March 2010 Archives

WE ARE all scared that the precious stacks of glass might befall a horrible accident so with Tim's help, we construct a more secure box for each stack of layers. If one were to fall now, it should no longer create a domino effect.

The print pieces are almost complete. We are trying to get the print run to be complete before we break for a few days over Easter.

WE ARE now nearing completion of the printed glass components. There are 102 panes of glass in this piece. Another 24 pieces still need to be printed. We are aiming to complete these by the end of the Easter break (Mid April), assuming the printers don't run out of paper any more!

The test piece has come out of the kiln intact, despite our worries about the 19degrees discrepancy on the way down, which is a huge relief!

We are now working towards getting the first column into the kiln in the next two weeks.

THE print transparencies which Jeff had prepared so carefully with imagery on for some more of the print layer comes back form our alternative printer and has somehow 'shrunk' in the process!

We use these images as a base to check the prints are lining up with all the other sections of the Map. It is in fact our blueprint. This means the images will not fit the other layers of images and text and is very frustrating.

Very odd for printers who also print architects drawings; does this mean all the scales are wrong on their drawings? We will have to wait again on the usual printers to have the paper back in stock.

Luckily the transparencies with the text for the community layer are in order so work proceeds on printing the red handwriting, which wascollected from the public. It is one of my favorite layers.

A SAMPLE piece of half the size is to be prepared to test the firing cycle of the kiln before we put the actual glass in it.

The large kiln is prepared by leveling it, the bottom elements switched off, the kilnshelf prepared and then carefully the glass is loaded and a mould constructed around it.

This will go in the kiln for a week.

THE usual University printer which has been printing out the print transparencies, has run out of paper. We have cleaned them out!

Today a frantic search for find an alternative printer that can handle the massive filesizes of the prints and print at large scale on a roll takes us a ridiculous rollercoaster from Sunderland, to Edinburgh to Newcastle.

In the end we fail and thus have to wait till next week to sort this one out. This means slowly down on the pace of printing.

DRAWING of the Mersey detailing is being painstakingly done by hand. The end result is beautiful and one of our favorite sections.