Lots of little edges

This is what I have been busy with for the past week.  At least doing 2 stacks of 10 panes per day (more if time allows), each stack of 10 takes an hour to bevel 3 sides.  I am taking a little time off from this part though, my wrists and fingers are locking up faster each day so a little rest for the hands is in order.  These are the reinforcement panels for my larger sheets of glass.  These measure 2 1/2 inches wide by 5 inches long, and I ordered a gross (144) of them.  Do I need 144 of them? No.  But, like any glassblower, I believe in having more than what I need in case something does go wrong... if I happen to drop one, or not having enough water when drilling the holes and the friction cracks it, or my dog's tail knocks a few off the table, you get the point.  Redundancy in materials, having your bases covered with the same solution just multiples of it.  It goes to the big panels as well.


*edit* Remember up above when I said I didn't need 144 of those small little pieces?  I was wrong.  Redoing some of the math I am actually short by about 70 pieces, when I was tabulating how many I would need I was only counting the reinforcements for ONE side of a 2' x 2' pane.  The good thing is I caught it now, not when I'm trying to everything glued up and hung later.  I will still have extras, which is good since I had 3 casualties today out of 50 pieces.

This is my crate of glass goodness, this came to the Sculpture Studio yesterday, and that made me very happy.  There are 36 panes total, I need 31, so there is room for error... just not a lot of room.  The edges of these 2 foot square panes of glass will be beveled enough to take the edge off, so a millimeter at most here.

I'm thinking about the material, and for a project this size material is very important, what you use is just as important as how you use it.  I'm also doing some research into more conceptual art and those books arrived today in fact.  In my head the project has undergone a transformation, at this point I don't know if I'll be drawing on the glass, and most likely won't.  I do plan on writing on it, text from myself, my Mother and Grandmother will adorn 3 of the sides of the box.  The remaining wall will be blank in reference to my Grandfather, who is gone.  The project is starting to feel like a family room, that room in the house that everyone would hang out and talk in, maybe watch some T.V. or a football game.  That room is usually filled with mementos of the family that lives there, little figurines, photographs, and books.  The thing is I'm getting that vision of it completed in my mind's eye.  I can see it and as I work on the glass it gets more clear everyday, I have most of the materials now and nothing is going to stop it... except exhaustion.