Makin' Plates!

Health Care Tips for the Uninsured

If you are, like me, one of the 45 million Americans struggling without health insurance, and have mild frost bite, here is how to treat that: burns!
At first I didn't know why my fingers and toes were becoming sore and red and swelling and hard to move without pain. It didn't occur to me that while at work, I was being trained to polish glass. For those of you unfamiliar with this process it involves long hours of using a wet grinder in the cold shop (aptly named). Because my boss is too cheap to buy a water heater for this purpose all the water sprayed by this hand held tool comes from the ground pipes, and at the time it was still snowing outside! Couple that with my circulation problems and I didn't even notice that my hands were literally freezing.
Just when I realized what was going on I worried that it would prevent me from continuing my work for blowing glass in the hot shop (also aptly named) and working with steel for my mobile project. Luckily, my first day back in the studio went well and actually helped my fingers to better articulate. Between the furnace and the forge I've sustained a few mild burns and am now happy to report that the frost bite is gone!
Who needs doctors anyway?

Breaking Ground

There is work being done on the mobile at last! But first a little inspiration from my friend at Loquita Chocolates. I was invited to a "My Bloody Valentine" party (Fri. Feb 13th) and decided to try some truffle making for the occasion. I got a little crazy with the flavors, what you see here in the foreground is bacon truffles! Yes, that is bacon supporting the cocoa confection, and yes, they are good! Next there was orange blossom truffles and after that, coated in nibs you see spicy rose hip-tea truffles. They were a success, but not nearly as interesting or as beautiful as what is being made here.
After that was such a wonderful weekend of blowing glass and forging steel! Here you see the Pratt studio where I am taking a blacksmithing class and having so much fun. This is the beginning of building the armature for the scale-model mobile. The first glass platters were made this weekend too, but pictures are yet to come.
Well, overall I'm making good use of myself in my spare time, which is good, considering I'll have pleanty more of it soon. The economic decline has caused my work to cut my hours, but I figure I should see this as an opportunity and use every moment to be creative. It might even mean more blog entries!