Blown Glass Pendant Lamp:Photo essay

When we were on the Oregon coast, Susan and I stopped at this art glass studio. The glass was all blown and they had some pendant light Susan liked. But he didn't have the exact color she wanted. So he custom made her one and we got to watch him do it. It was pretty cool. He started by take a blob of white hot glass out of the furnace.

Then he repeatedly rolled it in colored chips. Blues and greens. Then he put it in what he called the glory hole. There was lots of shaping and pulling.

Then he blew his breath in it. The moisture in his breath expanded with the heat. Lots more shaping.

It was so hot, it looked orange all the time although it ws really blues and greens.

Cutting it with scissors. widening the hole and more shaping.

Finally, it had to cool slowly over night so that it wouldn't break. Ta da, here is the finished product. Isn't it beautiful. 

 Here it is at Susan's house before it was installed. Pretty cool huh?

Trip to Oregon Coast

 When I visited my friend, Susan, we took an overnight trip over to the Newport area of the Oregon coast. There were lots of pretty sights along the was as well as there. There some covered bridges in Oregon. This one you can only use on foot now.

 This beautiful Belgian draft horse was pastured near the bridge. And this fun caterpiller was in the grass.

 Oregon grows lots of yummy food. It is a bit overwhelming when you come from such an arid climate as Arizona. We bought some corn, tomatoes and honey at this farm stand.

 And the forest is lush and thick. Moss grows on everything, including the trees.

 This is the pretty bridge over Yaquina bay.

 There were lots of noisy sea lions near where we stopped to get some shrimp cocktail.

 The views all the coast are always amazing. Even on a foggy day.

 Yummy clam choder and garlic toast for dinner.

 Fresh fish market where we got shrimp cocktails for 3.50.

 We stopped at Mossy Creek Pottery and I ended up with this fun bowl with a face. I love it!

 We also stopped at a glass blowing studio. Susan had him custum make her a pendant lamp. I will do a separate entry on that. It was cool to watch him work.

 I love how trees grow on trees.

 This is an organic farm stand we stopped at.

 More farm stand photos.

 This guy was clamming.

 Buffalo raised for meat.

 Susan's dog Skippy came along and supervised all the activities.

 Oregon pioneer memorial in Salem.

Susan's House

I just got back from a visit to my friend Susan in Oregon. She has an amazing eye for decorating with found objects. I have posted some photos in the past, but here is an update. This is a view across her back yard again from the deck. You are looking at a a claw footed tub that has a shower head on it and becomes a fountain. There are water plants in the tub. There is also a vine covered arch over towards the hot tub. The door on the garden shed was salvaged from a house that was being torn down as was the window.

 Aren't these succulents in the graduated pots fun? and she has lots of beautiful garden plants.

 Old liscense plates, and parts of garden implements.

 I love, love these old hubcaps on her wall and the wood planers or shavers or whatever they are called.

 This old coke machine is in the entry way to her house. It works!

 The bay window in her living room that she had put in.

 Rtont yard.

 Fall leaf

 She picked this metal cat up on our trip to the coast. Isn't he fun?

Horton Springs Hike

I am still trying to get myself ready to be able to do the through hike of Aravaipa Canyon the end of October. So we went up near Payson and hiked to Horton Springs. None of us had been there before. It was a really pretty area.

There are lots of parallel and crossing trails, and so it's easy to get a little lost. You still wind up in basically the same place, but maybe by a slightly diffrerent path. We think we did 8 miles round trip. I was still the slowest by far, but I wasn't in as bad of shape as I was when we did the West Fork a month ago.

This is my friend Lynnora. She is coming with us to Aravaipa and came on this hike too.

Cindy.

The group except for me.

My neice and her dog Tanner.

There were lots of pretty waterfalls and swimming holes.

The spring comes out at the top of the rim.

The mouth of the spring, where it starts.

The only photo of me, with Cynthia.

Lynnora and Cynthia.

Keegan.