All "Worked" out

Another season of "Work of Art" is in the can, and I don't know if I care whether it comes back. This season's winner: Kymia, bless her poor anxious self.

She was moody, yeah, but so genuinely open and appreciative when the judges liked her work. Even so, I still didn't connect with these contestants like I did with those from the first season. Not even enough to come up with mocking nicknames.

Courtesy Bravo TV

Yes, I watched, but in the same way I watch The Husband's cooking show competitions: see if I can predict the judges' criticisms. I hate to say it, but there didn't seem to be enough sociopaths or unreasonable deadlines. I am grateful for them scaling back on the absurdly obvious product placement. But man, Bravo has got to come up with a show-specific, compelling element. Otherwise I might as well be watching, I dunno, "Celebrity Cook-off." That one isn't even on the air yet, and I already know there's no reason to watch.

Things to remember when burning transparencies

Have you tried burning the edges of a transparency? Lots of fun for latent pyros (and really, who isn't?).  I'd read about it in Dusty Diablos a while back, but I'm just now trying it.

Lessons learned:

1. The transparency bows up and away from the flame; keep that in mind if you want it to curve out versus in.
2. Running the flame up and down the edge tends to make a smoother burnt edge. Usually.
3. Burning transparencies outside during December not only helps dissipate toxic fumes, it keeps you from noticing how !@#$%^!! cold it is.
4. Number of matches used on the first transparency: six. Number used in total: Eighteen. (I'd start a collection, but where would I put them?) 

The background it'll be against will be dark, so I dry-brushed pale yellow and grey highlights onto the house. Don't forget to spray gloss fixative on the image before painting! (Inkjet-printed images will smear without it.)

Then I sandwiched the transparency between roughed-up mica sheets, and suspended it with wire.

And can I tell you how aggravating threading the wire through the box sides was?! I'm chewing tin foil just to burn off the residual rage. One lesson there: thread the wire first, then tie it to the mica sandwich. Arrrggh.

Tell me what you've been burning, even if it's just midnight oil or fireplace logs. See you in the comments or on Facebook.

Weekend sunshine

Spent a little time surfing the freeways to visit my nieces for their birthdays recently. There was a sulking episode involving The Boy and an excruciatingly loud toy recorder/flute party favor, but we won't dwell on that. TwoBoo napped (!) while we drove, and my mind played "Boys of Summer" as I snapped mountain ridge photos. I never thought I'd miss dried-out chaparrral. Sigh.

I miss LA sometimes.