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July 05, 2004
Enjoying your holiday?
Curious what I do in the mornings now that the Tour is on and I'm getting up at 7:30am to listen? Well, today I spent 3 hours packaging everything you see here...There's glass that I'm swapping for some hard-to-find colors, there are eBay wins, orders, Picking sets and Pendants all ready to go. I've printed the labels w/ tomorrow's date on them so the PO should not protest in my dropping them off today...I thought I'd give my own mailman a break...We have the mailman who walks from house to house, and having to drag this lot down the street would be a drag indeed!!
I'm listening to 'behind the scenes' of the TdF...I dunno if they realize they are broadcasting, but Phil and Paul and making comments about yesterday's tour...as if they don't know they are coming over the airwaves...its rather hilarious...At least the broadcast is working properly after yesterday where all I heard was background clapping and cheering...
No new beads today, am working on orders and I have LOADS of things to package and ship to you tomorrow...I'm enjoying one last look at them before they cruise out the door...
Hope you enjoyed your fireworks and parades yesterday...It was fun here...!
Posted by Donner at July 5, 2004 01:07 PM
Comments
wah!!
I never see Val's store when the gaffer cane is in stock. You must have a special "in" with her.
Is it always transparent or do they have opaques? What is the annealing temperature?
Posted by: Nancy Brakre at July 5, 2004 11:09 PM
not a special 'in' with her - i've been buying since she started selling, and part of this is a buyout that I did of a fellow beadmaker here in Austin..she brought me nearly 4lbs of cane the other day...I also babysit the computer when Val says she's going to have stuff in the store...sometimes I spend *hours* waiting...no kidding...
I also bought 5lbs of color and 5lbs of clear the other day, BUT, I didn't get *any* of her recent batch...I plan to get more clear, but think i'm pretty stocked up on the colors for now, except for anything new she gets, like White or that Tamale red...
I have been testing this for her for awhile now, though, so some of these rods are from 'testing days'. So, there's all sorts of scenarios you're seeing in this stash
so far its mostly transparent or translucent - everything is encased in clear, but some cane is denser than others. The new Ruby Opaque I think its called, is denser. I haven't used it yet, don't know what results I'll get. its all very 'wispy'. I'm really looking forward to the System 96 from Uroboros, I ordered a bunch from Kalera Stratton and I'll be getting White, Black, Ivory, Clear, Grape, Navy, Forest and some other colors I don't remember. It should be complimentary to Gaffer and I hope to expand my ability to encase over white and bring some darker colors to the line.
I run the same annealing schedule that I use for Moretti. So far its been successful. I also make pretty small beads, tho. Larger beads I would let soak longer. The glass is slightly softer, but it hasn't proven to be a problem in the kiln, no 'mandrel divits' from sitting there too long.
Posted by: donner at July 5, 2004 11:17 PM