“Man - despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments - owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

So, I was google-ing quotes as usual to find a title for this blog... I was google-ing "layers" and came across this gem... it is not related, but it has LAYERS in it and is of course hilarious!

“First you must find... another shrubbery! (dramatic chord) Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must place it here, beside this shrubbery, only slightly higher so you get a two layer effect with a little path running down the middle. ("A path! A path!") Then, you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forrest... with... a herring!”

Monty Python and the Holy Grail 

How can I not share that with you?! Anyway, I have been doing a  lot of layering in terms of glass...

Here is a nice blue plate I made at the beginning of the year and I decided finally to sandblast a peacock on it!

^the taped version, and below is the sandblasted version.

I am going to polish the bottom some so you won't see the punty mark but I really like it :)

I also decorated this piece to do as an ariel.  I have engraved different constilations in it and hope you trap a nice air bubble where each star is and then leave a faint line connecting the stars.  I have lots of different ones, Orion, the big dipper, Cancer, Aries, Draco... but no Cassiopeia which I regret... it is so fun to say :) 

I also did another graal with the penrose stair case on it, well two of them interlapping.

I forgot to take a picture of the sandblasted one, but here is the lay out.  I am going to blow it into a straight sided cylinder so you can really see all the lines hopefully.

At the barn Poseidon is sick :( I am not sure with what but I don't think I am supposed to even pet him...  So, on Wednesday I rode good ole Vaaaagner! I had forgotten what it was like to jump a horse  A horse that doesn't over jump everything! It was really nice to remember.

I have also been working on making the Ravenna plates for this design:

It had caused a lot of discussions between all the teachers, how to pull it off, different techniques to use and etc.  The tricky part is that I want the bubbles which will be like reflections on top of the water to go over the fish, not cut into their colors and I want the bubbles to go out into the clear glass.  So, the technique we seemed to have settled on is that I will make two plates, one in colors, one in clear and pick them up on top of each other and then blow them into a plate... hopefully it will work!

Here is a plate with the colors that I will cut the fish design in to.

It is white on top, orange in the middle and blue on the bottom.

Oh god, I have weird looking fingers! They look like they belong to a 100 year old japanese sock maker or something! 

Annnnnnnyway, here I am blowing up the clear plate that will have the bubbles cut into it and will go on top of the colored plate.  It has to be pretty thick so I can cut the places for the bubbles pretty deep.

Thanks to Vegard for the pictures... this is what happens when I leave my camera out on the assistant bench.

When I have my own place I will make the bench smaller so I don't look so funny sitting in it I think...

On Thursday I attempted to blow up a big graal with purple inside and white on the outside.  I messed it all up and had to get Ake to come save it! He worked on it for 30 minutes at least and managed to save it thankfully! I had let the white get too cold before I pushed it all the way over the color and then I ended up with a big blob that had a sort of giant, really hot skirt on it... not so good, at all.

BUT!!! On Friday I managed to do it all by myself!!! It was exhausting, and really hard but I managed to get a giant ostrich egg graal with white on the outside and purple inside! It is wonderful! 

I am going to put a MC Escher scene on it with the stairs going every direction... hopefully!

After school I stayed and helped Marianne who was making a gift for someone.  She asked if I could be her assistant and I said yes... then sort of regretted it because I thought maybe it would be really stressful... often being her assistant is kind of scary... I always make the punty wrong, bring a weird bit or do something wrong.  But it went really well.  She was in a good mood and the piece turned out really well.  It was a bit exhausting being at school for about 8 hours but I guess it was good practice for one day working by myself!

After school I went to the barn and jumped Sheridan! He is so cute and tries so hard to do the right thing.  How can you not fall for that face?!

The lesson went really well.  I didn't have to hold his face so much and could just let him gallop along and jump which was really nice.  Pia said she thought he liked the way I rode... I think it was because he knew I had a carrot in my pocket ;) but it was a really nice ride all the same!

Now I am putting together my first, all alone, dinner party! I am having a bunch of classmates over for a Thanksgiving dinner at my house.  I am making turkey, sweet potato casserole (with marshmallows), green bean casserole, stuffing (stove top), gravy, cranberry dressing (from scratch) and some people are bringing some other stuff.  I think it will be 11 or 12 of us all together! I will take lots of pictures don't worry :)  I but I should go clean that turkey!