?Well... a peacock can't stand up without some hefty feet, so I call up my friend (and metal artist) Melissa MacDonald to see if she can help. "A peacock? ... come on over tomorrow" says Melissa cheerfully. At 10 am I take an antihistamine (I've been sick for weeks with a respiratory thing), pack up the "structure" and set off for Berkeley and a Saturday morning with Melissa. In a couple of hours, two gnarly feet emerge from Melissa's welding table and they fit right into the hollow legs! I also ask for a collar to stabilize the neck and produce Barry's drawing on the back of an envelope. With all the right drill presses and metal saws at hand, Melissa makes this piece in a matter of 15 minutes. After a quick lunch at Tomate Cafe where we catch up on each other's news, I'm set (I think), to begin covering the structure with chicken wire (sorry, Percy) and eventually fiberglass (which I've never really worked with). And also, I'll need to make some sort of structure for the tail feathers to hover over the back of the erstwhile tomato-cage peacock body. Hmmm....

I met Percy the Peacock at Filoli in March. It was a windy, rainy day when only a few stalwart visitors to the garden were to be seen. (And a few artists ... our scout was scheduled that day, so there we were, wellies and raincoats - collars held against the wind, prepared to envision our art in better climes and more verdant too.) As I was preparing to leave, having gone back for one more look at where some glass grapes might best be dangled from copper vines yet to be fashioned, I came upon Percy. He was, for all his jewel-toned feathers, a bit bedraggled, and I was told the story about how Percy the peacock had moved up the road of his own volition, bringing with him his peahen, to make a home at Filoli. A fine choice for a wondrous creature such as he! Unfortunately his mate has disappeared, so Percy lives there alone (but among so many admirers, perhaps he doesn't notice!). After allowing me a few photos, Percy took his leave and I gasped as his tail dragged heavily through the puddles and muck. It was then that I started to imagine a "Pal for Percy."

Now blown glass peacock feathers are much different from the real thing. And if they are to light at night, even more so! Patty and I spent several days in the hot shop in April trying out different techniques and colours to get something that would be glorious enough, but also manageable on the end of a copper tube not meant for blowing glass, but necessary for me to use my tried and true techniques for lighting. Barry and I had just been to see the Bouquets to Art at the deYoung Museum, so I was inspired to make my peacock of modified glass flowers - this would give me some leeway on replicating a stunningly elegant  bird and bring the project into my own sphere of garden worship. Or so I thought...

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The feathers and head (also glass) were one thing, but the structure to hold them quite another! I was prepared to make a mosaic body but the weight of all the glass was going to require a reasonably strong inner structure - and that might require welding - and that might require some planning and drawings and measurements. But then I saw an old tomato cage behind my shed and the idea dawned... Two tomato cages joined at the wide end would make a torso and  taper off at one end to be the tail and the other end the neck and voila! Our friends Jessica and Bruce were taking off on a year-long bike tour and Barry and I were to film their take-off from San Francisco and then meet them for breakfast (which ended up being lunch) in Half Moon Bay. We got up at 5 am that day and I threw the tomato cages and a bag full of bolt cutters, thin wire, pliers and duct tape into the back of the van - just in case we'd have some idle time to start on the structure. While Bruce and Jess pedaled southward, we swung by Filoli to measure an arbor for the grapes and by the time we got to Half Moon Bay, Bruce and Jess were just minutes away! So after lunch, while Jess and Bruce off-loaded half their gear into our car (they had to get much more realistic about how much weight they could carry), Barry and I got busy with the structure... right in the parking lot of our lunch rendez-vous! You just never know when or where the creative urge (and the urgency of an upcoming show) will strike! Here is the inner peacock so far ...

I got up early to finish cutting out pajamas for my great nephew Emmett, in anticipation of a big day in the kitchen cooking for 10 guests who will arrive in about 2 hours! I just had to write about today's project though, so crazy enough, while Barry is up a ladder getting the Pilgrim hats down from the attic, here is my account.

Since our Pilgrim numbers are down this year, I decided to make veggie turkey drumsticks instead of the whole tofu turkey. As I researched making a veggie turkey roll (presumably dressed with stuffing) which I could adapt to make drumsticks, I saw a video of a woman in what looked like Amish attire adding tofu drumsticks to the top of her tofu turkey. Inventively, she stuck a parsnip in her tofu thighs to resemble the bone!

But the seitan/tofu roll recipe I decided upon calls for one hour of steaming, and I worried that the parsnip bones would soften too much. As with all things technical, I consulted with Barry and after a breakfast of oatmeal to ward off potential grumpiness, he went off to his studio to make temporary bones out of a wooden dowel which we could use to preserve a hole on the tofu thighs while they steamed. As I made the tofu/gluten "dough", Barry got to work on carving the parsnip bones for insertion later. Fabulous!

We coated the "bones" with the seitan mixture and a bit of wild rice/hazelnut stuffing I'd made yesterday. Then we wrapped them in moistened cheesecloth and tin foil and set them in the steamer for 45 minutes.

Barry made us a quick lunch with the parsnip shavings and beaten egg, fried up like pancakes... we named them "Flapnips" and enjoyed them with a nutritional yeast and miso mayonnaise!

Now that the drumsticks were steamed and cooled enough to handle, Barry twisted out the dowels and replaced them with the parsnip bones (which I decided to chill in the freezer to help ward off the oven heat so they'll stay stiff enough to (maybe) hold like King Henry the 8th or Fred Flintstone meets Thanksgiving.

Bones inserted, next is the beancurd skin (Yuba) to resemble crispy skin. But how to affix the skin? Here Barry and I diverged.... I choose to wrap the beancurd skin around the drumstick and then tie it with black linen thread I have from the days my Mom used it to truss the Christmas goose. Barry decides to try tapering the bean curd to make "darts" around the drumstick so that the skin is more form-fitting. We tried gluten and water to make the darts stick, but then I remembered the old kindergarten glue we used to make from flour, salt and water. It worked! A little oil-tamari-orange juice marinade swiped on top of the skin and those babies are ready for the oven! I'd better go.... 1 hour and 45 minutes to show time and I'm still in my pajamas!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! We have so much to be grateful for...

As we left home last night to go the the Festival, I suddenly remember that I have some new neon wire and a controller that I had intended to use to update Barry's fairy wings. Knowing that he doesn't really like wearing wings, I decide to make him a it-up tie instead. I quickly get a hanger out of the closet and begin to bend it into an approximate tie shape. At the garden, assured that all the pieces are lit, I continue in my endeavor to make the tie. I wrap neon wire around the tie shape and even cross it over about 2" down from the top to resemble a knot. I attach a piece of elastic for around Barry's neck, light it up and pull it over Barry's head. Voila!

Less than a minute later, a woman walks by, looks at Barry's chest and says "What is it?" "It's at tie!" I say somewhat peevishly, but she looks at me quizzically and says, "No it's not." Suddenly I see flashing on Barry's chest, a glowing blue phallus rising up from his waist to his chin. Barry whips it off so fast I don't have time to take a picture, but we're still laughing about it this morning! Back to fairy wings for you, Mr. Stone...

The corn is assembled and we get to admire it for the very first time right in the Garden at Lake Merritt. I looks even better outside - where it is supposed to be! We've got 14 other pieces to install for the Autumn Lights Festival which opens tomorrow night, so not too much time to admire our handiwork-work. I can hardly wait to see it at night! (And I can't take credit for the A-maize--ing title on this post - that came today in an email  from fellow chorister and composer James Tecuatl-Lee.) The puns just keep on coming!

I paint the corn tassle and the new join between sections 12 and 13, touch up the paint and give the glass one more cleaning. Patty Garrett comes over in the afternoon to help with the hanging mechanism for the grapes and grape leaves (thank you, Patty!). We pack up the glass parts into plastic tubs for transportation to the garden tomorrow. Around 6:30 pm Dan calls for us to pick up the patinated leaves. Barry and I hop in the car. The leaves look fabulous! We wrap them with care so we don’t scratch the waxed finish. We’ll buff the wax at the garden as we assemble. We rush home to watch the Warriors' opening game and I stuff lights onto layers 16 and 17 now that the paint is dry. We retire our faithful real cob of corn ... 

Tomorrow is the big day for set up. We'll get to see the completed project for the first time in just a few hours. I go to bed realizing that I haven't even thought of all the rest of the pieces (glass plants and birdhouses) we're going to set up. Fingers crossed!

I arrange with patina artist Dan Romo to get the leaves over to him by 2:00. We finalize the shape of the stalk (using a bit of poetic licence) and Barry gets to work on it. By 1:55, right on schedule we’re in the car on the way to Dan’s. He does a test on the inside of leaf 1 so we can approve the colour. It’s going to be great! We celebrate with a snack at Kamakazi Dog on the way home (Japanese style tater tots for Barry and fried cauliflower with jalapeños for me!)

The evening is spent introducing the LED lights into the corn kernels. We re-stack the layers and connect each set of lights to test the connections. Once we get to layer 13 though, the lights start flickering in an odd way. It appears there are too many on one controller. We decide to add another controller for the top 50 lights and this seems to solve the problem. Phewff!  I think we may actually pull this off.

​Today’s adventure is to curl the leaves and figure out a stalk. We use our black paper leaves to visualize the amount of the turn-back for each leaf and Barry goes at the copper with the ballpeen hammer and anvil. They look great!

​I’m concerned with the gap between sections 12 and 13, so we carve some of the magic sculpt away and I reset the join. I also make the top just a tiny bit taller and add a few more nascent kernels.

Tim Mason comes over to check out the progress so we re-stack all the kernels for him to see. I stuff the top with the “silk” while we chat. After Tim leaves, we cut out a stalk in paper, but agree to sleep on it before committing to copper.

Saturday October 14: Catch up on writing this blog in the early morning and then an all-day Sacred and Profane choir practice for me. We've heard that friends Steve and Justine Ashton have also lost their home to the fire, so I sing with our four friends in mind.  

​I arrive home to two newly hatched leaves – we tie in all five and admire. 

​After a much needed snooze, I make a top for the corn where the neon ”silk” will come out. I have a glass version of the top, but it would be better matched by a tan colour and I don’t have time to paint again. So I use the diamond saw to cut up a small vessel I’d made as a sample for a cremation urn. This serves as a structure which I cover with magic sculpt. It looks plain, so I add some odd tiny kernels and affix the tip to round 17. I'll paint it tomorrow.

Katey and Craig don’t show up, so Barry and I meet Jessica and Bruce at Paulista (a new restaurant in the ‘hood) for a quick meal and then back to the studio to look at lighting the grapes which I’ve got to work on tomorrow…. I pile into bed while Barry watches late-night tv in the company of the partially decapitated corn and its shiny new leaves... Tomorrow we'll bend them. Fingers crossed.

Tuesday Oct 10: I’m getting fun responses to my email newsletter about the corn caper. My favourite is “aw, shucks” from Tim Mason (the owner of “Primo”, my first glass agave and fellow adventurer on the Nahanni River), and another comment noting that my corn kernels had been in the silo until now!
 
This morning, to stay ahead of Barry’s ambition to cut into the copper, I cut out paper leaves from a roll of photo background paper at the back of our guestroom closet. I want to see the leaves in paper before committing to copper and to learn what we could about how to get the tapered shape at the bottom of the cob. Barry cuts out the first copper leaf and we decide it needs darts like in sewing to achieve the necessary bends and curves. We try it in the paper and then Barry performs the darts in copper. The solder joints look messy, but the shaping works. I’m impressed (once again) by Barry’s tenacity. I remember my friend John Ezell had once shown me a resist to paint on areas where you don’t want solder to run. You Tube shows us about yellow ochre.
 
We get news that our friends Pat and Patti Matthews have lost their home in Glen Ellen. Our hearts go out to you both.
 
Wednesday October 11: We say good-bye to Leon and then split forces. I go to Otto Frei for yellow ochre and copper rivets (too small) while Barry travels in a AAA tow truck with the electric Fiat to the repair shop (just what we need). He rents a car and picks up clamps to hold the seams while he solders the leaves. We move the stand into our living room (here goes our time of gracious living…) stack up the rounds of kernels, and try out the leaf. I’m encouraged to think we might actually get this done on time. But as I look at it from afar, the dark green of the newly painted interstices makes it look like a stove-pipe runs up through the centre of the cob. Can I live with it? Maybe.
 
Thursday morning (a week to opening night). We wake up wondering how to secure the leaves mid-way up the cob. The bottom of the leaves fit into a little cup on the shaft, and then what? Magnets maybe? Barry figures out a screen-door type hook and loop that can run from just above layer 2 on the inside of the leaves if we pin the styrofoam layers together to avoid any risk of shifting. Now another unexpected bit of paraphernalia creeps into the “cheated” area – this time a thin vertical rod of aluminum. (“Aluminum Rod,  meet Steel Wedge.”) But it works! I go off to blow glass (one last cluster of grapes and a bunch of grape leaves) and Barry completes copper  leaves 2 and 3 while I’m gone.  The evening discussion is what kind of curve can we get at the top of the leaves – or should it be a more acute bend? We consult our real if slightly dry cob of corn which seems to favour the bend – but that will be difficult in copper. The body of the leaf needs to curl around the glass and to bend it the opposite way at the top results in a flat area. Barry tries it on our little test leaf…

Friday October 13. I spend the morning fretting about paint colors and testing my growing supply of paint samples. I meet my friend and blowing partner Patty Garrett at the hot shop (Berkeley Bohemian Glass) to pick up our pieces from Thursday. We stop at “the Bowl” for lunch while I obsess about my colour dilemma and we head home for Patty to give me her expert opinion. Bolstered by Patty’s confidence, we choose a creamy colour and start to re-paint. Patty suggests adding sand to the paint to fill in the crevices of the hand-built resin. I open a neighbour's sand bag for a tablespoon of sand but then decide to use some glass frit, as I have lots of that. It is clean and it seems mildy nobler! We paint meticulously for 5 hours trying to conceal all the green. Patty leaves with my copious thanks. I continue to paint and clean up the over-painted spots with an exacto knife. Suddenly it is 10:30 when Barry arrives home from a film shoot! He and his assistant Bruce Mitchell approve of the more neutral core. At 11 pm, our neighbour’s daughter Katie Howe and her partner Craig Hollow arrive at the back door to check out the proceedings. They love it and offer to come over tomorrow evening to stuff the kernels with lights.