A minor miracle happened at Christmas of 2002. A few days before, Leela's brother David Patterson past away. Music was a huge part of his life and he had always wanted to come here for Christmas but never made it. On Christmas Morning we woke to a beautiful dusting of snow. The snow was in a small band about 1 mile wide by 3 miles long. Council Bluffs, Crescent or Omaha got none. I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas was a favorite song of Dave's.
Again we had another mild winter. Dale and Gary Carlson installed the first section of the Hanuman Sculpture. Lee Forbes came early for a satsanga and helped hold the second section into place. On a different day Steve Kelley and Dale installed the top section. Below that photo is a photo of some of the Hanuman sections laid out on 'crete board.
On April 6 we had another snow storm but this one was more beautiful than plentiful.
Meanwhile, Leela worked at creating the next 3 Goddess Sculptures to be installed. First they are made in sections and then walked out to the studio to the kiln. After the first firing, they are walked back to the house for glazing and then back to the non-heated studio for the glaze firing in the kiln. This was repeated for the pieces where the reds may have burned out. Then over to the Temple where they were giving an overglaze of white or yellow gold and mother of pearl. Back to the kiln again for the final firing. Then back to the Temple to be adhered to concrete board that was cut in the shape of the sculpture wells. After the PL400 adhesive set up grout was added and after it dried then the sculpture needed to be cleaned off. Suzanne Swang and Leela are cleaning the excess grout from the Laxmi Sculpture.
At the bottom of the page are the Kali and Saraswati sculptures before the first firing. Colored underglazes were painted before the first firing in the kiln.