Intensive glass-working weekend! Starting on Friday evening, it became clear that rather than working the cast lead animals into the plane of the glass it would be better to just stick them on top of it with some silicone. There just wasn't time to cut all the glass to fit around the animals, and it would probably look better.

So, given that the first casting resulted in very thick and heavy casts, we figured it would be better to try the sculpting clay to recast them. So we did, and the second batch came out much better than the first! They're thinner and therefore not as heavy. And the moulds are re-usable.

All day and evening on Saturday and all day on Sunday, then, went into buying and selecting the glass, cutting, foiling, and soldering the pieces together to form each of the six sides. After that, the sides were soldered to one another, the top hinged, and the whole thing was washed and had a black patina applied to it. Last night one side had the cast animals applied, and the other side is drying today.

At some point during the weekend, I dug out my very old and dried-out miniature paints, revitalized them with via water and Dremel tool, then painted the casts. When I get home tonight I need to print decals and create and apply the Indian Head to each side of the box. And add the jewel latch.

I have a cute write-up ready to send in, but before work in the morning -- when we have good light outside -- I'll take some photos to send along.

Overall, this project has come out very well and I'm certain it will make it through the first round with flying colors. :-)


During the past week, although working muchly on databases during the eveings, I have watched a few movies on the train or during dinner:

Requiem for a Dream, mostly about some drug addicts; I did not enjoy it, and wonder why it was recommended to me.

A Soldier's Story, covers that racial segregation situation to large extent in the military in the early years of WW II. Okay.

Tieta of Agreste, a Brazilian movie that's pretty good; humerous story of a city girl coming home and hanging around her little home village.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, one of them-there famous classics; stories about Jews set in the early '40s are never uplifting, are they?


Sharpe's Siege and Sharpe's Regiment, both continuing in the series, and as good as any. Only three or four left now to watch. :-(

Back to databases tonight. Ooo. Aah.