​Robin Dean of Oakland first spoke to me about making a piece for her garden in December of 2018... and I'm now trying to finish it for her and display it at the Autumn Lights Festival. Robin says she's excited to be able to see it lit up at the garden and say "That's mine!" As for me, I've once again taken on an almost impossible deadline.

As Robin's back yard hosts a woodland garden, I thought I should make an appropriately shade tolerant plant in glass. I decided on a fern, but in order to light it, I've made hollow leaves upon which to sandblast a fern-like pattern. That way the light will come through the opaque glass and the fern image will be silhouetted against the light. My blowing partner Patty Garrett and I made some sample leaves, and on a couple of them, I masked the glass with blue painter's tape and then used an exacto knife to cut out the leaf motif to use as a resist. It took ages to cut each little leaf. I'd seen a vinyl cutting machine called a Cricut at Michaels and decided to plunge in and buy one! Doing all that cutting by hand would take me til Christmas. (And it's a pajama year, so I have to get out my sewing machine after the Autumn Lights Festival to make 7 pairs for my Canadian nieces and nephews... but I digress...)

I hooked up the Cricut, scanned my fern drawings (with some help from my friend Tara Gill) and I jumped up and down with glee as I watched the little blade cut all the details into the vinyl ... I didn't have to lift a finger! Such a rarity to be doing work without "doing the work"! Of course, once the vinyl is cut there are still several steps to go to prepare each leaf for sandblasting, but I am encouraged!

Look Ma, no hands!!!

Today is the official set up day for Autumn Lights, but scheduled yesterday to get a jump start on the grapes. Barry set them up in the living room yesterday to reacquaint himself with the wiring and assembly while I went out on errands to pick up price tags, batteries etc.  After a few hours, Barry got all the sections of the grapevine together and now we have instructions to follow for next time (always a good idea on something so complicated.) Here's a pic of Barry in the Brugmasnia at the Gardens at Lake Merritt - the light is so pretty in the late afternoon.

When we got home last night, after meditation class, we still had to fit the new red tail feathers into the peacock and figure out how to secure them. Barry devised a thin plywood receptacle which we magic-sculpted into place inside the bird so that a corresponding key on each of the feathers can be place through a slot in the plywood and by virtue of weight and pivot, the glass locks into place. (Sorry - no photo!)

Off to bed at 1:30am and now we're up and at 'em to load the van and drop off boxes of glass at Lake Merritt when the gate opens at 9 am. Our friend Lee Miltier is meeting us back at home at 10 to load up the peacock. It will take three of us to lift it onto a cozy air mattress in the back of the van. Wish us luck with the set-up!

He hopped in the car on a camping air mattress. I take my paints and Barry takes his electric kit and we're hell bent for Woodside!


Once at Filoli, we pick a spot under the giant magnolia and I get to work on connecting the wiring and painting the legs and underbelly. Bob Phillips and Doria Suma drop by to see Percy's pal and to let me know I've got a smudge of paint on my face.

But when the morning light hits the glass, I have to admit our baby goose is pretty splendid! 

Now where did I put my wellies? We'll be in rainy London this time tomorrow!
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A few of the tiles fell off when we moved the bird (which we have referred to by every fowl type from chicken to pigeon over the course of this adventure - I think I like calling it a duck best - it seems so irreverent, somehow). In the early morning I am still tapping at the surface to loosen any likely suspects and re-adhere some of the fallen tiles which will need time to dry before we grout.

Patty to the rescue! And then Marshall too... and then Barry too! These tiles are taking forever. The peacock wasn't ready for the opening last night, but I figure as long as we can get all the tiles on by tonight, there will be a day for the thinset to dry and then tomorrow (Saturday) for grouting and polishing. Oh, and did I tell you Barry and I leave for England on Sunday night after the installation at Filoli? Right after going to an Open Studio party at Ted and Mary Bayer's. Hey - a girl has to have some fun, eh?

After hours of squeezing magic sculpt over every surface of the peacock body, waiting for it to harden and then making a trap-door for the bird's belly (to hide the electronics), here he is, almost completely encased... and naked as the day he was born! (Although I'm not sure when exactly that is or will be???)

And he's cheeky too!
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Almost ready for the tiles!!!

I wake up early to confirm my inkling from late last night. Barry and I decide that the fiberglass is too flexible to hold the mosaic and grout without risk of cracking in transit.  So there will be no peacock for the opening on Thursday night - but it's not too late to get 'er done before we leave for England on Sunday night, I figure. So Barry dons latex gloves and starts to mix the two parts of the magic sculpt while I apply it to the structure. Painstaking work, but nice to be in the sunshine (until it gets too hot and Barry sets me up with a camera flag on a grip stand for shade). I'm reminded of my childhood working with modeling clay from Riley's Hobby Shop in Hamilton Ontario and a photo my Mom took with her trademark finger in the frame!

​We work until dark, but run out of Magic Sculpt to finish the job. Good thing Douglas and Sturgess is open early tomorrow...

Okay. 5 days to go until the opening. I've gotten the feather structure attached and chopped off some of the peacock's butt with the bolt cutters. Dear Patty - on hold for several days now - comes over to examine progress and help with the fibre glass coating that will surround the armature and hopefully be strong enough to support the mosaic and grout... but I progress faster in my mind than in reality! Here's how it goes: both accomplished seamstresses (as well as glassblowers), but with no experience at applying fiberglass mesh, we take the slippery fabric , drape it onto the armature and decide on our cut lines. We end up with about 8 pieces all marked. I mix what turns out to be way too much epoxy resin and we start applying it to the mesh on the back of the bird. It is goopy, smelly stuff and the fibre of the mesh have a tendency to peel off and get stuck to the brushes. Somehow we get most of the bird covered but then suddenly the epoxy hardens in the bucket with the brush still in it. Completely stiff. I mix more (but more conservative in quantity this time) and we manage to get the whole structure covered by propping the neck of the bird onto a propane tank while we apply epoxy to his bottom parts and avoid some disadvantageous gravitational pull. Now we have to wait til the 'morrow to see if this is going to work as a substructure. Then there will be 4 days til opening. I'm beginning to prepare and take account: two days to get the mosaic on and one day to grout plus an overnight to dry and then install the afternoon of the opening. There might  be just enough time... 

With the show all set up at Filoli (save for the peacock), I breathe a sigh of relief... but not for long! I've got to get cracking on the peacock! Tired all day after yesterday's installation and a late night in the studio making a structure for the feathers, I have a late afternoon nap and then wake up with a start! If I'm going to get the fibre glass skin on in time to do the mosaic, then I have to tackle attaching the feather structure tonight! It is cold and darkening. And then, just as I think I'll go out and work under the floodlight in the back of our house, I feel the sprinkling of rain! Rain! It never rains at this time of the year here! Alas though, now there's nothing for it but to move the mighty bird inside! Barry rolls back the living room rug, we put down a drop cloth and set the bird on its newly rusting feet right in front of the couch. Barry secures the feather structure to the back of the bird with a furniture clamp that is just barely big enough, and away I go with Magic Sculpt hoping that all the joins will hold. (They will. They have to!) The resin material  (Magic Sculpt) will harden overnight, so I can test it tomorrow. Good thing all the glass parts are blown and ready to go, because this structure is taking forever! I still haven't gotten to the fibre glass.

After trips to Ace Hardware and Douglas and Sturgess Sculpture supply, I feel today is the day to get the structure covered in wire in preparation to get a fiberglass coating on the bird and then on to the mosaic. But the chicken wire is awkward and man, can it dig into your skin. I don my gardening gloves and work all morning, but progress is slow. My blowing partner Patty comes over in the afternoon to lend a hand (thank goodness), but Barry gets news about having to work on Wednesday so we have to switch the big installation day to Monday (that's tomorrow). Eeek! I put Patty on painting the tops of the grapes that I still need to finish and Barry and I start to load the van with all of the pots, mounds and boxes of glass; brushing by the peacock structure on our patio as we go... Eventually, Barry leaves to watch the Warriors over dinner  with our friends on Alameda, and Patty and I get to work on the peacock. We get half the bird covered - but my dreams of accomplishing the fiber-glass skin any time soon are thwarted. At dusk, I too feel the call of the Warriors, so Patty and I knock off for the day and I get to see our beloved Dubs (taped) womp Houston with a 40-point lead! As for the peacock, there's always another day (but just 11 days to the Filoli opening... yikes!)