Long time, no post. There's been a whirlwind of activity behind that curtain of silence though!The denizens of the garden have been busy too -- prime time iris season right now. I love this bronzey beauty!
It's so hard to get me to come indoors this time of year. But, most of my work must be done indoors -- the solution, a Solatube!
What's a Solatube? Think of it as the spotlight version of a sky light. We've been interested in having one (or more) installed for a number of years now. What sealed the deal was constantly reaching to turn off the lights at my in-law's house in Arizona -- only to realize that there were no electric lights turned on!
Our first Solatube was installed yesterday, right over my primary sculpting area.The installer had everything done in just a couple of hours. He also answered one of our questions about our 1954 house and studio, "how many layers of shingles are on our roof?" Three. Ugh.
Back inside, check it out -- it's so bright you really do need sunglasses to look at the Solatube during the day!We positioned it so that all that nice daylight pouring in will also illuminate our primary photo area. I'm looking forward to taking some photos in the next day or so to test it out.
It is a shame that we didn't have this in place for last week's all-too-brief visit by the Mayhem crew, Joan Berkwitz, Lesli Kathman and Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig. I was happy to be able to share with them some of the overglaze techniques I'm beginning to learn, as taught to me by Karen Gerhardt (thanks again Karen!). Joanie was able to clarify some points based on her experience visiting fine bone china producers in England.
Mostly we all A) marveled at the potential of this new-to-us medium and B) gained an even deeper appreciation of our colleagues who already use this medium.
Barry joined us for a discussion about the things that Lesli and Joanie have learned while designing the molds for Sarah's fabulously detailed and ever so tiny sculptures "Taboo", "Vixen" and "Imp".Barry is quite familiar with "Vixen" and "Imp" (he molded and cast those two sculptures for Sarah's resin limited editions of them earlier this year) so he was particularly interested in Lesli's approach to molding them in plaster. Great job Lesli! If I had really been thinking ahead and not so caught up in the conversation myself I would have set up Barry's silicone molds and Lesli's plaster molds side by side -- dang it, 20-20 hind-thought!
Well, it's been a busy week of getting settled back in after being gone for the previous two weeks. Barry and I are very happy to be back home with our kitties.Oh, stay tuned for some exciting news from Barry...
~ Lynn
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