"properly annealed in a digital kiln."

"properly annealed in a digital kiln." You can say this until the cows come home. This is not a guarantee, even though most people would think it is implicit in the statement. A properly performed annealing cycle is important but what may there be in the glass that would prompt the cows to stay away from home? Pretty simple; all materials as far as I know shrink and expand at different rates including different types of glass and their associated colors and taking this into account, you may have conflict with the clear of a certain type of glass and its colors associated with the clear. the colors will have COE's that will differ higher or lower than the clear thus setting up a conflict. The finished "properly annealed in a digital kiln" will have some stress in the glass. These pieces will be just fine down the road. However you may decide a piece of glass that lived just fine on the sideboard for many years until you decided that it would look even better in the south facing bay window. What would be wrong with this... you now have put the glass in a new environment where there may be higher and lower cycles of heat, stresses that may crack the glass even though it was annealed properly!

The six month hiatus is over... making a signature cane

The six month hiatus is over. Wednesday, I entered the 'studio' and began work on some letters/numbers for a signature cane. I made a zero first to get things moving, it went well. Then a, one, it was good. Next, an S, nice. Then the disaster, the hard one, the M, two hours and then, disaster!... First number tomorrow will be a two and then the dreaded M and if all goes well I should have the first good cane in over two years.

no more leaky shoes

Should be back into the micro studio tomorrow morning, a good thing other than I have been without oxygen for a week and a half. Screw the economy, downtime just does not get me ahead very fast. Not very depressed anymore (the contraband happy pills) Not having e-bay et cetera causes a bit of a problem getting anything sold... so I can buy oxygen... so I can get myself out of self made mess's.


Closing on a positive note; I was able to ditch my really leaky shoes for a brand new pair from goodwill. Then again, when I took the trash can out I was slipping on the frosted grass. This is not a good sign for this winter when walking on icy sidewalks to the cold micro studio, do not need another fall. About the end of July a taller than usual curb sent me down, got to love gravity, I picked myself up, brushed myself off and found that all parts worked fine, well, until morning. When I got up my left shoulder was whacked and it took a full three months before it healed.

The baad box

Got the box. Did not open it for a couple days because it did not have a return address on it. Did not read the note. I figured it was about how I screwed things up and how the box sender was going to unscrew me and make it all better again. I used to maintain a mailing list that I sent out as a BCC Blind carbon copy. One day I screw up and sent it out with all the e-mail addy's showing. Not a good idea, the box sender used this against me by sending a threat to me and all the people on the list.


Keep in mind that this is a mess I got myself into.
   Bye,
      Mike

little rants

A week plus has passed since I have had a tank of oxygen. I may be getting a tank Tuesday evening with a little luck. A pile of glass is not to handy without oxygen. When I get back to the micro studio I need to start making my medium to complex marbles: need to satisfy some people.

Personal rules I follow; do not read certain e-mails, ignore phone calls, I generally answer the door... mostly and stay out of the way of other people. (I find that the people who are irritated with someone in there way are the very ones who could care less who they are holding up. As an example; The person who drives up to the banks drive up window and sits there while they fill out checks and sign checks etc.)

Someone sent some of my marbles back to me, did not read the note, next time they should consider the marbles as free or just toss them. I think my nervous system is wired the wrong way. I have always had a shake to my hands: pretty much why I switched to printing in high school, I could not read it let alone the teachers. The returned marbles are an example where my nerves get edgy. Even if I could work on glass stuff today I could not for a few hours until the shaking subsides. Even exercise or physical activity causes shaking. When I was in junior high we would play basketball in the gym during lunch. During the next class I really had the shakes.

I just quit working on marble box parts before I cut myself with the exacto knife, a knife that was waving all over the place.

What city has the best amenities for the homeless? Anyone? Just something that has been on my mind the last three or so months.

I have added WordWeb to my favorite freeware program list. A program I used to use until one of my previous computer went down. Highlight a word you may be a little bit sketchy about its meaning and click on the WordWeb icon in the tray just to make sure you are using the word in context.



Sketchup is a free cad program from google.

After a lot of head scratching I have figured out how to use some of the 'tools' and the following are my best 'pieces' so far. Within the sketchup program the chair and table can be rotated to view all angles.

Bye

Mike, I don't no tanle saw, E

What am I up too

I have some downtime, out of oxygen again, so I have been working on box labels, boxes and sorting the working folder that contains all the box information, what a mess, at least I have this folder backed up all over the place. One of the projects was redesigning the 12 count tribute slag box label because I lost the first label and the marble images on the box. The marble images are the same for the new label but I had to copy them from the first sets label. See img.


I also started listing on MibAuctions.com. All marble stuff all the time but not many takers.

I listed a box of agates there.

With my next tank of oxygen I will continue to work on box marbles plus make at least one large marble per day to be sent off to where they need to go. The last marble I made last Thursday was a variation of the shadow and it is cool. You can see through it and when it is turned it has a lattice look to it. This marble is not signed, no place to put it.

Bye

Mike, rolling over a marble to see what is on the other... ,E

any takers... anyone... time passes

The guinea's are made using a gather of hot glass that has been rolled in small pieces of colored glass: known as frit that I make by cutting off very hot pieces of colored glass into a small bowl of water where it fractures into small pieces of glass. skipping a few steps Then the gather is cased by hand using clear rods of glass. Finally the cased gather has both ends cut off and shaping it into a marble.

Just in case 125 buck with shipping! AND I made the box too!!

Bye

Mike

box making images

The images are in no particular order: not unlike the way I run my life.

Bye

Mike

Yes it is Friday

No oxygen yet: still fine tuning the marble box making operation. And organizing, as long as I have down time on my hands, my computer files and backing them up to various drives so that each drives files are named the same on all drives.