Glass Graveyard

I'm baaack!! After acouple of weeks of computer woes (my main drive went kaput), I think I'm back in the saddle again. Not everything is fully resolved, but now I can get back to posting and catching up on what folks have posted.

A few weeks back, Leau and Raine were all excited from their trip to what is called by local artists as the Glass Graveyard. From what we can ascertain, this used to be a dump/landfill at the earlier part of the 20th century; we don't know when it was discountinued as a dump, but during those decades, the contents would be burned and soil scarped over it for a new layer. Years and years of this; the site is now a part of Albuqueruque's open land areas and open to the public. Mixed media artists started rummaging the site as it has lots and lots of neat old glass;many jars and bottles are still unbroken. All have this wonderful shimmery patina from the heat and sun and being blown by sand blasts during the spring. And, some of the glass has melted and warped from the burning. Things that cannot be artificially contrived.

Anyway, they were excited because since their last visit, some cross cutting had been done (and Leighanna and I are asking ourselves what cross cutting is, but I took a photo of the straita that it reveals). The upshot is that it exposes new layers from below.

Two weeks ago I got to go and do some excavating; there were several of us as a group. It's fun, it's additicing, this search for glass debris. We become like prospectors searching for gold. And, trust me, the behavior we'd like to engage in would be along a similar line to prospectors. Like, if someone finds this really cool, tiny bottle right at your feet, you have to restrain yourself from yanking that sweet treasure from their hands since you feel some sort of entitlement to it due to your proximity. But, you remind yourself silently that you are civilized and that is your good friend and it really would be BAD behavior!

The images posted here are of the sea of shimmery glass, the cross cut, Raine in the midst of excavating, her cache, one of the cranes that flew overhead (we heard them coming towards us and three of us were fumbling for our cameras to turn them on and to try and get an image of the flock overhead; I thought didn't get any shots, but was happy to see this one). And the remainder are at home images I took after I've washed as much of the soil off as possible from the glass. You see how nicely warped that jar got? And the patinas on the glass? In one of the closeups, you can see a tiny old Bayer Aspirin jar (it's a curved bottle and small).

It's good to get these posted at last and good to be 'back'!