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we have
Corum one two three four five yeah we're
good okay okay uh ladies and gentlemen
members of the board I am calling this
meeting of the oakal public library
board to order uh before we get into the
business of tonight's meeting I'd like
to read our territorial acknowledgement
the Oakville Public Library is situated
on the treaty number 14 and treaty
number 22 treaty lands and territory of
the Miss sagas of the Credit First
Nation and the traditional territory of
the hon wot and the hoden shony Oakville
is currently home to many different
First Nations Inuit and8 people
regardless of where we come from we are
all interconnected through the land that
we live on the water that we use and the
air that we breathe we are committed to
a continuous learning journey and
allyship we seek to elevate indigenous
voices and lived experiences to
cultivate reconciliation in
Oakville um Madam commit secretary do we
have any regrets this afternoon or this
evening um as far as I can see Mr Sal M
and also I can see Bill Smith
tonight okay and I don't know if we were
expecting them or not um but uh anyway I
do want to say a big thank you to
everybody for taking uh time out of your
busy schedules this summer um to join us
for this uh impromptu meeting um I'm
just trying to give me one second I have
to shift back to my agenda from the uh
um territor
acknowledgement yeah we have a time
sensitive matter this evening and so
we'll going to go into close session in
just a moment once I get us through the
the public uh opening um uh we've had
her regrets uh are there any
Declarations of interest to report this
evening I'm not seeing any uh we do not
have uh do we have the minutes from our
previous meeting to to
approve no we we don't have so we step
number four we do not have any consent
items we don't not have any confidential
consent items we do not have any
discussion items we do however have 8.1
which is a a potential Library
development proposal uh we need to go
into a session Clos to the public for
the purposes of the acquisition of land
um and I look for a motion at this time
uh to move us into that closed session
thank you Ray thank you Rebecca all in
favor and that is carried so give us a
moment to go into close
session are we publicly streaming this
evening yeah I forgot
[Laughter]
let us go over
cool I'm currently in my first of third
of three years at uh at Sheridan so um
it's uh kind of fun to be at that point
because you have all great ideas and
you're not limited by actual technology
shared in college in the glass
department they uh ran a bit of a
competition amongst the students I
submitted my design and uh then uh it
got sent off um one of the things that I
did before I submitted my design to the
town was uh I had a talk with the uh
actual professors to make sure that it
was doable uh it'll look not unlike this
uh the central piece will actually have
a a wave in it it's got this Oak shape
to it
uh when you look down on it uh that'll
it'll have a name plate on there and
then uh when it comes out of the mold it
looks not unlike this it'll be on the
end of the pipe and we just break it off
and uh we put that in to cool and then
uh when it's done we saw it off right
about here and uh uh polish the bottom
so of course this one's been on already
the the process of the thing uh kind of
goes like um we start out with a spike
of glass we form a uh we take a gather
and we form it into kind of a conical
piece of glass uh then we get a couple
of what we call gathers We Gather glass
on the end of the rod and then uh we um
roll it in colored powder which is
basically really finely crushed glass uh
with color in it uh then we melt that in
uh we roll it a few times just to make
sure that it's got lots of solid color
on it uh what we do is we take glass out
of the furnace and we roll it in this uh
colored powder the glass color and it
sticks it'll stick to the glass the hot
glass and then what we do is we take it
over to the glory hole and uh we melt it
in so the glory hole gets it nice and
hot reheats the glass once it's melted
in nice and neat I'll take it over to
pole there and he'll uh stick it on a
piece but I want to get it pretty hot so
that I don't have a I get a nice uh
small Trail for
him um and then we apply that onto our
Spike right so we have two colors we
have uh we are have two guys doing it
basically uh we'll we'll lay on one
color then we'll flip it over and we'll
lay on the other color so we have um the
basically three rods of color together
right because we don't want the glass to
cool off too much after after he's done
it uh after he's formed his spiky bit
there um we don't want the glass to cool
off too much and we don't have to reheat
it over and over and over again uh so uh
it it takes two of us with bit rods to
form two colors just so that we can um
put the one color on and then put the
next color on uh and then go and and
melt them together because if he put one
color on and then he melts it together
then we put another color on and he
melts that in it could melt in uh in in
kind of a weird
blurred shape so if we put them both on
at the same time then they melt at the
same rate and that makes it uh much more
crisp and nicer and so now uh we laid
the color on the center bit and we just
have to melt the color in so it becomes
one smooth pattern because if there's
any uh seams or anything where the color
is when we plunge it into the middle
it's going to catch bubbles there so
that'll be little imperfections in the
design
um then we'll melt them together so that
they're smooth uh without a lot of uh
edges CU if we have a lot of edges we'll
trap air and uh we didn't want a ton of
extra bubbles or or special design of
bubbles so we we wanted to make sure
that um it's all nice and smooth then
what we do is we extrude it out a bit uh
lengthwise and give it a Twist nice slow
twist and that gives it kind of that uh
Helix of color in this you can see the
uh Spike of color but it has this nice
uh you know about two revolutions worth
of color uh in a two revolutions a Twist
in color um then it's we put a bit of a
wave into it so it looks kind of more
like a
flame so this puts a
nice
TOS of that
then we have a graphite mold mold that's
made out of a big CH block of graphite
uh it's a two-part mold so it splits in
the half basically I'll uh get a ladle
of glass out of the out of the furnace a
big Ladle of glass and we pour that into
the mold so it's full and then uh the
the guy who forms the spike with a Twist
in it um plunges that into the mold so
we plunge it straight down into the mold
we let it cool off a little bit so that
it firms up because the glass is kind of
like taffy you know um after a few
minutes uh we wait a little bit longer
and it seizes up a little bit more it's
still flexible but not uh solid just
doing this to cool the edges here set it
up a bit then we pull it out of the mold
and we flash it in the Gory hole and
that's to uh even out the heat but also
the flame in the glory hole will polish
the one end so this this end here gets
it's uh gets it smooth surface from what
we call Flame polishing and so we have
to let it completely set up before we
put it away otherwise if we put it away
too hot it's going to deform when it's
in the analer the the internal heat in
it will actually like deform the piece
yeah SL the heat actually moves kind of
slow and the internal heat will come out
to the external part of the uh of the uh
piece and then when it it's on the
grading in the analer because the
shelves are great uh it can actually
take on the shape of the grading if it
was too like if it becomes too hot and
the analer itself isn't that hot even
though it feels like
it when you stick your head in there it
feels like it go but uh uh it's not hot
enough to actually deform but the
interior of the piece could be three4 or
500° warmer than the actual exterior and
then that soaks out to the outside
yeah the anas are at like 500° and these
furnaces are at like 2,000
something uh then we uh wait uh for a
while to until it seizes up as soon as
it stops moving then we'll break it off
and we'll put it in the annealing
oven now we're just creating a stress
point in the glass if like this is a
really cool part now so if I hit the
glass all the vibrations are going to
stop at that one point
uh then it'll sit in the annealing oven
for about 57 hours and that cools down
slowly and what it does is it takes all
the stress out of the glass uh because
all the forming uh that we do uh causes
uh inconsistent Heating in throughout
the glass right and even though we're
flashing it and doing all kinds of
things to it uh to try and um even out
the heat uh it'll still have
inconsistent heat through it so what we
do is we put in the kneeling oven and it
bathes it in a in a
550° c for uh um a good 25 hours or so
well everything in a glass shop is a
team effort right uh so uh I came up
with the design you know it's it's it's
my design but that doesn't mean that I'm
the one who carries things out I mean
there are a number of artists like that
they actually just design it and
somebody else actually makes it in this
case uh I you know I've got the skill
set that allows me to help out right and
then plus I get to supervise I get to
look and see what's going on um the some
other first year students uh that are
there are Paul Vanden bigger uh he's the
one who's putting the twist in the class
he's uh quite good at it so uh we
figured why you know why reinvent the
wheel for one of us to figure that out
and then there's Matt Crosby and that's
helping out with everything else
bringing beds opening the door um you
need to have a hand uh in the glass shop
because there's so many things that are
really hot that you just can't do it you
just can't hold a pipe in one hand and
try and open the door with the other
hand especially with this thing it
weighs too much it's a good five 10
pounds of Glass on here um so uh it's
important that I get Paul and Matt to
help
out each one will be unique there'll be
it'll be at least slightly different no
matter how no matter how much we wanted
them to be exactly the same
uh they'll always be a little bit
different just because of uh how we did
it the uh shape of this award it takes
on the shape which is actually an oak
leaf um so if you look at it it's Oak
Leaf shaped right um and that's of
course the oakville's own built-in
iconography so what we did is we placed
uh these spirals of color in the center
to kind of um uh symbolize an inner
flame so it's kind of like the inner
fire that runs the runs the
town so the um volunteers have you know
are are this um uh energy that that runs
the town and uh you don't get anything
done without having a core of volunteers
willing to do the things that need to be
done so so I thought it was important to
have that in there and it also kind of
symbolizes the inter fire of the actual
people uh who are volunteers cuz they
have to have a certain Dedication that
you don't see so it's it's kind of a
dual meaning in that in that regard
you've got uh the in fire of the town
and the inter fire in the people who are
the inter fire of the
town the complexity of piece actually
requires that uh you have a few extra
hands especially when we got a two-part
mold
um one guy plunges the piece into the
mold but he can't let go of the pipe uh
to
uh you know to to try and EXT ra it so
um it takes another two people to try
and separate the mold off of it cuz it
can stick uh can get glass can get
sticky at that temperature and it can
get stuck in the mold and if we leave it
in there too long it's just going to
crack uh so we'll have ruined piece at
that point so um because graphite really
sucks the heat out of the uh out of the
glass right it's like uh doing anything
with it touching metal to the glass
it'll suck the heat out of the glass so
um it takes a couple of guys in there uh
sometimes prying sometimes holding on to
the physically holding on to the mold
with a pair of gloves on um and then
Paul can pull it up out of there once
it's out uh once it's been freed uh it's
important to pull up vertically so that
we don't snap off some of the vertical
striations in the mold like these uh
these bits in here um that's you know a
solid graphite in the mold and if we
twist it we can snap them off off and
then we've ruined the mold and we don't
want to do that right uh it it it takes
it takes a while to cut one of those
things CU it's 6 in
thick so uh it takes a it takes a few
hands uh to get things uh get things
done this is actually my my first time
in Oakville it's a lot of it's a very
nice town uh everybody's really nice
here and it's uh almost it's almost
surprising you know like how how nice
everyone is in Oakville um and also how
dedicated volunteers are and how
important it is to
actually um give them some kind of uh
award to recognize what they do so uh it
was it was great for me to to to sit
down and go hey I get to I get to make
this thing you know
volunteers are basically selfless you
know it's selfless service it's it's
really giving to others I know for sure
that they're not in doing their
volunteer work um expecting to be
recognized and to be thanked but it
really is from my perspective an
enormous honor to be able to make this
year the awards that we'll actually
recognize them and thank them for the
work work that they do volunteers are
the creatures that operate maybe between
Earth and Sky and the keep a community
together the community Spirit award for
this year is a um an a functional box uh
that was the request from the committee
um I had proposed something that would
go on the wall but it has um actually
the the Box itself has a lot of the
elements that I of my initial proposal
um my initial proposal did include this
um Waterfront line delineating uh the
difference between the sky and the Earth
so that has been retained in the Box the
process of making the boxes is included
working with two different clay bodies
one that's very groggy a bit like having
sand in it so it's very textured and the
other one is a porcelain for the
temperature that I'm firing to so the um
the interesting part about these two
clay bodies is that they're really quite
different one is um very smooth and the
other one is is this as I say more
textured more more has more um almost
like sand in it if you were to feel it
with your fingers you you feel more of
um um it's just different to tactile but
they uh these two different Clays dry
differently and they um they want to
almost go in opposite directions so it's
kind of interesting to work with them in
a way that puts them together to come to
the um the awards which are the
boxes Vanessa has come a long way in
terms of solving a lot of technical
problems this year and and it's because
she's really set for herself um some
technical challenges working with
different types of Clays and trying to
combine them um together in a single
piece a single object um as a ceramic
artist that sort of sets you up for
trouble and um Vanessa went in knowing
that and she's been strategic in finding
ways to sort of respond to those
challenges and it's really boosted her
her technical skills for sure this is
why my little note here on that you know
it's like
yes you're going to get different sorts
of responses by by working with um uh a
hollow right where the glaze is going to
collect and flow oh then when it's and
that's not really representational of
the kinds of forms that you're making
where it's going to be you know there
are little grooves small areas where
it's going to be gathering together but
generally speaking it's going to flow
over and then this all I to
do
is it's not an elegant
process there
so see it there it's come out it's maybe
even a bit
distorted and
then take this magic tool which I do not
know if it has a name and help for the
best so highly
unsophisticated I'm cutting
through this
box so now I have two pieces one that's
sort of showing the
irregularities and the very um hopefully
straight cut lid once those are put
aside then I return to the same mold and
using the grogged clay now with the
Globs I use Globs I press them into the
mold and at a certain point I then take
the one of the halves of the porcelain
uh piece flip it over into the mold and
so what I'm visually looking at that
point is I'll have some porcelain a clay
some space and almost the Grog clay
below and then I'll take more of the
Grog clay fill it all in and what I'm
doing there is um joining both the
porcelin and the grogged clay and at
that point I'm um really compressing the
clay and forming the shape that's going
to be in the inside and I that process
takes a fair amount of time and then
when that
um piece when the mold has absorbed some
of the moisture from the actual clay I
flip that out and then I put together um
overnight the what is now the base of
the clay the base of the box and the lid
I put them together without the lip and
I actually dry them inverted uh with a
lot of plastic to keep the moisture in
so it's actually not drying it's just
settling uh which is sort of an
important part of this process I let
that happen
overnight and then the next day I will
put the um the lip into the box the rim
it's beautiful I like the way it's it's
so soft by
comparison scratch I know I know nal's
got extremely high standards the at
sharidan is really intense um it takes
over your life in ways that you couldn't
possibly predict and the more you learn
about it the more you want to know the
more you experiment and learn about the
materials um you realize that it never
ends and that there's always something
new and
exciting to do with
Ceramics and I think that's what's
amazing about Sheridan
that it's a really transformative three
years in order to create the um the lip
of the box I will first either roll out
a slab a bit like you do with pastry or
I will pass it through our slab roller
either way I've got um something that
looks very much like pastry and then I
um cut strips to the size that I want so
I'm able to cut it and create the lip
then I cut that lip at an angle and I
soften it and I clean it up so what is
lovely about this porcelain is that I
can actually use the sponge fairly
liberally on it I can smooth out um the
lines where I want them The Last Detail
that I put on a box is of course the
writing so um I've chosen to write in um
script on the boxes in there is an
exhibition of um the graduating class of
all Studios so includes textiles glass
furniture and Ceramics of course so um
that was very exciting it was a very
very um it was very successful in the
sense that we had people coming in there
until about 10:00 at night so there were
people on the sidewalk the galleries
were full the work was great so a great
opportunity as a student to start you
know um exhibiting our work and showing
our work and uh and that process is also
very interesting because once your work
becomes public
there's a whole new dialogue that starts
happening so I mean I think that
dialogue Madam committee uh secretary
I'm clerk I'm assuming that the motion
coming uh do we have to actually have a
motion coming out of this close s uh Mr
chair I emailed to you the minutes that
should be like uh how it looks like how
it should be looked in the public
session read the motion so you have
that to me yes
today I'm sorry did you say you just
emailed it to me or you emailed no today
around the 3:00 I believe 2:00
3:00 Jeff I can read it to you I see it
on the um the public uh agenda if that
helps why don't you just move the motion
you can read it into the record then
how's that sure okay okay let me know
when we're ready
please Madam committee clerk are we
going to be getting a high sign when
we're ready to go
um we are good to go
now
e for
um Mr chair we are live now
and thank you um members of the board we
are now uh back in a session open to the
public and I will report that the
Oakville Public Library board met in
closed session for the purpose of a
proposed or pending acquisition or
disposition of land by the municipality
or local board in relation to item 8.1
potential Library develop vment proposal
August 22 2024 while we were in session
we had a discussion about the matter and
uh board member Andrew has a motion for
us at this
time thank you chair and all I move that
the confidential report dated August
22nd 2024 from the CEO of the Oakville
Public Library be actioned as
directed okay can I get a second to that
motion
please thank you Ray all in
favor that's carried okay um seeing that
we've concluded our business I'll just
put a call out for other business to
come before or new business to come
before the
board there's no new business uh Tara
could you just remind us when the next
board meeting is
please yes so we have a um special board
meeting on September 5th which will be
an engagement session with Perkins and
will um and then our next regular board
meeting is
Wednesday September 18th at 7 p.m. both
of which are in person in Council team
thank you so we won't get to use our new
backgrounds that you're sending us yes
sadly okay members of the board that
concludes our business for today I'll
look for motion to
adjourn thank you anybody have I not got
anybody in the minutes today I think
everybody's in the minutes so I'll take
Meredith's motion seconded by who's
going to give me the second uh Rebecca
all in favor Ry you you're you're all
over the minutes
all in favor that's carried the meeting
is adjourned thanks once again everybody
enjoy the rest of your summer and we'll
see you on the 5th of September
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