Glass Craft Expo -Day Three

Sixteen students in Beyond Dichro - The Power of Modern Jewelry. What a blast. By the end of the day I was spent.
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It's now day four and I'm taking a few minutes to post while Gail lectures on electroforming on Glass.  I always love when science finds its' way into our creative processes.

Glass Craft Expo - Day Two

Multi faceted TA that I am, today I was on the other side of the exhibit hall helping Sam with a full class for Twist and Shout. I was thrilled to find both bead makers and fusers expanding there skill set with this workshop.

Glass Craft Expo - Day One

Taking workshops on the road. Day one of Glass Craft Expo, I backed up Gail with Glass Collage. Class with Gail is always a blast. One day of TA'ing (teaching assistant) down. Three to go.

This Weekend at Wired

This weekend is plate making at Wired Designs Workshop. I will be working with students as they learn to create functional plates, platters, bowls and other glassware. We’ll design our own flat glass pieces on Saturday. On Sunday students will learn to cold work and slump their glass into original serving pieces. Topics covered include: mold preparation, firing schedules, cold work, and annealing. Here is one of the demos from my last plate making workshop. Wonder what I'll do this time. Guess I should start thinking about that.

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Happy St. Patricks Day

Today was Bead I at Dream Fire Glass Studio. In the spirit of St. Patrick's day all my beads were green. I used opaque and transparent spring green, jade, mineral green, adventurine, and Sam's new rolling in clover frit blend. It just seemed fitting, not to mention fun. 

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Not Exactly Deja Vu

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 I took this shoot a few weeks back while visiting the Japaneses Tea Garden.  I was staring though my view finder when I had a sudden feeling of familiarity. Only it was exactly deja vu. It was more like deja "you". It wasn't like I had been here before or done this before. It was a thought of someone. I as still very much in  a new experience while at the same time, for brief moment, I heard a distinctly recognizable voice.  I smiled, cause I had heard it all before. I'm sure there is a more appropriate physiological term for this type of memory. But deja "you" works too don't you think?

Carnahan Elementary School Art Walk

The Carnahan Elementary School Art Walk was last week. This was my 4th year participating. I was thrilled to see the continued growth of the event and the children's excitement at being exposed to so many artists in a variety of media. I bumped into several good friends from both the San Antonio Glass Art Guild (SAGAG) and the San Antonio Calligraphy Guild (SACG). Always so but particularly in this day and age of decreasing school budgets, it is important that we do what we can in our local communities to promote the arts and art education.

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I had the right size flame for an elementary school event. Using my little butane torch I bent 2mm strands of glass into spirals just as outlined in the tutorial in the SAGAG cookbook. This is a great demo to discuss the role of science as  we work with heat control and gravity to achieve our desired results.

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 Right next to me children were taking turns trying their hands on a potters wheel. I thought Juliet did great for her first time. Craftmanship must just run in the family. Great job kiddo!

Luminaria Postponed

It has just been announced that Saturday's Luminaria festivities are being postponed. In light of our current weather, I am somewhat releaved. Keep you eyes on the Luminaria website for updated information. and I'll keep you posted on Glass Alley's roll in any rescheduled event.
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On the bright side, great weather to cozy up to a dual fuel torch and make some more glass components. Tonight is afterall fiery Friday at Dream Fire studio.

Twisted Cane

With all my time at the torch,  I have acquired quite the assortment of twisted canes. It was time to put some of these components to work. So, I decided to create some colorful kilnformed pieces featuring these flame worked elements. Here they are going in for their first firing.

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I always loved how cooking shows on television could put in an an uncooked chicken and at the same time pull out the finished product. Inspired by the "magic of television" here are those same pieces just out of the kiln after their second firing.

Not long after that they were packed up and sent to Artisans of Rocky Hill in Fredricksburg, Texas

Luminaria 2012

Luminaria - San Antonio's Annual Celebration of Art and Artist
Downtown San Antonio, Texas 

March 10, 2012

Get ready for GLASS ALLEY! The San Antonio Glass Art Guild (SAGAG), Society of Artisan Lampworker in San Antonio (SALSA), Brothers of the Flame, and  Larry West are all back for this years Luminaria  celebration of the arts. Glass Alley will include glass blowing demonstrations by Larry West's from his mobile glass blowing unit, flameworking demonstrations of glass bead making, and performances by The Brothers of the Flame.

For more information about Luminaria visit http://luminariasa.org/.