Tagged!!! I'm it!!!

Okay...so there are apparently these internet games and I've been tagged. I'm it. Actually I was dual tagged, once by Rosegardenfae and once by Formfireglassworks, both very talented artisans. I'm supposed to spill the beans about secret/interesting things about myself. There is so little to tell actually and precious little of that is interesting, but if you'll pretend it's interesting, I'll write down some things.... so I can get on with tagging the next victims.....hehehe

1.) Both of my kids went to a special school for the arts all through high school. My daughter attended in dance and my son attended in Visual Arts. This was a school that choose about 200 kids each year from the whole state to attend a boarding school which in addition to providing the usual High School classes added on about 6 hours of intensive study in their specialty each day, 6 days a week. I'm very proud of them. They both won scholarships to very good colleges as a result.

2.) My wife, and partner in crime, holds a B.A. in fine art from a really good college in Maryland and is a huge creative muse for me and force in our house.

3.) My first car was a 1959 Fiat 600D convertible (think a downsized VW Beetle with a canvas flap that covers a square hole in the roof). I got it in 1968 when it already had over 100,000 miles on it and I drove it all through college. It was a miracle car.

4.) I live on a farm with about 60 goats, 5 dogs, 1 goose, 1 cat, 9 goldfish (in a yard pond) and a rooster. The farm has 350 blueberry bushes that our family (including the kids) planted about 14 years ago and is open as a U-Pick operation in the Summers. Every year we have a few more pickers. We love it.

5.) I've started several companies from scratch. Some worked out pretty good, others not so good. As they say, Good judgement comes from Experience, Experience comes from poor judgement.

6.) My great uncle and cousins started a glassblowing plant that operated from the great depression all the way until the end of the 90's. Robert Hamon, one of the cousins, is a fairly well-known and famous glassblower that I used to love to watch when I was a young lad.

7.) We raise a kind of livestock guardian dog known as an Akbash. They are large, gentle, intelligent dogs that know what to do if the goats are theatened and they go about settling that particular problem. They know when to escalate and when to chill. They come from Turkey and have beautiful Turkish Names. Inci (pronounced like In Gee), Suhayla, Jansu, and Mavi.

Hehehe...now...I'm off to find a couple of unsuspecting victims....hope you enjoyed this.

Christmas is Coming

Okay....so we survived the Arts in the Heart of Augusta show and had such a great time. The people really were amazing, nice, and seemed to enjoy our little shop. I made WAY too much stuff for the show, but hey, Christmas is coming so I have some inventory.

It's time to start cranking up the ornaments. I love making ornaments. Large hollow balls of glass with color or silver fume to scatter light in all colors. How could I not love them?

Tomorrow is the big day

Well.....oh man...it's finally here. Tomorrow I go to set up the booth for a three day show in Augusta, Georgia. I have more stuff than I've ever had at one time. I just hope that I don't have to lug it all back home with me. On the brighter side.....what I don't sell I have for Christmas and maybe by Christmas Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, AIG and all of the other big deals in the country will have stopped collapsing so that everyone is running around like chicken little. Nothing like impending financial doom to encourage folks to go out and buy!!!! Oh well...I've bought a bright new Hawaiian shirt to wear for the event and I'm going to have some fun. I'll try to take some pictures to post next week. Thanks for stopping by.

Going to the Show!!!

So I made it into the Show!!! I've been working like mad to get stuff ready and I thought I'd post a picture so you could see.

So, I've never really participated in a juried show before. They want photos of my work as well as photos of my typical display table. It makes me super critical of my work, of the pictures, of the display design of everything. I have no clue if I'll be accepted to this show or not. So, I put together my latest work and Madeline took some great photos. Here's hoping.

May's Coming and Going

I took a class from Andrew Brown. He was great. The class was great and I learned to make some new stuff. I'll be posting things that I learned how to make from that class for a long time to come. Here's the first.

April Passed

Yep...I made it all the way through April and didn't post a darned thing. Which reminds me of what Oscar Wilde used to say. To lose one parent is tragic, but to lose them both is just plain irresponsible. Not writing a thing for a whole month...well that's just irresponsible.

It's been a busy month. I've made a lot of things, I've attended a class which taught me a whole new way of looking at a pendant. I'll post some of them as I make them. There were a couple of the new ones on the etsy site, but one of them is gone already. I suspect the other will disappear in short order too. I'll be making some paperweights this month as well and I will post some of those here too.

We own some blueberries (some translates to 350 bushes) and I'll be spending some time in the fields with them soon as well. I'll post more later....promise...no really, honest.

Growing

I've been trying to work larger and larger over the last couple of months. I've made lots of little jars and bottles, but they just aren't the size I'm looking for. The truth be told, I probably won't really be satisfied until I'm working in a hot shop with a full furnace and glory hole set up so that I can make human sized vases and bowls. For now, I have to settle for smaller sizes. It's good practice for technique anyway. Thought I'd share.

Okay so I missed Easter

So I never got around to putting any Easter Eggs up. I'm sorry. Mea Culpa. I got them off to the shop downtown without taking any pictures. BUT I managed to make a nice (for me) little jar. I'm going to put a couple of pictures of it up below....hehehe up below....anyhow. I'm excited about taking a class under Andrew Brown. He makes some incredible glass "geodes." I'll post more on that as it comes closer. That's all for now.

Ah, The Hearts are nearly past

So. I survived the Valentine's Day shows!!!! I just am not good with people. I like people. I like being around people, but I don't like selling to people. That's some kind of talent that some folks have, but a skill that I greatly lack. Oh well, ya can't be everything. SO...... Madeline made this GREAT necklace from a heart. It's beautiful ( I think). Next month, I'll be working on the glass easter eggs. I'll put some up as I'm making them. I think they will be great fun....bunnies and eggs.....what an odd concept.

I've been working on Silver and Gold fuming and I have to tell you. This piece is special.

Need a new Heart????

So, February is pressing in on us and I'm making hearts as fast as I can. I accepted slots in two shows for the first week in February and it's really not as fast as I'd like. These things take more time than it looks like they would. It's all about prep work. Mixing the cane up to make the colors I'm looking for seems to take forever. I'll post one or two so you can see what I'm talking about. They're looking good so far I think. Glad you stopped by to see what I'm up to.

Hearts, Hearts, More Hearts!!!!

January

Man oh man.....time is flying past. I tried some new stuff this last week-end. One was a bird feeder. I have it hanging outside right now and as soon as I find out if birds will actually eat out of it, I'll start making some. They are pretty cool. I also made a batch of new pendants recently. I put a couple up on Etsy. http://www.gimmebeads.etsy.com/. Go check them out. Here's one that's up there. It looks great out in the sun. We've named it Double Dahlia, even though the spelling is questionable.