Fried-day

Again I find myself sitting at my beloved MAC at home between two cats (the one to my left is purring, the one to my right is silently waiting-for dinner.)

And, I, the imperial I, need to produce art work for my studios. And to that end, I found my self, bright and uncharacteristically early, at the foundry at 8 a.m. getting my ceramic shell molds ready for a burn out. So, I learned a few new things today.

Since, in previous trips to the foundry, I've been a wimp and let other people do the burn outs for me, today (with only three other people in the foundry besides the Professor and me) I got to actually load the molds into the flash furnace, crank the molds up into the thing, rake the wax out when it burns out of the molds and patch up the spots that needed patching. I also learned that I should not forget to put the final coat of slurry on the ceramic shell because without it, it's terribly brittle and prone to flaking off and cracking.

So, my first minor heartbreak of the day was that as I was walking one of my molds off to the sand pit to place it in prior to pouring I dropped it on the cement floor and most of it was destroyed. I'm surprised that I didn't get that upset, but then by now I've learned the one rule of art creation: don't love your work too much because it will break your heart! This is especially the rule when working in glass (something I don't do anymore.)

After the foundry, I made my way to the painting studio where I put another coat of black over one of my previous square canvases. It'll be the background for the next piece.

I think, for tonight anyway, I'm going to work at home as soon as I take a nice, long bath. . . .ah, the joys of having a whirlpool tub!