Friday, July 5, 2024

June 30 - July 4024 Fort Collins, Colorado

 Only 87 today, but darn hot in the full sun,



We have been cleaning out the garage to  make room for the new truck and my new kiln. I stored my brother's TV, blue  and whole sound system in the garage in John's shop. Turns  out he really does not want a TV in the house, so we gave it to the young couple across the alley from us. Finally I am going to comb some glass, which is what the new kiln is for. Here I am in my flame resistant jacket, welders glasses (looking at red hot glass unprotected is very bad for your eyes) and my fancy gloves that they say will protect you from heat up to 2000 degrees, waving one of my glass rakes.



The bottom drops out of the kiln and here I am combing. The glass is at 1660 degrees. The photo is deceptive, the  glass is red, you can kind of discern the lines, but not the colors. First pull.



Here is the finished product. It will now cool down very slowly and sometime tomorrow I can open the kiln and see what it looks like. Right now it is red hot and you can't  see the colors. The last two times I combed I did this same design. I figured I would start with something I am familiar with. Next one will be fancier. I love my new kiln!!  This is what the first combed piece looks like cooled to room temp.



I have been very busy making jewelry. A few pendants. Big thunder head over the Poudre river on my bike ride. 



These are the beveled polished pieces of dichroic glass I have made so far. Each one takes about an hour to bevel and polish. Some of these I had already beveled and polished into squares and I made them into smaller 8 sided pieces. They are easier to wrap in this shape. Some of them were mounted in silver filled settings, but they never sold so I took them out and refinished the edges. The one on the middle top I wire wrapped. All of these will be wire wrapped. Last night I started with the glass on the left, put it in the kiln, heated it to 1660 degrees and combed this design. 



View from Morning Fresh Dairy in Bellevue. We went to Morning fresh dairy because the latest of the large, chrome monoliths that have been appearing mysteriously around the world showed up near the dairy this week. 



This monolith just showed up here this week. They have been showing up in unusual places all over the world for years. They are similar to the monolith the aliens placed on earth in the movie 2001 Space Odyssey to monitor life on earth. No one knows who has been putting them there and they usually end up stolen, so they don't hang out long. This one is on private property and they won't let you walk up to it. We viewed it from the road. The photo on the left I got off the internet of it. Scenery around Morning fresh Dairy. 



The fridge in the front house that we rent out died. Here is Bob delivering a new one. The bills never end. This afternoon I started with the glass on top , put it in the kiln, fired it to 1660 degrees and did the vortex technique on it to make the Celtic knot. It is red hot in the kiln, I have to wait till it cools off tomorrow to see how it looks. 


Earrings. I hate gluing the tiny little findings on them. I get glue all over me and they are so tiny I have to hold them with tweezers. But these earrings are my best sellers and they support my glass habit. Fortunately I ran out of the ear wires, so won't have to make any more till I get more.  I am restocking for the winter. 



The rhino bed liner sprayed into our new truck! On the left is the cooled down Celtic knot piece so you can see the colors. On the right is the last piece I combed, it will be cut into strips and used as a border on the knot.



We took the free bus from downtown to City Park to see the fireworks over the lake. We got there 2 hours early, thinking it would be really crowded. It was not that crowded, but the people watching was fun.
Sunset over City Park.



Sunset over city park and the crowd for the fireworks.  A couple fireworks. They were awesome as usual. 


Penstamon and a snake sucking up the last of the days heat on the bike path.

















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