaky, evil, without remorse.

From there is quietly goes about disabling your system. Unlike the Crud, Dripper, or Drive by it does not give you a heads up. It lays dormant and lays siege to your immune system. Placing its troops behind enemy lines your throat is a little scratchier but all other scouts are fine. No runny nose, no aches, no fever, no lymph node issues. Just that damn itchy throat...you must have scratched it. A day goes by and still that damn itch...but you feel fine as it waits for Friday knowing you will go out.

Sitting in the corners of you body in ambush mode it waits. Holed up in your sinus, lungs, throat, and head. Plague Commandos of pain with every biological weapon known to virus at their evil little Ribo-Nucleic Acid hearts. They wait for the perfect opening early in the morning after a good night out as you wear yourself down after a long week. The opening shot is fired and you feel your energy plummet like someone turned off the power generator at the Death Star, you might even hear that "BOOOOOOoowwwwoooooo!" sounds as it is dialed down. As you craw in bed thinking you’re just tired you turn up to air in the house to cool you down for a nice polar bear sleep session. You can't hear it us the Plague cheers as the temp drops; your body core cools down and the virus turns up the heat! You wake up 4 hours later and that child is banging away with a ball pin hammer now and as you sit up you actually feel your brains slosh in its own fluids. Slamming your frontal lobe into you skull you wince as everything on earth is in slow motion. Your ears feel like someone filled them with quick drying glue, you nasal passages have to have cement in them simply because there is no other way to describe it, and you would swear that a 12 year old bully from the 5 grade is literally sitting on your chest.

Drugs...lots of drugs are given, taken, drank, swallowed, and rubbed. You are now in the care of the only person that will even be around you in this state. That one person is in the same breathe loved and hated because you are miserable. You know they are your only hope to survive but they are the only one you can lash out at because you can't even move without unleashing a wave of pain. You now enter what I like to call the "waking coma". You have so much cold meds in you now that you become a living zombie with nothing else to do but be a battle ground for the war inside your own body. Virus vs. white blood cell, phlegm vs. cough, snot vs. sneeze....the war is on!

You wake after 3 days, battered, bruise and beaten. You wonder the house like a Ric Romero extra looking for brains. Digging up food stuffs that have been in the house for 3 years that sound pretty good seeing how you can't smell or taste them. Your effort to move is rewarded with debilitating exhaustion. You fall back into a drug induced coma with lipton chicken noodles drided to your cheek. You sleep alone because you have scared the native population away.

5 days out people from work start to wonder if you are alive. Your up and about now, but it is just a lie. You watch tv, but the only thing you remember is SHAM WOW with microban technology! after 5 hours awake. Sleeping is your life.

Day 6, you think about going back to work about the time that your feel your left lung decide it is no longer worth going on. You start to sound like a creaky door as you breathe.

Day 7 and you see the light at the end of the tunnel. Your nasal passages are now open for trade. You throat is scorched earth, but passable and that damn itch is finally gone. On the other hand you feel like you have a family of sea slugs living in your lungs. They twich every now and then which causes you to cough like a 80 year old life time smoker.

Day 8...The Great Purge!

Hazmat suits have been worn by your wife/husband as they start to see the things that come out of you that Science can't identify. What was once green has change to a nice shade of bright orange. Orange, really? What the hell is going on in there? Am I going to die? Then by mid-day your back to green and expelling things that you can't even look at anymore. You body has turned the tide and is getting the job done.

Day 9 - Don't go out.

This is where I mess up. I feel great for the first time in a week and 1/2. Don't do what I do which is think I am over it and start to get my groove back on. Not a good idea because the Plague likes to hide little reserve units in your lungs just in case you tie one on or work late. WAMo right back to day 2. Sit it out, give it another 3 days for the body to really get in there and dig old Osama BenVirus out of your system or he will just get you again.

Day 12 -

Resume normal operations, keep an eye out for the a Drive by. 5 out of 5!

Scott.
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So it kicked my butt.

2009-02-12T16:50:00.003-06:00

Well that layoff over the holidays kicked my butt. I never really realised how much of a workout blowing glass is. I put in about 4 days over a 6 day period and it really put me in the hurt house. After the last two days back to back a cold/flu/you just wore yourself out thing jumped me mid day and sent me running for the comfort of my bed to get some rest.

I took about a 4 hour nap, woke up, ate, watched Lost and went back to bed. I feel better today but still a bit under the weather. I figure by tomorrow if I get a good sleep in tonight I will be right as rain. I hope. I have a plan for Hot Glass Cold Beer night at the Belmont Arts Center.

I am going to use my star optic mold from my shop to make a rather large spun out bowl. I plan to have my assistant bring me bits to run the length of the star arms to make the bowl really spin out into a sort of starfish like deal. I think I might even go so far as to put a lip wrap on it. Because I am just flat out crazy like that....crazy....CRAZY!

Scott.
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Blast from the past.

2009-02-09T12:38:00.005-06:00

A fellow glassblower sent me a reminder of why I blow glass. As it happens I wrote it years ago to answer someones question about why I blow glass even if it does not make a bunch of money. Here was apparently what I had to say and I think it still rings true for me. Funny how your own words sound strange to you when they bounce back to your ears years later.

Why I do it.

The second I walk into the glass shop everything kind of stops running around in my head. How am I going to get this router and firewall to do this, this VIOP product to nanu nanu with that one, why is the ADS server giving me the finger....etc..etc..

It vanishes in the blink of an eye, and all I have to do to calm down is pull out my first gather, take it to the marver and roll away all of the weeks stress as I blow my worries into the end of a pipe and cap them off. Trapped in that little glass bit on the end of the pipe are the worries of my week, trapped in a prison of glass. My partner in crime at the glass shop shows up all smiles, happy to be there. We banter about kids, and work, and music...all while making a couple of things that don't really matter. I take it all back, they do matter because they are like little pieces of stress that I have pulled out of my soul and stuck in the glass. Each piece of glass at my house represents a moment when I was free of the world and its worries. They serve to remind me to go back, be creative, try something new, and not worry about if it is right or wrong. Someone will love whatever I pull out of that annealer. Someone will enjoy that piece of glass even if I hate it, you know why because everyone has different tastes. I smile every time someone buys a piece of my work as I watch my stress kill itself by funding its own demise.

Glass is my release. The luxury of not having to make a living off it might be the reason. As far as art or craft, everything is art for me. You have to be skilled to be a craftsman, anyone can crank out art and I am a prime example of that theory.

Scott.

Ready, set, wait.

2009-02-02T12:03:00.003-06:00

So I finally got a set of elements put into the furnace. I ran them up to 1600f for a couple of hours to sort them out a bit. It also helps to put a black oxidized coat on the elements that "they say" helps them last longer. The set I got from Duralite seems to be more robust than the original set of elements that came with the furnace. We will see how they last. When I left this morning it was at 1000f on the way up to 2125f which is the temp that I will start to charge the furnace. Should hit that sometime tomorrow around 6pm.

For those of you that want to know how to ramp up and ramp down a furnace without cracking the pot/killing it here is the skinny. In the most simple terms possible:

From room temp to 700f you ramp it up 50f per hour.

Then from 700f to 1400f you ramp it at 25f per hour. This is the critical point that glass goes though crystalization and will either expand or contract depending on if you are cooling or heating it. This is what puts that stress on the pot.

From 1400f to 2150f I ramp at 50f per hour again but once you clear 1600f you can just ramp up at full speed. At this point the glass is pretty much melted and your pot is hot enough to not care.

So looks like I will be dumping glass in the pot on Tuesday, have a melt by Wed. if I am lucky and I can crank out some work.

Tumberls
Light fixtures
Large Paperweight type things for business here in town

Busy bee....need to switch into a couple other projects as well....but those will come later.

Hope you guys had a great weekend.

Scott.
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Ok, want to win something cool?

2009-01-25T22:58:00.003-06:00

Jewels is having a contest and she is always first in cue to pile up on one of mine. It is about time I had a chance to win something that she makes! This is contest for some of her jewelry so swing over and come up with a cool name for her latest line of goodies.

http://afrenchgirlinniagara.blogspot.com/

Scott.
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OK THEN!

2009-01-20T20:38:00.007-06:00

Ok, so a friend of mine and I where recently talking about how I think that music is becoming homogenized. That most of it really just starts to kind of all sound the same. I will not get into Nickelback here because honestly I don't care about them but that is a good example. You could say the same thing about Aerosmith as well. Both bands songs kind of sound recycled a bit to me but still are fun to listen to and they have done more than most people ever get done so good for them. Although this a good example it was not really way I was talking about and my friend knew it. So I went looking to prove my point and stumbled onto this. It just blows your mind a bit.

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Gettin Knitty around here.

2009-01-16T09:43:00.004-06:00

MiniMolli has been a busy bee knitting up some of the stores around town. Her stuff sells really well in a couple of the higher end stores that lean toward the younger to my age women and she knits contemporary stuff. She has just posted a couple of things up at Etsy to give the whole online thing run.

I love the single button scarfs that she knits and they are a big seller. She can't keep the bennies around for anything. Anyway, stop on by and take a look at the stuff she has up.

KnitMeSilly!

INCOMING!

2009-01-15T15:52:00.004-06:00

Just a quick drive by posting here. Work is not letting up anytime soon so I am hip deep in it. No worries it is all going just fine it is just well, work. Once I catch up things will get back to normal.

It has been a good thing that the furnace has been offline because I think it would have just been sitting there doing nothing sucking up money. I just have not had any time to give to glass as of late.

I never got in touch with the Aim Kiln people they seem to have their phone up someone arse. They never answer it, ever. They also have had a message full voicemail on it for the last two years. I mean come on guys do you want my money or not? I had to break down and order them at a higher cost from Duralite Elements. Let me tell you something they might cost more but they are nice, answer the phone, and ship the order out before they even bill you. I should have my elements here the first of next week and be hot around Friday just in time for the weekend. So we are gearing up for a gear up to gear up if you gear what I am saying.

Here is what Kiln/Furnace Wire Elements look like.

I figure by that time I will have the two big things on my plate off my plate at work. I will have the pressing social things out of the way and be on my way to making some lighting fixtures. All HAIL THE LIGHTING FIXTURES! Ok after I get 20 custom made cups out...priorities you know.

Scott.

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Ok going to be off the radar.

2009-01-05T08:34:00.002-06:00

Ok going to be off the radar a bit. My furnace it currently powered down for element replacement and the guys can't seem to get thier collective game together enough to send me the elements. I needed the break honestly.

Work is going into high gear as I have two projects that need my attention for the next week or so. It is not a big deal but it needs to get my full attention so I can get it off my list. Plus once they are done I am pretty much home free for a bit.

Lets see if I make it a whole week without posting....I give myself 3 days.

Scott.
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Glass Bongs and Dildos

2009-01-02T13:53:00.007-06:00

Ok people enough with the requests for bongs and dildos. I get it. You need them. I need you to understand that I don't make them.

Maybe one day I will need money so bad that I would not mind being called "The Dildo Maker" but that time is not now or in the near to distance future.

You horny devils....godness how did you perverts get my e-mail address anyway. There are plenty of places to get this stuff you don't need me to make them.

Man...sorry it was the third request this week and it had specs!

Update: Ok I take it back, everything above is false. They are 500 bucks each. Start sending me the orders, you get to pick a color I get to pick everything else. Lets see how bad you really want them.

Update2: Apparenty you people don't know a joke....or I had no idea what things sold for....just wow....I honestly don't make this stuff....man can't even joke around these parts anymore.

Scott.
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Crazy Year.

2008-12-30T10:12:00.002-06:00

Anyone else feel like they have not been able to catch up this year. I constantly feel like I am chasing something. This year has been about catching up for me. I felt over committed, over stretched, and often times overwhelmed.

I need a break to just sit back and catch up. I believe that was going to be over Christmas. Not so. If for no other reason other than catching the funk twice and never quite getting over it until today...sort of. I am still not over it just not funky. I am 1/2 normal, which is 1/3 as normal as a most people I know or 1/8 as normal as the normal population of normalville.

I have two huge things to get done at work and then I am taking some kind of break somewhere, somehow, shometime in the near future.

Scott.
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Mov'n on up!

2008-12-12T10:28:00.004-06:00

About a year ago a close friend of ours came to me with a question. She had an idea about something in glass but did not know if I could do it. Full creative freedom, just get it to her so she could try to sell it. Seeing how I had never even considered making this object I took it as a challenge and said "Sure, let me play for a bit".

After a couple failed tries and a couple shall I say interesting runs at it I came up with what I considered a couple good designs that I could reproduce solo in my home shop. I made big ones, small ones, mini ultra small ones and even a couple of multi piece ones. Mini keeps we call "The Cactus" as her own. Note to self make more of those.

Anyway, back on point. Susan Campbell got the first shipment of glass to try out about 6 months ago. They have been gang busters! She sent me a link that other day when she placed them on her website. You can see them right ---- HERE!

Apparently that pink one was a huge hit and I need to make a bunch more.

MINIMOLLI EDIT:
10% of items purchased on the website on December 13th, 15th, 18th and 23rd will go to the Manna food Pantries.

Scott.
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Two shows one weekend.

2008-12-08T12:03:00.002-06:00

Ok so this weekend was the Belmont Arts Bizarrererzerearez! They like to spell it "Different". It honestly is wrong both ways and they do it for a reason. I think mostly to make me crazy.

I also did a north hill home tour that had a cool like "Artist Village" kind of deal. It was pretty cool and was a surprise for most people. I think next year that sales will be better as people realize there is going to be a vendor area to the tour.

It was very draining, I am worn out. Pack it up, pack it it, pack it up, pack it in, take it here take it there. I am 1/2 sick still and this did not help much. Mini is such a trooper I can't even start to say thank you to her. It went pretty good in this kind of market you can't really get to optimistic unless you have something that is ground breaking. I did however learn which ornaments sell that best and will start to widdle down my production of them for next year.

Going to take a nice long break from shows now and just have some fun with the glass. Ryan should be in town soon and we can just have some fun at the shop. Maybe make a couple mini acrons or something.

I do have a bunch of orders to do but they are fun when you don't have a show hanging over your so it is all down hill for the rest of the year. Hope you guys had a great weekend. Next up is the Zeus Tumbler project. I think I will really try to post about this one with more pictures. CorkChop will be in the loop on this one as well.

Scott.
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Well knock me over with a feather

2008-12-05T10:56:00.003-06:00

It is clear you guys don't care for information posts. Fine. I guess I am done trying to teach the masses about molds I can't understand why this did not spark a heated comment thread longer than my cnotest. Who would not be interested in lathe turned wood molds....no one I say no one!

Ok so it was not the most intersting topic to comment about I will give you that. What could you say "Hey nice wood!" or "You spin me round right baby right round like a wood mold baby right round right round". I will say that walking into the glass shop has caused more than one person to say "Man this place would make a great movie set, these things look like they hurt." as they hold up a pair of diamonshears and a set of jacks. Wow that was a serios ADD moment right there those two things had nothing in common.....I blame the red bull and the Sudafed.

Anyway, so I am fighting this cold/nose thing that is killing me. I have two shows this weekend, a glass blower from out of town meeting me at one, and I am 1/2 sick. Not that kind where you just want to curl up and die, more like the one where you want to curl up and drink hot toddies and eat oreos all day while Norweigan girls fan you with wild palm fronds. Not that I don't think that would be grand all the time just more grand right now because I am a big baby when I am sick.

Ok enough of that, I have glass to pick up, a bank run, stuff to pack, and a wife to take to happy hour...she is Norweigan by the way. **GRIN** My long term plan was set in motion years ago now I just need the palm fronds!

Scott.
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Molds!

2008-12-03T17:08:00.009-06:00

Ok so G3T films asked what the molds that I use are made of. Trick question and here is why. We use all kinds of different molds for all kinds of different reasons.

Lets list the molds real quick and give a quick description.

#1. Blocks: Which are used to shape the glass wile on the pipe or punti. These are used at the bench to shape the glass into workable globs of stuff and to level out globs/bumbs/ugly spots. It is a very basic way of getting the glass in a shape we want before we blow air into it to make something. We also use bigger ones to help keep it on center and in good shape thoughout the whole process. This kind of block/hand held mold is used the most.

#2. Optic Molds: These consist of more or less two different kinds of molds. We have what I like to call normal optic molds and Diamond or Pineapple molds. The Normal Optic mold is what anyone in the world would be talking about when they said "Optic Mold".

It is used after shaping the glass into a pug and smashing it down into the old. This creates a lined optical pattern in the glass which you can see in the ornament above.

The Second kind of optic mold is above. These are the Diamond or Pineapple Molds. They also put an optical pattern but they are crazy expensive. The ones picture here are solid bronze and cost about 780 bucks. The one up above is aluminum and run around 160 dollars. I have the smaller one of these coming for Christmas! How do I know you ask...well because I just ordered it for myself...I am the most awesome gift giver to myself ever!

Last but not least. The blow mold, spin mold, whatever you want to call it. These molds are made out of Cherry Mold and soaked in water before they are lathed. Then after they are cut/shaped they stay in water so they don't burn up while you use them. You get a basic shape of the mold before you go in, then they open up and close around the glass. The pipe will be coming out of the top of them as well as a little bit of the glass. Then you blast away with air to inflate the glass inside the mold. It will come out the basic shape of the mold. This might sound easy but to be honest it takes a whole skill set just to know how to do this well. It is always a new learning cycle every time I get a new mold like this. They are all different and all require the original shape of the glass going in to be just a bit different to work correctly. Little bigger here or there, hotter here colder there. It can be very mild boggling until you figure out just how to go in. Just how hard to blow, just how fast to spin....Guys that are new to this figure out quick it is not as easy as it looks. I would also state that the larger the mold the harder it gets...FAST! I have a very very large mold that I am pretty sure anyone at any time would find a challenge to get a good piece out of. Alas, once you get it wired you can really make some nice stuff. I gave my mold maker a plug on the picture...it is his picture so I think it is only fair.

Ok that is it for today I am off to a Belmont Art Center Guild Meeting. As my brother Ryan likes to say "Get it hot, keep it centered, and remember Gravity is your friend".

Scott.

Christmas Avalanche

2008-12-02T09:56:00.003-06:00

Well for those of you that don't see me day to day I have been on a trip. Hence the lack of posts. I recently made a road trip up to see all my grand parents and extended family in the Indiana and Illinios area. Let me tell you 15 hours in truck is no laughing matter...ok it is if you have a little gas but other than that is pretty tuff. Mini had the worst of it being the one that got thrown in the back with the luggage being so small as to actually be able to fit in such a small space. I actually think I saw her get thrown from one side of the truck to the other durring a fast lane change. Ok that made me giggle as well.

Anyway, all the trips and such have put a cramp on my glass blowing efforts. Granted I cranked out of 100 ornaments for the two shows that I need to do this weekend but somehow I still feel that I am short. I have no illusions that I will sell all 100 of them I just tend to want to make more of everything so I don't get caught short.

I ordered a ton of glass yesterday. I am not saying I ordered a lot of glass I am saying that I ordered an actual TON of glass. As in 2000 pounds of the stuff. It should be here on Thursday and I should be good for my base glass needs for about the next year. I also have a top secret project with CorkChop that needed some attention so that it could be done in a timely manner. I must say I am actually looking forward to doing that project because it gives me a reason to get old Corky in the shop and teach him how to be a good assistant. Maybe it will rub off on him and he will want more time in the shop. I will even force him into making some stuff he would normally shy away from. Maybe one day you will see a CorkChop original here.

What else....ahh yes. The equipment was all turned down before I left and I got to inspect the pot and furnace after a full year in service. Pretty darn solid I must say. Think if everything goes well it should yield at least one more year. I was surprised at the lack of glass that missed the pot as I had expected to see some of it running down the side and eating at the bottom of the furnace. Apparently my fear of it doing just that has worked out for me as there was very little in the way of drippage. So everything is in a slow ramp up to temp, the base glass in on the way, new color is on the way, my molds came in for the project, and every is good. Life is working out pretty well right now.

Scott.
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Shut it down!

2008-11-24T16:33:00.003-06:00

So I am out of glass.

1000 pounds of the stuff is now floating around this world having been teased, tweeked, and twisted by yours truely. It is strange to look back and think about that 1000 pounds of glass. The day that I had to pick it all up and load it in truck seems like forever ago.

I said "That amount of glass will last me like 5 years!"....well it lasted exactly 13 months. That means that I used about 76 pounds of glass a month. Honestly that is not that much when you consider that a pumpkin often times can be a couple pounds of the hard stuff.

So I blew the last bit of glass Sunday night and shut it all down for a bit. Maybe just 2 weeks, maybe more. I am just not sure yet. Granted I have stuff that I need to make next week and I will just rent out the Belmont to do that. I will also have it up and hot before my brother gets here for the holidays as we need to have fun at S3G (Strong Street Studio Glassworks).

So for now we are cold until I catch up on all things that got put on hold making all the crazy glass stuff happen. We need to redo some of the studio for a packing/photo station. We need to get the torch set up for Mini and we need to just kind of put some time into what worked and what did not. It is time to streamline! Well ok that and eat turkey.

Scott.
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Little self promotion.

2008-11-20T11:16:00.002-06:00

Well Molli surprised me with an update to the Strong Street Studio website today. Last night she was working on a flyer to send out for our events that are going to be taking place over the next month before chrismas and I guess she got a little itchy to update the Strong Street Studio site.

Strong Street Studio

She kicked out the flyer and the site in what seemed like a hour. I tell you, lottery winner here.

Scott.
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I am alive..promise.

2008-11-17T14:52:00.002-06:00

I have just been very busy. We had the Gulf Coast Arts Festival not long ago and put a few to many hours in making it happen. Not that it was a bad thing, just sucked up a bunch of time but the payoff was fun.

I have been swamped by ornament requests. This is good but I really want to take the ornaments up a notch. When I say that what I mean is that I want to create something that people really can't get thier hands on somewhere else. I want to design and create something that is out of the norm. Now everyone loves the round ornaments and the big wiz bang deal with the round ones is getting them to not be as heavy as a boat anchor. Making a semi round ornament is not a big deal. Making a perfect round ornament while a little harder is not a big deal if you have a lot of glass on the pipe. Making a nice round hand blown glass ornament that weights less than a your shoe...not so easy.

I have texture this year. I have scales. I have ribbons of color. I have had a lot of fun playing around at Strong Street Studio this year. It is really starting to show up on the creations. I can't wait to drop a couple of them on etsy because the pumpkins are really starting to sell. I think these might be a big hit.

Scott.
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Shipping prizes today.

2008-11-10T11:19:00.002-06:00

So I have everyones addy and I plan to pack and ship all the prizes today when I get home while the equipment is heating up.

It also seems that the Etsy store is taking off as I have sold I believe it is 4 things off the Etsy site. I think that is enough to say that it is a workable way to sell some of my stuff. We plan to start adding more things as we get pictures of them.

Neil and I rebuilt the pnumatic door at the Belmont Arts Center this weekend just in time to host all the artist from the Greater Gulf Coast Arts Festival. Which was a smashing success for the Belmont to raise needed funds to stay open.

Ok, that is it...back to work or I will never get out of here in time to pack and ship!

Cheers,

Scott.
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And the Winners are....

2008-11-01T11:25:00.004-05:00

Thanks to everyone who participated in our contest! The turnout was fantastic - you guys rock.

We tallied up the entries - if you commented more than once, we only counted your first comment. There were a total of 70 original votes.

First prize from the random number generator goes to:

Congrats Mike! Send us an email with your mailing address and we'll get your pumpkin on it's way!

Second prize, the person with the most referrals (this was a close one!):
Congrats Angel's Mind!

Third prize, there was actually a three way tie!
Karmic Kitchen, Jewels & Becauseican

All three of you will recieve a Red Stripe glass.

If you won a prize please send us an email at scott [at] novota [dot] [com] containing your mailing address. Please resend if you already did my spam filters where on "kill everything" this morning!

Don't forget we still have pumpkins for sale in the etsy shop right here. We will be adding more soon as well as some ornaments!

Thanks to all who participated - we had fun!

The end is Near

2008-11-01T11:18:00.003-05:00

Ok kids, contest is over. Results coming soon.

Stay tuned...

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Results will be posted Monday Afternoon.

Scott.
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Contest Time!

2008-10-23T15:58:00.005-05:00

It's that time again - Contest time!

We have lots of prizes this time so make sure to spread the word. Here are the rules:

Prize #1: - Medium Orange Pumpkin

Leave a comment on this blog entry and you'll automatically be entered to win. At the end of the contest we will use a random number generator to pick the winner. Simple as that!

Prize #2: - Small Pumpkin

If you post a link on your blog about our contest, tell your readers to state that they were referred by you. The person with the most referrals will win a prize.

Prize #3: - Red Stripe Glass

The person with the second most referrals will win a prize also!

There will also be one, maybe two suprise prizes during the contest so stay tuned!

Shipping will be paid by me. At the end of the contest I will contact the winners to get your shipping info.

Spread the word, contest ends Halloween (10/31) - Midnight!

Ready...

Set............

GO!!

Pre-contest pictures...of the albino white pumpkin.

2008-10-23T09:06:00.004-05:00

I made a bunch of these Albino White Pumpkins this year and they where a big hit. This one is a custom order and that is why it is not for sale at my Etsy Store. You know me I will make more.

Ok this is just a post so the person that wanted one could see it. I admit it! Contest is coming today!

As a side note I will be teaching a starter class at the Belmont Art Center tonight. Watch out I am about to start and glass blowing army...I kid...sort of.

Scott.

Glass Pumpkin Contest

2008-10-15T11:05:00.003-05:00

Ok guys I am gearing up for the contest. Just a quick over view before I make it offical.

#1. If you send people here to the contest make sure they list it in the comments that you sent them so you are in the running for the "Hey I sent them here" part of contest.

#2. I will pay all the shipping on the contest winners prize. So they don't need to worry about a gotcha...I don't work that way.

#3. The contest will run for 2 weeks. I will give a "mini-prize" out twice while the contest is happening. It has to do with your guesses, but not th main prize. I am sneaky like that.

#4. There will be a 1st and 2nd prize this time with mini-prizes. I will post the pre-show on the prizes tomorrow.

#5. If you don't guess you can't win.

Ewww....this is such fun.

Scott.
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Look....Over there Glass Pumpkins!

2008-10-14T12:43:00.002-05:00

MiniMolli surprised me today to let me know that she plugged up the Etsy shop. We have about 5 pumpkins for sale right. If these move we will start putting up more.

I also have plans for a contest but I have to figure out what, where, when and how. Very soon...very soon.

Anyway, Mini rocks. The online Glass Pumpkin Patch has started.

Scott.
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Online Glass Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-10T09:59:00.002-05:00

The time is coming. Last night we took a group of pictures with some of our pumpkins. I also plan to have a contest around the Online Pumpkin Patch as well. I am thinking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes this time.

So get ready kids because I love having contests. It is my raison d'etre! Ok I kid, I do like them but maybe not that much.

I plan to start the contest over the weekend and have the pictures and prices up as well.

Cheers,

Scott.
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The Unknown Pumpkin Warrior.

2008-10-08T11:01:00.003-05:00

As most of you know I have been really hitting the pumpkins this year. What you may or may not know is that I have a secret pumpkin warrior. The tireless sentinal that keeps me moving forward. MiniMolli is that secret pumpkin princesses. The planning, the prep, the food, the drinks, supervisor of sales, tagging pumpkins, cleaning pumpkins, setting up the shop, the yard, the house...the list just goes on and on and on! She worked as hard or harder to pull everything together and I got the lions share of the praise.

I am hear to tell you behind everything that I do, will do, or have done for the last 9 years this woman has been pushing me up the hill the whole time. She picks me up when I am down. She washes me off when I fall into a pit of self loathing, and she gets so little credit that I sometimes don't have the words to offer because it sounds so corny.

I am not sure how to say this so I will just throw it out there.

I love you. You are my favorite person. I could never do this without you. Thank you.

Scott.
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Glass Pumpkins

2008-10-07T12:10:00.002-05:00

Someone asked me today if there was still going to be a market for my glass pumpkins next year. I kind of figured that was and interesting question. I often wonder if I am going to saturate my local market to the point that my glass pumpkins will need to venture way from home to live a fruitful life of luxury on top of a table in some far away land. I did not know how to answer them so I asked the people that buy my pumpkins.

The answer seems to be two fold. First off they had told me they like to buy at least one every year, they are collecting them at this point. Which I find to be very cool. Second, and more interesting is that they give them away as gifts at Christmas. Which is awesome! Third and even more interesting in the glass pumpkin debate is that friends and family kind of borrow them. I have one friend that told me she does not have a single pumpkin out of 8 the she has purchased over the last 3 years. They either are given away as presents, taken by family, or GASP! resold. That last one caught me off guard.

Apparently there is a secondary market for my pumpkins. I have no idea if they made a profit as I was a little stuned by the admission they they resold them. Now I have to know.....Black Market Pumpkins(BMPs)...has a nice ring to it.

Scott.
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Phase 1 of Pumpkin Patach complete, Phase 2 starting soon.

2008-10-06T08:45:00.006-05:00

The 2nd Annual Pensacola Glass Pumpkin Patch is over. It was an great success! We had such a wonderful group of people show up and support my ever addicting habit. I would also like to thank every one of my friends that came to support me. Fred was holding down the bar so well I think that I have found his retirement plan. Kelly, Lisa, and Jenny where the Pumpkin Princesses checking everyone out and honestly have no idea how they handled that many people with such grace. Kendal was behind the bar with Fred schooling him on how to open a beer with a surfboard leash, who even knew you could do that?

Most of all Molli and my Brother Ryan. Without them this would not have happened in the scope that it did. I can't even go into how much they helped. It was as much their Pumpkin Patch as mine. In fact I have spent the last couple of days trying to figure out the exactly how I am going to thank them.

The party actually went off without a hitch this year and I am sad and happy at the same time. I am gearing up to make a set of online pumpkin for sale here, etsy, and maybe e-bay. Have not figured out exactly how I am going to do it just yet but it is in the works. So hold on, they are coming!

Cheers,

Scott.

On like Donkey Kong!

2008-10-04T02:06:00.003-05:00

2 am and we just got done tagging about 90% of the pumpkins.

Displays are built.

Pumpkins are ready....all 475 of them!

Going to get about 5 hours in the sack and wake up and hit it hard to finish up everything before 1pm.

This has been a long haul this time.

Ok shower, drink, bed...in that exact order of the next 10 minutes.

Cheers, wish me luck and if your here in town I will see you tomorrow. If not, well hell just wish me luck.

Scott.
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Gearing up!

2008-10-01T09:44:00.003-05:00

Ok so we are gearing for the Glass Pumpkin Party! Pieces are starting to fall into place and about the only thing that is really giving me a hard time right now is my grass. It looks like someone forgot to water it and I have no idea who that would be.

Other than that everything right now is going pretty good. The garage door got replaced with swinging barn doors with windows. Very cool I might add. The acrons are looking really smart. Got my display supplies in place to be built on Thursday. Plenty of pumpkins! The only thing that Ryan and I have left to make is a handfull of the Christmas stuff that people where asking for last year.

Having my brother Ryan here this year to help has really taken a lot of the stress out of it this year. Not only do I have anouther set of experienced glass blowing hands helping me he is also making his own to sell. His pumpkins look different than mine because he learned to blow glass in a different shop, with different people, so his pumpkins have a different approach. I personally think that they are pretty damn cool. He calls them bird nest pumpkins and when you see one you would understand why he calls them that. I am going to try to give him some time tonight to really get a good number of them out so that he has a good showing at the party.

Only 3 more days and the clock she is ticking.....

Scott.
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Glass Acorns, it's not all about the Glass Pumpkins.

2008-09-29T13:14:00.003-05:00

Ryan and I are in a solid groove at this point. It is almost scary the way that we don't even really talk anymore until the piece is done. The Acorns still take the most time of anything that I have ever done. It really has become about process and nailing each of the steps that I had mapped out. Ryan and I have added a step that puts a nice final touch on the piece but it took us destroying 3 acrons to get it down.

We are pretty much done making pumpkins at this point and have been full on into the Acorns. We will hit it hard again tonight and start to make Christmas stuff and we also have some custom orders that we need to get done as well. All in all we are cooking right along and also putting in a good amount of time at the Belmont to get them going.

There is just so much to do even when you are killing it stuff just seems to come at you like a drugged up spider monkey. Mulchers, wood workers, yard guys, gas guys, sprinklers, bug killers, cleaning, ....the list...it is alive. Then the big one...work.

Scott.
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The Pumpkin Brothers, Pensacola Addition.

2008-09-25T09:36:00.002-05:00

Well right out of the gate Ryan has improved the pumpkin march. I would say on the safe side having and extra set of hands doubles the number of pumpkins I can make in a night. Which sounds about right, I mean you do have two people making them now...sort of.

What is really interesting is that I am running out of annealer space. We had a nice little talk about this and have come to the conclusion that the first thing that we need to replace is going to be the annealer, then the furnace. Again these are way out in the future but when your running out of space you just need more space. I honestly think it would be fun to build and annealer and I am sure Ryan will stump up and help if he is around also.

I would also like to say that the mandarin orange the Ryan brought from Cali is so so so much better than the soft orange I have been using for years. It is just oh so pretty. It looks like candy. He pretty much save the day on the orange because I was saving making all the orange pumpkins until he got here, then I looked around and had no orange. Who forgets to order orange color when you need to make glass pumpkins. Yes that would be yours truely....I was just so wrapped up making other colors I missed that fact that I had no orange. No worries Ryan put the cape on and hit CRLoo before he came home to help.

Tonight we will finish off the orange pumpkins, and give the acrons a run. Kim if you read this you really need to drop by and bring a 6 pack of red stripe. It feels wrong making all these pumpkins without your laughing and your Kung-Fu kicks being part of the process. In fact we will be out back every night that it is not raining so bring it. Ok Friday night we are at the Belmont but that does not count.

Ok I will try to get MiniMolli to take some picutres if she gets time between working, cleaning, weeding, fretting, ordering, painting, dusting, moving stuff, looking at me like I am a crazy person that never needs anouther red bull again, and sleeping. I think in pretty much that order. She is the crazyone! She is kind of like a superhero and she changes into super cleaner must make every change I wanted for the last 6 months in one week person before these events...it is scary. Somehow she always pulls it off. I have not quite firgured out how she does it.

Scott.
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Second Annual Pensacola Glass Pumpkin Patch is getting big!

2008-09-24T09:10:00.003-05:00

Ok so this year is out of control! I am pretty sure last night that I hit 350 on the pumpkins. This year the pumpkins are so much better than anything else I have ever made. I guess when you make 350 of something all by yourself you tend to get good at it.

People that live around me have had to deal with ALO and The Bravery blasting out of my Ipod dock speakers for the last 4 months pretty much non-stop. The guys over the fence to the left of me call me "The Mad Blower" and my buddy Pete, that lives across the street, calls me the "The Pumpkin King". I think I will go with "The Mad Pumpkin King" which has a nice ring to it. Then again I could just go with what my uncle Chuck calls me but that is not fit to type.

Last night I had a moment when inspiration and luck hit a the same time. I finally figured out how to do something I have been working on for about two weeks now. It was such a wonderful pumpkin I quit making them after I put it in the annealer. I actually took the time to write down the steps so I would not forget them. I never do that, I trust my memory but when you make 40 pumpkins 40 different ways and it finally works you might need to take a moment to scrible down what it is you did. MiniMolli was not as impressed with it this morning because she has no idea how long I have been trying to create this kind of pumpkin. I have come close many times but never hit it just right. All she said was "humm...that is nice". NICE! it is wonderful woman bask in my greatness and fan yourself. I kid, it was nice...nice and great but after all it was just a pumpkin...a great pumpkin!

My brother Ryan comes in from Cali today so I will have some 4 year experienced glass blowing hands to help me make my acorns. Kim and Ryan are about the only people that can help me make them because honestly you have to be able to control the glass in a way that only experience gives you. I hope to get about 10 acrons out for the party. They are one of the hardest things to make and I enjoy making them but I only have about a 50% success rate on the good side. I think we will also try to make one really HUGE stinking pumpkin up at the Belmont now that they are online as of tomorrow.

What else? I guess that is it for now.

Scott.
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300!

2008-09-16T09:54:00.004-05:00

Slayer of pumpkins! Hit 300 last night...they are like tribbles in the garage at this point.

Scott.

2nd Annual Glass Pumpkin Patch is almost here!

2008-09-09T09:20:00.006-05:00

Since Scott has been so busy I thought I'd post the invitation to our 2nd annual Pumpkin Patch Party! The ivitations are in, addressed and ready to go out. The party is definately not invitation only so if you're in the area please drop by!

-Molli

Off the reservation.

2008-09-02T16:52:00.002-05:00

I am completely swamped. I am swamped at every corner, turn, bend, and flex point. Hurricanes, Work, Travel, Certifications, Pumpkin Parties, Security issues, networks going down for no reason. On a scale of 1 to 10 and am rubbing up on a 9.5 - Hit 10 once, I ended up passed out on the floor of UWF....anouther time for that story.

Anyway, I am AWOL for a bit while I collect myself. The furnace is ramping up to temp so I should be in glass in about 3 days. Which should be when I break loose of all the stuff that is ridding shotgun on my back right now.

Scott.
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Ok, San Francisco was pretty cool.

2008-08-27T10:20:00.004-05:00

Ok you might be thinking that I am talking about the trip 2 weeks ago but I am not. I went again. That is twice in less than an month and for the Outlands Music Festival to boot.

I am just saying hi and will post some pictures a little bit later once I get back into my groove now that I am home.

cheers,

Scott.
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Vampire Weekend

2008-08-18T23:39:00.006-05:00

Ok everyone check out the following website for you free streaming music.

http://grooveshark.com

Man I turn this on, plug in all my favorite guys then hit the autoplay button and it pick music based on what you put in. Like Pandora actually but seeing how Pandora is having issues I figured this was the next best thing.

Cheers, still at work...arggg! But I have a hell of a play list playing.

Currently listening to Vampire Weekend....not what it sounds like give it a spin.

Scott.
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Never let them see you sweat!

2008-08-17T12:11:00.005-05:00

Ok have issues. One of them being sweat. I am a beast when I work outside in the heat to be quite honest I look like I was dunked into a pool. Mini would say it was a stinky nasty pool full of funky stuff that should never touch anything inside the house.

Add 90f+ temps and 90+ humidity and I am sure if I fell to sleep in the yard with my shirt off they would call the bigfoot hunters in to take DNA samples based on the size, smell, and looks of me.

Last night was no exception...ok it was if only because Mini helping me in the shop. My normal assistant/gaffer Kim is in the middle of dealing with her kid's going back to school. Which honestly can't be easy because of how Florida breaks up the days, times, and locations between Middle and High School but we will not get into that. She is swamped and in the school shuttle juggle. So have turned to my lovely wife to help fill in on stem production.

This has been a blessing and a curse. A blessing because she helps me without narry a complaint. The curse because for some reason I show my anger around her much more than anyone else. If a pumpkin goes to pot I lash out a bit around her. Not something I would do in mixed company. If I burn myself I scream and make crazy faces, which again is not something I would do around anyone else. She is seeing me in a light she has never seen before and I am not 100% sure she needs that kind of exposure. I am in full tilt boogie mode and she is ridding shotgun.

Hold on Mini......I know it is hard but this train is almost at the 1/2 way point and making a pit stop soon!

Scott.
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morning run!

2008-08-14T14:13:00.005-05:00

5am and kick'n it out.

This picture is not from this morning but from my visit to Cali. That is Ryan and I at Fire River Glass Studio.

I really enjoy doing the work in the morning. It is nice and cool and as strange as it might sound it gets me all geared up for the day. I feel like I have already done something and completed it. Tonight I am hitting the shop again if I can get a shelf in the annealer to double up my content.

Mini tossed me a surprise birthday party on Wed. Tuesday night. She really got me, and I pride myself and knowing what the hell is going on but they full on surprised me. What really got me is that number of people that had to keep there traps shut to pull it off. Impressive. I have enough Crown Royal to last me into the New Year and a truck load of great friends. I am truely blessed by my good friends, my winning the parents lottery, and my wonderful Mini.

I am going to have a hard time topping this.....

Scott.
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Weekend crazyness.

2008-08-11T09:01:00.002-05:00

I made about 20 pumpkins over the weekend and found some things that just don't work color wise. Now I have a saying which goes something like this.

"Someone is gona just love that!"

What happends is that I make something that I think is going to be awesome and that colors just don't jive the way that I had in my mind. I don't like it simple because it was not what I wanted to create. So I guess they are going to be fine, they just did not come out exactly the way I had planned.

This year I am doing a lot of non-standard pumpkins as well. In fact one of them looks like it came right from the pumpkin patch and I am pretty sure if I was to put it in a real one more than one person would walk right by it and never know.

Anyway, I also turn 21 again tomorrow for like the 15 time. My wrist is a constant reminder that I am getting older and that 20 pumpkins in a weekend is something I need to think more about before I just do it. Getting old sucks.

Scott.
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This is mine?

2008-08-08T14:00:00.006-05:00

Last night I started up the pumpkin train again. 45 minutes in it started to rain. Not good when your working outside. Shut it all down. Shuffled around grunting and giving MiniMolli the stinkeye for no reason.

Woke up this morning at 5am turned everything up, took a quick 45 minute nap in the magic sleepy chair outside because it was so freaking wonderful outside. Then I rocked it like Lenny Kravitz use to. I say that with all the humbleness I can muster, but honestly at 5am, in my backyard, making pumpkins solo in 75f temps, in my own shop I finally felt the "I did it" moment. I felt in control for the first time in a very long time. Strange but true.

I mean I know that I built the shop but it has all kind of really just been getting to a point. This huge moving target that never seemed to be reachable but if I just keept moving forward, if I just keept doing the next thing it would get done. This morning it was all about me realizing that I made it. This is my shop...my own personal glass shop. WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!

I think I may have done a little dance and had a beer at 6am just because it is my shop and I can do whatever I want at any time I damn well please. Seriously WOOOHOOO!!!!

Scott.
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Mouth Funk

2008-08-07T09:23:00.005-05:00

Ok so I figured I had some kind of really bad funk in my mouth this morning but it turned out that MiniMolli had cut onions on the butcher block last night. That would not be a problem sans that fact that I cut a granny smith apple on it this morning.

HOLLY MOTHER OF HEDGEHOGS!!!! that is the worst taste I have ever had in my mouth. Onion + Granny Smith Apple + Newly Brushed Teeth = VILE! Retching as I was stopped at the stop light this morning I could not get the window down fast enough as I spit it out of my mouth, against the window, down my shirt, into the deep crack between the door and the seat. Laughing at me the lady next to me at the light had to look away as she snickered. What kind of mouth funk do I have here and what can I do to get rid of it. Pulled over and got a redbull to wash it out. Thinking it is some kind of twisted chemical mix between the Granny Smith Apple and my toothpaste...PAH! Onion, Granny, toothpaste, redbull, vile.

Come to find out that Mini had cut a fresh onion on the butcher block and I was just picking up some onion juice to add to my breaskfast....Well it sure woke me up.

Scott.
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Repair, Pumpkins and solo failures.

2008-08-06T10:17:00.005-05:00

Ok for those of you that don't know equipment breaks. In my case the furnace is now 10 months old and pretty much being used in a way that lends to it breaking. IE> this thing was never ment to really be a glass furnace it was a pottery kiln modified to be sold as a glass furnace. Anyway I open and close the lid over and over again getting gather after gummy gather of 2150f glass. I have now broken the handle on the furnace 4 times.

Last night I fixed it again but this time I fixed it in a way that should help it live at least anouther 2 months of everyday use. I am a gimpy welder but even this one is going to hold if for no other reason than I put enough of a metal on that spot to hold a large car in place. I need to start to save for a proper furnace now that I know this whole backyard shop is going to work out.

Pumpkins are in full gear. I plan to have about twice as many as last year and I started early. If we count last night approx 95 pumpkins done. This time last year I had, wait for it....zero, nada, zilch, butcus! Last night I did about 1/2 of them solo which is a new twist for me. The problem with solo pumpkins is that they tend to be thicker to be able hold the heat so that I can work my magic in time. Glass will cool and crack and I have about 5 mistakes that either shattered, cracked, or the stems popped off because I did not work fast enough. I have the shop set up in such a way now with the correct set of steps, and if I time it just right, I can make a pumpkin solo. Takes me twice as long but hey you have to give somewhere.

This helps in two ways. The first is that I don't have to pay someone to help me which adds to my overhead, the second is that I can work without having to wait, beg, or barter someone into coming to the shop. While this is all fine and dandy I can only make one size pumpkin right now solo....can't make them all the same size you know.

Working with a team at my home shop is so much more fun anyway. I get to relax, talk, make the pumpkins every size, shape, and color under the rainbow, and enjoy myself. Kim, MiniMolli, and Ryan are going to get quite a workout over the next 2 months. Hold on guys we need to make some numbers!

Scott.
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Sat. Night session.

2008-08-05T12:53:00.001-05:00

I told somone. They told someone. Mini told someone...etc... Next thing I know everyone is in my back yard again.

Love it. Drinks, glass, friends.

Secret Number is now 73.

Scott.
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I found this glass, the Sac visit!

2008-07-30T14:47:00.002-05:00

Ok so some quick pictures from Sacramento I found this glass run. Here is the piece we put out.

Here is Ryan doing his best Spider Monkey moves to put it in the fountain.

Here it is in the fountian, as you can tell someone is going to have to get wet to get it!

Here is a picture from the street.

I would like to point out again the someone has already found this one. Ryan went back on Sat. and he just missed them. In fact he was so close behind them that he saw the wet shoe prints on the parking lot.

Scott.

Two Weeks.

2008-07-28T09:40:00.003-05:00

Man two weeks went by fast. I did not want to post on here while I was gone that I was well...gone. See I have this little thing about keeping my MiniMolli safe and sound and when I am not around I tend to get protective. Not that she needs it mind you. She keeps any number of dangerous objects around the house to visit some serious pain on anyone that is uninvited, but still I worry. I can't help it.

Anyway, so I was in Cali visiting my brother and getting some training that I did not really need. Ok I needed it if for nothing more than to be able to tell the guys that ask yes I have that certificate. For those of you that want to know the latest batch of certificates I got are the A+, the Network+, and the Security+ CompTIA certs.

It is funny, these are kind of the certificates that you get when you start out. For some reason I never got them mostly because no one ever asked for them. I had a MCSE from Microsoft, a CCA from Citrix, a CCNA and CCDP from Cisco, and a couple of other things to do with SANs and F5 load balancers so I never really got into the CompTIA as events had kind of passed them by.

Well wouldn't you know it now the people I work for "require" them and really did not care about all the other stuff I had. It was kind of like finding out that you needed a certificate for knowing CPR when you have been doing open heart surgery for the last 10 years. Anyway those are done and just anouther little thing to put on the resume, even if it is way down at the bottom.

Started up the furnace again last night and should be in the hot stuff by Wed. night. Can't wait to play with glass again.

I will post some pictures of blowing glass in Cali as soon as CorkChop sends me a link to the pictures.

Scott.
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Shut it down, Shut it down now!

2008-07-15T22:16:00.006-05:00

That is a quote from the move Die Hard. It is in reference to turning the power grid of to the tower that the bad guys are in. I felt it was kind of like the hot shop right now as I have pretty much pulled the power plug out of everything for the next 2 weeks. Not that I am a bad guy or anything of course. Ok that really depends on who you ask. So anyway all the equipment is unplugged.

This is for two reasons.

#1. I will not be working for the next two weeks so there was no reason for mr to keep the furnaced on. There are many reasons but one of them is that it is 95 deg F, with about 98% humidity. That is just crazy to work in.

#2. After thinking about this it is really time to give the equipment a much needed tune up. It has been a solid 9 months that the equipment has been running and it is in need of some repair love. Also I need to rip out the 80 pound pot and check under it to see how my furnace is doing. Leaks, checks, cracks...etc.

It is also a great time to take stock in how everything is laid out in the shop and figure out if I should move the equipment around to different locations. I have given Mini the go ahead of toss out pretty much anything she thinks should go and that scares me a little bit. I only really ask that she not toss anything that is "glass equipment supplies" like frax, or fire bricks, but outside of that I kind of hope she goes to town.

We will just have to see.

Scott.
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The New 3g Iphone problems.

2008-07-11T14:00:00.005-05:00

Ok for those of you living under a rock the new Iphones came out today. I personally will not be getting one but the one thing that interested me about the whole thing is the angery and swift change of direction people in the "Apple" camp have made.

Up until the last couple of releases of Apple software they have been hailed by anyone with anything Apple as "so much better than Microsoft" or "Stable, secure, done right", and my farvorite "Bulletproof!".

Well Apple folded under pressure today just like everyone else does on a big release. Welcome to the party pal. Try not to get to much egg on your face when you try to use that bricked new 3g Iphone.

Get used to the phase "You must connect to the Itune store to continue". Along with the other 3 millions people trying to do it at the same time.

Scott.
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PS. I don't have an Iphone and I give props to CorkChop for calling off his search early. He at least missed the fustration.

No time for the little stuff.

2008-07-07T09:42:00.006-05:00

You ever get so busy that you don't have time for the little stuff? What I mean is that you go from big project to big project and the little stuff piles up and you feel like there is no end to the piles of little that you don't have the juice to attack them?

Well that is where Mini and are right now. We have large projects and big commitments all around us. We roll from one thing to the next, we even had what many would call a instant medium sized party on the spot out of the blue. Mini is quick to adjust like that, me I just go with it there is no adjustment needed.

On the other hand the little stuff just kind of hangs around pointing and laughing at you. You know those 3 large piles of dirty clothes, the dishes, the floor needs sweeping, the yard needs attention, the flowerbeds look like a weed experiment by the Darma group. You come up for air but the little stuff is yanking at your ankles. So I am making and effort to try to do one little thing everyday. I think it will make a difference...well at least I hope it will.

This moring it was doing all the dishes before I left the house for work. I know it is small but they built up in small little steps why can't you kill them in small little steps. This afternoon it will be to clean out the truck and sweep the shop before I start blowing glass. Simple, quick, little. I will call it the SQL Model of life. Do the Simple Quick Little stuff.

Either way something is getting done and it was more than before. That has to be progress.

Scott.
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Picture day!

2008-07-01T10:17:00.004-05:00

Ringer holders!

What I like to call the Watermellon Vase.
Tear Drops, they are about 12 inches high. You really can't tell from this picture but they are pretty darn thin. I have a thing for blue right now if you can't tell.
My Cane Tear Drop Vase.
The Family Photo Op. I really like the one of the far left. It is a very slight amber color and is so paper thin it might be about as heavy as a couple of stack of post it notes.

All of the ones in the front are my prototypes for a project I am working on. I kind of like them all having that same color but different shades. They look good together.

Scott.

Good wet weekend.

2008-06-30T13:58:00.002-05:00

Well it rained, then it rained some more. I got some time in the shop between the storms. Used up a bunch of my scrap glass I had been saving and when I fill the pot with "recycled" glass it really makes me grin a bit because that is 80 bucks I just saved. I think I am going to start calling the stuff that I make from recycled clear glass "Twice Baked Green Glass" or "TBG" for short. Maybe I should start to market the glass as recycled green glass. To be technical it is all recycled glass.

Anyway, I have kind of a little project that I am working on that I will post some pictures of a tomorrow. It is nothing big just a direction I am going with my shapes. Currently I am working on Tear Drop Vases. I don't know why they are just something that I want to perfect. I also want them drop dead thin. So thin that people that blow glass will pick them up and go "WOAHH! that is thin!". Then I will flip and make about 4 really thick ones just because.

Anyway, pictures tomorrow unless MiniMolli takes them before I get home and posts them.

To all those that come by and read and do not leave a post I see you. Hi grandma.

Scott.
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INVADERS!

2008-06-27T16:01:00.002-05:00

Yes I put Astro up first but I took it down and put Space Invaders up. Just so much more fun!

Scott.
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the Joker and the Sage

2008-06-25T15:01:00.005-05:00

That title sounds like a rock band or the start to a novel. It is neither.... I have an interesting skill that is often offset by my humor.

I remember some really crazy crap. I mean a lot of it. Funny how I can't remember where the hell my wallet, keys, or checkbook are. Alas, it is not just stuff like how many inches are in a mile (63360), or the atmospheric pressure at mean sea level (14.7 psi), or why Beach in Pensacola is so sugar white (quartz deposit from couple million years back deposited by the Apalachicola River). No I remember truely useless stuff like movie quotes, the IRQ settings for a US robotics modem from 1987, and what a 1968 toyota land cruisers stock weight is.

People know I have a ton of useless knowledge in the back of my brain bucket so it gives me the option of playing a joke on them with stuff. It often backfires a bit in that sometimes I am trying to give them the right answer and it sounds so far fetched they think I am pulling one over on them. Cry wolf and all that.

Someone - What is the Network Time Protocol port?
Me "123"
Someone - Come on! Seriously
Me "123"
Someone - You told me that the number for the surf report was 8675309!

Someone - Who sings that song that goes kinda like da da da on such a winters day...
ME - California Dreaming by the Mamas and the papas
Someone - No way, like the time you told me that the BeeGees where the orginal voices for Alvin and the chickmuncks.

You can see I tend to error on the side of it being so out of this world that they can't help but to catch me pulling thier leg but it does not always work. Like the time I told a friend if he ate raw garlic it would cure his hangover. Then there was the time I told everyone Michael Jackson came over the house to use the bathroom. Ok Michael Jackson didn't come over to my house to use the bathroom. He was about to. But his sister did.

Scott.
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No worries!

2008-06-25T11:00:00.003-05:00

Well I can say with all honestly that I broke everything that I tried to work on last night. I put in about 4 hours in the shop and every last thing poped of the punti and shattered onto the ground. Ok a ring holder made it into the annealer but that was about it.

I have been working on a new way to put color on my stuff. It is kind of one of those things that is more complex than 90% of the glass blowers in the world are willing to deal with. It is not crazy hard, it just takes a lot of steps, in the right order and any one of them will hose up the piece.

In fact I hosed up a good 5 times just trying to figure out how I wanted to do it. Then a couple more with the application of frits, bars, and powder until I got the look that I wanted. Alone it takes me about 30 minutes just to get the colors on them the way I want. I am not sure having a second set of hands would help much...it might speed it up a bit but not much.

Then every single piece jumped off the punti. SMASH!! BOOM!!! SHATTER!! All of them, but I was able to look at them on the ground and sort out what I was doing wrong with the colors and move forward so not much was lost. That is a lie but no worries right?

So I view last night as a learning experience. I have the color scheme down pat now all I need to do is get some in the annealer instead of on the cement.

Scott.
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More pictures!

2008-06-19T10:51:00.010-05:00

Ok so everyone is always asking me to make sets of drinking glasses. Here is my first try at making the same colors and same shape. Keep in mind that these are free hand and not done in a mold. Plus I am really digging the color combo here it is one of my favorites. If you look in the upper right hand corner I flipped the colors just for fun.

Here is a cool vase I made the other day before Belmont shut down. I have a whole series planned out for this kind of pattern. I just got the colors in the other day and can't wait to try this color application design with them. In the forground you can see the tops of the lamps that got cut off when I made them.
Here is the huge vase I made when the annealer put the wammy on me. For the people that have not been keeping up it overheated due to a physical malfunction. It got up to about, I am guessing here, 975 degrees before it started to cool back down. That was enough heat to start to remelt the glass. You will notice that this pieces is quite dumpy. When it was made it was very much like the picture above only with a much smaller opening at the top. It was also about twice as large. You will notice the amount of colored rings I put on this piece. That alone took Kim and I at least 40 minutes just to get the colors on it correctly.
So it got way to hot, started to slump which took it from being round to this. The bottom flattened out on the floor of the annealer, pushing the sides out, then the top part was heavier than the middle so it slumped down onto itself. The ribbon of iris orange(the green) was the thinest spot on bulged out in the middle. What you also can't really tell is that is sits at a very kattywhompus angle because it did not slump straight down but toward the heating coils. IE> it was hotter on the left side than the right. Tooooooo much heat!

Well that is it for today boys and girls.

I hope to get some time in the shop at the house this weekend if works lets go a bit.

Scott.

Things I learned this week.

2008-06-16T14:12:00.007-05:00

#1. There is a very fine line between hobby, side job, and mental illness.

#2. Don't start the weekend on Thursday if you need to work on Friday.

#3. Common sense is not that common.

#4. If you have to work in 98 degree heat with 99% humidity hire someone else to do the work.

#5. Mini is right more than wrong, I just seem to be more lucky than right.

#6. Never lick and envelope agressively you can papercut your tongue.

#7. Never drink lots tequela and eat lots jalapenos on the same night. No matter how good either of them taste.

#8. Movies at 2:45 on Friday afternoon have no kids in them. Ever.

#9. My hot water heater only has 48 minutes worth of hot water.

#10. Seriously Rich people don't care about how much something costs as long as no one else can have one but them.

Update:

#11. I would like to state that M. Night Shyamalan's new movie "The Happening" really was sad. I don't mean sad like it made me cry, because it did, but if only for the fact that it sucked 8 bucks from my wallet. It was so bad I don't even know where to start. OK I lied I do know where to start all this between each of my Load Balancers install tonight. Here we go, why "The Happening" was such a sorry movie by "ME!". Stop now if you don't want spoilers but honestly keep reading it might save you the 3 hours you will loose.

a. They are killed by...wait for it "Trees". COME ON! Trees? Honestly? As in a large oak? Yea it seems that the trees are pissed off and they are decided to release a toxin into the air. This is not be confused with pollen, you know why because you can kind of see pollen, this not so much. In fact it might as well have been Iocaine Powder. So how do they scare you with a colorless, odderless, tasteless toxin? That leads me to reason b.

b. The wind carries the toxin...oh dear lord...RUN FROM THE WIND...Every time the wind blows people die. Go figure...you know the toxin and all.

c. The Iocaine pow...Toxin it makes you "STOP HAMMER TIME!"...I kid, you just stop dead in your tracks and find the most visually graphic way to kill yourself. I mean you could just stop breathing but that does not look good on film. So you stop for like 10 seconds...then start again to turn on and a huge lawn mower, then point it up hill so that it will do a u-turn and head back toward you, then it slows down for dramatic tempo as you lay down and stretch and arm out in front of you because even tho you don't care it looks damn cool as it throws arm chunks out the front. Crap, pure crap. Yea that was a long sentence...like the movie long and drawn out.

d. Ok I will wrap the crappy movie fest up rapid fire. Run from high population them there trees can count and kill people in large numbers, they get sensitive and start killing in smaller numbers, sidekick bites the dust, dumb soldier pops up, they run for the hills as group 2 kills themselves as group one "outruns" the wind. Crazy old lady head buts herself to death, they outlive the Killers tree by shear luck, the end.

Pure drivel.

Scott.

Remember these?

2008-06-06T14:15:00.003-05:00

Remember these? Can you see them back there. Yep those are the lamps I have been talking about for a couple of months now. MiniMolli finished up the shades the other day and put them in the bedroom. I think they look pretty darn good. Als If you look close Ms. Kitty by the pillows seems to be saying "Get out of here Pixie(the other cat) or I will eat you SOUL!".

Here is a second picture for no other reason than to show you the Ms. Kitty gives love to both sides of the bed. She loves them equally.
Strange that there is no cat in this close up. You can see the prototype for bud vase I am working on in the back ground as well as the spiffy felt disc thing Mini love so much about these shades.
Ok enough of this time to mow the lawn...UGH!

Scott.
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Belmont Arts Center - - Hot Glass Cold Beer Night

2008-06-06T11:13:00.002-05:00

Well here is the boilerplate for tonight hot glass cold beer night. I am going to be working with some of the other renters to do....drum roll.....I have no clue.

I will assume that we will make some spun out bowls because those are always cool to watch. Maybe I can talk them into making some cane which is kind of cool to see done. Either way it is going to be HOT!

Scott.
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HOT GLASS COLD BEER
June 06, 2008
4/11/2008: Hot Glass / Cold BeerFriday - June 6, 20085 - 9 pm9pm - live music!This popular event will feature our signature glass cups for you to keep, eats!, glass blowing demonstrations, glass bead demonstrations, pottery (come get your hands dirty), glass mosaic art that you can help make...........and more!!!$25 donation to the Belmont gets you your official glass and enjoy free beverages all evening!* MEMBERS - YOUR DONATION IS ONLY $20!Bring back your glass from previous HGCB events and your donation is only $15.Support your favorite "hands on" arts center and have a great evening with your friends, family and everyone else!sponsored in part by: New York Nicks and The Handle Bar.

*Must be 21 yrs or older with Valid ID for consumption of adult beverages. Please drink responsibly.

The three amigos!

2008-06-03T10:47:00.003-05:00

Just because I have them at hand. I have a friend that was at the shop a couple weeks back and wanted some Dark Ruby Cups/tumblers made. She was not sure on the size, shape, or basically anything outside of that she wanted them ruby red. Well that and they had to be "hand blown" and not put in a mold at any point. Ok then, here is the first try at hitting on what she wanted. I just made a short rocks glass, then a medium sized white wine top, then what I call a "Tall Boy" which hold about a double crown and coke. Or a whole diet coke with ice.

As you can tell they are plenty ruby red. Three gathers of ruby on the small one, single gather of ruby on the middle one, and 2 gathers of ruby on the tallboy.

Overhead shows the shorty rocks glass is much wider than the others.
The rocks glass is the thicker of the three at the ridges. The tallboy is the perfect thickness and the wine glass in the middle is ultra thin. It is scary thin to the point that It makes you a little twitchy letting ices fall into it from the door on the fridge. It is not going to break but it sure does make a loud enough clank to make you think about it.

More pictures later. Cheers.

Scott.
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New Float on the Beach

2008-05-29T15:29:00.003-05:00

I know that I promised pictures of my new piece but the world conspired against me. The Annealer at the Belmont overheated....again....for the 4th time in 3 months. It makes me not a nice person to be around. I start to turn a shade of green, my pants rip, I loose my shirt and well you get the picture....

So I went surfing and everything was right in the world. I left a float on the dune with the IFTG.blogspot.com address and we will see if anyone takes the time to post that they found it.

Pumpkins are being made. I figured I needed to slide back into something productive. Maybe I can get some time in the shop tonight. If so we will have to try and take a couple pictures.

Scott.

Wed. Night Blow slot update.

2008-05-22T11:43:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I had a mini melt down at work. Not a melt down you have like a loony running around kicking over chairs and screaming "A Dingo ate my LunchBox!" more of a running out of steam and feelling sick melt down. I guess I could say I was just pushing myself a little to close to the edge and took a step over.

Anyway I went home took a nap and felt right as rain 4 hours later just in time to go blow some glass for the first time in about 3 weeks. I had a different outlook last night. I knew there was something I wanted to make and how I wanted to make it but no shape in mind. No real goal, just the idea of being in the shop was enough.

Kim and I kicked out this really cool vase that is about 8 inch wide and 12 inches tall. I am going to call this series "Totems" because I kind of got the idea when in Seattle looking at all the Totems that are around the city. This is the second time I have tried to make something like this but I am using a different applicaiton of color this time. The very first try I made sold last week for a good chuck of cash so I will go back to that style at a later date. It is not that I don't like it because I do. It is just not exactlly the look I was going for. It has a nice look to it and I plan to pick it back up at a later date.

The "Totems" need a tighter, crisper, more defined line. The first try made a tight line but the ribbons of color turned out to be much to large. What I am going for is a thinner line with defined color. More like the way the totems stacked and the colors worked between the totem faces that gave me the idea. I plan to really change the way that the colors stack from the ones I did last night also but I need to work on the application of the rings of color before I can move onto the next step. Work in progress.

Anyway, they will not be out of the annealer until Friday night but I plan to take some pictures of them this weekend. I know it is only Thursday but I hope you guys have a nice extended weekend.

Scott.
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Resume?

2008-05-20T10:23:00.003-05:00

I have a friend that has been skimming over resumes for a job opening we have here. The problem with that is the funny things that you see on a resume.

Case in point:

"Proficient in Microsoft Word"

No kidding? Word! Really WORD?!

Your putting a resume in for a senior network administrator and you think that people give a toot about word? Why not write down "More than 15 years experience with Notepad", or "Extensive day to day operational use and controll of web browser". "More than 20 years experience with the deletion of files from a hierarchical file system".

COME ON! your killing me.

I want to see "10 years of router experience" and you give me "Proficient in Word"....ARG!!!!

Scott.
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Sunday Night and everything is all right.

2008-05-18T22:43:00.005-05:00

Up here at the shop putting the security smackdown on a bunch of servers. The security scans take about 15 minutes a box with my software so I have a minute here to talk about something I just saw at Outback. Yes Mini am I am about to talk about that.

I laddle. That is, I tend to listen to people's conversations around me when I am out to eat. I don't actaully say anything, or butt in, but I have a bad habbit of getting interested in what others are saying. More so when they are saying it at the volume level of a White Snake concert like tonight at Outback. I mean they where on the otherside of the bar and we could hear them over the 5 Large Screen TVs in the joint.

Anyway, it wrinkles Mini's mood most of the time because I am not listening to her at these points in time and she generaly finds it not very polite. It could also be that I often times don't agree with what someone else is saying and I pivit to Mini to proclaim my astonishment at their obtuseness (is that a word? How I ironic if it is not...wait am I using Ironic right? I give up lets move on).

So tonight in I got to hear the following things uttered with a touch of rightousness only bestowed on my people here in Pensacola. I think I will start to call this "Overheard in Pensacola".

Line #1:

Large Blonde Lady:
-- "I am a very deep person, I feel things deeply, I am spiritual because I.... you know...I feel deep stuff and have trouble telling people how deeply I feel deep things. Seriously deep spiritual things on a different kind of feeling level then the deepeness that normal non-spiritual people feel things. You know?"

Large Guy in Grey "TroutSlayer" shirt:
-- "That is called spirituality... most people don't know what that word means but that is it just what you said."

Large Blonde Lady:
--"Hey you going to eat that last chicken wing?"

----------

People just make me giggle.

Scott.
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Work.

2008-05-16T12:27:00.003-05:00

Work is crazy right now I am putting in about 12 to 14 hours a day. I have not read anyone elses blog, worked glass, or sleept more than 6 hours a night this week.

I get paid by the hour being a contractor but man I am ready for a day off. Maybe this weekend I can take a break but I will be working at least one of the days this weekend if not both.

I hope to fire up the shop this weekend at least once to work out some steam....er glass.

Scott.
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Hunger!

2008-05-13T15:41:00.000-05:00

You ever notice that if you eat a big breakfast that you are hungry all day long?

Scott.
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Anger!

2008-05-13T11:07:00.002-05:00

I am into the one word titles as of late.

Anyway... PK the outside cat is driving me crazy. I love the little critter but she has cost me about....

One Large Floppy bowl - 300 dollars
One large gravity vase - 100 dollars
3 Nice Glass flowers - 120 dollars
One Medium Floppy bowl - 125 dollars
One Large Platter - 250 dollars
2 Blown Cups - 30 dollars
One Large Pumpkin(huge) = 150 dollars
---------------------------------------
Total Damage from PK in glass = 1075 dollars

I have left out a couple of things but this pretty much sums up why I am angry at this cat right now. To be honest she is locked in the garage. She mills about because she can't get out. She knocks stuff down.

We don't let her out because she has FLeV but damnit all this stuff she is breaking is killing me. I am at wits end with the cat because she is breaking all my best stuff. I put it on the shelf because it is my best stuff and she knocks it off because we are trying to protect her.

I guess I am going to have to start putting her in a crate at night because putting all the glass up does not seem to be an option. I don't know what to do here and I find myself getting more and more angry with every broken piece of glass. Because what I see on the floor is time, money, and sweet....then a big eyed cat looking at me like "Hey check that out! I did that for you! Cool eh?!".

Sigh...grumble...

Scott.
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Dexter

2008-05-12T21:26:00.001-05:00

I would like to state that I really like this show.

That is it.

Scott.
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