Poppy mostly done!
March 23, 2007
I built a mount for the poppy to drop into,
and wired this vase up with a switch and the electrical cord.

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Goldfish attempt
March 21, 2007
I wanted to make a life-sized goldfish.
But lead glass just breaks too much when worked so hard...

I tried again in borosilicate, but it broke too.
On the other hand, I learned a lot and feel I could do much better next time!
--

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Rusty Old American Dream
July 28, 2006
This is titled after a David Wilcox song of the same name.

Junkman Bill, of Ace Auto Wrecking, gave me this lovely fender to work from!
Chimindri and I worked a bit on this together.
--

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Poppy pumped
July 19, 2006
Got the kiln working last night, and finally pumped the poppy!
It's been waiting a long time!

Nick helped me drill holes and set up the wiring, but had to leave before it could be finished.
--

poppy.jpg 212k

Scott's doggie!
June 30, 2006
Since Foo was making a big project for the July 4th trip to the desert
I wanted to make something too in a whim!
So I finally put together this doggie, which Scott had been wanting for a long time.

I was surprised that the heated areas [eg all bends]
turned green when pumped with argon only!
Scott wants me to repump it with mercury, which I will do soon!
--

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BANG! shop sign
June 24, 2006
Da rANcH is having a show at the end of July 2006
and I used it as an excuse to finally make a sign for our studio!
I've been wanting to make this sign since eternity! :)
I also looked forward to more practice with my lettering bending skills.

I'm quite happy with the results!

I had a little trouble getting the bombarder to strike
[you can see the first picture with the sign lit up. It's dim purple and flickered a lot]
so I asked Mr. Foo to come help.
By then it seemed to be working fine, and Mr. Foo kept it bombarding until the electrodes cherried.
The paper didn't char very well, though.
And when it was done, it had the ''clear pink tube'' problem,
as described in the Neon Engineer's Notebook.
Since I painted it with blackout, it cannot easily be rebombarded now.

I will likely just remake it one day, but for now, it's done,
and may even still burn in.

Lesson learned!--

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Birth - my first mold-blown project
February 22, 2006
While I was pregnant, I wanted to make some birth art to help me focus
on having a good birth.

I'm not really into birth art myself -- I find foetuses to be kinda disturbing...
But I decided to give it a try.

This is my first mold-blown project.
I created the little baby in clay, then cast a mold of it in plaster,
let the mold dry for a week [it retains water for a long time!], coated it with graphite,
and puffed heated glass in the mold so it would take on the form.

It worked really well!

I ended up making a bunch of little glass babies for all my new pregnant friends!

The ''flower'' at the top is supposed to be a rose,
representing the opening of the body to allow the baby to come out.

The rose is made out of antique ruby glass.
They don't make it anymore, but it's very lovely!
The glass is difficult to work, however -- it cracks easily.
--

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Max and the Magic Castle
January 10, 2006
This is the original Adventures of Max, mounted in a halogen lamp base.
I got it finished for the Crucible's big Fire Opera -- the Seven Deadly Sins

Here it is at my house, safe and sound!
--

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The Adventures of Max and the Magic Castle
December 19, 2005
This was an xmas present for my nephew Max.
The shadow box measures about 8"x10"x4" deep.

On the back it reads:

Max is a great adventurer.
Whenever something goes wrong,
Max is always called in to save the day.

In this episode, aeroplane pilot
s are disappearing and Max is called
in to find out where they have gone.
He discovers that the pilots have
found a Magic Castle in the Clouds
and they each have decided to live
there forever happy and peaceful
instead of returning home.



I now have a bunch of ''Adventures of Max" to make in this series!
--

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Little Castle finished! And small flower and red fishy!
November 16, 2005
In getting ready for the AAU Neon Studio Open House, we finished off some random pending neon pieces.

I finally got the little castle done! Well, there's a few more things I need to do, but the
neon is [hopefully! if it doesn't break again!] finished. From there, I still need to make a
white ring of neon for the underside of the lamp bowl for under the cloud, and I want to change
the wiring for the castle.

I also pumped the two little flowers. These were more like doodles. I'm a bit disappointed in
how dim the flowers themselves are. :( The leaves flicker some, which I think is kinda cool. :)

We also pumped out the red fishy! It looks *great*!
I plan to mount it on a plate with fake lettuce and tartar sauce... :)
For tomorrow [the open house] I'm going to bring a plate and real lettuce temporarily. :)--

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2 Williar
November 4, 2005
This is a sign I'm working on for our new house.
I have many other projects I *should* be working on, but I'm inspired. :)

The glass is 10mm Voltarc 3500 white, which has been a joy to work with.
It was Bill's recommendation. He says the color looks great too.

There was a turning point when I started doing the sharper bends and drops
using the knife fire instead of the ribbon burner. Boy, what a difference! :)

UPDATE: While painting the blackout, I ended up breaking it. :( :(
Since I pumped it with mercury, it was not repairable.
I hope to remake it one day.

Such is working with glass...

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Castle parts are up!
July 10, 2005
Here's the little castle up in the halogen lamp where it will eventually be mounted.
Just a test to see what it'll look like.

Very exciting to see!
--

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Little Castle
July 3, 2005
This cute Little Castle was originally a present for my nephew, Max.
[It as just too fragile, once I finished it, for a kid his age.]

The idea was to make something to reuse an old broken halogen lamp.
The little castle will be mounted in the lamp, and below, there will
be cotton to make it floating in a cloud!
Under the cotton will also be a bright wihte neon tube to make the
cloud glow so it will actually be a light!

The cloud is dimmable, but the castle isn't.
Scott and Mr. Foo helped me repurpose the switch to allow the old switch to control the dimness.

I strongly felt the little aeorplane was *necessary* to make the castle look real.
Otherwise, it would just be some strange abstract form.

I'm pleased for the dream-like, fantasy feel of the castle,
though realisim is important to Max's age [he's 3.]
--

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Little_Castle_from_below.jpg 94k

Castle parts
May 30, 2005
Here's the pieces for the Little Castle, not yet put together,
and the sketch for how the bits are arranged.
--

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Dogwood
May 5, 2005
This Dogwood was accepted in the [jurlied] Academy of Art spring show 2005.

Unfortunately, a friend of mine broke it -- it shattered and is not repairable. :(

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dogwood_closeup.jpg 90k

dogwood_vase_switch.jpg 77k

Daffodil
May 4, 2005
Here's a daffodil I'm working on.

I'm enjoying working with colored glass instead of just clear with phosphors.

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daffodil_pieces.jpg 79k

daffodil_side.jpg 75k

daffodil_vase.jpg 31k

daffodil_vase_switch.jpg 52k

Bamboo Birds
April 28, 2005
This was the hardest thing I had ever made at the time!

Unfortunately, it is leaking air in somewhere. It's supposed ot be filled with
krypton, wihch is a white colored gas, but you can see the red from the impurities...

I plan to remake this in its entirety.

bamboo_birds.jpg 56k

birds_closeup_lit.jpg 67k

birds_lit_lights_on.jpg 85k

Kiki_and_bamboo.jpg 64k

birds_closeup.jpg 49k

parts.jpg 69k

layout.jpg 59k

down_bird_side.jpg 39k

birds_together.jpg 42k

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Old Yaller
April 24, 2005
This is the yellow doggie I made for Scott, my husband.

Note that the clear glass tube coming off will hook to the vacuum pump.

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Dogwood in vase test
April 18, 2005
Here, I'm trying the pumped dogwood in a posible vase to mount it in.
--

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Clear glass doggie!
April 18, 2005
This was a challenge from my husband!

I did this one in [cheap] clear glass as a test to see if I could do it.

Later, I made a yellow doggie for him!
--

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doggie_front.jpg 59k

doggie_head_closeup.jpg 75k

doggie_side.jpg 80k

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Dogwood pumped red
April 13, 2005
Here's the dogwood pumped with neon.
Since it had a small crack in one leaf, I decided to ope it up,
coat it with phosphors, and repump with argon instead.--

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Flower: Julie's birthday present!
April 2, 2005
I wanted to try my hand at making flowers.
At the same time, it was also Julie's birthday!
So when I finished this flower, I gave it to my dear friend, Julie.

This flower was a big turning point in my glass abilities.
--

flower_sconce.jpg 35k

Flaming Lotus Girls' sign
March 18, 2005
This is a sign I made for the FLG
--

Kiki_shows_sign.jpg 119k

Pouneh's birthday present!
February 18, 2005
The long version of this story is here.

Basically, this was the single most challenging project I have ever done!

Egads, look at what a frankenstein it is --
all those welds on the face, the thin bends where the red shows through...

In all, though, I'm pretty proud!--

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Fender plans
November 11, 2004
Here's some pics of the fender right after I got it,
plus some overlays in Photoshop of my plans
--

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fender_side.jpg 128k

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First try at a script K
October 30, 2004
This was the hardest letter for this project,
so I tried it first, and did pretty well!

I bent two at once, so one could be cooling. The first one came
out better than the second one, for some reason.

[I have since broken the good K... :( ]--

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good_K.jpg 76k

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Neon class midterm
October 21, 2004
Here's the FRAGILE sign I made for my box.
--

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Crucible Juried Student Show
January 5, 2002
The Crucible held it's second Juried Student Show.
Any past or present students may enter their art,
and the jury -- made up of the current teachers -- chooses
among the entries for the actual show.

Before the show begins, the opening reception is a "Refusalon"
[an actual word, meaning a show of all unselected works of art]

My neon piece was chosen for the show.
--

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Burner -- a fire and neon artpiece
May 19, 2001
This was our "found object" assignment in Neon1 at the Crucible.
I took a red U-bend, and then decided I couldn't hlep myself but
to put fire in it. :) The fire burned green, which was an odd contrast
to the red neon -- the green fire looking cool, and the red, cold neon looking hot.
I was quite pleased with the results!
--

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The original ColorSpace Table
February 28, 2000
Here's some pictures of the original ColorSpace project I did in college in the early 1990's:
The Table

You see how white objects in the Table can be any color in the visible
spectrum. [Well, not *exactly* since the red, green and blue lights are
not perfect colors... But they're close enough to make lots of colors!]
--

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