"The little dissatisfaction which every artist feels at the completion of a work forms the germ of a new work." ~ Berthold Auerbach

So Friday I got a few wineglasses out of the annealer.  

 The one on the left reminds me of a pregnant lady and the one of the right is Kate Moss.  

I made a few more wineglasses in the morning to get my fingers working and warmed up to do the graals!  Vegard and I were so excited to start but we had to wait until after lunch for the pieces to warm up enough for us to work with them.  So, before lunch we practiced how to make the navel (where the graal piece attaches to the pipe), organized our bench, cleaned the marvering table... and in general got everything ready for success!

After lunch we sat around for a while waiting for the teachers but they were busy doing something else.  So, finally we convinced Anniinna to supervise my first one!  She started but then finally Ake wandered over and took over the supervision/directing.  I did the hibiscus one first and it went really well!  I managed to do everything my self, even turn the super heavy pipe (takes lots of glass) and marver it straight!  I was really pleased I did it all by myself, I thought it was possible that something would go wrong and I would need saving, but NO!

After my first successful one Vegard tried his mostly unsupervised! It went well, there was a crack in his under color (which was also white) so that was disappointing.  The piece turned out nice, even and the pattern stayed straight and even also!  He was very pleased with his results and afterward said that now he knows he can do it, he won't be too worried about it next time.  I think he is already thinking of the next one he wants to do!

Then, it was my turn to do the dragon one!! I had thought about putting some yellow on the bottom of the piece because I made the red color dissolve but in the end decided to keep it simple.  It worked out perfect because the bottom of the piece became the part with no color so you hardly notice at all! The dragon design stayed very nicely centered and even and the whole thing turned out well, a little thick but cool.  

Here they are in the annealer after they were done.  The dragon is on the top left and this hibiscus and Vegard's are on the bottom.  I know it is super hard to see but I didn't want to hold it open too long and make them crack! 

 Friday evening I went to the stables and rode Lady.  For the first time I got to be the first to jump! Usually I am last, I guess so I can watch and understand what we are supposed to do.  But, this time I had already done the exercise before and got to go first! Lady was great and it was a beautiful day to be out at the barn.  Hopefully one day we will be able to jump outside instead of indoors ALL the time!

And, look, the flowers all starting to really bloom!!

 Saturday was a bit cold and cloudy so I stayed in watching movies, Mad Men, goofing off and then finally cooking a real proper dinner:

Stake and fresh green beans! I am not sure what cut of steak it is... but it was good! I over cooked it a little, there was a tiny bit of pink in the middle, but not enough to count really.  Oh well, still very good :)

Sunday, I got up and decided to walk the nearly 3 kilometers to the big lake for a day in the sunshine!  On the way I encountered this little guy: 

 Yes!!!  A snake in Sweden!! I have heard that there aren't any deadly poisonous ones here, just really painful venom kind, so I wasn't too scared, well really scared at all.  It didn't move which made me think it was dead and I thought about poking it with a stick to check.  Then I thought, if it isn't dead it might bite me and I would be ruining its sunbathing, which is rude.  So, I just took a picture and walked on... it seemed the only polite thing to do! haha  Once I got to the lake I realized they hadn't put the pier back in the water where we went swimming before.  Very sad! But I walked a little further and found my own person island!

 It was perfect, I could lay to the right of the ridge in the middle and it blocked all the wind!  I laid in my bathing suit for a while but it was a bit chilly for that so most of the time I had my towel wrapped around myself.  It was a great afternoon of reading, relaxing and absorbing some much needed vitamin D!  I even brought myself a snack:

 Wine, crackers with apples and brie!  Yes, I am reading Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, and it was even better then the movie!!!

After about 5:30 I wandered back to Orrefors only to find out there was a barbecue going on! This time they even had a fire going :)  This guy, Mads, from Denmark was hosting it and all the chill people were there which was really fun.

 "meatball?"

 I sat next to the fire, ate a hotdog, drank some beer and have a great end to my relaxing Sunday!

 Can you smell it?! My mouth is watering again haha!

This morning, being Monday even though it feels much later, I went to the cold shop.  There Vegard goes "are you going to the hot shop? Oh, you haven't seen the graals yet?!?!" and I turned around quickly ran to the hot shop to see them!!! As usual everything shrinks (not literally) in the annealer, but they look great all the same!

 The sun makes the patterns a bit weird, but it shows the colors well.

 Dragon head, tongue and flaming nostrils...

 belly...

 bum and cloud...

 and, awesome tail!

 Look how even the white is... I am gooooood! 

 Then I remembered the matchbox.

 But look how great it looks with light coming through it! Right now I am sitting in my room with a candle in it and it looks even better! I will show you tomorrow.

 one flower... two flower....

 green flower... blue flower (not really, they are all white on the purple, it just rhymed...)

 Here the white is a bit thinner and you can see the sun shining through the flowers!

I don't have a candle in this one but I think it would also look cool.  Hopefully instead I can pick some daffodils or some flower to put in it soon!  Anyway, all morning I cleaned up their bottoms and signed my name so I could take them home right away!! I am very pleased and can't wait to make more!!