Glass Menagerie

[rolanni]

What went before:  Rook made sure I had eaten a good, nutritious breakfast before I left on the day's work:

Tuesday afternoon. Sunny and hot. So. Very. Hot.

I have had Adventures.

Firstly, on my way to Belfast, I had a right of way dispute with a turkey. In true turkey style, he burst from the weeds and charged into the road, I swerved, he swerved, I swore, the turkey went up over the windshield. I heard scrabbling on the roof, looked in the mirror, fearing, as one does, the worst -- but there was no dead turkey behind me.

I pulled over and got out.

No dead turkey on the front grill (yes, I know I saw him go over the windshield; I looked anyway). No dead turkey on the back bumper. No dead turkey on the roof. I sighted back down the road. No turkeys of any description to be seen.

The best I can figure is that he rolled onto the roof of the car, got his feet under him, spread his wings -- and flew away.

Sheesh, Turkey. Give a girl a heart attack, why not?

Despite the turkey, I was early in the environs of Belfast, so I stopped at the public boat landing. The breeze was blowing, and it was already warm, but I thought to myself, thought I, "Well. This won't be so bad, if the breeze keeps up."

SPOILER: The breeze did not keep up. By the time I returned with my party to the boat landing for lunch at Nautilus, the weather was certifiably unpleasant.

In between those two visits to the boat landing, I met my brother- and sister-in-law, my grandnephew, and his friend at Mainely Gallery, and we made glass. The first project was a puffin. I fear mine has Character. Which is *fine*. What wasn't fine was that, while I was getting ready to grip my very hot glass critter with the tweezers in anticipation of freeing him from the glass rod from which he had been formed -- my hand slipped and I burned my finger.

PRO TIP: Do not put your finger into live flame. It hurts.

The upside of this misadventure is that I am now a member of a new club: Glassworkers who have burned themselves while working.

Cold water was deployed, as was aloe and lidocaine. And bandaids. I took the bandaids off when I got home, and I don't think the surgeons will have to take the finger (that's what passes for humor).

Despite this mishap, there was enough time remaining in our session to make a second object. My sister- and brother-in-law, working as a team, made another puffin, to keep the first one company. My grandnephew had a Plan, but his glass popped -- which was impressive. He declared himself satisfied and stood as assistant to his friend, who made a very pretty glass flower.  I made!

A marble.

Don't laugh; it's a lot harder than you might think to make a marble, especially when you're using the soft glass, which starts melting almost before you bring it to the flame.

I very much look forward to picking up my puffin and my marble on Thursday afternoon.

Lunch at Nautilus was as usual good and plentiful, catching up happened, and we parted for our two separate portions of Maine around 2.

I'm now home, Trooper is on my lap, purring, and being an impediment to typing. My burned finger has been inspected by Firefly and by Rook, both of whom were obviously saying, "Well, SOMEbody was stoopid."

I do believe I'll be getting a dish of ice cream.

I don't believe that I'll be going out to embroidery tonight. Burned finger, you know.

What's everybody been doing today?

 

Comments

[jessie_c]

The companion club is "Glassworkers who have not burned themselves while working. Yet." It has a much smaller membership.