Wednesday, April 27, 2011

"I just got on my pony's back and away I went." ~ Gordon Richards

So, yesterday I tried my hand at sculpting glass! It is completely different feeling and kind of like frosting a cake and using modeling clay that you can't touch.  It was AMAZINGLY hot being just an inch away from a solid mass of glass and slippery.  I have had this image of fat ponies made of glass in my head for quit and while and decided I wanted to try it out.  Surprisingly it went very well from the start!

So, I walk into the hot shop, draw a rough sketch on the floor and say I want to sculpt that!  I am surrounded with teachers and Jukke and we all start to brain storm where to start, where to end, what tools I will need and in general how this shin-dig is going to go down.  In the end I am armed with Rebecca as my assistant, a machete and leather glove from Jukke and a flame thrower that Julia Childs would be jealous of (yes, she did use flame throwers!).

I managed to make two adorable and fairly accurate to the sketch ponies!
 Above we have Lady, attempt number 2, she is running (thats how you tell them apart).
 And, this handsome fellow is Sven, he is galloping but because all his feet are together he is standing on a pad of glass.
 They are very wide as you can see, ready for their tiny kids to bounce off them when they try jumping.
 Sven from the other side, he has a big butt, but don't talk about it, he is secretly sensitive.
 And, Lady, with her head held very high struts her stuff.
 And now, time for the glamor shots, no not really, just trying to get a better picture where you can actually see what is going on and not reflections from a thousand different things. 

 I think Lady is very graceful despite her size, I think it is the tail swish she's got goin' on.
 It was exhausting make these two, it took me all morning, but it was really fun.  I plan to make some more, but I am mulling over the shape and general look of them.  But don't worry, there will be more "My Little Ponies" as Micke calls them!

Today I worked with Thomas in the hot shop, I made some champagne glasses and he made a jug inside a jug!  It was pretty cool, there is literally a tiny version of a pitcher inside a bigger one!  I will take a picture tomorrow so you can see how cool.  We didn't get it perfect, but some really nice ones came out in the end I think.

After school I went to Tempo and got stuff for a stir fry tonight (which turned out really good) and saw these tulips:
 Its like a pansy and tulip had babies and this is the magical product!
I have never seen flowers like this so I was really impressed, maybe a little too impressed, I got weird looks while I was taking pictures.

Now, I need to get back to packing... I am going to Gothenburg to visit Rosanne for the weekend.  She has been trying to get me to her home town for forever and this weekend will be perfect.  It is (I think) the second largest city in Sweden, supposed to be full of super cool people and really beautiful.  Also, this weekend is the end of April, first of May which is big celebration for Sweden from what I understand.  Eva said they burn stuff like Christmas trees and things to bring in Spring, so I have to assume something cool will be happening in Gothenburg!  Also, Rosanne is going to take me out to a proper Swedish club she says and I am getting a fancy hair cut, I am thinking just above the shoulders.  I am super excited and leave tomorrow at lunch, so I need to finish packing and cleaning :)

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