I hate white....

I just started working with white. White is an annoying color to work with. It doesn't want to hold its heat. When I made this dish the other night I was amazed just how fast it would lose heat. When on the punty when I was straightening the side walls and getting ready for the spin I was barely thru one revolution when the sidewalls started stiffening up. The jacks started skidding as the walls got stiff. I almost overcooked the glass just trying to keep it hot enough to work with. Even getting in the neck line took more steps than usual.

This was my first successful piece using a white rod. I didn't put any overlay color on it since I didn't think it was going to survive. This one fought me all the way from the starter bubble. My last attempt when using white bar ended in the cullet pile. It would have been a nice piece with blue and green frit mixed in it. That one fought me all the way as well. I was just a little luckier with this one.


I had a little more luck with this one. I used white 00 frit. I did a lot of frit pickups to get enough of a white underlayer. I did a quick gather to get a thin clear layer over the white and then a few rolls in some size 2 blue frit. A gather and trail off over the top and then the usual to make the rest of this dish. There was enough white at the top to keep me from working the lip thin and thus another fight ensued to get the top to fold the way I like it.

I managed one in the box in this morning's (actually yesterday ath the time of this writing) using white. I like the effect of white underneat with color on top. I've now made quite a few contributions to the cullet pile trying to use white in poweder, frit, or bar form. Curses to the new obsession. I'll master this color yet and get back to my usual form!

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Spring teased us last week, We had a few warm days and the sun even made an appearance. On Friday afternoon I was even able to shed the light winter coat in favor of shirt sleeves. Winter roared back in with snow showers and ice on Saturday and today despite bright sun shine it was cold. I was getting used to not having to tend to the fire. I had to go to Sears over the weekend and it was amusing to see some of the spring merchandise being put up. I guess the stores are starting to tease us as well. I wonder what the damed groundhog will have to say.

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I finally found time to document my 2003 visit to the Henryville ghost station on teh DL&W mainline. Check it out at http://mysite.verizon.net/nucci6/henryville/HenryvilleStation.html.

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I also like to collect glass insulators. Insulators are sort of the bridge between my hobbies of workign hot glass and exploring parts of the DL&W main line. I haven't actively collected in the wild in a while. Imagine my surprise on Saturday evening when I came home from a dinner party. Just prior to leaving I had thrown some large logs on the fire. When we got home the fire had died down and pretty much all that was left were the hot ashes. As I was poking thru them to stire up the hot coals to put on a fresh load of wood I noticed something unusual in the ashes. It was two tiny procelan insulators, eithe rfrom an old rural phone drop or an electric fence. They were buried in one of the large logs, covered with years of growth. Amazing.