Henri

Meet Henri.
Pet portraits are not my norm but I made this one as a gift.

This paw is my favorite part of the painting.

His furry little butt is fun too.

Henri L. Borek
oil on canvas
18" x 24"

It's Berry Easy To Do

A novice glass bead maker recently asked me how on earth did I make my charm beads.
Wait? Wat?
On the end of the mandrel, my dear.
The mandrel should be down into the bead about half way.
It's not easy being a newbie.

Ream them out until they're perfectly clean, let them dry and epoxy in a bail - viola!

Berries, blossoms, birds, bugs, balls... try it.

Please Mr. Postman

Yes!

Look what came in yesterday's mail.
A little something to cheer me up in the dead of winter...

I've had so many requests to make more skull earrings.
Now there will be enough for everyone in no time at all.

I am making a nice selection of these for First Friday.
My studio will be open from 6-9 on Friday March 7th.
#320 in the Hundgerford Building - 1115 East Main Street.

Come and get 'em while they're hot.

300 For 3 Hours

I have a favorite recipe for this dreadful time of year.
Oven roasted tomatoes.
They taste like concentrated summer and you get to have the oven on for hours.

Horrible, hard, under-ripe roma tomatoes are cheap in late February and early March.
On Saturday morning a whole case was $8 at the Rochester Public Market.

Start by giving them a nice warm, soapy bath to remove pesticides and any crud.
You can see that a lot of them are still greenish pink - not too enticing.

Rinse and drain.

Get out your biggest roasting pan.
Lop off the tomato tops then quarter them and throw them in the pan.
I like to use a serrated knife, the tomatoes are so hard and nasty that it's what works best.

Pour on a little bit of olive oil, I am guessing that I used about 3 tablespoons in this monster pan.
You don't need a lot oil, just enough to coat them.

Sprinkle with kosher salt, black pepper and a teaspoon or so of brown sugar.
The little bit of sugar seems to help them start to caramelize.
Stir everything around with a spatula until all the tomatoes are shiny with the oil and good stuff.

Into the oven at 300 degrees for about three hours.
This is what they looked like after one hour - all steamy and juicy.
Times can vary radically depending on how watery the tomatoes are and how many are in the pan.

Here's what you're aiming for - a gorgeous caramel edged tomato goo.
You want lots of brown, but no burnt. Watch carefully at the end.
I cannot describe how good your kitchen will smell when they're done.


This stuff combats the winter blues and can raise the frozen dead.
Spread it on toast, toss it with pasta, eat it warm out of the pan with a big spoon.
Add it to soups, layer it a toasted cheese sandwich, put it in a spinach salad or inside an omelet.

Pack it up and put it in the fridge - it will last for about two weeks because of the salt.
From that huge case of tomatoes I did five pans of tomatoes and made about four quarts of heavenly, concentrated tomato goodness.

Color Testing : Raku & Sage

Just trying out a new color combination.
I'm looking for something simple to make a necklace with.

These two have a barrel shaped base of 'Sage Green Opaque Pastel' rolled in fine 'Raku' frit and encased in 'Effetre Super Clear.'

Let There Be ... Leaves

Who doesn't love painting leaves - it's the best part.
I spent hours, and  hours, yesterday with lots of gooey green paints filling in the foliage.
The studio was super toasty warm, the light was perfect and there were pots of ginger green tea..

What's next? Not sure. Maybe working on the reds.
There are lots of little bits of background apples missing and the big ones need their shapes refined.

Some gooey details.

There are even more leaves, a batch of glass leaf buttons and charms came out of the kiln yesterday.

Applesauce

It's been a good week in the studio, things are humming along.
Lots of painting and a bit of glass making.

Blinding winter sunshine streams in everyday and the old steam radiators bang and clank the indoor temp up to around 90 degrees. My old bones love it.

Almost all the shapes are blocked in and the composition seems like it's working.

The paint feels good.
You can see that I've been working on the 'darks' the last few days.
Tomorrow leaves and sunlight.

A Recipe for Winter Skies

Even the dreariest February skies can inspire.

These seven beads have a base of 'pastel pearl gray' glass on one end and 'light fossil' on the other.
Next step was a quick roll in a little bit of 'dark ivory' frit.
Step three was encasing them around the middle with 'blue lavender transparent.'
Then hair thin trails of' intense black' stringer and a bit more 'dark ivory' frit.
Melt down and shape.

I use an edge in my graphite marble mold to shape round beads into ovals.

Maybe I'll mix these with lots of little snowy white pearls for a bracelet.

Who Is That Sleeping In My Bed?

Since my return from Florida this little one has been my shadow.
Everywhere I go, there she is, just sitting there staring at me.

Speckled Seeds

Soon to be a necklace.

A big set of small beads.

Very simple.
'Opalino Yellow' glass - not the expensive 'Opal Yellow' just the original Effetre classic.

The Opalino glass colors are some of my favorites - make sure you work them with lots of oxygen or you can get soot trails.

\
The spots are Double Helix iridescent 'Triton' frit.
Some have only one or two spots and some have many, some I put thru a reducing flame at the end, some I did not. I wanted lots of similar beads, but nothing identical.

Yes, all those butter yellow to dark honey color variations are from the same color glass.
I love how some of them get all toasty and some stay pale.

Apples to Apples

Right where I left it.

I can't wait to mess with you tomorrow.

Furry Florida

I spent the last two and a half weeks in Florida hanging out with my dad.
He spends a lot of time asleep in his motorized recliner chair, his cat Snowy naps right there beside him.

I'm more of a 'dog person' than a 'cat person.'
Yet, we forged a furry bond of sorts. I took antihistamines and she howled at me for catnip treats.
Miss Snowy has the same hairstyle as Hitler.

My Dad has TV trays set up for her in strategic sunny window spots around the house.

The Florida weather was gorgeous and I took her for lots of cat walkies.
Walking a cat is not for someone with a logical mind or anything better to do.
A single walk to the mailbox and back can take up to 30 minutes.
There's a lot of spontaneous catatonic flopping, grass eating, gecko chasing, dramatic pouncing, twitching and sudden mysterious freezing in place.

Her only trick is doing an impression of a dead bug. Nailed it.

She has a mesmerizing electric water fountain - very zen.

Man, I missed my dogs.