Well then, the holiday is over and has been for a while. Seems longer than 4 days though, as we are all ready to fall over from tiredness. It is very hard to change back to workschedule after 3 weeks of sleeping in as your system sees fit.
We had a nice holiday. We spent a week in a rented summer cottage by the sea. The weather was not hot enough for actual bathing, but we took daytrips around the area and visited with relatives, and the week was soon over. Then we had two weeks at home, which the adults enjoyed and the children were bored by.
The first thing I did upon our return, was to ask BF to install the vent I got just before we left. He set it up, and now I have all the vent power a girl could dream of. It is so powerfull I can feel a bit of a breeze from behind, even on the lowest setting. Yay! :)
And I have put it to good use too. I had thought that I would be too busy with family stuff during the holiday weeks to make any beads, but in fact it has been glorious. It is so much easier to get some work done when you know you can continue all night if you are up to it, and then sleep it off in the morning. Even if the kids don't sleep/calm down until 9-10 PM there is still plenty of time for melting glass.
So I have been in a furious workmode and it has been grand. I have made a lot of new beads, and discovered the wonder of the one-hole bead. Once I made a drop bead on the tip of my mandrel, but it broke as soon as I tried to get it off, and I thought maybe I should not do those until I had a kiln. But no, I can do drop beads, and I have a bunch ready for annealing (as soon as possible) in lovely swirly colours.
I have also been making goddesses in a new way. Usually I add whatever bumps needs adding on the body core, but I thought I would try to shape one of the drops into a goddess, and it went very well. I also made a couple with wings ... or at least they were intended to be wings, but people call them arms, baby arms or even ears. I do agree though that I need to work a bit on them as they are very small and could well resemble baby arms (though this suggestion came from my baby who also says 'give me the bunny' when she sees my ladies). In any case, Yay! for a small progress :)
But - now workdays have begun again, and I have been quite exhausted, as has the rest of the family, from getting up about 4 hours earlier than the last 3 weeks. And since I know from experience that lampworking and exhaustion does not mix well, I have only had one short session since sunday. This is bad, bad news as I need to work hard to get a good stock up before the end of october. I am especially low on earring pairs (according to my plan), and I am guessing mine might be the first jewelry booth ever selling neckwear only ;)
Oh well, the neckwear will be lovely :)
P~
PS: pics will follow as soon as I get some taken (ahem ...)