bike building

Two weeks ago, I got to help with a very cool program. The DC Public School system, with support from the DC DOT, decided that every kid should know how to ride a bike. They could teach it as part of the PhysEd curriculum, and aim at second graders, who would be old enough to grasp the basics without being old enough to fear falling or looking silly in front of their friends.

The problem was getting enough bikes.

That's where the crowd of volunteers came in.

Revolution Cycles, a local chain of bike stores (I feel like there's a pun in there, but I'll let it slide), took the lead in ordering the bikes and organizing the work force. They recruited several of their customers and staff to build bikes for a week in August (I was out of town then) in a hot, breezeless warehouse in northeast DC. Last month, they built the second round, and I was there for it. So were many more volunteers. More, even, than Revolution had expected. On the first day, we built four hundred balance bikes (no pedals, no brakes, no problems) and over 120 sixteen-inch bikes (pedals and coaster brakes).

The storage room looked like Christmas morning.

These took more time to unpack from the boxes than they took to assemble.

For the next two days, we built sixteen- and twenty-inch bikes (the twenty-inch bikes introduced hand brakes), bringing the week's total to 875 bikes, almost twice what was built in August. The build was such a popular project that the woman in charge of recruiting volunteers was contacted by half a dozen people Tuesday night asking if they could come help, too. The Washington Redskins wanted to build bikes, but by the time she heard from them, we actually had more help than we needed. In fact, we finished the build two days earlier than expected.

We built so many bikes so quickly that they ran out of room in the warehouse, and had to begin distributing the bikes to schools just to make room for us to continue working. For me, the funniest part was that the work I did was mostly taking boxes from pallets and moving finished bikes to storage. I only built one bike, at the end of the last day, when the pallets were empty and we had started storing the finished bikes in our build room, because we were once again out of storage elsewhere. Still, I had a lot of fun helping, and every time I see a news item about the kids getting to learn to ride because of that week of work, it makes me feel really good. Bikes are freedom.

(I am not artful enough here to properly embed the video, but one of the other volunteers made a time lapse of part of our last day of building. You can see it here.)

Azaleas!

The last time she took me to the National Arboretum, I had just arrived on a red-eye flight from Oregon.  The next day, after I'd had some sleep and became human, she laughed at how she liked me better when I hadn't had any sleep, because I was "easier to control."

I should have sensed danger, I know.

This time, I was in much better shape.  I was a little tired, sure, but at least I'd had SOME sleep the previous night, the azaleas were in bloom, the weather was perfect, and we got a chance to see the bonsai exhibit.

Do you have any idea how many azalea varieties there are?  Me, either, but judging by what's on display at the arboretum, it's in the neighborhood of "are you kidding me??"  Suffice to say, I don't know the names of anything pictures here; even non-azalea species I can only paint with a wide brush like "lily."

This tree was in the herb garden by a sign reminding you to not pick the fruit.  This particular fruit is used to flavor drinks.

This trellis was full of carpenter bees.  The Girl refused to walk through it.  When I went through, I could hear the buzzing drone surrounding me.  Not to worry: carpenter bees have no stinger.

On an otherwise bare hillside stand 22 sandstone columns which used to be part of the Capitol building.  Each of the Corinthian tops took a skilled carver 6 months to form.

The Bonsai exhibit might have been my favorite part.  It made me want a tiny tree.  The variety of species and forms on display was extensive, and I got to see a lot of stuff I'd never known about bonsai.  For instance, there are sometimes more than one tree, and the artist has trained not a single plant, but a tiny forest.

"...with a path running down the middle."

This project was very detailed.  The gravel path wound between larger rocks, with trees looming above.  Looking very close, it seemed like any number of places I've hiked...

...But the whole thing would fit in a large serving dish.

Looking upward under one of the tropical varieties.  Limbspan was about three feet.

There were a few flowering bonsai (azaleas, coincidentally).  Quite striking, and entirely unexpected.

After the bonsai exhibit, we wandered through the Northern Forest area, with trees and plants more familiar to me.  And a frog pond.

The locals were very patient.

I like the structural detail when you look really, really close at blooms (Iris. No idea what variety.)

Even closer on another iris.

Meowvelous

(Some of these post titles make me think I should probably get professional help.)

We've reached a point where glassblowing could be a regular feature here; we've also reached a point where I've told you how most of the process works... at least, the parts I understand well enough to explain. Do not, under any circumstances, use this blog as your only resource before trying this at home*.

This visit to the glass studio happened shortly before Easter, so a lot of what we produced were Easter egg-shaped paper weights. We also tried a couple paper weights with cherry blossoms inside, because cherry blossoms are a pretty big deal in the DC area, and some glass cats, because our talented hostess felt like making some cats, and we really wanted to see how that would work.

One of her earlier glass cats. She didn't like how the tail looked like a handle on a coffee mug, so the tails on our set of cats laid flat against the body.

Paper weights are solid glass, so we didn't need to do any actual blowing when we made those (and when I say "we made those," I mean that we watched her make them, and made occasional suggestions on color schemes.  There was very little for us to do for the bulk of the process, but that meant I got to take lots of pictures.).  Instead, a small amount of clear glass is gathered on a solid rod.  That gather is heated in the glory hole, and smoothed into a preliminary shape using one of many wooden forms.  Then, fret is added to provide color.  Sometimes two or three colors would be added, sometimes just one, depending on the design she made. Another trip to the glory hole helps melt the fret, more clear glass is gathered outside, and another round of heat and forming finishes the piece.  Finally, just like the pumpkins and Christmas ornaments, they spend a night cooling very slowly in the annealer.

The last stage of forming for a paper weight with a bloom design inside.

This one was done a little differently: instead of simply dipping the first gather in fret, she did a "wrap," giving it a spiral look.  A rough explanation of the process is included here.

She first made the cats based on a challenge issued by a friend.  I showed you one of the early versions above; this batch was done a little differently, because she's still honing the process.  The pictures below show different stages of several cats, so don't worry if it seems like each step looks nothing like the previous shot.  Chances are, it really isn't.

Gathering broken pieces of glass to make a "galaxy cat."  This isn't fret; it's recycling.  She had made an earlier piece in "galaxy" colors (blue, green, purple) which cracked, so we smashed it with a hammer and used the broken chunks to add color to a new piece.

The same piece, after melting and smoothing in the galaxy shards.

An air bubble is blown into the cat's body to make it larger.  In most of the cats, the air bubble is confined to the body, but here you can see it's in the head as well.  That makes it a unique piece!  She uses those enormous tweezers to pinch a neck and stretch the body to make the shape more like a cat, and less like an incandescent Bubble-Yum bubble.

Pinching out some ears.

Applying a tail to a cat. We used the same color for all of the cat tails.  If it's exposed to air as it cools (as opposed to being encased in more glass), it oxidizes and turns silver.  First, it has to stop glowing.

After the tail is cut.

 The cherry blossom paper weights were pretty interesting; I liked seeing how carefully layering color and simple changes to the shape resulted in the detailed blooms inside the final products.

Color has already been added to this gather. Green at the base (closest to the bar), pink in the middle, and white at the top (closest to the camera).  Here, she's used the handle of those tweezers to flatten the top surface, and is now smoothing the sides.

A straight-edged tool is used to make two creases, perpendicular to each other, in the top of the bloom.  This is what gives the finished piece four petals. (even though real cherry blossoms have five petals)

It's starting to look like a flower!

A wooden form is used to shape the bloom.  She keeps a bucket of these forms by the bench, soaking in water.  We still sometimes smell burning wood.

The hole made here will leave an air bubble in the final piece.  It will still look like a flower; just a different kind.

Forming the final gather. Note the egg shape.

* Do not try this at home, or anywhere else, unless accompanied and directed by someone who actually knows what they're doing, or has a really, really good lawyer.

Fret not... or do.

We've developed an understanding with our glass-blowing friend. She lets us help make cool stuff, and I bring cookies. In November, when we made Christmas ornaments, I even brought some pasta salad for dinner.  Hopefully, she'll never realize that I'm perfectly happy with this arrangement, without any other perks, because she also gives us one of the pieces we make each time we help her, and we're slowly filling a shelf with her outstanding work.  I like that collection.

"Fret" is the colored bits of glass.  Here, she's laid stripes of two different colors on the marver (big steel table). By rolling the gather (glob of clear glass) over this fret, she can get two different regions of color on the final piece.

Fret has already been melted into this piece in the glory hole (go ahead and laugh. We always do), but you can still see two distinct regions of color.

For a single color, she usually collects the fret directly from these bowls.

This shot is harder for me to get, because I took it when I was supposed to be focused on my job of holding the ornament steady while she applies a loop of clear glass to the top for hanging.  This loop also seals the hole left when we remove the piece from the blowpipe.

This is my view for a lot of the forming.  I sit on a little box and provide hot air. It's a little like a management position that way.

Adding another hanging loop. This ornament was treated with some special powder she had to get that cracked-snow look.

You can see dimples on the sides of this piece. She squeezed it from the end with long tweezers (on the bench beside her). That was the first step...

The second was stretching the material, then rotating the pipe while holding the end of the stretch in line with the pipe to get a long, twisty piece.  It was supposed to be practice for a candy cane shape, but things went downhill from here. Still good practice!

It's the glass pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Remember our friend who does glassblowing?  She invited us to help again with her fall harvest of glass pumpkins.  I've only personally known one other person who did glassblowing, and she did it as a class; as she told it, the instructor did most of the work, but she got to make pumpkins as part of the class, and she was pretty excited about the results.  Our local glassblowing friend took a class in college, got into it, and now works on her own using rented time to produce all of her pieces (it's expensive enough to buy your own materials, but installing the kiln and other necessary appliances in your apartment would be ridiculous. And really, really hot).

The catch for her is that some of the work is easier to do when she has a little help.  Fortunately, I'd do that sort of thing for free because I like seeing how stuff is done, and I'm fascinated by learning new processes.  She's still willing to add the enticement of giving us one of the pieces we help make.  If you want your own, check out her store!

Wood forms have to be soaked in water so they don't burst into flames.  As it is, you still smell them smoking a little.

Newspaper has to be soaked, too, for the same reason.  It smokes a lot more, and ashy bits flake off and float around as she works.

This mold provides pumpkin-y ridges. 

That pinch point will be the top of the pumpkin.  Later, we break it from the blowpipe at that point, and the stem is added as a separate piece before the glass cools.

If pumpkins don't have a flat base, they roll away and shatter on the floor.

The pieces will slowly cool in this box over 12 hours.  Cooling faster will cause them to break.

Tools of the trade.