Cocoa & Cap't Morgans... and Mushrooms on the First Day of Autumn!

Sooooo... Today....  About 80% of the school had the day off so in the hot shop at the school in the morning it was only me & Mia, Nick & Nils, girl from Kosta & Connie (older guy who used to work at the factory).. SO NICE! Mia and I made some bottles and then got kind of bored with that... we have been making bottles for days now.  I went to Rebecca (there weren't any hot shop teachers around and she was right next door in the cold shop) and asked her if maybe we could play with colors while we made more bottles.  She said "YES! of course!!" and got us all set up.  We picked out a blue and purple and there were already some red (which we later found out was actually ugly brown), orange and green out.  It was fun to roll in colors and make bottles.  We experimented with rolling on color on the first post or the second gather... with adding more than one color at a time, with putting in clear strips of glass which push the color away, putting on stripes of color... and then after lunch Mia found this crazy mix of colors.  It was these big yellow chunks of glass mixed with smaller pieces of blue, white, red and maybe green.  When it was heated up it looked really gross but the more it cooled the better it looked.  I think they are going to be very happy bottles! haha.  We both can't wait to see them tomorrow and maybe dig through the color closet and find more fun colors to play with! Those will be more fun to take some pictures of too I think.  I hope they turn out well! It is amazing how differently the colors make the glass behave.  When you have colors on the first post then gather more glass it seems like the clear glass is slippery on the color and just wants to slide off!  The colors also make the glass act cooler, as in more stiff and hard to work with.  I can't wait until I am good enough to use solid color blocks to make pieces.  That is how the color is perfectly even over an entire piece.  On the ones I did, where I rolled clear glass into powdered color the color fades over the piece and is not even all over. 

But so much fun!!!

I took some pictures of all sorts of things for you today:

More bottles... made yesterday.

some are better than others... (that is a regular computer paper behind them if that gives you some idea of the size.  Eva and I talked today about ways to show you the size better in the future which I will try.)

most of them have odd places where the neck comes out... but the top of the neck is looking better!

there is a square one in the middle of you look carefully!

The cold shop! Those are grinding wheels (8 all together I think).

This is a deep cutting wheel with a 90 degree diamond wheel on it.  The blue things that look like alien arms are the water for the wheel.  If you don't have water it gets really hot and breaks!

This is where you make beads.  There are 3 flames that can be used here.

COLORS! On the left we have purple (lila), then blue (blå) next to it, brown (brun) (that we thought was red (röd)) and in the back you can see some orange (oraaange) in the middle and green (grön) to the far right.

These are the molds we have been using.  At the top is the flat bottle mold, then the square one on the right and nice round bottle or tumbler mold on the left next to my shoe.  I used the round one more today since I was playing with colors and thought you might be able to see them better with that.

After school today I started my laundry (since no one else is here to take the machine!) and then went mushroom picking! And for once I wasn't the unlucky mushroom charm! We actually found a whole lot!

This is Marjut and Aino (Finish girls) picking mushrooms.

  Here in Sweden (OK, maybe not everywhere) the forest floor is covered in moss over the rocks and dirt which is perfect for mushrooms! The forests here are so beautiful and different.  I can't wait to show you when you come visit!!!  We found some red/brown ones that you have boil then cure in salt to eat later, some hairy ones that look like they are from Dr. Seuss that you boil too, then some little yellow and brown ones that you can just cook normal and then eat.  Also, one that when you cut into it turns blue! I got to keep the ones that you can cook and eat like normal since they are easier and they cooked the other ones. We found like 5 small plastic bags worth (a whole basket and shoulder bag!).  Here are some you don't want:

But, they sure look cool!

Here are the ones we picked.  They told me what they are called in Finish... which of course I don't remember.  Its not just because I can't remember stuff like this but is is also because the names were Finish... meaning they sounds like Frrrrrammmbelllllllaarrrrrraaaannnnnn or something with lots of R's and A's.  

Tricky language Finish!

These are the redish ones and furry ones you boil.

mmmmmm.... yuck.....

pack 'em in salt and enjoy later on salads, apparently...  

^ this is my stack! yay tiny mushrooms!

you can dry them like this... (and store it in your own hand made glass jar)

or, clean 'em and put 'em in a bag to enjoy later.  While cleaning it is important to have some cocoa and rum! I wasn't too sure how that would be... but it was GREAT! I am going to start enjoying this warm treat more and more as it begins to cool down! Speaking of which....

That is the harvest moon over Orrefors! HAPPY FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN EVERYONE!!!!!

I miss you all and hope you also have a very good first day of the new season!