Ben Golub, Woodworker at Large

My cousin Ben Golub (of the much-admired California Golubs) has put up one of his finest pieces on Taunton's Fine Woodworking site. It's a box for the storage of all the ingredients and utensils necessary to make two cups of chai tea... which requires quite a lot of ingredients and utensils, actually.

He's competing to win a brand-new table saw; please wish him luck if you're so inclined. :D

Survival Confirmed

I am back from California. ^-^

I am also still alive, despite the best efforts of low-altitude air turbulence. -,-'

And also, Xmas is FINALLY over. Finally. >w<

Back later with a post about making stuff that glows. :D

A few more marbles

I had to leave some marbles in the kiln for annealing back during this spectacular adventure, and my kindly aunt Mari has since sent them along to me. Showing off my (barely extant) flame working skills, part deux!

I made one for my Dad. He's a big ND fan, and I figure he could put it on his desk. Then again, how maddening would it be to keep track of a marble rolling all round your desk when you're working? (Oops.) The technique for making this kind of marble is maddening enough in itself... you have to blow out the tip of a glass tube, build up a bunch of stringers, draw the stringers onto the thin bubble and invert the bubble around the stuff you've drawn in. Suffice it to say, I only made one of them.

And then there's this one, which is just a sandwich of clear glass around a shard of silver dichroic and some red frit that I was going to twist up into a regular, smooth marble. BUT, it got way too awesome in the middle of the twisting phase, so I just stopped it there and left it a glob.

Yay marbles~! ^_^

California

I flew out west last week to visit my aunt and uncle in Sacramento and get away from Missouri for a while. I enjoy spending time with the Golubs; we just kind of click.

Sacramento is really spectacular, even in the rainy winter season. I’ve always loved heading out for a walk along the American River, especially with the Golub family dog, Kingsley.

Kingsley is a beautiful malamute with unusually light coloring and a gorgeous, grumbly voice. He is also the most mellow dog I have ever seen in his weight class.

This time around, the big adventure was a journey down to Oakland to take a flameworking class with aunt Mari. If you live anywhere in the bay area, I envy you for many reasons. The most recent of these is the Crucible.

The Crucible is awesome. It is full of interesting things and interesting people to tell you how to use them. Things like glass and fire, and people like Tara Murray.

Boron glass + fire + patient instruction from teachers = marbles!

I love marbles. Big, imperfect ones that you make yourself (and take a few burns for) are definitely more interesting than the ones that come from the store. My favorite one is this vortex marble.

It came out a little not-so-round, but it’s cool to look inside and see the rippled colors all twisted together. (And when you get really good, you can make ones like THIS.)

I also met Robert Mickelsen purely by chance, as he was touring the Crucible with the likes of Kaj Beck and a whole assortment of other glass artists.

I love California.