The end of last week and the beginning of this one have been hectic.  Last thursday I came to work and finally met Tom, an artist who works for Walter.  Olivia had told me to expect to meet him and Walter often mentioned his name, it was nice to finally meet him.  When I arrived Tom and Walter were working on copying photographs onto a disc so Walter could present them for the bench people in Forest Grove.  I started out my day by cleaning out the garage so we would have a nice space to work in.  It took me a while to clean out the cleaning and polishing room (where the glass pieces go after exiting the kiln), but afterwords the three of us went out for a nice mexican lunch.  When we returned to the studio we began to load the glass into the mold Walter and I had created.  The buyer of this nice countertop sent Walter images of the cosmos as inspiration.  Walter decided to use lots of reds and blues and made the piece very colorful.  I learned a lot just by watching him make the decisions he did.  Walter would call out which colors he would need then Tom and I would have to collect them for him and cut them how he wanted them.  Before giving Walter each piece we would have to weigh it to make sure we would have enough weight for the piece to stay an inch and a half thick.  Jessica stopped by during this stage and saw my work environment.  Walter, Tom and I gave her a tour of the studio and she even helped with some of the work!  Walter talked a lot about his beginnings as an artist and we learned that one of his biggest inspirations was Judy Teufel.  He knew her from when he attended Pacific University.  After Jessica left we finished loading the mold and loaded the kiln. 

Because Walter was presenting his idea to the bench committee in Forest Grove I had Friday off. 

Today was a very long and hard day.  Walter said we would make a piece in a smaller kiln and that I would be able to take it home.  I did all the work, I filled the kiln with the correct paper, created the mold, made a protective barrier for the glass to fit in and finally I loaded the mold with glass shards.  Instead of using large sheets of glass, I used bits of broken glass.  I had no idea of how my piece would turn out but I decided I should "just go for it".  Walter agreed with me.  After loading my baby piece with 23 pounds of glass it needed to be an inch and a half thick we ate lunch.  After lunch a friend of Walter's who had borrowed his 12' by 6' kiln came over to pick up a piece that had been heating and cooling for about six days.  We unloaded the 350 pound piece out of the kiln and into the truck to be taken to get some final pollishing and finalizing done.  It too would be a countertop, although it was not bent nor did it have seraded edges.   I was impressed we were able to get the beast into the truck.  I had my doubts at first.  It was a very long, rewarding day!