Some more glass

Here are a few of the paperweights I made in glassblowing this past fall. The small red and green paperweights were each two gathers (one gather of molten glass, rolled in color, then a clear gather on top), the others are three gathers.

Teal, yellow on top, swirled and then
rolled on a spiky-metal-grid.

Red in an optical mold

Red, then yellow, then spiky-grid

Green gather, then optical mold

Green, then teal, then spiky-grid

Teal, then yello, then spiky-grid (no swirl)

Bubbly-gather (accidental, but awesome),
then green, then swirl.

Threadless Shirts

I've been going through and scoring a bunch of shirts on Threadless this break when I get bored. Here's some shirts that I'd like to see made - if you agree, give them a good score!

Glassblowing - What I've done so far

The Missouri University of Science and Technology has a course in glassblowing - I'm taking it this semester, and am trying to learn as much as possible of this fun and challenging trade. I hope to be able to continue this even after I leave the school, but for now I just need to make the most of the opportunity while I have it. Here's my collection of bobbles and trinkets I've made so far (except for a few paperweights I've given already), in order of first to most recent. Click on the pictures for full size;

Snowman - first piece


Clear Paperweight (two-gather, UFO on accident)


Green and yellow paper weight (two-gather)


Internal loop paper weight (loop, one gather over it)


Flower (stem broke, turned into paper weight)
(Looks like blue turtle shell from Mario Kart)


Flowers (one gather, done quickly before they cool and with no re-heats)


Blue paper weight, experimental (3-gather, two different internal bubble designs)


Clear roses in first open vessel I made (open vessels start as blown bubble)


Blue rose in paperweight (rose, then another gather - rose wilted though)


Blue bowl with foot


All of them together

We Landed on the Moon - Concert review

click image for full size

We Landed on the Moon played a concert in Rolla, MO on October 30th, 2009, along with Northern State. Wait - no. We Landed on the Moon took Rolla by storm and rocked the hell out of the Uptown Theater on October 30th, 2009.

They came in, did their sound check, went to the hotel to relax a bit, came back and made all the ladies swoon and all the gents go insane. They came into the theater with only a couple people being fans - the crowd had no idea what they were in for, few even knew WLOTM's genre (indie rock sexy party, F.Y.I). They left with 400 new converts.

WLOTM is a band that thrives on playing clean, well constructed indie pop-rock, then beating them up in the face and pretend like nothing happened. It makes for an intense, rock-show atmosphere with music that makes everybody want to dance and be awesome. They're going to be big.

If you get a chance to see them live, stop. Stop everything. Put whatever seems so important that your NOT going to the concert in the garbage and buy a ticket. Make sure nothing gets in the way of your going and seeing this band.

Food Review - Chocolate Bacon Cupcake

BACON CUPCAKE

I was at Tee and Cakes in Boulder yesterday, where I spied their "Chocolate Bacon" cupcake. At first I didn't really want have anything to do with it. But they had a bacon cupcake t-shirt, and I had to get that for a friend, and it came with a free cupcake, so long story short - I had a chocolate bacon cupcake.

I really wish I could say that this was either the very best cupcake I'd ever had, or the absolute worst. Instead, I got a very good cupcake that was not as unusual as I had anticipated, which was a little bit of a let down. The cupcake was a maple-flavored cupcake dipped in a thick chocolate ganache, both of which were excellent. The signature bacon sprinkled on top was probably baked, as it did not have any grease or excessive saltiness. The net effect of it was to give the cupcake a crunchy topping, without really adding too much bacon flavor - I would have like more. However, I did find little bits of bacon in my teeth over the next 15 minutes or so, which is always like a mini Christmas.

If it was just billed as a maple-chocolate-ganache cupcake, I would have loved it. But, then again, I wouldn't be writing this review.