Little Bird, Big Chip: Half way there!!

Half way.

Half way?

Half way towards a ticket to Scotland!!!

I am so pleased to tell you that my pozzible project has just ticked over the half way mark. Can you believe it? This means 14 kind hearted, generous individuals have pledged support in dollars towards my project. To me this means 14 people have taken the time to check out what I am doing. 14 people have donated their hard earned dollars towards an artistic pursuit.

14 people believe in me and my work.

Thank you.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am overwhelmed by the love! We are now over the half way mark. Now for the hard part, to reach the end. So if you were thinking about donating or you know someone else who may be interested please do! Or even if you can share the page thats just as good.

Just go here to see what all the fuss is about!

In the meantime I have been blowing up a storm!! In 40 degree weather!!! Snakes alive was that a challenge. Big ups to my awesome crew of Danielle Rickaby and Jaan Poldaas who worked so tirelessly to help me get through. I love my team, it's always such a pleasure to work with them. They are both just powerhouses on the floor. It makes such a difference working with these two. They are both such skilled blowers but they also know how to have a good time. We have an absolute blast working together. I had not blown glass for just over 2 months i think, but stepping back in with these guys is just like riding a bike. (a flamey hot bike) I don't think I could work so hard or have such a high success rate without these two clowns. I sure do love em.

Let me try and set the scene for you.....

Blowing glass on a 20 degree day is hot. Blowing glass on a 40 plus degree day is an inferno. So we had 4 holes blazing and two furnaces cranking. We have a couple of fans on for circulation and we try and drink copius amounts of water but sometimes you drink so much you just can't stomach water anymore. Enter my saviour; berocca. Berocca you saucy, salty minx how I love you! This is how it goes down:

Jaan picks up the colour , heats it and pops a bubble in it.

He then takes a gather of glass and blows it up a little.

Cool.

Then takes another gather and shapes it a little.

Now he passes it off to me where I shape it and get Dani to puff it up for me.

Dani take a 'jack' heat for me so I can cut a line in with my jacks so we can knock it off and transfer it to a 'punty'.

We heat the bottom with a hot torch to flatten the bottom.

Dani brings the punty and we knock it off to transfer it to the punty.

Now we have an opening in the piece.

I heat it and pull out the neck then puff out the shoulder.

By this time Jaan has the next piece ready and we pass over pieces at the bech.

He takes the finished piece and puts it in the annealer.

I continue on with the next.

Now repeat about 20 times in the next 4 hours.

There are no breaks.

It is relentless.

It is fast paced.

There is salty sweat dripping down my face.

Smoke gets in my eyes as I paper it.

My hands start to hurt a bit.

My back starts screaming at me as I twist around alot and stretch to get to the torch.

(Heres a good one, my boobs get radiation heat burns as I lean over the big pieces to work!)

But you know what?

I freaking love it!!

We listen to great tunes, we laugh, we work like little demons.

So I think in 3 days we made around 55 bonsai. All these guys are my way of fundraising my way to Scotland. I have a couple of suppliers who want more work and a nice little commission up my sleeve. Every penny counts!!