Is it a probiotic drink, or a glass shrapnel bomb?

Bottom of exploding probiotic bottle

Thankfully a strong label prevented extra glass shrapnel spread

This ricocheted off a cutting board in front of Meridee's face

It exploded right in Meridee's face while it was sitting in the sink.
We both shudder to contemplate the damage had she not had 2 things handy at the time:
A cutting board, and really sharp reflexes.

The bottle had an internal pressure that exceeded its breaking point, and dizzyingly fast moving sharp edges.
The glass shrapnel was deflected from hitting Meridee in the face or throat and seems to have taken out a drawer knob behind her.

There was a knob there before the bottle exploded

When it blew up I was sitting 20 feet away and sprang up after hearing a loud 'BANG' and screams.
I was relieved to see Meridee was OK, and disturbed to see the remains of the bottle in the sink, and then tracked down the jagged lid portion and plenty of tiny shards, which kept showing up for days after.

Sparkling. Mmmm, I could think of some other words...

I found this across the room

Fortunately much of the glass had been kept from spraying itself across the room by a very sticky label.

So as it turns out, the bottle was in the fridge past its 'enjoy by' date.
Then Meridee went away painting for 3 weeks, and cleaned out the fridge of old stuff when she got back.
So it was way past its 'enjoy by' date by then.
The bottle then sat in the sink for at least a couple of hours while it generated more than enough internal pressure to go off like some kind of stealthy home made IED.

I got in touch with the KeVita people and suggested that they might determine the failure pressure of the bottle and design a lid that would fail at a lower pressure, perhaps by scoring grooves into it or something to weaken it. Then at least perhaps only the lid would break apart and fly off.
That could still take your eye out, but hopefully not your face off.

I hope they do something to prevent this happening to anyone else. While it was probably a freak occurrence we're not risking it with this brand anymore, but if you like it I'd keep an eye on the 'enjoy by' date (while wearing high impact protective goggles and a bomb squad suit). Perhaps they should have a 'take cover by' date as well.

Other news:
My art grid cards (for all visual artists) that did great on Kickstarter  are now available through their own little website, artgridcards.com
They fit in your wallet, and hopefully don't spontaneously combust!
Notice the nicely rounded corners? (safety first!)

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

New Piece Shown Off In The Dark!

Manitou Gallery on Canyon Road here in Santa Fe had a show last night featuring new pieces.
They wanted something new from each of their artists.
They decided to hang the show salon style.
That means they kept sheets over everything until the grand unveiling at 5.00pm

The cosmic prankster decided to make their presence felt.
During the afternoon, ominous stormy clouds darkened the skies.

The gallery has a few small high windows and so relies on electrical spot lighting to show off the work.

The show had been hung and covered with the concealing sheets, and so the world waited for the appointed hour.
The sheets were pulled off on the dot of 5.

Unfortunately, as the clouds continued to darken a lightning strike took out power to the whole center of town just before the dot of 5.

No streetlights (there aren't many, anyway).
No traffic lights.
No illuminated shop windows.
And no lit up galleries.

It was like a cave in there!

And squatting in a case, in the darkest corner of the gallery were 7 stones.
Or they might as well have been stones, because that's what they looked like in the dark!

Ah, the irony of the cosmic prankster, eh?
Got to love that sense of humor!

Had the lights been on, show goers would have been treated to a bunch a frogs just like this one, only with a varying range of patinas.

It's about 4" long, which fills my hand quite nicely. A tennis ball is nearly 3 inches across, so if you had something squishy about the size of a tennis ball, and squished it so it went a bit longer and thinner, that would be about right size wise.

All I  need now is a pond to put him by...
I suppose the tub will have to do.
He can sit under one of Meridee's plants.

Basking Frog - Front 3 quarter - Bronze 4" - Steve Worthington

Basking Frog - Rear 3 quarter - Bronze 4" - Steve Worthington

Basking Frog - Back View - Bronze 4" - Steve Worthington

Basking Frog - Front - Bronze 4" - Steve Worthington

Basking Frog - Side - Bronze 4" - Steve Worthington

Basking Frog - with soda for scale - Bronze 4" - Steve Worthington

 

 

Besides that, my artist grid cards on Kickstarter are going great, and have only 7 days to go!

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

These armatures look like a lot of fun

I found a project which ends in a couple of days on Kickstarter for a whole bunch of different armatures.
The joints work great. The only thing it can't do that I've noticed is pull the shoulders back and push them forwards, but besides that they look terrific.

Certainly good enough for me to pledge for a bunch.

If you like them you'll have to be quick though. I only noticed them yesterday and their time is almost over!

It's HERE

Artist grid cards off to a flying start!

There's a website that provides a fun bunch of charts to track your Kickstarter project, so I'm pasting one here...That was easy!
Thanks to my wonderful backers I'm funded which is fantastic. Usually projects start out strong, coast for a couple or three weeks, then have a bit of a flurry at the end.
With this handy chart installed, I can keep an eye on things...

Thanks again backers, you are the best!

Artist's grid cards on Kickstarter for better drawing, and composition for painting, and shooting video.

Kickstarter project #6 I think...

Hello again,
I came up with these cards that fit in your wallet.
The drawing ones are based on an old established method for quickly analyzing and measuring your subject in a deceptively simple way.

The painting ones will help with composition and are especially good for finding 'ready made' paintings from the available scenery while outside.

To find out more including how I came up with them, and to see them in action,  simply go HERE.

There's a video as well as my written description (with pics, of course!).

That link was to Kickstarter, where you can also find them by searching 'artist grid cards'.

Enjoy!!

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille