Wow, it's been a while!

I just noticed how long it's been since you've heard from Kaos Siberians.

There have been a LOT of changes here.  Ryder, Frosty, Satinka, and Robin are still here.  Ice is off doing whatever he's decided to do over the Rainbow Bridge; letting him go was rough but it was time.

We added a new furry family member, Smokey.

Smokey is a Great Pyrenees that we met at Animal Friends of the Valley and fell in love with.  With minimal research into the breed, we brought him home.  The first few weeks I wondered if I'd made a horrible mistake.  But over the last few months, he's become part of the pack.  Smokey and I are taking some basic obedience classes at PetSmart and we're looking forward to moving forward with CGC and therapy dog certifications as well as doing some training to start competing in Rally Obedience.  He's a smart boy and much more eager to please than a Siberian!  

We haven't been in the show ring, except when Maskarade Siberians has dragged us out to help her when she's in Southern California, but we're considering a return there too with a new puppy later this year or next year.

Right now I'm just going to school, staring a new job and spending time with my crew who are, with the exception of Smokey, all senior dogs now and all kinda calm and mellow.  Every day with them is a gift and I'm not going to miss a minute of it. 

Checking in

It's been a while, hasn't it?  So much has changed in my life, almost all of it has been good change for me.  If you've missed the changes, I'm divorced, living with only five dogs and have returned to school part time to finish my bachelor's degree.  Those are the highlights.

And it seems, I've gotten complacent about how Siberians behave.  Saturday morning I left the back door into the dog area open so the dogs could laze around inside.  I heard a weird sound, hollered from the bedroom and it eventually stopped.  So I went back to sleep. Because quiet Siberian Huskies are sleeping Siberian Huskies, right?

Nope.  As it turns out they had decided it was time to explore the garage.  The garage "path" to the yard for them is formed with an expen; just an expen.  So, they opened the end and went into the "unpacked" area.  Frosty found (or someone found, but Frosty had it when I got up) a bottle of fish oil I was certain I had but couldn't find.  It's a little misshapen and has some holes in it but hey, I have fish oil for them now.  That explains the weird rattling noise.

And then I couldn't find Robin.  So I wandered out to the garage.  She was perched on top of an unstable stack of boxes waiting for me to come rescue her.  I was really tempted to let her stay there and see how long it took her to reverse course, but with the broken foot and all, I really didn't want to stand there.  So I rescued her.

Yep, it seems that they've lulled me into that false sense of security that experienced Siberian Husky owners know and dread.

And the adventure continues!

Catching up

It's been a little over two years since I've checked in here...two years in which a lot has changed.

I haven't been active in the show ring in a little over two years now, first finances then divorce.  Things change and after I finish figuring out what my new life is going to look like, I hope to be back in the ring.  We've placed some of the dogs, other dogs are staying with friends and have kept some of them. 

Max, Aleska and Katie are off living their life of luxury with Grandma Sharon.  Tipton and Sage are living down in Long Beach, terrorizing the neighboring cats and small dogs who venture too close and driving their new family nuts.  Robin is up visiting Aunt Lori and may go visit Maskarade for a bit.  Emmy and Satinka are *gasp* learning to live outside, in a dog run...and Ice keeps them company most of the time.  Ryder and Frosty, of course, are still spoiled house dogs and like it that way.

In a few months, I'm hoping to be moved into my own place where Satinka and Emmy can lounge on the sofas again...but first things first, right?

I kinda miss the shows, but then, as I sit here on a peaceful Sunday afternoon not packing up to drive home, exhausted I don't.  I think when I start showing again it's going to be on a much more limited basis. 

My glass is all packed and in storage.  That sucks.  But again, it's not gone away...it's just stored for now. 

That's it in a nutshell!  Kaos is still Kaos and each day brings new and different challenges. 

What do you mean I don't have Cobalt Blue frit????

Well, what's a gal to do when she doesn't have the color frit that she fell asleep thinking about using? I have Cobalt confetti glass (really thin pieces of broken up blown glass) and a smasher thingie from the kitchen dept...and if you look in the bowl there you'll see it.... FRIT! Frit is really just smushed up glass... I can do that!
So, instead of playing with the frit lace one color at a time, I used some ceramic fiber paper to make 3 channels...then weighted it down with pieces of old kiln shelf. Not ideal, and I have an idea what I need to make a more permanent mold...but I didn't want to spend the 2 hour drive out to Pacific Art Glass to get it, I wanted this in the kiln NOW.

From top to bottom, Cobalt on Lemon Yellow, Cobalt on iridized clear and Cobalt on Reactive Cloud (this one I'm really looking forward to seeing).

I weighted down the top layer of fiber paper so that I had a chance of each color staying in its own place...we'll see how that worked. If these three pieces are at all what I'm hoping for, I think tonight I'll be firing the big kiln!

Frit lace

I've been playing with this for a couple days now...and it's fun. The results are sometimes unexpected and a few have already hit the scrap heap.

This one is a violet and irridized clear frit mix. You can't see the iridescence in the pictures..but it's there. I was going to fuse it onto a piece of clear or white glass so that I could work with it...
But then I set it down on a piece of black cardstock....yeppers...this one is destined for black.
This is just a simple pile of large French Vanilla frit. I wasn't anticipating the marbling...and I LOVE it!!! I'm going to simply fuse it onto a strip of French Vanilla to work with it...and put a couple of pieces of frit in that hole to fill it in. I'm totally in love with the way this experiement turned out.

So much so that I thought I'd start playing with topping the large French Vanilla with some colored frit...in this case Olive Green. I love how it looks... And then I turned it over... and THIS is what I was really hoping for. Sometimes you just have to look at things differently, right? I'm going to break off some of those fragile edge pieces to fill in the holes and again, fuse it onto a piece of French Vanilla glass so I can work with it.


There's another experiment in the kiln now... I can't wait to see how they come out!!!

Ginkos in glass...part two

Ok, I admit it, I peeked in the kiln, so I had a fair idea this wasn't going to come out quite as planned....

The two leaves that had the Thompsons' stuff had a HUGE bubble over them (the two on the right)...which left the Pearl Ex completely exposed when it pulled back. Now I can brush the powder off. Of course, I could have also maybe used too much Pearl Ex? I'll have to play with that again.

The Simple Solution leaf (far left) has a bubble too. The one that didn't bubble lost all the color in the Pearl Ex and just looks like burned silver leaf. Not the effect I was going for, that's for sure. But the Stamping Medium did the best in the kiln...that or that's the leaf I put the least amount of Pearl Ex on... so many variables.

I'm gonna try again... but this time i'm going to put each leaf in its own glass sammich...that way if one does turn out, the others won't ruin it. This is gonna get cleaned up and go in the scrap drawer for now. I've got other ideas I want to play with!!!

Ginkos in glass...

Well, that's what I'm hoping to get... we'll see.

There's a really cool technique that involves sifting glass powders onto leaves that you've made sticky with hair spray or some such stuff, sift powder onto them and then you fuse 'em and get a really cool effect when the leaves burn off in the kiln...Fossil Vitra and I've been dying to play with it. Except I don't have any glass powder (there's a mortal & pestle in my future) and well...I don't own any hairspray. But in this HUGE room of stuff, there's got to be something I can use instead.

So, I pulled down some various sticky mediums, Fuse Master's overglaze glue, glass stamping medium, Dove blending medium and Simple Solution from Dreaming in Color. Yes, I could have grabbed the gum arabic and mixed some up, but I was going for already mixed convenience.

The overglaze glue is nice and sticky and spread nicely out over the leaf. Using a stipple brush (yeah, have a few of those around from the stamping days too) I covered it with Pearl Ex.

Dove Blending medium didn't work on its own, it just beaded up on the dried leaf. On to the sticky as heck glass stamping medium..WOW.. they weren't kidding this stuff needs to be thinned. A few drops of the Dove blending medium thinned it enough to spread over the leaf and it too was covered with pearl ex.

The Simple Solution was by far the easiest to spread on the dried leaf.

Instead of setting this aside to wait for a full kiln, since it involved burning off the various mediums, I'm firing up the baby kiln upstairs.

That, of course, means I need to stay up here and babysit the fusing 'cause this kiln has a manual control (oh, poor me, two kilns and one of 'em is manual). Which means I could start some other projects to fill up the big kiln for a firing!!

Scraps of dichro...

These are scraps. I took a huge pile of my scrap dichro and melted them into a big pile on a sheet of black glass. Now, sometimes I wish I hadn't done that because I can think of a million other things to do with that scrap dichro...but it was done and melted and I needed to eventually do something with the resulting chunk of glass. Today was that day.

After trimming some of the edges so that I could measure more easily, I headed over to the ring saw to start cutting up the glass.



After cutting the strips, I played with them, moving the pairs until I got a combo that made me happy...


Next I'm gonna fuse them again, using some dams to keep the glass from spread out too far and will have 4 long strips, instead of 8 short strips (that's the plan anyway). Then they're going to be come design pieces in some plates... I think.

The rest of the day was spent looking at those fused striped pieces. I'm still not liking the pink one, the pink is too pale and you really can't see the pink. They may be cut up and used in something else. But the purple is going to be slumped into a little sushi dish. I'm trying to be patient, filling up the the kiln so I'm not wasting electricity. Gives me some extra time to keep my area cleaned up...

I can't wait to get back up there tomorrow.

Firing the kiln... and the laws of glass

Even I can't overlook the laws of glass. Glass at full fuse temperatures wants to be 6mm thick. That's something that's important to remember if you're mixing different colors...especially when they're not the same thickness.


See those sharp edges and bubbles? Well, that's what happens when you mix 2mm and 3mm glass...don't add enough to make up for the missing volume AND fire it with a piece that is all 3mm and don't add extra soak time for things to smooth out. But that's OK, those champagne bubbles are a sign of hand crafting, right? Some work with the grinder and we'll have those edges cleaned up and be ready to slump this little bugger.



Now the pink one turned out much better. It was all 3mm glass, so I didn't have the air bubble issue...and the edges are nice and smooth. It still needs a little bit of cold working, but not nearly as much as the purple.

Fusing glass is teaching me patience. I put these in the kiln with the electronic controller, so I had no excuses to be peeking in the kiln. Waiting up until the kiln is cool enough to open is not an option when you don't fire till mid to late afternoon. And now I get to fire them AGAIN!!!! I can see the need to have several kilns so you can have several projects going at once....but I don't think that's gonna happen.

I'm certainly going to be less casual about buying 2mm or 3mm glass, that's for sure! And I'll be spending a lot more time practicing cutting my glass so that it breaks in nice, clean lines. Because there are some circle projects I want to play around with....and I KNOW that the circle cutter is going to tax my knowledge of words I can say in other languages.

Stripes and scrap glass

If there's something that a few hours cutting glass will give you, it's an appreciation for skills that you developed and let slide...for whatever reason. Who would have thought that retraining the hands and eyes to cut small, even strips of glass would generate so much angst (and scraps!)

After several hours in the corner, here's what I have.

What you don't...and won't...see are all of the pieces that are in the scrap drawers.

Here are some relearned lessons:
1. Scoring glass is a standing up activity.
2. Measure twice, score once.
3. Never plan on your last piece of glass for a project....see above comment about scraps.

These pieces aren't "anything" as I explained to the hubby. I needed to jump back in and do something, so I grabbed a tutorial from Bullseye, modified it with the 9" strips didn't happen (see lesson #3) and this is the result.

The Glass Corner

Here's the baby kiln, set up with the fire proof sheet rock underneath and behind it...safey first, right? The drawers contain scrap glass (of which there is PLENTY) and the little caddy has some of my most reached for tools. That wire shelf is empty, I'm not sure what'll go up there, but I like the spacious feeling of the wire shelf overhead when compared to the dark, solid shelf over the other window. I'll be changing that one to a wire shelf too! Under the worktable is a bookshelf, on it's side, that is perfect for storing my smaller sheets of glass (thank you Ikea!).

You'll never see this space like this again...so look carefully!

Spare kiln pieces, molds and some ceramic fiber paper... and an empty shelf at the bottom for future mold purchases :-)

The messy stuff..the grinder, ring saw and dremel drill press are on this table. There's an acrylic shield to move behind whichever tool I'm using to contain the inevitable spray of glass and water. I'm hoping to add a wet tile saw in the not too distant future...we'll see.

And that, my friends, is where I'm hanging out when I tell you I'm in the corner...it's the glass corner, not the naughty corner!!!!

And for obvious reasons, this room is "No Dogs Allowed"

The day at the vet's

Cheyenne went into the vet's today. She stopped eating and we found blood in her urine. Of course all of the worst case scenarios run through our heads at a time like that. She's our most senior girl and one of two of our original rescues left at Kaos.

It turns out she has a large stone in her bladder and a UTI. Yep, that'd make me uncomfortable too! The downside is that it has to be removed surgically, which means we have to wait for bloodwork to come back to make sure she's a good candidate for surgery.

Poor baby. She did get some good meds for the pain...she's sleeping now (which she does a lot). Bloodwork results tomorrow at 9am. Keep your paws crossed for Miss Cheyenne.

I can't go to the show that weekend...I'm going camping!

Anyone who knows me might need a minute to pick themselves up off of the floor and make sure that they're in the right blog, check that their glasses and screens are clean and that they didn't mis-read that statement. Just for clarity, let me repeat that: I can't go to the dogshow that weekend, I'm going camping.

Yep, it sounds the same way the second time.

Blame it on Karen Ramstead. Because this personal growth or fit of insanity, depending on your point of view, is her fault. Completely and 100% her fault.

Let me give you a little bit of history. A few years ago my husband, Sean, started going out with a group of people who thought it was fun to go dry camping and run their dogs in the desert on weekends. Dry camping - an activity involving sleeping in tents, on the ground, in undeveloped camp sites with no facilities other than a fire ring. Get the idea? Roughing it.

I was happy to let him take the dogs and take off, usually with my Mom, to meet up with Nicole, Patti and the rest of the Red Mountain gang for the weekend while I went to a dog show, slept in a real bed and had ameneties. Then Karen came to town.

I'd "known" Karen on line for some time. The woman is amazing. She has run the Iditarod several times, lives in the wilds of Perryvale, Alberta (that's Canada, not a typo for Alabama) several miles from the closest Starbucks. She has working dogs who show, and successfully too. She's amazing, because she does all of this while making us, her internet fanclub, feel like we're part of her team. When she does well, we all celebrate. When something goes wrong, we feel like we're sharing her pain and disappointment. Yeah, we're Karen groupies. Then she came to town.

I must have been at a point in my life where I was ready to learn more. When we attended her talk, I listened with my heart as well as my head. I heard her love for the dogs and their love for her while they were out on miles of trail without another person around. I felt my growing envy as she described the teamwork and relationships she developed with each of her dogs. I mean, I love my dogs and we have a great relationship...especially the ones who sleep in the bedroom or travel to shows with me. But the relationship she described went so far beyond that and it made me wonder. What was I missing by skipping out on running the dogs?

So I announced to my husband that I was going to Red Mountain with him that winter. When he picked himself up off the ground, he grinned. Or was that a grimace?

It's been two years of winter runs in the desert now. I can't describe the joy of watching my dogs do what is in their heart...running in harness. I can't describe the joy of watching Robin develop as a leader, choosing trail and developing the confidence not to look back and ask "is this OK?" as she moves the team around a turn and headed up the trail. The utter contentment as they curled up on their picket line, resting after a good run was amazing to see...even more so knowing that it would change in an instant if I were to pick up a harness and let them know we were going out again.

I couldn't tell you exactly what Karen said. Maybe it was her words and the light in her eyes as she described a trip with her dogs. Maybe it was the moment she told us about a lessons she learned from one of her dogs. Whatever it was, I'm glad she said it at the exact moment that I heard it. Because it made me say "I want that."

So I won't be at the dog show (insert random weekend here) ...I'll be up at Big Bear camping with my dogs. Hey, at least Big Bear has amenities...in the desert the only amenities you have are miles and miles of trail and that's more than enough for me.

P.S. Karen's coming down to Southern California again. If you're not going to be at the dog show that weekend, check http://www.urbanmushing.com/ for the details and registration info.

I love time with Mom

Don't get me wrong, I really do....but do all of my trips with her have to be preceeded by a bath? I mean, really, every time? When I go with Daddy I don't get baths. In fact, Daddy lets us play in the dirt.

I didn't get to go last weekend; Emmy got the bath and the trip with mom and they were gone a long time. Today it was my turn. Mom keeps muttering "2 more points" and I don't really get what she means, but I got a bath.

I'll let you know if I figure out what that "two more points" thing means.

Luv, Robin

Quality Control

Mom's been sending a lot of stuff out of the house, she says it's books and stuff...but I can read, this box clearly says "PetEdge." I'm pretty sure that means it's for us! Mom explained that it was trophies for the specialty coming up (that I don't get to show at, but that's another gripe, she's taking Emmy that weekend) and it has to go down to Three Dog Bakery in San Clemente so Aunt Claire can add the dog cookies to the trophy bowls. Hello? Dog, cookies..what part of ME isn't registering with Mom?

So, since she wasn't going to let me have anything in the box, including the squeaky toys, I did my best to make sure that she carefully repacked everything so that it shipped safely.

I tell you, in my next life I want to come back as a companion breed, not one of these working breeds!!!

Artie & Mercedes went to a picnic today. Again I ask...what about ME? They said they had fun, got to run in a tunnel and got lots of cookies...but some of the dogs didn't like them. WHAT? I may pick on the little rascals, but everyone else is supposed to adore them. No one doesn't like my little brother and sister. Mom says that Jindos don't really like "in your face" dogs...and Artie and Mercedes certainly qualify as that...so maybe I can understand their point of view. Mercedes said she sang loud and long all the way there and home. Good girl!

More later,
Robin

Has anyone seen my Nylabone?

Momma says some dogs don't even like nylabones or other hard plastic chew toys. She says her friends tell her that their dogs ignore them.

I don't know why she doesn't tell those people to send those unwanted, unloved and *whole* nylabones here. We're running low.

Love,
Robin

The craft room project continues...but first...

I have a co-blogger. Robin has decided that the canine view point is not being adequately represented and has decided that since part of the computer chair is hers, she should be able to help me on the computer too. That or she thinks she should help me with my dinner.

Now, remember "that" room? Here's the view down the hall. Not much has changed in this view, unless you put the two pictures side by side and I'm not smart enough with Blogger's picture layouts to do that.




















But look!!! There's a TABLE there! And tops of Iris carts! And those plastic boxes to the left? Those are ceramic house/village things that Mom bought that are going in the garage sale...and that's the last row of stuff before the back of the first row of Iris carts. Obviously the fabric/sewing area to the right is still a little out of control...but there's only so much you can get done at a time. The upholstery sewing machine is actually going to move over where those plastic boxes are, so we have to do things in just the right order to keep things moving in the right direction.



















But here's where you can really see the progress...almost the whole first row of Iris carts is visible and you can see all the way across the room! This is major progress. We've been putting stuff away (there's a concept), throwing junk away (yes, it's real junk, don't panic) and putting stuff in the garage sale room. That pile is HUGE! It's like Clean Sweep without the therapy...or the deadlines.

I'm really getting excited that we're going to have this room functional soon.

I just vacuumed yesterday!!!

I don't think there's anything else I need to add. I'll be the one with the broom over there in the living room.

What a day!!!

It started at 6am, something that hasn't happened in a LONG time...well, since I was laid off a couple weeks ago. (I'm OK with the layoff for those of you who haven't heard about it, the timing actually works out well for the whole "wife of brain surgery patient" role I'm filling right now.

Started the day at the neuro-oncologist. That's the doctor with dual specialties in neurology and oncology...brain tumor guy. He's the Dept. head, so I guess we were referred right to the top. Basically, he wants another MRI/MRV to see if that pesky vein is completely occluded. If it is then it's time for Brain Surgery: The Sequel to remove the rest of the tumor. He seems to think that it is completely occluded. Let me tell you, he's going to have to convince me before I let him cut into Sean's head again; I'd prefer not to have a stroked out vegetable for a husband. But if we can get the rest of the tumor out, that'd be a good thing. Then we had a break.

Since I haven't been over on that side of town for a LONG TIME (years, really) we went down to Pacific Art Glass in Gardena. What fun that was! While I was browsing the aisles I found some fun new things to play with. The first things I picked up were some cool paper packs from Glassline. Created with different colors and textures, they go between a clear and colored sheet, and when the firing is done, the texture shows. I'm picturing an etched Siberian Husky (reverse, so the dog's silhouette is clear and the rest of the piece is etched) on a complementary colored base. I think it's going to be stunning! It is in my head anyway!

Then I found fusible decal paper. Print the decal on the laser jet and slide the decal on and fuse it. I can scan and print photos, etc. Coasters with old sled-dog postcard images...all sorts of things come to mind, some of which are going to be surprises for the recipient, so I'm not going into much detail.

Then I found the Glassline paints. These aren't new, per se, but they're new to me, so I got black...should have gotten white too, that would have given me some good variety but I'll manage with just one color (no, Kelly, I didn't buy one of each color of either the paint or the paper...see how I've changed?)

As I was checking out, I turned around and saw Dicro Slide...a dichroic coated paper that I can make pretty dicro images from and fuse them onto plain glass....more ideas are born in my head.

After talking with the guys at the counter about a few other ideas I had cooking, I decided it was time to check out before I spent more money than we had (not hard to do since I'm not working right now!) and we left to go find somewhere quiet to sit and read while we waited for our next doctor's appointment.

This doc is a surgical oncologist. He does surgical radiation therapy and stuff like that. After a brief discussion of Sean's case, he dropped a bombshell on us. He needed us to locate Sean's medical records of the treatment he had for leukemia in 1974/75 before he could even start to figure out how the radiation treatment plan for Sean was going to come together. I could picture what the records we have look like in my mind....I was just hoping I could lay my hands on them when we got home. And I DID! They were in a folder labeled "Medical Records - Sean." Phew!!! That gave us a great starting point to contact the facility where the treatment was to see if there was any chance that they have the actual records available. But we know based on what the doctor said, that the info in these copies was enough for him to make plans from...but more info is better.

Then it was a drive to the optical place to pick up my new glasses (replacements for the ones that Robin ate at a few months ago and the puppies trashed the lenses last week) and then to the pharmacy to pick up a new anti-seizure med for Sean.

It's been a long day and tomorrow.....I'm sleeping in!

A corner emerges!

Before I get started on today's progress, here's a photo of the west wall that I didn't take yesterday. See that computer way down at the end??? That's supposed to be usable because that's the one that the networked printer is attached to...as well as the scanner. Out of the frame on the right are the sewing machines...a regular one and an upholstery machine. Actually you can see the standard machine's table under those boxes. Both are very nice to have...when you can get to them!

Then I decided to start in my corner...the glass corner. You'd be amazed how much dust can accumulate in 10 years when you live in a community that has ongoing construction. But, as you can see (well, I guess you can't see the shelf) all of the glass tools are put away, all of the glass molds are boxed and labeled on the shelf (look over the top of the paper boxes...that's the molds) and everything that wasn't glass related was removed from the table...almost.

That stack of three boxes is stuff for the Siberian Husky Club of America Meet the Breeds booth that I help with every year in December. Obviously I need to find a better place to store that stuff! This is the last year that the booth will be in Long Beach, CA...so hopefully next year I can ship it to another vicim...errr...volunteer.

In the bottom right corner you can see my small kiln. That was my first kiln and I've kept it for test firings and small projects...because I AM going to use this area! Over by the window are a stack of AKC Stud Books. I'm going to find someone who wants them and get them out of my house. I've gotten the reference info I need out of them for my database. I hope I don't have to throw them away, because they're good info....but I refuse to let them clutter up my space.

One of the biggest challenges was keeping the progress I'd made on my worktable. Taking non-glass stuff off of the glass table meant that it had to go somewhere, so it all stacked on the worktable. I'm happy to show that I didn't slide backwards. After gettting the glass table done, I cleaned the work table back off. It's not perfect, but at least I didn't lose ground there. Although you can't see it, I also got rid of two boxes underneath the glass table. I can sit and have somewhere to put my feet! Four bags of garbage, two piles of recyclables, a pile moved to the garage sale room, a couple of Ebay listings and 4 hours later, I pronounced myself satisfied and called it a day.