Kissing the Gold Goodnight. Orsoni, Day 2

Sadly I dropped the piece of gold back into the bag, and left it on my work station.

When Mirta handed me a 1kilo bag of rough-cut number 10 (the best!) gold smalti today, well....... I felt damn fine! HUGE chunks of gold on glass. Then she waved goodbye, and shouting 'Ciao' from the door, left for the day. Yummy!

Not that I didn't already have gold on my desk. I've got 5 boxes of different coloured gold which I'm working with. Two white golds, one blue, one turquoise and a violet gold.
And now I have Gold gold.
So late this evening, when I was contemplating calling it a day on the work front, I pressed my face into the bag of gold, and considered bringing it to bed with me so we could sleep together. Sigh.
Instead, I dropped the left over piece I'd cut from back into the bag, and like the adult I'm not, left the bag on the table for the night.
I may just slip back in the wee hours to look at it a little.
Flashes of Golum? Umm.. yessssss, my preciousssssss. Indeed.

Above are pics of my work station day 1, just before starting.
And then this evening after day 2.

Everyone by now is deep in the projects they're working on. There isn't even much talk in the class. There is some kind of music, but it's way too soft and nauseatingly shmaltzy for me. So I've had my i-pod for some of the time.

The range of glass and colours at our disposal is just incredible. The supervision too. I mostly get on with things myself, but I did have some excellent direction from Antonella late in the day. Very technical on interpretation and expression of my design. I won't go into it here, but having guidance on such a level is phenomenal for me. Just brilliant.

I left for lunch on my own. Orsoni is perfectly situated. Just a couple of blocks from a very busy area, so no shortage of restaurants etc. I took my book and returned to the same place I ate at on Sunday. I must be the reincarnation of Sally from the Harry met Sally movie. This is how the order went.
"Can I have the pasta prima vera please. But not with penne. With Spagetti. And not so much oil as on Sunday please. And no cream, rather use tomatoes. And no mushrooms please. And please tell the chef it was delicious on Sunday and can it be the same only with more vegetable. No thank you, no wine. Or bread. Grazie mille."
It was delicious.

The atmosphere in the studio in the afternoon is intense. Some of us are realising that the goal of finishing 2 whole pieces is pretty steep. It's slow going and at the end of the official day I'm no where close to quarter way with my piece. Of course I know that it's all fine, and it will move more fluidly on other days. Nancy, the Chinese/American woman who's seated in front of me, and fires tiny pieces of glass off her cutting post all day, is a little stressed about it.

I stopped at 6pm, returned to my room to check my mail and have a cup of tea. Umm, yes, I also had a hidden piece of bread which I munched happily (thank you Bobba for such skills you imparted!).
I set myself the challenge of working this evening until I was close to what I thought would be the quarter mark, but by 10pm my eyes were just too tired to carry on. I am working with extremely small pieces of glass. I always do. It's my style. It's very time consuming as well as stressful on the eyes, so I do need to take regular breaks. Also, need to stand and look at the work from different perspectives.

I took my computer into the studio tonight. Just four of us there. I played DJ, and have to admit, the music was superb. Dulce Pontes (Fado), Idan Reichel and Annie Lennox. I love working with music on. Now all I need is a little space so I can dance some. All this sitting on bums and working you know.

By the way. For those who can't work it out. My design is based on the Horse-Head Nebula of Orion. That's the pic that's on the wall above my work station.
Can't wait to see how it's going to turn out.
And for now, I'm gonna turn in.
Extremely happy and tired.