Throwback to Jin-Won's class + intro to Cinema 4D

Going through some old hard drives and found these three models that took me hours to build in Cinema 4D, years ago, in Jin-Won Han's glass flameworking class. She had this fabulous way of working where she envisioned her Pyrex artwork in a 3D modeling program, leading to a strange meeting of the stoically accurate and the organically unpredictable––and I would say both descriptors apply to both media, digital and glass.

This "ego box" design eventually became the following, one of the first things I ever made with flameworking:

You can see the devitrification (loss of gloss, milky clouding) from poor heating techniques, but I loved every minute of the challenge. All of these "flat" pieces of glass were made from commercial Pyrex tubes heated and sliced open, then melted together in bits and pieces.

Castilene, a difficult + magical modeling medium

Castilene is a new (to me) take on classic wax-based modeling clays like Roma Plastilina or Klean Klay; I find it to be infinitely cleaner and more pleasant to work with, and you're not left with the smell of the product on you and a greasy feel on your hands for days. It's sulfur-free meaning that it will not inhibit curing of most common moldmaking products, and its label description states that no known compound can degrade the material. Amazing!

I needed some slabs for a current project so I turned my home kitchen into a clay station. My studio isn't currently outfitted with that kind of open space, nor do I have a microwave or hot plate like I do at home.

For a good 24 hours I was just petrified by how incredibly hard and brittle the "medium"-softness Castilene was. It didn't warm up easily or break up into soft chunks like Klean Klay likes to do. I was afraid of heating it up, thinking it might be messy.

I finally dumped out a 2.5 lb box ($25 at Compleat Sculptor) into a large ceramic serving dish and started warming it up. I used the inverter/soften setting for a few minutes, then put it on full blast for about a minute. This let the clay get malleable and soft, but I noticed that microwaving doesn't heat the clay evenly. You're left with some crusty, dry-feeling edges and then some crazy hot spots. I recommend mixing up the batch and letting it marinate in its own heat for about 5 minutes. The overheated clay will warm up the dry bits.

I wiped the counter down with mineral oil, the way you would flour for baking, and started rolling, smashing, cutting, doing anything I could to get a nice even slab. I'd take the trimmings, throw it in the bowl, re-heat, and continue to make slabs. The clay takes on a gorgeous smooth hard sheen when it is cold, and maintains rigidity at room temperature. I LOVE IT.

It is difficult to work with and isn't quite grab-and-go like Klean Klay, which I would recommend for small less-precise or press-molded projects, but Castilene definitely blew my mind a little when I started working with it this week.

LEGO Digital Designer as after-work balm

I hurt myself at the gym and am feeling the stress from keeping so many balls in the air at once. My solution is generally either a shower or LEGO. Since my blocks are mostly in storage, I looked into downloading LEGO Digital Designer, LEGO's official virtual tool, and Bricksmith, a less-polished but more useful independent program with an extensive library of pieces. The latter will feel familiar if you've ever used Google's Sketchup or any other bare-bones 3D software.

Building the base for a pastel looky-loo using transparent blocks and of those WONDERFUL eyeball-printed blocks. They come in angry and non-angry varieties.

Turtle garden.

If I can't run my hands through a box of LEGO in person, I'll happily settle for this instead. It takes me an hour just to place one brick but I'm practicing putting up walls efficiently using the Clone tool. I'd like to build a temple or a mausoleum.

On hoarding & compulsive buying

The result of a compulsive, sick, overwhelming shopping addiction that took years to claw my way out of?

Collections of supplies I hoarded without finding a use for them, finally coming into their own in my studio.

I am a big proponent of facing your past vices and wrongdoings, weaknesses and mental illnesses, and using them as propellants to move forward.

Here are some embroidery threads that I spent months collecting, obsessing over, and re-arranging in boxes until I finally lost interest and stowed them away in storage for several years:

They are beautiful and I am lucky to have them.

They remind me of mistakes not to make again, but also of the promise of things that are borne of self-forgiveness and hard work.

April studio purge

Things are in flux at the studio I work out of, both inside my space and out, so I thought today was a good day to completely wipe clean the "gallery" wall, put the salt experiments in storage, and start fresh.

Close-up of the only thing on the wall. Flat black gouache, crystals and sequins.

Mail came today! From Greece, New Zealand and from Bullseye Glass :) Just a couple of nose rings from Etsy plus kiln shelves, kiln posts, and four sample packs of their full sheet fusible line. This will help me order glass in the future without any guesswork; their "striker" colors which change tone after hitting a certain temperature have already been fired, eliminating any confusion.

A deadline I've set with a new client prototyping a clear cast tank....

And lastly something silly I spilled for myself before locking up for the night, because I believe in the restorative powers of "not taking yourself too seriously" on days when you've taken yourself much too seriously: