Last Friday we finally had our summer BBQ at work. Luckily the weather was great so we could sit outside......and we had a ton of great food from regular hamburgers to samosas and other Indian food and salads and desserts (cookies, carrot cake from me, and Filipino sticky rice patties rolled in coconut and sesame seeds) I didn't even want a hamburger with all that other food there. That isn't even half the staff now. It's close to 40.
Since I had the camera there, I thought I'd take some pictures to document what I do with my time these days. I know you won't quite get my feelings of stress about this, but those tubes below are filled with prints to distribute to the cardboard folders or shelves for different customers. There were 40 tubes this day to open, check off, and distribute....that is a ton. Candace and I usually do that, and freaked out when they all came because we are already extremely busy right now, so Steph (our boss) received them for us. It took her from 7 am to 4 pm to do them all besides getting called to the phone or other problems. We were very grateful.
This picture of the boards that are ready for us to match up to the prints is only part. The guys don't even have room to put them away so left some on the cart and others put in unusual places for us to search and find.
After we match up the prints with the boards or mat board, trimming them to fit, we put the print throught the glue machine and lay it on the board, then put it through the press. We do over a hundred in a day...we used to do more, but we spend more time now in the coatings on the prints or the glass than we used to. (I'm not usually smiling while I di this....that looks so staged)
Candace is putting high gloss epoxy on a couple of the trees and the water part on the print. We do that on several different prints and they look quite cool.
Above, I am rolling on a texture that will dry clear. Sometimes it is just a heavy texture look, and often these days, we drag a large brush across it to give it a neat straight line affect. Below I'm dragging a fillet stick through the half-dried epoxy on the glass to give a wavy look to the glass. Another one we do looks like rain hitting the glass and dripping down.
About half of what we mount goes to Fatima and Maria to put fillets and mats on.
And then the Fitters here bring the frames, mounted prints, and glass if it has it, all together for the finished product. They are all very nice women to work with. So that is a very quick run-down of how things work around me at Mercana. It is a growning company and they keep hiring more, so that is good in this economy and I'm grateful to have a job.....most of the time.
