For those of you who saw my studio on Small Business Saturday and commented on how clean it was, here's a more realistic look.  Many of you placed orders for custom quote pieces and I'm happy to report I am back in the groove of making them again!  I made so many preparing for Small Business Saturday that I ran out of the key component-- glass frit.  Frit is basically finely ground glass and it can be purchased in a variety of colors and fineness.  For some other projects, I often make my own frit by throwing glass scrap in the blender and running it until the frit  it the consistency I want.  It beats the hell out of the blade but it's an easy way to make it if I am not concerned about the uniformity of the size of frit.  However, in this case, uniformity is key-- it has to be powder-fine.  So making it myself was not an option.  I thought it would save time if I just ordered it from the glass store and had it shipped.  And it should have; my orders usually arrive the day after I place them. Unfortunately, there must have been some major shipping meltdown because it took nearly a week to get here.  Although I had many other things to do, I was really anxious to get moving on these and the frit step is the first one in the process-- nothing can happen until the it has been fired once in the kiln.  So when the package was delivered late Tuesday night, I was thrilled!  The kiln has been running non-stop since then.  My studio is a mess but the good news is, almost all the custom orders for the holidays are now on their way to completion.  Frit-astrophy averted!