"A good puzzle, it's a fair thing. Nobody is lying. It's very clear, and the problem depends just on you." ~ Erno Rubik

Incalmo = this week's puzzle.  

This technique is very cool because it allows you to make horizontal stripes of color in glass.  Maybe you just has two colors, or tons... but the steps are the same.  Here are our instructions:

 The top part is the pipe with a cup shaped piece on it.  But, there is a hole leading to the pipe... so it wouldn't hold any water if you were to take it off.  The bottom is a real cup shaped piece, you fit them together (perfectly) and voila! you have a bubble with two colors!  Then you marver it and smooth the seam and blow it into whatever shape you want!  Easy-peasy!  

On a different note, Monday was another beautiful day! Fall is in the air!!! 

 I made this on Monday, it is a bowl but I forgot to take a picture from the side so you could see the shape.  But the top layer is clear with a nice blue bottom.  Not too bad for one of the first attempts...

 This was the second attempt.  It was supposed to be a plate... I won't tell you what Vegard said it looked like from the top.  It wasn't pretty.

Tuesday I managed to make these two fairly horrible plates:

 Purple with dots and stripes in the color and I got the foot a little off center (it was really hot!).  But a plate all the same I suppose.

 Then I made this big ass plate! I gathered an extra time over the encalmo and ended up with a cake that barely fit the glory hole!

 In fact it was so big that I did bump the glory hole once :( But it was fun and nice for a different sort of challenge.  The incalmo is so incredibly frustrating! 

 Wednesday was all day in the cold shop.  Back to normal around here!  

I finally finished this deep cut crystal bowl which I quit like.

 I also worked on this big plate.  I had originally thought I would hand engrave the bamboo trees but it turns out this week is for sand blasting so I did that instead!

 This is the front.  The arrows were for the tree that was supposed to be the most deep... I don't know if I managed to make it look deeper or not but here is what it looks like minus tape:

 And here is the back all taped up.

 I blasted the back in an attempt to give it more depth and play off the green.

 I think it looks kind of cool.

 I will engrave on it some for some finishing touches but I like it so far.

Also, exciting news! Some of my crystal came back from the acid bath all shiny and pretty!!!!

 Look at it sparkle!

 And gleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!

 Today, Thursday, was more incalmo.  In the afternoon after Marianne (the teacher) went away for the day Vegard and I played some.  We tried doing three layers of colors instead of just two and also using different techniques on opening the top/pipe bubble.  The morning had been a bit rough for us.  I think when you see the things we made you will understand the struggle.

Wednesday evening I had a jumping lesson on Posiedon who was really good! A little bit excited but that is better then stopping at the jumps! I also get to ride him in the blueberry jumping on Sunday doing 80cm (2'8" sort of).  I will also have a lesson tomorrow afternoon :)  Hopefully I won't be sore from going to the gym today... I tried bench presses again... I did pretty well but it felt a bit funny, maybe not so natural haha!

"For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad." ~Edwin Way Teale

My weekend included this:

 Where we sold glass in this little barn to raise money for the trip to Venice!

 This was Friday night when I was there till 1 in the morning!  People were shopping all night!  Erica, Natalie and I were a little cracked out by the end of the night...  meaning things that aren't normally funny were HILARIOUS due to sleep deprivation and people overload!

 We had lots of pumpkins for the harvest fest but they didn't really sell... also had some eggplants, apples, pears and mushrooms.  Oh, and strawberries!

 Also various other glass stuff, from bottles to plates to jugs to wineglasses to bowls!

 Saturday I went again with Erica and Natalie (two girls from the high school level classes) and we had great weather!  We put some glass pumpkins on the old time-y tractor out front.

 Then Martin and Kresten showed up and they sat on the tractor waving at traffic with Nils trying to get people to come in. I am not sure it worked but they got lots of honks!

 This is me... in case you didn't recognize me with a pumpkin on a rusty piece of farm equipment... 

 There were pumpkin ALL over the island and also some funny hay people!

 On the way home Saturday around 7 we got stuck on the bridge back to the main land for over an hour! It was horrible! Erica took this picture, the bridge goes all the way to where there is a slight raised up place in the lights and then some! It took us FOREVER to get home!

 But on the way home we stopped for some sushi to go! No sense in being in Kalmar without getting good food! I splurged and got the 16 piece dinner and got some seaweed salad thrown in for having to wait so long!  It was SUPER good except the (I think it was) squid was too chewy :P

 Sunday I took the day off from selling glass and went mushroom picking! The yellow traditional canterells are mostly gone now but their relative the black/brown canterells are out! I found out in wikipedia they are sometimes called the trumpet of death or black trumpet:

 They are super hard to find because of their color but they are very tasty!

 And the woods were truly beautiful on that day!

 Fall is setting in and the birch trees are turning bright yellow against the evergreens!

 I love moss covered forest floors! It is a scene from a movie... and elf should appear, or a viking!!

 I took home a pretty good haul! I made a piece of toast with sauteed mushrooms in butter.  I am going to go again I think, we have had some rain and sun now so I think it is better mushroom picking time.  They were a little dry from the warm weekend we had!

Monday we drove back to Oland to pick up the glass and are planning to sell again at the castle in Kalmar, the open house at school and one weekend at the holiday festival/thing in Kosta! Hopefully we will raise enough money to be able to get to Venice!  

Tomorrow you will get pictures of my week so far...  encalmo from hell and some nice cold working!

"Man was made at the end of the week's work when God was tired." ~ Mark Twain

I am not sure how I feel about the above quote, it is kind of weird.  Maybe I don't get it but it kind of fit with the whole end of the week and being tired thing... So, I used it.  It is hard to find a new quote all the time.

So, Friday was another day at Pukeberg!

 Here is Micke on the left and Glenn on the right putting on an overlay bubble.  This is super tricky but Micke did it a million times this week and every time it looked SO easy! 

 Here is Josefine protecting his wrist from the heat while he flips the overlay bubble inside out onto the main piece of glass.

 See how easy it looks?  At this point I am usually grunting and complaining to Vegard.

 He heats it one more time then smooths it down all the way with no bubbles between or anything!

 Here is a big graal he made for a lamp.  It has nice clear circles at the bottom which is kind of hard to see for the sand but it is really nice.

 And here is another graal with some extra pieces applied.  It looked cool small but now when it is big is kind of lame.

 This bowl was made and then added this leaf.  The leaf was made in graal, and then cut out and the rest of the graal was wasted.  That might be the MOST expensive leaf EVER! Ahhh, designers and their ideas...

 So, then we went to a Thai Buffet as the end of the week treat.  We then were completely stuffed and went back to work! It was super super hot in the shop which was a bit difficult to deal with on a full stomach!

 The students gave us a little champagne and flowers for the students and wine for the masters.  It was really sweet and nice.  As we were finishing up and sweating our asses off the students were enjoying some ice cream... and making us really jealous.

 I hurried off from the hot shop to the barn for a lesson.  Another dressage lesson and who did I get but little Sheridan.... yes, Sheridan who lives in the pony barn and is about as wide as he is tall... and HAIRY!

 But is he not ADORABLE?!?!

 His head, forelock, stomach and feet are all huge!

 The dressage saddle took up his whole side! 

 I didn't know what to do with all the hair so I tucked his forelock under the bridal and put his mane in a pony tail.  When I walked into the arena my teacher was like "Wow! He looks niiiiice" clearly thinking I was insane.

 I know this picture is blurry but look how small his is! My feet are past his stomach!  But he was so good, a little special but very sweet and tried hard.  He is a bit green (not so trained) and spacey but very limber.  While the other horses glided around on their long legs we stamped around, knees high and mane flying!  I enjoyed him and Pia said he even jumps pretty well.  Maybe I will get to ride him again, he was fun and not too serious which is nice sometimes.  I gave him lots of apples when I was done... I mean, could you resist this face?!

 Then home for 2 hours for dinner and a shower.  Oh! I forgot, I also got this mini-marver from Glenn.  He makes them in his shop and all week I had watched the two of them use this tool for EVERYTHING and was thinking "I have to get one of those" and he gave the assistants one! 

 And I put my flowers in my fancy vase in the window to enjoy for several days!

Tomorrow I will post about the rest of the weekend.  Which pretty much just involved going back and forth to Öland to sell glass.  But the weather was great and it was a success all in all.  Also, we are starting encalmo this week at school! Today was a bit rough but tomorrow should be grrrreat (said like Tony the Tiger) haha!