Hip Hip Hooray!

It's been a year since I had my hip roto-rootered, and I'm due for my final post-op appointment in a few weeks. The orthopedic surgeon that did the surgery is a kick. She specializes in women's sports injuries and hips, so I thought....hmmm..well it's a little goofy but why not? OHSU is a teaching hospital and she always comes in with an intern or two, so it's always a circus. Hopefully none of the cut lines will look like fractures.

Home At Last

Ne Obliviscaris is complete and on the road to it's new home. I have been planning this project for several years, and it is hard to describe how I feel about it.

Every day police officers and firefighters go to work knowing that it could be their last. But that isn't what is on the forefront of their minds. They think about the regular stuff..family, bills, friends. Did they remember to feed the dog before they left for work? But the constant hum in the background is the other side... staying safe, getting sued, active shooters, hazmat spills...terrorists.

Emergency services dispatching, which is what I did, is exacting work, with no margin for error. It can eat you alive. It also gives you the opportunity, every day, to change the outcome of a potentially horrible situation. Shots fired, officer down, helicopter crash, childbirth, pursuits, lost kids, found kids. It was a great job and I loved it.

After 20+ years, Ed retires from law enforcement this week. After being shot at, run over, attacked by lunatics and generally having a great time, I will be thankful to finally get him home in one piece. It is only job that I can think of (besides active military and firefighting) that you have to put on body armor every day to go to work. It was a great job and he loved it.

We have been so blessed.

It's Hard To Resist

The sandblasting was a success! It was a totally new thing and I was really afraid I would mess up the whole project, but I am really happy with how it turned out.

So here is how it went: I printed out the script on the computer. For the Lady Liberty motto, I chose a font that I felt was appropriate for the statue. For the badge, I just used a photo of the badge and enlarged it to the proper size. Then I taped the pieces with the words to the back of the glass. This is probably not the best way to do it because the thickness of the glass distorts the print, but I was careful to look directly down through the glass when cutting out the resist.

Resist is a clear plastic made specifically for sandblasting which can be cut with a craft knife. It adheres to the glass and won't get blown away in the blasting process. After burnishing it onto the glass, I used an electric stencil cutter (like a tiny hot needle) and cut out the letters. After peeling off the parts that I didn't want, I cleaned up any rough edges with an exacto knife, and carefully burnished off any burrs. This part was tricky because you don't want to displace any little pieces that are supposed to remain, or the whole thing is ruined and you have to start over.

Then I put resist on the back of the pieces so that any flying blasting medium wouldn't cloud the glass.

I borrowed a small siphon sandblaster from Ruth Doumit, a very talented glass and ceramics artist who advised me on this part of the project. I made a temporary sandblasting cabinet from a large plastic storage bin. I put the glass down at the bottom inside of the bin, covered the edges of the bin with pieces of wood and just reached in and blasted away.

Definitely low tech, and I'm sure there is a lot of snickering and eye-rolling going on someplace, but that's ok. I'll be the first to stand up and say I have no clue what I'm doing. There is some stunning sandblast art going on out there, and this isn't it. This is just fundamental script. When I win the lottery I might get some real sandblasting equipment, but I just needed something simple for this project.

I wish I had a picture of me in my sandblasting outfit cause it was quite the fashion statement. I had a bandanna tied over my hair "Lucy" style. I had safety glasses, dust mask, longsleeved shirt buttoned at the neck and sleeves, and gloves. It wasn't enough. Next time I'll get a sandblasting hood.

The banner is on the Lady Liberty.

The badge number here has been replaced with a tribute to September 11, 2001.

So here it is in rough form. I still have to put zinc u-came around each one. Ed is building a cedar frame for the finished piece. I'll probably spend hours cleaning and polishing the glass before it is mounted.

We'll probably get it all together next weekend. Ed will drive down for his last week at work and take it with him. I've had this project on my mind for several years and it feels good to actually put it together.

It'll Be A Blast!

The largest part of the Lady Liberty for Ne Obliviscaris is soldered and ready for the sandblasted banner on the bottom.

After staring back and forth between pieces of glass, I decided to make the banner piece out of clear glass instead of the blue glass. With the motto etched on I think it will look better against the blue glass in the second panel.

The second panel is cut out and foiled, but since some of the pieces in the body of the panel are to be sandblasted also, I have to wait until they are done before soldering it. The lettering here shows through from the pattern cartoon, but it gives a good version of how it looks, pre-foil. All of that black background... will be gone. I used Spectrum artique for the border and blue gluechip for the badge field.

I took the cut pieces of blue glass, taped copies of the script to the back and then put the resist on the top of the glass. I used an electric stencil cutter (like a hot craft knife) and cut out the letters. Then after removing the unwanted pieces, I used a craft knife to clean up the edges. I had lots of solid advise from other glassers about how to cut these out. Of course, I didn't follow any of that advise, but this seemed to work best for me. We'll see what happens when they get blasted.

I met with a very talented glass artist nearby, Ruth Doumit, who will be very generously helping me with the sandblasting. Hopefully she will have time to help me with that this week.

Never Forget

Ne Obliviscaris is the motto for the Campbell Clan, and is also the title for this piece. A two panel piece, this will be constructed similarly to a plated piece. The two panels will not be leaded together, but rather framed together.



For the front panel, I have modified a Glass Crafters pattern by removing their background, leaving Lady Liberty. Here, the background is clear glass. The statue is white wispy and white wispy/opal, with amber pieces for the flame and lights in the crown. At this point the piece is cut and foiled, awaiting the motto banner at the bottom.































The motto will be sandblasted onto blue glass. I've laid the blue across the unfinished piece to get a feel for the finished look of the first panel.
I still have to cut the script into the resist. I've not done this before, but I think I will put the resist on the glass, then a layer of carbon paper, then a copy of the script. I'll trace the script, remove the carbon paper, and cut out the letters into the resist.

Caduceus In Burl

I'm still in the process of packing up the house, entertaining my granddaughter, weeding the garden, dismantling the deck around the house for the construction project, and various sundry chores and projects.

In the meantime I needed to do a "Glass Challenge" project for a glass gift exchange. It needed to be about 8", 15 pieces, and mailed to the recipient by mid-August. I had limited information about the recipient other than their occupation was in nursing, and they just painted their house green.

So I decided to make a caduceus and mount it on a piece of alder. I used some ripped out electrical wire from the construction project,twisted it with the screwgun, then mounted a glass glob in the top loop. I then drilled a hole in the burl and it's done!

Same problem though....it seems like I've stalled out on the soldering skills. Had I been able to set the piece in hobby came around the edge, I would have been much happier. But I have only tried to do that once time before and didn't seem to get the knack of it.

I'm also working on a two panel project that I will start posting soon.

Sounds Fishy To Me

While splitting wood for the winter, I kept seeing pieces of alder with beautiful grain around knots. Every time I put one in the stack of wood, I'd think, "Gosh, it's a shame to burn something so pretty." Next thing I knew I was throwing some of them into a pile. I knew I wanted to do something with them, but what? So I posted a picture of some of them on the glass forum I frequent, Artisans of Glass http://www.artisansofglass.com/ . In response, one of the folks there posted a picture of a beautiful pine knot they had used as a stand for a stained glass fish. What a great idea! I wish my brain worked like that!

Is there such a thing as coincidence? That same week, I received an e-mail from a friend asking if I would make a stained glass fish for his boss for a birthday gift..not too big. Yeah, I can do that! So I started hunting for a fish pattern. Spectrum Glass has many free patterns that they post for use, and they had the perfect fish...but waaaaiiiiit a minute..that fish looked familiar. Darned if it wasn't the same fish! Damn! That feels really close to copying. So after see sawing back and forth, I decided that since I was pressed for time, I'd just use the Spectrum pattern and had Ed route out a piece of the alder that I had. I glued felt on the bottom so it wouldn't be scratchy, and in the mail it went. I hereby issue a public bow to my forum-mates for their good taste and superior work, and thank them for their inspiration.