"In summer, the song sings itself." ~William Carlos Williams

Alright, so a lot has happened in the WEEK I have not posted (sorry about that).  My internet has been really weird recently, turning on and off and on and off randomly and in general sucking.  I tried to post an "I'm alive" post from school but the internet was being SUPER slow there and I didn't have time to wait for it to load.  So, anyway, HERE I AM!!!

So... Last Friday was International Food Day in Nybro.  There were 20 some food vendors giving away food from all over the world! There was Sweden, Denmark, Norway, China, Thailand, Iraq, Morocco, African,  Several -stans (They were ones I had never heard of before so I can't remember now) and even an American stand.  

 Weirdly I think I managed to get two pictures with the same random black dude in them! I don't know who he was or what country he was representing since he is seen above behind a table.

 But, each of these tents have at least 4 different countries at them, some have more and you just line up and get food.

 This was really good, it was from some where in South America... they sat there and cut up the veggies, cooked them and this super old man gave you a tiny bowl which he carefully made sure had a piece of each veggie and bread.  It was really good but I think my favorite was Norway (delicious pancakes with butter and sugar between them), Thailand (fried spring rolls with sauce), China (chicken and some peppers in a wok) and Iraq (huge really good gyro of sorts).  I even went to investigate the American table... I had heard they were serving meat on white bread (not very exciting).  It turns out it was pork bbq with cheese (weird) and on white bread.  The pork was good, the cheese and bread left something to be desired.  I had visions while walking over there that it was going to be baloney with mayo or something!  It was an interesting afternoon and nice to see Nybro exciting and alive... even with mainly super old people! haha.

Afterwards Sigrid and Vegard took me to the riding stables for my lesson.  We brought the kids out to meet the horses, they seemed more interested in this big tractor carrying round bales then the horses but they did look at them.  Apparently after they got home they talked about the horses and had enjoyed it.  I got to ride Idex (pronounced E-dex) for the first time.  He is super sweet and a lot of fun to ride, he felt so small compared to Lady and Poseidon! Apparently he can be a good jumper if you get him going, I wonder if I will ride him again or not.

 All day on Friday I worked on making drop vases.  I was working by myself so it was easier to do alone, but I did need a punty and a few of them have hole in the side which I made with a torch and then blew until a bubble formed and popped.  Here are two of them... I don't know why I didn't take a picture of all of them but I made several, maybe 7?

 Saturday was the exhibition for the 3rd year (I shouldn't call them that, some have been going for longer then 3 years... ) or the most advanced "Art Glass" students.:

 I spend the morning helping Kirsten (this is not her, this is Marja) pour champagne, cut and arrange fruit...

 and the best part... put out the chocolates!!!

It was a good turn out, a lot of people came and even one of the Orrefors' designers cut the ribbon for the opening.  I met and hungout with an American who used to work at Åfors but is now opening his own place in the area named Christopher Ramsey.  I was thinking maybe need year I can do one my practical studies with him, since he was nice and speaks English.  He is also super friendly and seems to know EVERYONE so maybe he would be a good connection.  After the opening we went to the Crystal Bar and had a glass of wine and enjoyed being dressed up and not drinking at home for once.  Then we went to a cook out in the back yard of Ida and Bosse and hung out and chatted the night away.  I mostly spent time with Kirsten and Sigrid... I even got to ride in the front of Sigrid's bike.  She and Vegard have this bike with two wheels in the front and a giant box where the kids ride... it was very comfortable :)

 Monday I ruthlessly went through my cupboard giving glass to the school and throwing away bad stuff.  It was hard but I felt so much better afterwards! Look at it now... not over flowing for once!!

Then in the hot shop all week it has been time for production, meaning making bowls, cups and vases for the student's to use next year to practice doing flower and deep cutting on.  So, I spent my day making these on Monday:

 And I think I made about 15!  Not too bad :)

 Tuesday I made these, very similar but with straight sides.  Some were super thick and some thin, so they can be used for either deep cutting or flowers... depending on the assignment.

 I have no idea how many I made but it was a lot! The whole class produced a TON and we had turn on the second annealer that day!

 Tuesday the circus came to town and parked literally in the back yard!

 That is the school building on the left.

 It was the Bambino family circus! Kirsten and I went with Sigrid, Vegard and the kids... turns out that Kirsten and I were the only ones there without kids... 

 It was TINY!

 Here is Mr. Bambino, his wife and their clown son...

 Another son working with the 4 little black ponies they brought with them...

 They did this trick where they would stand on the step... which I think scared people more them impressed them because the space was so small it was so close.

 I couldn't get this picture to turn sideways, but here is another son standing on his hands on top of three chairs on top of a table! Pretty cool.  I only stayed for the first half, it was hot, kind of lame and I was starving for dinner... of course I heard the second half was better then the first.  Oh well.

Wednesday I cleaned out my locker some more and packed up a bunch of glass to take home:  

I have no idea if I am going to be able to get it all home or not! I hope so!!! Then after lunch I helped Vegard blow up a graal (which turned out really good) and made a super ugly brown bowl which thankfully broke before I got it in the annealer, it was that ugly! haha.  

After school we went to the lake for a cookout and swimming! I even jumped in! OK, it was just for a few seconds of swimming but I did it! I guess that means it is officially summer!! Hooray!

Now I have Thursday (today), Friday and Monday off of school so I am going to see my family at their summer house on the coast with Kirsten.  I am excited and promise to take tons of pictures when we get there tomorrow! Tonight I have riding lesson which I think will be private, just me riding, which makes me a bit nervous... hopefully it won't be too exhausting, but I suppose if it is thats OK, I have the whole weekend to recover! It supposed to be perfect weather and I am going to go outside and enjoy some of the perfect weather right now!

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." ~ Billy Wilder

OK, remember these from the other day?  Well, my camera was charged and ready to take pictures again today!! So, here they are (plus songs they remind me of):

Shiny metallic inside!! 

 And you can kind of see the stripy stripe I was going for in the middle.. next time it will be better I am sure :)

 And the Sweet Briar plate:

 "Sweet you rock,

 "sweet you roll,

 "sweet like honey to my soul."

 I mean, who doesn't like Dave Matthews?!  Here is a video for that song: Crash Into Me.

 Remember all those wineglasses I made a while back with Sigrid?  Well, it turned out to be a BUNCH!  So, I popped the tops off and then went about decorating their stems in different styles.

 This is one is the grippy indents that you see in riding crops or golf clubs or something like that.

 Three, even, straight lines going straight down (kind of hard to see).

 And spirals around, as if there is string wrapped around the stem.

 This is so you can easily grip your wineglass full of  Gewürztraminer while eating your fried chicken.  I read in The Wine Bible, while taking a class at SBC, that they good well together and I totally agree!  The only problem was greasy fingers... these wineglasses are the answer to an age old, wide spread dilemma!

"Drop dead legs, pretty smile..." Van Halen (youtube). 

Now I am officially done with the semester end project! And, I am pleased with how it came out... not everything is perfect but all in all pretty damn good :)

Today I worked in the factory in the morning blowing some whiskey glasses.  Even after all this time they are still really hard! I think I got a few good ones, I will see how wonky they look in the morning I suppose...

In the afternoon I went to the cold shop where Rebecca helped me set up a photo shoot for my glass.  It is nearing the end of the school year and I need to prioritize and clean out my cupboard.  So, I took pictures of glasses that I like and won't be taking home with me and some that I like even more and will be attempting to take home with me!  She let me borrow some cardboard backgrounds and a tripod and I sat outside most of the afternoon taking tons of pictures.  I think they turned out well and since you have seen all the pieces over the past year I am not going to feature them again.  But, I do plan on fixing up the pictures this weekend and will maybe show you some of the best shot ones.  

I am not making any promises though, this Saturday is the exhibition for the graduating 3rd years, the Art Glass students and then lots of celebrating... So, I am not too sure I will be up for doing a whole lot on Sunday but I will try! Don't worry I will take pictures of some of the pieces in the exhibit :)  And (!!) Friday is International Food Day in Nybro. I am going with Sigrid, Vegard and kids to enjoy free, hopefully delicious food!!! I can't wait :)

"This too shall pass..."

So, back pain again... YUCK!  Looks like I over did it yesterday :(  It really felt a lot better though! Today it has gotten increasingly worse... not fun... I guess I will have to be calm tomorrow too... uhg.  The good news is that I have TONS of cold working to do so there is that to distract me from blowing I suppose.

Today I did hobble to school to see the pieces I made yesterday, only to find out my battery was almost dead on the camera and I managed to get these TWO pictures in!  Here is the encalmo bowl with a stripe of solid color on the bottom, a stripe with stripes in the middle and a clear rim... See? It is exactly how I described it! haha.  The inside is metallic which is pretty cool but the camera didn't last that long sadly.

 And here is my Sweet Briar plate! Pink and green a bit swirled... which I def did on purpose!  I like it anyway and will probably keep it because I like the colors... I didn't pick it up though now that I think about it... it might have a crazy back side!

So, today I have watched more Harry Potter... my brain is soon going to be filled with HP mush (only #7, part 1 to go) and ate the rest of my gyro pizza!  Not too bad of a day except I couldn't move around a whole lot... tomorrow will be better! I can feel it in me bones!  :)

On a completely random note I have some kind of exciting news!  I have lightly followed this yoga guy's blog called Yeah Dave for a long while.  He has a book (which I keep meaning to buy) about living in the moment, chocolate and wine, music and life philosophies.  I like it because his message is serious, he seriously believes it but he doesn't seem to take himself too seriously which makes it easier for me to like him.  I am not so good at listening to other life philosophers because I always feel they are so pretentious.  He does the Yoga for Foodies thing which has been featured in the NY Times and held alllll over which sounds like tons of fun to me.  So, he has this thing where each day you should find something Funny, something Beautiful and something Delicious and asked his readers to send in a picture of one of these moments in their life.  He was going to pick the best picture for a winner of chocolate and feature many of the other pictures on his webpage... I didn't really think of it and sent in this picture on a complete whim:

I took it one day laying in a field sun bathing on one of the super warm first days of spring, I've posted in here before.  Well, after some emailing back and forth, talking about the picture, finding out that Yeah Dave is supposed to come to Stockholm in the fall (!!) I got email saying that I was a finalist and would have a permanent spot on his webpage! I didn't win, the winner was a cute picture of a dog next to a computer, but I did get a really good coupon to the chocolate site!  It is called Vosges Haut-Chocolat and has all sorts of super delicious looking things (don't click on the link unless you are prepared to be VERY tempted)!  So, I am currently trying to figure out what to get with my coupon... maybe a bacon chocolate bar and some cake mix?!  I'm not going to say I'm not drooling already.

"Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around." ~ Anna Quindlen

Hello world... sorry I have been MIA recently.  I hurt my back on Thursday (it is better now) and that made me either want to lay in bed eating chocolate and pain pills while having a Harry Potter marathon or be outside enjoying the perfect weather.  Neither of which lead to much blogging, not that there was a lot to write about really... I have summed it up in about a paragraph! haha.

So, here is whats been goin' on:

On Wednesday I worked with Rosanne and made some wineglasses for the semester end project:

 The tops are blown into a mold and then I attempted to make straight stems on them for future carving.

 "and she knocked me out with those American thighs!"

 "she's got legs and she knows how to use them..."

 The last one on the right here was a complete mess up but led to making a sort of marble stem so I saved it for throwing away later haha.  I kind of like it, kind of different... completely ugly!

Thursday I worked all day with Sigrid making more wine glasses.  She had found the perfect shaped mold and we just made and made and made and made.  We even used some of the factory glass which was super shiny and sparkly (kind of like the Twilight Vampires, anyone else excited for True Blood to start?!?) and it felt like you were making wine glasses out of butter.  It was AMAZING!! I am definitely going to make some more with that glass!

Thursday night I went for my usual jumping lesson and that is where I hurt my back.  Don't worry, I didn't fall off or anything like that.  It was stupid, Poseidon jumped a fence weirdly (he kind of bucked while going over it) and somehow that made me pull a muscle right in the arch of my back on the right side.  I am so annoyed because it was not the most absurd jump where I thought I might fall off (there were a lot of those that night, maybe too many) because he flew through the air with such force and lack of grace, it was a mostly normal jump for him!!  My back didn't really start hurting until I was driving home and I guess finally gave it time to cramp up or something.  By the time I got home I could barely take my shoes off so I climbed directly in bed with an ice pack, pain pill and Diam icecream cone.  I emailed Val, my physical therapy doctor friend, who said I would live (thanks Dr. Val!) and stayed in bed for a long time.  No, I got up and moved around some on Friday, but it was similar to a 100 yr old person moving around... not too fun or fast.

Saturday I went to the open house they had in Orrefors with Kirsten, Vegard and Sigrid and their kids.  It was really nice to see the town full of people (sort of full) and all the shops open and they even had the masters blowing!  So, we got to watch Stephan and Jan blow their own things which was nice and interesting, we see them everyday blow things for the factory work.  When we walked in they laughed and said "can't stay away?!" and we laughed and said "well, theres not much else to do!"  Anyway, this is Jan, he was master here in Orrefors at like 18, the youngest master to date.

 Everything with him is so smooth and fluid... and he has magic little hands.

 This is Stephan helping him.

 Oh and we also had lunch at the Vardhuset (the Orrefor's place to eat traditional Swedish food lunch) and got stuffed on sausages, amazingly good bread, potatoes and chicken, brown sauce of course and carrot cake!

 The tiny little Smalands Delicateessen was open and giving out samples of sausages, spreads, breads and all sorts of good things that those fancy little food stores usually have.  I had never been in there and really enjoyed all my free samples :)

 I love the classic glassblower picture, all the angles and everything... I hope one day to look that cool and at ease... guess I have to log another 30 years or so...

Saturday evening was a BBQ in Thomas's yard with the kids and even a croquet game!  It was fun and amazing weather which was really nice.  Thomas also luckily lives right next door so I didn't have far to walk :)  Later we went over to Sigrid and Vegard's to play monopoly but never did... just drank and talked and stayed up way too long.  I am enjoying getting to know Sigrid and Vegard more out of school... makes next year less boring looking with so many of my friends leaving!

Today  I worked with Vegard all day in the factory.  We started out with him making with water decanter which he made a mold for which is super difficult.  Then we went on to one of my ideas.  It was a bowl with a color stripe at the bottom, a striped stripe in the middle and a clear stripe around the rim.  Sounds simple enough right?! haha, it was not my best planned piece.  We ended up doing a true encalmo which is not my forte and I made a big mess which took FOREVER.  But, here were my instructions, nicely laid out for me at my bench:

Yes, some other people think that looks like alien writing also... its not just you.  So I pulled some color into stripes to lay out for the striped layer of the bowl and here are my tools:

 At the top we have a "P divider" as they call it here, but that is how they say Pi it turns out... it tells me how long something has to be to reach around the circumference of whatever fits into the claw like end.  To the right of that is a cane cutter, you lay the cane over the blade, one end up against the triangle sticky up part and hit it with another blade and you get the same length canes each time!  Here is a close up:

 So, underneath all of it you see some striped and clear stripes which I then laid in a row to pick up on the hot bubble.  This sounds simple enough but in our attempt to keep it super simple we had to try 3 different ways to get the stripes hot enough to stick to my glass bubble! First we put them in the annealer, then used a flame thrower on them and then finally had to put them on this super heavy thing and heat them in the glory hole... but I finally got them on there!!  I made the bowl, got it in the annealer and tonight I don't really wait in excitement to see it tomorrow... more dread of just how bad will it be! 

Here are the wineglasses I made with Sigrid on Thursday...they are all so similar and PRETTY!!!  I can't wait to get the top off the glass to really see how it looks :) 

 This one has a few strings of colors we used today, white, turquoise (called turkis in Norwegian, pronounced similar to turkeys which made me laugh... I am so considerate), pink and green (I made a Sweet Briar plate today). 

 After school I joined Martin, Bjorn and Kresten for a pre-gym kabob!  I had thought we were going to my favorite place in Nybro but we stayed in Orrefors and I accidentally ordered a pizza kabob but it was GREAT anyway!  It comes on a thin pizza with a little bit of sauce and cheese then shaved gyro/kabob meat, topped with crunchy fries and dollops of garlic sauce!  I ate half and saved the other half... but I am not too sure how to rewarm it without making the fries all gross... I guess in the oven?

Now I am getting ready for bed and relaxing.  My back is much better, I can feel a bit of an ache in it now after a long day but it really held up all day! I think I am well on the mend thankfully!!! Hopefully this Thursday's lesson will be a little more calm and sane... maybe I can get someone to video me one day so you can see the crazy/awesomeness! But for now... bed!

"Diamonds are a girl's best friend!"

 It is kind of hard to see from this picture but for the past few days we have had some super dark clouds right against some really white ones.  It is making for a really beautiful and dynamic sky, and is a nice contrast to the lime green trees and super red houses.  This is my house with the pear trees in the front yard in full bloom!

But, in school for the past few days in the cold shop I have been working on a traditional diamond.  It is a requirement for the first years to make one in the cold shop and it always leads to lots of complaining because it is boring but usually very nice results!

First you start with a big blob of glass as shown on the right... 

 Cut in the 6 big facets which will come to a point, then the 6 that round the edge to make it not a pyramid.  

 Then if you are like me you keep adding facets until you are bored.  I forgot to count... but I think I have 32 or so on my diamond.

 Which makes it quite nice and sparkely and I LIKE it!

I have big plans for it... OK, not really, I am just going to smile and place it in a window sill so I can watch it sparkle and make rainbows and think fondly back to my first year here at Orrefors and how we all have one.

Wow, that was much more sentimental then I had originally thought... but it is true.  Next week I have to clean out my shelf at school one last time and set aside the things that I truly am going to finish and keep and chuck the rest.  I talked to Rebecca and she is going to help me photograph some of my pieces which aren't going to make it back to the US.  It is kind of daunting... guess that means I better go to sleep so I can do it!!