Sometimes, surprises can be a very good thing. Many times they're not but this one is very welcome and special, indeed. Late Friday afternoon a message arrived from Donna Stevens, our good friend at the Planetary Society, informing us of their surprise.

As many of you are aware, Joy and I create the Planetary Society's Cosmos Award blown glass Saturns. Bestowed upon individuals for their outstanding public presentation of science, each is done in collaboration with Rick Sternbach, of Star Trek Production Design fame, who commissions us and also crafts the fine ebonized base upon which our glass sculptures float. This particular one, the third in the series, was presented to Theoretical Physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking at The University of Cambridge in February, 2010. Superb, in and of itself, but there's more.

Turns out that The Science Museum in London has mounted an exhibit: Stephen Hawking: A 70th Birthday Celebration.

From The Science Museum:

"The display features objects and papers primarily sourced from his own archives including handwritten notes on work with Roger Penrose, his drawing of the Hawking Radiation mechanism, the annotated script for a 1999 guest appearance on The Simpsons, and the blue suit he wore for a zero-gravity flight in 2007. The display also includes a specially recorded message and a selection of personal photographs from Hawking’s life and career that haven’t been seen before. A rarely-seen 1978 portrait by David Hockney is also featured.

This first ever display of items from the Hawking archive encourages visitors to reflect on the relationship between Hawking’s scientific achievements, particularly the work that established his reputation in the 1960s and ‘70s, and his immense success in popularising astrophysics. Hawking and his daughter Lucy have been involved in the selection of objects for display."

Among these items significant to his life is our beautiful Saturn, floating amid the many diagrams, sketches, papers, books, photographs, models and mementos collected over the years. To say that we are honored again is an understatement. The juxtaposition of creativities, his with ours, is staggering. Never in my wildest dreams... (and I have some pretty wild dreams).

I had hoped that we would somehow come to meet one day. Dr. Hawking held the Lucasian Chair, a professorship of mathematics once held by Sir Issac Newton, Charles Babbage and P. A. M. Dirac, among only fourteen others since the chair was deeded in 1663. Meeting in person, someone in this esteemed professorship would be sobering, indeed.

Cosmology and philosophy have always been favorites of mine. Some time ago, I had a moment of clarity where many things align, fall into place and one can see farther than before. An understanding of the Universe came that was different and I knew that the only person to discuss this with was Stephen Hawking. It would surely be an interesting conversation. But how? Suddenly, I was presented with the possibility that my time had come. The stars had aligned and we were creating the Cosmos Award for him.

One cannot plan something like this. It does, however, come under the heading of: "Be careful what you wish for."

Alas, it was not to be. The presentation was to be in Pasadena and we would take time to drive there to attend the ceremony. Best to deliver the delicate Saturn than to needlessly risk damage during shipping. Just prior to the date, however, another surprise came. His doctors deemed travel was not advisable, so the ceremony was cancelled. The presentation would be in England instead. A Planetary Society contingent traveled there but we were not among them. We consulted on the crating specifications in which to ship the award to England, to ensure that it would not be damaged and, indeed, it did arrive safely; but that was the extent of our involvement in making the presentation a success.

Still, it is a sobering thought to step back and realize how fortunate we are to have one of our children in his office where he can experience it each day and then to have it chosen to be in this wonderful exhibit, so that many may see it, too. The exhibit runs until April 9 if you happen to be in the area.

I wish that we could travel there to see it. A side trip to Cambridge would be in my mind constantly.

For further reading:

• Planetary Society: Charlene Anderson's Blog Post
• The Science Museum: Stephen Hawking: a 70th Birthday Celebration
• BBC News: In pictures: Science Museum's Stephen Hawking Exhibition
• MSNBC Cosmic Log: Stephen Hawking's Curios Explained
• More Brushes With Greatness: BJ's Short Bio

Joy and I both wish to convey our thanks and appreciation to the wonderful people at The Planetary Society for including us in their adventure.

Have you had a brush with greatness? Please let us know your thoughts by sharing in a comment.

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Give Me Some Space! Many of our friends, colleagues and visitors to our blogs and websites are Space Buffs. Either they work in the space industry as scientists, astronomers, astrophysicists, teachers, space artists, or are just plain crazy about space. We are, too, and we work the space theme into a LOT of our creations. We have developed many different artworks in glass of various types and, as such, they are spread all through our websites. This requires persons seeking a unique gift that is space-related to become detectives and uncover many locations; perhaps missing just the special treasure that they have been searching for.

Organization (what's that?) to the rescue!
We've gathered all of our Blown Glass Space items: Planet Ornaments, Planet Bottle & Wine Stoppers, Planet Lighting, Astronomical Jewelry, Steampunk Rockets and spacey Greeting Cards into one rich location for easy browsing and ordering; as gifts for someone you know who will really appreciate your creativity or as a gift for yourself. Why not? You've been good... haven't you?

Tell Your Friends Far and Wide:
"Give Me Some Space!" Check it out and be sure to hit the Like and Google+ buttons there to spread the word. There's also a Share button, so you can easily send a hint to friends or family who just don't know what to get for you. Share this post, too, if you can. We'll surely appreciate it.

Be sure also to hit the "Deck The Halls" menu at the top right to see all of the other holiday creations that we have available. There's everything from traditional ornaments and candle holders to greeting cards. Your support will make a real difference in our studio.

Thanks and Happy Holidays! Here's the link to The Space Collection

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Our first Kickstarter Project has just launched. What's Kickstarter? It's a new and innovative way for individuals across the globe who are interested in what an artist does, or wants to do, to fund creative projects by pledging various levels of support according to what they each can afford. Doesn't have to be a lot. Each pledge level has rewards that the project's backers will receive when the project is fully funded.

Our project is a Glass Space Art Exhibit that we want to mount at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. We already have our booth space and the furniture but the expense of shipping large glass sculptures, and ourselves, is significant. Preparations for the trip consume a month preceding and, even though the conference itself lasts only four days, the trip spans more than a week—and it's a complex, work filled one. Come on along for the ride.

We arrive two days early in order to de-stack our huge 7.5' tall, 345 lb. glass sculpture, The General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award that lives at Space Foundation Headquarters, and transport it to the Broadmoor Hotel West Lobby, where it is on display during the conference for all to see. Before transport, we etch the award recipient's name onto the tall glass plates and then place them onto our specially designed transport cart, along with the cobalt blue engine bell base, and secure it in the back of a lift gate truck. It's a big truck and doesn't ride easy, so I ride in there with him, making sure that nothing goes wrong. My being there has saved him from disaster more than once . The two blast cloud bubble assemblies, with their embedded spaceflight artifacts, ride on foam pads in the car that we rent for the transport.

Next day, we begin setting up our booth. We have no Roadies; it's just the two of us. Everything has to be ready for the first opening of the exhibit hall that night. We usually don't quite make it but are in good enough shape, so as to be presentable to attendees when they begin streaming in after the conclusion of the opening ceremonies; which I don't think we've ever been able to attend. Once that is over, we trek back to our room and fall into bed.

Education is what it's all about. Tuesday is the first full day with the exhibit hall open, and it lasts into the night. We run our booth all day, handing out small giveaways while educating visitors about art, how we produce these wonderful things and why art is essential in their lives. We have learned that most people think of art as inessential; when it really is extremely important to our well being, our imagination and inspiration. We've even had people who work at the Big Space Corporations come up and tell us that "they don't use art". Visionaries throughout history have blazed the trail for those who will come after to go and do. Circa: 1970 I coined this, because I realized just how true it really is:

That has never been truer than it is today. They don't realize that a sketch on a napkin or an engineering drawing are forms of art—as, of course, are their promotional materials.

Wednesday is a mixed bag. We arise extra early to de-stack the big sculpture and transport it into the Rocky Mountain Ballroom, where the Lifetime Achievement Award Luncheon will take place that day. The sculpture is re-stacked on a raised platform adjacent to the stage. It is a tricky operation lifting the engine bell base from the cart up onto it and then carrying the vertical plates up there and gently lowering them securely into their socket and carefully retightening the clamps. Once fully assembled, we give him a final cleaning under the bright lights and then go to the exhibit hall for a few short hours before returning to our room to dress for the luncheon.

In addition to caring for the master sculpture, we also bring an individual sculpture that is presented to the recipient for them to keep. This year's award will be presented to Dr. Charles Elachi, Director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory; a wonderful campus upon which I have enjoyed many working hours. The orb on this one is Mars, for obvious reasons. It is our honor to have made and present this award, as we have to so many great pioneers over these years. Following the luncheon and photo session, we de-stack, transport and re-stack in the lobby once more and return to our booth. Counting the first move in the morning, all told, this operation consumes about four hours.

While this is decidedly cool, and we obviously wouldn't miss it, the unfortunate thing for us is that this is the time that the student field trips come through the exhibit halls to visit selected booths on Career Day. We're never there and we know from talking with many young people who are able to slip away and come over when they see that we have returned, that we are their dead-on favorite. They're enthusiastic and wide-eyed at our presentation; asking all sorts of questions before they're busted and have to go. Wish we could spend more time with them.

Thursday is much the same as Tuesday, running the booth all day, except that the Space Technology Hall of Fame and Closing Ceremonies Dinner follows on the heels of exhibit hall closing. We rush to our room and change, attend the dinner and, when it's all over, drag ourselves back to our booth to strike it and pack it all for shipping back to the studio; usually doing this in our dress clothes. In this short period of time, the entire exhibit hall, except for our booth, has been dismantled, crated and is being loaded into trucks. Nearly nothing is left but debris. It's amazing. Took them two to three days to set it up; two hours to pack it up. Really wish we could have some help in this area, but we need a different kind of help even more.

Friday we de-stack the master sculpture, load him onto his cart and transport him back to headquarters, where he stands until next year. It is always an emotional time when we leave. It took almost a year to design and build him. He's one of our kids and we hate to say goodbye.

Here is where you can help us
  and receive some great art
    and a warm, fuzzy feeling, too!

This is important to us and important to you, on so many levels. With the banks having tanked the economy, and the incorrect perception that art is not essential to the human existence, our ability to mount these exhibits is in jeopardy, as is our studio. IF we can get to the conference and cover our hotel room, we will be able to secure some much needed commissions and keep the spirit of art alive.

If enough of you pledge small amounts, it adds up. We get funded. You get Art. The catch is, if we do not reach our Kickstarter Project goal within the allotted time, we do not get anything. It is an all-or-nothing scenario and, as of this writing, we only have 17 days left to get this wrapped up. You can check the thermometer bar in the Kickstarter widget here on this blog and on Joy's to see how we're progressing. The whole process is monitored by Kickstarter and Amazon.

This isn't just a handout! You can help yourself to some wonderful art that you can keep or give as gifts. Everybody wins. Please do take a few moments to check out the levels and rewards that we have. They're pretty cool and made especially for you. You'll help a newly starving artist to stay in the business of creating; while inspiring minds to reach for the stars.

Life would surely be barren and drab
  if we had no beautiful things.

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It had to happen sooner or later and I'm now surprised that it hadn't already happened. In an effort to make our imagery and our glass work as accessible to as many fans as we can, Joy has developed a new glass jewelry line called ImaGems; the combining of Image and Gems. They are miniature images of ours viewed through a fused crystal lens that hangs on a silver chain and bail as a pendant necklace. They're sure to catch attention.

I'd link to Joy's blog post but she's out in the Hot Shop straightening things up, so we can blow glass tomorrow.... and the next day. 'Been too long away from the Gaffer's Bench for me. It'll probably take a blowing day to get my "glass blowing mojo" back and not Bork things up.

I don't know about Joy, but it's really interesting for me to see my images in this whole new way. Tiny vignettes, tightly cropped, that offer only a glimpse of the scene that I know so well. Makes me want to peer around the corner to see what else is in there. Here's a few of our popular images behind Gems, so you can see what I mean:

They have proven to be instantly popular, so much so that I had to stop what I was working on yesterday and get the Art Glass Jewelry website updated with an entire new section, so that people could order them! They saw them, went to the website and.... nothing! D'oh! They're also available now on our ArtFire Shop.

They're so COOL. Each little Gem is a mere $16 and comes in a cool little gift box that Joy makes individually for each one. Only nine images so far but more in the works, to be sure.

Check 'em out. Get one for yourself or your squeeze. If you have a favorite image of either Joy's or mine that isn't available yet, let us know what you'd like and we'll make your wish come true!

Drop a comment and let us know what you think about them.

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After six months of getting pummeled by failures in trying to cast glass sinks to fit an existing counter top that was forbidden by the client to be modified—even by a little, my partner in art got a nice reward. Along the path of these varied projects that we do, comes knowledge that you don't know how it will be used. One day, though, it all comes together in glorious fashion.

A couple of years ago, I suggested that she try sand painting techniques that the Native Americans use in order to put designs in glass colors onto various items that she was creating; either with powders or small frit. Over the months, her technique has developed to a point where the results are stunning. Check it out!

It's 13" in diameter and 1.5" deep. The base layer is iridescent glass that gives it a spectacular quality that you just have to experience first hand to appreciate.

The platter goes along with a little fiery salsa/guacamole bowl that she created a few days earlier. It's really cute. She left the bottom hemispherical, so it rolls around a little when you scoop out of it. Fun.

While the platter was in the kiln for a couple of days, she worked at the torch creating glass butterflies—which became a wonderful pendant necklace. We'll start a line of these in the Jewelry Section of Glass Sculpture . org.

Each one of those sink casting attempts took 6-10 days. After six months of that, one can get the idea how discouraged an artist can get. At times, Joy was on the brink of quitting being an artist altogether, and you can understand why. To her credit, she didn't take that way out. The impossible task that caused so much stress was washed away by the success of these new creations and a new vigor has taken over. Never give up. Never surrender. I'm proud of her.

Drive on over to her blog post and let her know that she did good. It'll really mean a lot. Thanks!

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The Deep Sea Anemone Table

It's Great! There are few who could be more critical and discerning. Their observations mean a lot because, in one way or another, they've been there.

Just had the sincere pleasure of reading a colleague's blog post over at Under Nevada Skies, the blog of artist Julie Rodriguez Jones. The post is about our most recent and our very next large blown glass commissions and how she has watched us online over the months making the former—a glass table base that weighs 200+ lbs. composed of 560 separate orbs and spirals of colored blown glass supporting a 6 foot 10 inch diameter 3/4" thick glass top weighing 370 lbs. OOF!

I'll limit this posting to that much, as I'm working on a series of posts about how we did it that will start in a few days. Here's a couple of frames of the 3D engineering design model we built and rendered prior to construction to whet your appetite.

You can see a shot of the finished Deep Sea Anemone Table now on Julie's blog, along with a still frame of the next big project. You'll love it. While you're there, leave a comment on her article. Please come back and let us know what you think.

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Next, we'll move into the process of creating the blown glass planets and Sun. The planets are supported by curved, hollow carbon fiber arms; the longest being 3 feet (1m), so the orbs must be very light. Just as in the Celestial Winds Blown Glass and Carbon Fiber Mobiles that we make, that have arms as long as 20 feet (6m), saving every ounce of mass that is way out on the end is very important. You're probably asking why we choose to pay that mass penalty when plastic could be used instead. Answer is simple:

“There's nothing quite like glass.”™

In fact, it's our tag line on GlassSculpture.org.

Now, you might think that making planets out of glass is a relatively simple task. Deceptively difficult is what it is. The glass blowing process requires a lot of planning and strict adherence to a sequence of steps that have been refined over time in order to arrive at a successful result.

Here are the required parameters:

• Must look like the planet it represents.
  (otherwise, what's the point?)
• Must be the correct relative size.
  (exact scale is NOT possible, so relative scale is used)
• Must be extremely low in mass.
  (wall thickness must be very thin)

Taken one at a time—not so very hard. Doing all of these at the same time is where the difficulty comes in.

I usually work the "Gaffer's" position; the person directly working the glass: heating, shaping, coloring and directing the overall operation in creating each piece. Joy Alyssa Day is my assistant. She consults the journal (more on that later), chooses and prepares the colors, operates the furnace and annealer lids, waxes the tools and switches various ones out when needed, provides the lung power to blow the glass at the Gaffer's direction and generally makes sure I don't miss a step along the way (more on that later, too). When she's not doing that, she tweets from our two Twitter accounts: @BJ_Johnson and @Joy_Alyssa_Day, keeping our followers up to date on our progress that day and makes sure that whichever cat decides to be our shop cat for the day stays out of the way of Dad when he's headed for the Gaffer's bench swinging a pipeful of hot glass. Let's get started!

We begin with a small gather; approximately 1" (25.4mm) of 2,200°F (1,204°C) molten crystal on the end of a blowpipe. Then colored glass in various gauged sizes is applied to the surface and melted in to make the base color of the planet. This glass is called "frit". It ranges in 5 steps from .25" (6.4mm) chunks down to fine powder and we can never have enough color and size selection. Gets to be very expensive.

Sometimes, as in the case of Mars, larger frit of slightly different colors is applied along with the base color powder to create variegations in the surface value and texture. Then, different types of white glass are applied to form cloud patterns and polar caps. Some may be applied directly to the base color surface and some may be applied to what is called an "over-gather" of clear crystal. When applying the color the glass is pretty gooey, so it becomes misshapen and must be reshaped; usually on the marver—the large stainless plate seen above.

After each application of color, the glass has cooled so it is reheated in what is called a "Glory Hole" an auxiliary furnace for reheating glass that has cooled during offhand blowing. Managing heat is the greatest challenge in glass blowing. Get your heat right and everything goes they way you want. Get it wrong and you're in for a bad time. Heating one portion, while allowing another to cool by only a few tens of degrees can bring dramatic results. Knowing where in the furnace the hottest spots are and where those spots drop off is invaluable in making this happen to your advantage.

Once the decoration phase is complete, the blowing out of the sphere is done. The decoration must be applied to the small "plug" in such a way that it all will migrate and end up where it is supposed to when the sphere has finished expanding; some four times its original diameter—or in some cases more. That is where the trial and error comes in. Lots of trial. Lots of error; with some successes thrown in to keep you interested.

Most glass blowing is done on structures that have wall thicknesses substantial enough to allow shaping with tools. A wall as thin as .125" (3mm) can be shaped with blocks (spoon-shaped green cherry wood kept wet), jacks (stainless steel knife/scissor-looking tools) or wet newspaper held in one's hand—to name just a few. You can see some of them next to me on our gaffer's bench. These planet walls are so thin that touching them with anything will distort their shape or collapse them altogether; they must be free-blown as a final step. What makes the blowing out extra difficult is that there are differing thicknesses of different types of glass (all glasses are not the same because they are composed of varying elements to produce the colors). Different glass compounds heated to the same temperature will expand at different rates. They also accept heat differently. As you might imagine, since we cannot touch the expanding sphere to guide it into a spherical shape, this results in a substantial amount of eggs. Still, we have developed a method of producing a uniform sphere of "lumpy glass" without touching it. Took a LOT of practice.

We usually blow approximately ten candidates for each planet, choosing the overall best of each production to put into the sculpture. Some have great clouds but aren't spherical or, in the case of Saturn, the correct amount of oblateness but there is usually one that it all comes together and sings!

Blowing glass requires serious concentration. Talk about a demanding medium, glass is about as unforgiving as you can get. Dangerous, time consuming, requires a lot of practice, expensive to do—the materials, equipment and the energy costs are substantial—and it requires levels of planning and expertise that are just not encountered when doing work in two dimensions and certainly not when working with any digital program that has "Undo" and "Save As". Those of you who have followed me for a while know that I also work in both of those media, and more, so I'm not looking down my nose at them, by any means, but it's at least a magnitude more difficult; maybe two. Lose concentration, miss a step or get them out of order and you don't get to where you wanted to go. The process is so complex and exacting that a journal is kept of steps, formulae and general notes about how a particular work was done. It is modified as time goes by to add refinements if we discover some. Next time we need to make an Earth, for example, we have the previous sessions right there to refer to as if it were yesterday. Heck, we couldn't remember all of the steps and formulae if it were yesterday!

One may wonder why an artist chooses such a medium, but it is because of this degree of difficulty, and doing something that's never been done, that makes the work so exciting and satisfying. Disastrous when things go wrong, glorious when they go as planned, delightful when serendipity steps in (and it's good, that is). As we often say:

“If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.”

Once each is blown out to the target diameter, they go into the annealer for 8 or so hours to slowly cool from 950°F (510°C) down to ambient temperature. If this step is not taken or is not performed correctly, the glass builds up internal stress and shatters—if not immediately, soon. So, it isn't until morning that we know if we have successes that survived the cooling process. Some of our best don't and we're back in the hotshop the next day to duplicate it.... or try to. Putting glass in the annealer is sometimes fatal. Again, it's all about managing your heat. If the work goes into the annealer too cold and cracks during the "crack-off" process or it goes in too hot and suffers surface damage, you're starting over.

In the morning we look over the day's work, dust off the chalk, critique it, learn from new things we've tried and write the successes into the journal. When the selection has been made, the process known as "cold-working" begins. Using water-cooled saws, sanders and grinders, the extra bits and rough edges are taken off, smoothed and polished. Another opportunity for failure; sometimes spectacularly!

That'll be our topic for next time.

Got a question about our process or glassblowing in general? A horror story from your own shop to share, perhaps? Post a comment and let us know.

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Glass. It's captivating. It's mesmerizing. Attempted by many; mastered by only a few. It can be a harsh teacher. Working with it is exhilarating and humbling. It requires planning and intense concentration, while at the same time also requiring one to being open to the serendipitous. It's unmatched and worth every effort.

Celestial Winds Blown Glass Mobile

These are the reasons that we choose to work in it and the reasons that we chose it for this project and also for the Celestial Winds Blown Glass Mobiles. Even though we would be dealing with elements that have more mass than that of other materials, the look of it, how it reflects and refracts light, and the simple knowledge that it is glass make the choice an easy one. Working with something that you cannot touch, except only indirectly, has an appeal. It is a degree of difficulty a magnitude above and the results are rewarding, to say the very least.

Our original approach for the orrery glass "table top" (we call it that to identify it but it is not a table) was to use a normal, garden variety beveled edge, well... table top from a local glass supplier. Their quote to cut a six-foot circle, bevel the edge and bore a 2" (50.8mm) hole in the center was just plain stupid. We looked at the Starfire table that they had in the showroom and, even though Starfire is more clear than standard glass, it still is green. Get a section of glass up to .5" (12.7mm) thick and the green becomes a serious drawback. It was right there at the counter that the path was clear (not to make a pun). The glass that we work in all the time in our glass blowing is crystal—colorless—unless we specifically add color to it.

Our design was to etch the constellations of the Zodiac into the lower surface of the single glass top with a 2" hole bored in the center. Thinking out of the box; does it have to be one round of glass? We have glass casting capability. If we change the design and cast twelve sections that will make up the whole circle, each can hold one constellation and it will be way better than plain ol' green glass you can get anywhere! We can even introduce colors if we want—where we want—something not possible with a sheet of plate glass from a glass shop.

Crystal Towers at Red Cloud

We had recently added a large kiln to the kiln room to be able to produce the Crystal Towers at Red Cloud; illuminated towers of cast glass, some 38.5 feet (11.73m) tall, that look as if they are constructed of rock that has become transparent; with all of the surface textures and inclusions found in natural minerals of various types. Developing this technique required quite a bit of ingenuity and effort and will be the subject of another post or three, because it is a whole story in itself. But, with casting 2" thick transparent rock under our belt, casting large plates a half-inch thick is in the bag; if the new kiln is big enough. We immediately returned to the studio to see if the big kiln could produce a 30° pie section three feet long. It fits! YES! Time to make a mold.

304 stainless strips were machined and shaped to form the pie wedge we needed; which just fit into the kiln with enough room around the sides to stay away from the elements.

Dontcha just love a babe wielding power tools?

Then weeks of trial and error were invested to find the technique required to produce the plates. Initially, they all cracked during the annealing phase. That normally takes 12-15 hours. Evidently, we didn't have the temperature ramp correct for a plate of these dimensions and the glass was cooling too fast. Essentially, what you are doing is cooling the molten glass at so boring a rate that it doesn't realize what is going on until it's 'frozen'. The blocks we cast for the Crystal Towers were way thicker at 2"-3" (50.8mm-76.2mm) but not as wide/long at between 3"-7" (76.2mm-177.8mm) each dimension, so the temperature from center to edge was more uniform throughout the cooling phase and stresses didn't build up. At 19"x36"x.5" (.48m x.91m x12.7mm), these needed a different cooling profile. Finding it took some time.

Kiln Ready to Fire

Firing and Annealing Complete

We eventually arrived at each firing taking three days: two to three hours setting it up, preparing the mold, cutting and fitting the sacrificial blanket, loading the cullet and colors, fourteen hours firing to 1,850°F (1,010°C) and the remaining time following a slow ramp cool down, with a sudden flash (quick temperature drop) at the right point that retains the top glossy surface. As you can see, a lot of time and effort went into this.

The results are worth it. The image below left is eleven of the plates as they came out of the kiln. The twelfth is still cooling at the time of this shot. The image to the right shows the plates with the cold-working nearly complete. The plates have been sized, the edges ground and polished but the 2" center hole to clear the rocket tubes has yet to be cut. They all have been core drilled to accept the bolts that will hold them in place. Drilling glass is a delicate operation. Has to be done with a water-cooled diamond drill and ya gotta do it sssslllllooowwww. Thirty-six holes had to be drilled. Two plates broke in two during the operation and had to be re-cast. This ain't like fallin' off a log. If anyone thinks otherwise, they're welcome to try.

Eleven Plates Ready for Cold-working

Core Drilled and Edge Finished

Once these operations were complete, the reverse etching of the Zodiac constellation drawings, stars and ecliptic could commence. Fortunately, the blasting cabinet was just large enough to accept the plates; just as the kiln was to make them. But the etching proved to be a challenge for another reason. The bottom surface was cast to look like raw ice sliced from a comet nucleus; which was wildly successful in the way that it looked. However, this now presented a problem that took more than a week to overcome. The etching masks weren't sticking to the rough surface and we had to develop a way to get around that or we couldn't have the drawings we wanted on the plates. We tried heating the plates with the mask applied to soften it and then kneading it into the crevices. Worked some but pretty much a no-go. Tried spray adhesive under the mask but no matter how long we let it outgas before applying the mask it attacked the mask cover sheet, making it soft and it wouldn't blast away. Scratch that. After a few more false starts, I finally found a way to get the blaster to operate quasi-reliably under extremely low pressure, used only freshly developed masks and it worked.

The Crystal Zodiac Ice Plates

Next: Blowing the Sun and Planets (no, not up).

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3. The Making of the 21st Century Orrery — Woodworking

Now you can have one of your own. In blown glass, no less, with a flame and everything. This is the sixth in a series of Steampunk Rockets that has been a big hit. Who knew!?

We've got a couple of big ones that are really retro Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon rockets with bulbous bodies and curvy, super-pointed noses that will be coming along in the next few weeks. They'll be about 10 inches (24.4 cm) tall when complete. This latest one is 3-finned, 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) tall and is really cool; with ribbed fins and tiny oval windows.

A great little gem. Though they take quite a while, they're a lot of fun to make. The body is hand-blown on a pipe, shaped and styled then cracked off into the annealer for the night. The fins are done separately using a torch method and assembled to the body after they have been annealed. One of these days, we'll develop a method of applying the fins while the body is hot but that makes the process way more difficult. If the fins aren't good matches to each other, aren't attached at the 120° points around the body or become misshapen while trying to keep the whole sculpture hot as the next fin goes on, you start over. It'll take a lot of practice. Practice time is something of a luxury these days.

A more detailed story of how we make them is on Joy's blog. Check it out. It's pretty cool.

Lest us know what you think. Got suggestions? Want one for yourself? If so, we've just started up our Steampunk Rocketswebsite.

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3. An Orrery for the 21st Century – in Blown Glass and Carbon Fiber, No Less

I can't tell you how well received they have been. They certainly are beautiful, if I do say so myself. One sold to a friend and client just this afternoon. It's the purple cone shaped one in the top row, center of the January 26th post. We'll wrap him up and package him carefully and send him off to his new home first of the week.

Always a bittersweet time when one of your creations leaves. I know that a lot of people may not understand that but part of an artist is in each work that is produced. It comes directly out of you; from imagination and feelings through expert technique into reality. When I paint, I am copying the image from out of my mind as best I can. Sometimes, it isn't as good as I see it. Sometimes, it's way better than I ever imagined. It's never exactly the same; only I know what it looks like in its "original" form.

I've been up for 45 hours re-connecting the blog network in a different configuration to make it easier to manage. Hopefully, this first post will go where it is supposed to and I can get some rest to begin anew in about 9 hours or so. May not get a great night's sleep, though. The wind is picking up out there. Won't diminish until Monday night. With our being on the top of this mountain, there isn't a lot that deflects or shades us from the air movements, so we get some damage at times. Isn't supposed to gust over 42 MPH, so it may be okay; just noisy. We've had 85+ MPH winds up here and that is something you don't really want to experience. The house sits low and the air flows over it pretty well but the trees that tower over it on all sides are a worry. A big oak falling on the studio won't be good.

Time to go out and secure the big wind chimes.

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