August 26-30, 2024 Fort Collins, Colorado

 Cooled down to 80 and partly cloudy.

I was biking, turned around and saw this behind me. Sunset. 

The Cosmic Clam. I made the center part in a class about working with curves. I added the border to it here at home. It a bowl is 10 x 10 x1inches. Kind of funky, but I like the colors. Blueberries and Cream. Cobalt blue and white bowl. 91/2 x 9 1/2 x 1inches. 

A new piece of combed glass. Sunset tonight.

John took me out to a lovely dinner. On the way back he was hot and decided that sitting in the middle of the fountain would be a good cool off. He only had a few splashes on him and it was cooler. Working on this piece. The center is a piece of combed glass the border is dichroic glass and slices of another combed piece. 12 inches in diameter

Another new masterpiece in progress. This needs the edges coldworked and then slumped in a bowl mold. Judy and James, friends from Shoshone came to visit on their trip through Colorado. Great to see them.

The new kayak racks- Thule hullavators- were installed today. There is a hydraulic shock in it that just lifts and lowers the kayaks. Much easier on a tall vehicle. I finished dying pine needles for baskets this winter. Black red, orange, cocoa brown, truly green, dark green, purple, royal blue, and navy blue. Lots of possible baskets there. 

The piece I combed last night. Came out pretty funky.  John's  sister Maggie ,son Ryan and Dennis are in town for a visit. Nice to see them,

John and his sister Maggie. After dinner at Ginger and Bakers. Ryan, Maggie, John, Sue and Dennis. Nice dinner and good visit.

Maggie dancing in the blue light downtown. School of Rock in old town square tonight.

Rock music and the fountains in old town square.

August 18-24, 2024 Fort Collins, Colorado

 90 plus and sunny.

These needles were dyed royal blue on the left and purple on the right. The royal blue came out green and the purple an ugly brown. Re-dyed half of the green ones navy blue, and am going to try more purple on the purples. And will retry the royal on a smaller bunch of needles, I think I put too many in the dye bath. And saved  some of the greens. I now have three shades of green, really want some blue. Sunset was more or less blocked by storm clouds to the west, but got this. 

The last combing came out nice. Cobalt blue and white. I the kiln is another type of comb, same colors to try an use as a border for this. A couple signs of the times.

My friends Katy and Katie  and I drove down to Canon City to raft with our friend Dennis. Beautiful warm day on the river.

Fun on the river.

It was 91 degrees so the water felt great.

Scenery on the Arkansas river.

We took Dennis out to dinner for yummy Mexican food. It is always a fun trip with my friends and great to see Dennis. Sunset on rain on the way back.

Sunset on the way back. We had drinks with Barry at Odell's last night. Nice to visit with him.

My garden is going crazy. I just planted it in mid June and already tomatoes are turning red! Sunset.

We watched the Tour De Phat. It is put on my New Belgium brewing, which is all about bikes. Hundreds of people on bikes in costume doing loops along Mountain Ave. It was followed by an all day event at the brewery, bands, booths, food and of course beer. 

Cool paintings on this sign. Sunset again.

August 14-17, 2024 Fort Collins, Colorado

 High of 81 and mostly sunny.

Late afternoon light and cool clouds and rainbow!

The scarlet dyed pine needles came out very nice. Sunset.

Bee plant and sunflowers. Sunset over McMurry Pond. 

Another view of sunset over McMurry pond. Gibbous moon.

I repaired the kiln and I am back up and running! Tonight's combed piece of glass red hot in the kiln. This hummingbird was feasting on flowers in our garden. 

Hummingbird in our garden. I thought they were all up in the mountains still. The latest comb. The colors are off, inside light I guess, the pink is really red. 

I spent 10 hours today getting the jewelry and masterpieces ready for the show at Echter's. The show is in November, but we are leaving in September and I am seeing my friend who is taking care of the show for me this week. I could see the rain coming down as I left for my bike ride tonight. 

I was getting rained on while riding. Sunset was stunning.

A fisherman at McMurry Pond with sunset. Art in old town.

I combed this. It is white and cobalt blue with clear, so you can see the layers. The red is because the glass is cooling down from red hot.