We here at Thrifthorror would like to applaud the DIY community, because without people willing to go the extra mile–check that, the extra five feet–we would have to work to find material. Amateur craftsman, we salute you.
But finding a ham-fisted glassworking project? That’s a treat.
It’s good to recognize the limits of your craft. Let’s say you’re making an hourglass. Further, let’s say that you’re not very good at this, that you failed remedial hourglass-making and got an “F” on your egg timer…or maybe you like VERY runny eggs. If all the sand runs out before you’ve actually flipped the hourglass over…maybe because the sand-sphincter is as wide as a yawning abyss…you’ve got a solution.
And that solution is scraping gravel and asphalt off the side of the road. GOOD solution. Now not only can you measure time with your new project–about 2.3 seconds, but who’s counting–it makes a gentle, restful thundering noise as the gravel strikes the glass.
While the choice of road grit as medium is a revolutionary one, we really must look at the art of the device itself, to truly read the mind of the artist. Two vastly uneven chambers speak volumes of metaphor. “Time is relative, uncertain. 2.3 seconds may feel like a brief moment, or a claustrophobic eternity. And you do not want to get it in your shoe.”
I think the top was actually epoxied onto the base–a glass slab to keep the grains from scattering, slammed onto the top of the project like time was a scorpion trying to escape. Top it all off with a whimsical little twist of glass, a piece of molten drool plastered to the side–is it a handle? Is it a tumorous growth on the rigid construct that binds us to our “schedules?” We’ll never know.
Experience the joy for yourself with this first–a Thrifthorror multimedia extravaganza!
Goodwill at 2222, Austin
4 Responses to “Like rocks through an hourglass…”
It’s got this really yin-yang thing to it too. I feel the essence of the thing flipping back and forth between hope & despair – “I’ve got only one reason to exist, but I’m gonna give it all I got” and “Someone please kill me. Kill me now!”
The video is priceless! :D
I’m glad to have the chance to experiment a bit with multimedia! You’re gonna love the Suicide Frog.
It’s a Klein bottle! Or at least. I think that is what they were going for.
Did you know that if you turn a Klein bottle into an hourglass it flows backward?