Well, since nobody in my family is really into facebooking (which is not really at all like scrapbooking, nor does it involve any faces), I'm posting the pictures of my recent glass mishap on the ol' blog. So, here is the story:
I was making a vase out of clear glass with copper foil encased between the layers. I successfully blew it to the desired size, then transferred it from the blow pipe to the punty, which allows me to work on the rim of the piece. I heated the piece up and began swinging it like a pendulum (this lengthens the vase, and is a totally normal and relatively safe glassblowing technique) when all the sudden, a metal table, called a marver, jumped in the path of the swinging vase...CRASH went the vase, pieces of it flying everywhere. A formidable chunk of the vase flew in the general vicinity of my right leg, striking it about 7 inches down from my knee. As I lamented with wailing and gnashing of teeth the demise of my soon-to-be artwork, I glanced down and noticed a large, growing red splotch on my sock and followed the oozing crimson trail up to a gaping laceration in my leg about 6 inches long and an inch wide. Horrified, i looked upon my innards trying to escape like prisoners from a fleshy prison. (Ok, so it was actually a cut a little less than an inch long and about an eighth of an inch deep, and you don't really have any innards in your shin regardless.) Anyway, I sat down on the bench and put my leg up to try and stop the bleeding. Lindsey, my blowing partner (for events like this, we always have a buddy) ran in to get some paper towels.
We decided that Lindsey would have to take me in her car to the emergency room. After sitting for several minutes stopping the bleeding, Lindsey asked "Do you want some water?"
"Yes" I replied, pitifully.
"Do you want a Pop-Tart?"
"No, just in case I ralph in your car. That wouldn't be nice to clean up."
Lindsey agreed, and soon we were on our way to the Student Health Center, where I promptly received six stitches and a pat on the back for being such a good sport about it all. Then Wally, my roommate, and I saw The Dark Knight, which was amazing. Then later that night, I was back in the hot shop, making more potentially explosive and razor-sharp things out of glass.

The End.

Photo Credits:
Top: The culprit vase. I think the largish chunk in the middle bottom part of the picture was the actual chunk that hit me.
Middle: The pool of blood that collected under me whilst waiting for towels with which to stop the bleeding.
Bottom: My leg with stitches in it.

Glassblowing rocks my socks off

So here are some new pictures of stuff that I have made in glassblowing. There is a little room in B66 (thats where the sculpture and ceramics is) with lights and a tripod and a backdrop for shooting, so I took my camera in there and tried to make "professional" looking prints of my work. The files were pretty big, so I tried to winzip them. I hope you can unzip them on your end. Anyway, Here are the descriptions:

This is a little cup that I made a while back. Actually, I was making a big, red, eggplant-looking thing for a mobile and it broke. I took the broken pieces (which were red with lots of clear glass) and made a little cup. Yesterday, I welded the hand stand (get it?!) and patina-ed it with ferric nitrate (which also does interesting things when sprayed on glass.) The hand has this rusty, leprous sort of look, which I really like. From certain angles (008 and 019) it kind of looks like a sick sort of rose. Anyway, I like this piece. I think it turned out well.



This is a bicone vase that I made the other day. I took this white swirly stained glass and melted it on to the end of my rod. Then, I gathered clear glass over it, then the red frit, then more clear. The clear between the layers of color separates them. I really like how this piece turned out. It has really good form and a simple, but striking color scheme. I also like how the swirly glass on the inside and the red spots are random and chaotic, but they are reined in by the simple shape of the vase.




This is a really cool piece, I think. I beat out a piece of copper wire into a thin sheet and then cut it in a zig-zag pattern. I then made a softball-sized bubble of clear glass and rolled it in the copper to pick it up. Then, I heated the lip and spun it out, giving it the bowl shape and the scalloped edge. Copper turns all sorts of cool colors when encased in glass, usually red, so from the top, you can see all those subtle changes in color. When I took it out of the annealer, however, all the heat had given the exposed copper a black layer over it. First, I thought about polishing it off, but that was taking way too long and I wasn't getting into the little crooks and nannies, so I sandblasted the outside. The outside glass is frosted and the copper has a really nice matte finish on it.

This is that Pueblo vase that I made a while back, just in the "professional" setting. I sandblasted the mountains and the pueblo. Actually, the whole thing was black and I sandblasted the black away where the sky shows. You can still see some of where the black was on the top right near the lip.







This was a fun project. I welded the stairs and polished them, then I blew a long, thin blue bubble, got it hot, and draped it over the stairs, so it oozed down. Then I broke it off and annealed it. Meanwhile, I made the eyeballs like beads, but I made them on the very end of the mandrel, so the hole only goes about 1/4" into the eyeball. Then I epoxyed the wires into the eyeballs and the wires into the bottle. After that was all over, I epoxyed the little guy to his stairs. Nude descending a staircase?

Singled Out

So, I know that everyone in the Jorgensen family already knows this, but I have to tell this story: My cousin, Leslie, invited us other cousins (me, Zack, Randa, and Maddie) to a ward party and then a party at her house. While at the ward party, they played a game of Singled Out (basically a girl/boy asks questions to narrow down her/his perfect boy/girl. Well it was Leslie in the hot seat for the girl's turn and Zack and I decided to go up as a joke. Well, the first question was "Who is your favorite superhero: Batman, Spiderman, or Mr. Incredible?" I immediately went to the Batman group (because he is the coolest superhero in the super universe) and Zack, all by his lonesome, went over to the Mr. Incredible group. The proctor of the game asked Les what her answer was and she says "Umm...Mr. Incredible!" Amazing! Les had narrowed down her dream man in one question--and it was her cousin! Needless to say, we sat down and the other guys restarted the game. I about died laughing. I couldn't breathe for about a minute. But that was not the end of the fun...
The next game was the Battle of the Sexes. The girls got asked "guy" questions and the guys got the "girl" questions. Little did the girls' team know that we had, not one, but TWO secret weapons...me and Zack. Two boys that had, for the better part of their lives, been immersed in the matriarchal Jorgensen universe. When the question came "Elizabeth Bennet is the main character of what novel?" we shouted out in glorious unison "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE! PRIDE AND PREJUDICE!!" The host of the game asked "What is the name of Barbie's little sister?" Zack screamed "SKIP!" and suddenly quieted, "per" because everyone was looking at him weird. They also asked a question about some names and what cartoon they were from: Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, or Carebears. I shouted "My Little Pony," but the rest of my team members scoffed, then groaned as the answer was read: "My Little Pony." Needless to say, we got some weird looks for knowing so much feminine trivia. I guess all those hours watching Jane Austen period films has finally paid off.

First week of school

Things went well for the first week of school. I got to all my classes without too much trouble. I'm taking New Testament, Family History, Biology, Introduction to Literary Analysis and Writing and Rhetoric. It should prove to be an interesting and entertaining semester. My laptop is pretty much my constant companion, which is good, but sometimes I get comments from people looking over my shoulder about my wallpaper. I don't know why so many people ask questions about it, its no different than that "Don't mess with Texas" thing that all the Texans put on their stuff. People need to be warned about Illinois, too. We are not to be toyed with or underestimated. Well, 'nuff said about that. My ward is really interesting. Its definetly an older ward, consisting mostly of returned missionaries (male and female) and junior and seniors. There are some nerds and goofballs, just like any ward. There is not a whole lot of new news, except for I have a new phone! I'm with Sprint, which is pretty good, except for I get no reception in the belly of the Harold B. Lee Library. Oh well, I suppose that makes for a more distraction-free library experience. Well, this is it for now. Be safe and don't do drugs!

In Utah

Well, I made it safe and sound to Utah from Illinois. The only problem with the flight was the HOUR LONG WAIT we had on the ground in IL. It was quite frustrating. Well, its nice to be here with the crazy Jorgensen clan and goof off a little before going to school. Today I need to move in to my new apartment and get ready for my classes tomorrow. Everything else is groovy and we're having loads of fun with the fam-damly out here.

Day before school

Well, this is an interesting feeling... I'm going back to school after two years of being away. I know I'll get through it--thousands of other returned missionaries have for many years--but I still feel really weird. All my friends from before aren't in the same circles anymore (that kinda rhymes!) and things just aren't the way they used to be. I guess thats just normal, but hey, you only go through the awkward trying-to-fit-back-in-where-you-were college stage only once, right? Let's hope so. So, anyway, I'm really stoked to get out to school and have that lovely, entangling freedom that college students have. It should be a good year. 2008 has a nice ring to it. Well, thats about it for now.