Days Fly By . . .

Can't believe it is almost October here in AZ and it's still over 100 degrees every day. It is nicer that the nights and early mornings have been cooler, but geez! 104, 109, 106 - - I'm tired of this dang heat!
I haven't been on the torch for a couple of weeks now, which is very unusual for me. I am usually on the torch just about every day, or at least 5 days per week. The main reason is that it's just too hot, and without central air, my upstairs studio is unbearable. The other reason is that I have been a little under the weather lately. 3 out of 4 of us in the house have felt ill and I seem to be very low on energy and ambition lately. I also believe that my childhood RA is coming back to me as an adult (which is rare, from what I read) and have been pretty worried about what may happen in the coming years if this is true. One of the symptoms of RA is fatigue, so feeling out of energy lately is also a little frightening.

I am hoping that cooler weather will come our way soon here and that my energy level will rise to it's normal level so I can get back to work. I still have many new ideas I want to experiment with on the torch, especially for the MythosCon which is next January. At least I have some time before this show comes around.

Hope everyone is well in your households. And I leave you with a picture of a Cthulhu pendant that I made last week. These are not glass, but are polymer clay with genuine ruby eyes. At least I did something creative, although it's not glass. I made 4 of these so far, along with several of my other eye pendants like in my last post.

September Already?

Wow, I cannot believe this year is almost over! Been so busy with my artwork, family and daily life.
We are going to head into fall sometime soon here in AZ (I hope!). It's still been over 100 degrees here and I cannot wait for it to cool down a bit. I just hope we have some nice fall weather before we run into the bone-chilling, cold nights.
I recently had a booth at CopperCon, which is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention which is held every year. This was it's 30th year here in AZ and the event was great fun. I think this was the perfect fit for my hubby and I since he loves going to the Sci-Fi conventions, but I don't think he particularly likes sitting with me during shows. This allowed him to go off and experience the readings, projects, discussions and events of the convention while still helping me (and giving me much-needed breaks at my booth). I was also able to go off on some fun events with my son - - we saw a japanese sword demonstration and made a cool hat at the "create your own hat" event for kids.
I am definitely planning on doing other events like this - - Sci-Fi conventions, ComicCon events, etc. You meet a lot of great, new people and it's also good for expanding my glass art to a new group of people.
My next event scheduled is MythosCon, which is a large part of the Sci-Fi fans. I don't really know much about the genre but am learning. It all started with H.P. Lovecraft stories way-back-when (the 1920's). Lovecraft created a legend (or Mythos) about a race of creatures that "came from the stars" and ruled this Earth a long time before man was even here. The creatures are evil beings, hideous, and they are just waiting for the right time to rise up and control this world again. There are also secret cults of people who still worship these creatures. In all of Lovecraft's stories, these creatures occasionally come out and "play" with us humans, usually not in a nice way.
Very interesting, and I am reading Lovecraft again, amoung other writers who also have written about the Mythos, both during Lovecraft's time and up to current times. Lovecraft himself encouraged other writers to expand on his ideas and legends. The Mythos is even popular enough that there is a RPG game, sort of like Dungeons and Dragons I am guessing.

So, I am moving to the "dark side" and creating new items especially for this show. I hope the Mythos members like them! I really enjoy making these pieces, which are a mixture of my glass eyes along with Sculpy clay and paints.