January H.I.T.S.

On the first of every month, I post the Happening in the Studio (H.I.T.S.).
I share my trials, triumphs, and behind the scenes of working as a visual artist.

One of the random things I got to do for my friend as his patent paralegal, was spray paint the above filing cabinet. It was beige and mostly covered in primer. It was freeing to start and finish a project in a day.

This month was very full, but that's it for making art. I'll see you on the first of the next month for another post on Happening In The Studio (H.I.T.S.).

H.I.T.S. Table of Contents

RIP

Rest in peace my most beloved pet.

Chip Buff-Dog Wright-Symington

March 12, 1992-January 29, 2012

2012 Book List

February 2012

6. Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

(currently savoring)

I read this series as a kid. Now I am rereading them instead of mindlessly surfing the web.

5. Operations Manual for Machine Tool Technology by Clifford Oliver

(currently reading)

Another one of my textbooks for the precision machining class that I taking. I still can't believe that I get to learn about metal and tools for homework. Celeste you would love this class! I keep thinking about you.

4. Print Reading for Industry by Walter and Ryan Brown

(currently reading)

So far I've learned what the alphabet of lines and I'm loving it! Reading blueprints is like decoding a message. I learned to read Braille for the same reason- I just want to know what it says!

January

3. A wise man's fear by Patrick Rothfuss

(finished reading)

This is the second book of his trilogy (the third is being written as we speak). It is epic like Lord of the Rings. I love the characters and the plot twists. I look forward to the third book to be written.

2. The Creativity Book by Eric Maisel, Ph.D

(currently enjoying)

For a Christmas present friend from a fellow artist, Celeste gave me this book on weekly activities to encourage me to be a creative in everything that I do. I really am going to take the year to enjoy the processes instead of seeing how quickly I can master this skill.

1. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

(finished reading)

After reading The name of the Wind, it reminded me how much I love reading for fun, instead of obsessing over being "productive" every minute of the day, this includes reading "helpful" and "applicable" books. I have fond memories reading this series as a kid, so I'm revisiting those times.

December 2011 Happenings In The Studio

On the first of every month, I post the Happening in the Studio (H.I.T.S.).
I share my trials, triumphs, and behind the scenes of working as a visual artist.

1. I officially filed for copyright protection to all of my art to date. The project for January is to approach stores like IKEA and offer them the chance to buy some of my designs.

2. I made an octopus towel hook for my dojo. It was one of those rare projects where everything went smoothly and I really enjoyed making it. How can you not have fun drilling a screw into the back of a rubber octopus? Or calling around to toy stores asking if they carry octopus toys?

3. For Christmas I gave my mom 10 hours of my time towards projects of her choosing. During that time we chose paint colors for her apartment, redecorated her office (shown above), reorganized her kitchen, and set up and taught her how to use her new technology (like her mp3 player, how to back up her laptop…)

6. I gave several gift certificates out as presents and wrapped them up like messages in a bottle. I thought that was rather clever way to wrap them (and super quick).

7. My friend Andrew started teaching Celeste and me structural physics and how that applies to making large scale art. In the first lesson we watched videos by the European Space Agency and we talked about Newton’s first 3 laws. Andrew really knows his stuff, but I realized that I am not interested in the near future in making another large scale sculpture. My passion is martial arts, so that is where I am going to spend my time. For Christmas my mom gave me sparring gloves for protecting my fingers from the punching bag. I absolutely LOVE them! For Christmas I also got several books on how to be an everyday creative person, which I am down for learning.

I’m starting the year off with a new haircut, nice and short.

Thanks for reading. I’ll see you February 1st for the next Happenings In The Studio (HITS).

Happy new year!

HITS Table of Contents

Glass Cactus Lights Commission

Elizabeth Symington
Glass Cactus Lights, 2011
3.5’ and 7’ tall
glass containers, black, elastic cord and LEDs
Installed at The Open Matt martial arts school and music venue, Oakland, CA

talent vs. time

Here are the magic #'s.

Put in 10,000 hours to become an expert. That can be broken down to 1 hr a day over a span of 10 years. What do you want to become an expert in?

This came up in conversation with my mom.

Talk about good timing with the New Year coming up.

I'll get back to you with my thoughts.

How to drill glass

I needed to drill glass to wire these hanging lights that I call Cactus Lights. I couldn’t find a step-by-step guide on how to drill glass; not at the hardware store, the stained glass store or on the Internet. I kept stumbling across vague information that always included diamond bits and water, but no specifics.

I was very nervous about proceeding without directions, because I kept envisioning the glass shattering and scaring my face for life. Needless to say, I am as pretty as ever. My face is fine. I didn't get cut even once.

After many hours of drilling, this is what I learned. I hope this how-to will save you time.

You’ll need:

• Glass that needs drilling (duh)
• Sharpie
• Glass gloves
• Safety glasses
• Ear plugs
• Dust mask (Don’t skimp on this. Inhaling glass dust causes very serious health problems.)
• Eye dropper with water (Label for drilling only. Glass dust will be sucked back into the dropper.)
• Rag
• Dremel or drill
• Diamond drill bits

Drill:

Using a sharpie, mark where you want to drill the hole. Depending on how much money you spend on your diamond drill bits, determines how quickly they will cut through the glass. I picked up a set of 50 for about $20 on harbor freight tools.com, and they take about 15 minutes to drill ¼” of glass. I would like to invest in higher quality bits, so that it will take only a minute or two to drill 1/4”.

The shaft on the diamond drill bits can only handle so many rpm, so set your drill or dremel accordingly. You don’t want to snap off the bit while drilling, hence the importance of safety glasses. At first I also wore a face shield, but then it was too difficult looking through that and safety glasses to keep tabs on where I was drilling.

Put on your gloves, safety glasses, ear plugs and dust mask. I worked at a table in my studio, with a chair that was at a comfortable height, since how I knew I was going to be there 15 plus minutes without moving.

Using the eye dropper, drip some water onto the sharpie mark on the glass. Keeping the bit perpendicular to the glass, start drilling. As the water flies away, add more with the eye dropper. Be sure to label the eye dropper so that it doesn’t get used for anything other than assisting in drilling, because powdered glass will be sucked back into the dropper. When the glass powder starts to build up around the hole use the rag to clean it out of there.

Once you’ve drilled your hole, it’s time for the victory dance! It really is empowering to have the tools and know how to drill a solid and yet fragile material. You’ll start noticing glass everywhere and thinking about how long it would take to drill. Have fun!

This is one of the two Cactus Lights that needed to be drilled so I could wire them and turn them into hanging lights. This wine bottle is a little over 2 feet tall.

One of the many shapes of diamond drill bits. I liked the flat bottomed bits the best versus the conical shaped bits. With the extra surface area, they drilled faster. For just this wine bottle I had about 1 inch of glass to drill, which took an hour with my cheap bits. Have I sold you on the nicer bits yet?

This enormous wine bottle had a conveniently concave shaped bottle to keep the water from flinging away while I was drilling.

For more photos of the glass Cactus Lights, check out these installation photos. The wine bottle strand is the shorty! It’s sister is 7 feet tall.

Post Game Show:

Start off by drilling some tests to take the pressure off from having to make a perfect hole the first time around.

Another set up idea is to use a fish tank to catch the excess water. It was suggested to me to use the fish tank motor to circular the water. I think this would be particularly helpful when there is lots of drilling to do.

I tried a glass/masonry bit that didn’t have any abrasive diamonds attached to it and it shattered several glasses. It seems like diamond bits are the way to go.

If you’re drilling a super thin glass bottle, you can put a wooden support in the inside, right on the other side of where you are drilling. This should help prevent the weight of the drill and bit from breaking the glass.

If you have to drill for a while, be mindful to take breaks when your mind starts to wander. You need to stay completely focused while using the drill. Also, be aware if the motor starts to heat up and give it a rest if that happens.

Even though I used water and drilled glass into a power, it wasn’t very messy drilling glass. I obviously didn’t do this around food, but clean up was simple.