Wednesday, March 18, 2009

New Stuff for an Upcoming Show




So, March is winding down and April is close at hand. I have a big show (at least it is for us) in Spartanburg, South Carolina on May 1. It's called the Spring Fling and I'm really looking forward to being a part of it. (I went to College in Spartanburg and lived there for several years, once upon a time, so it'll be interesting to see if I recogize a soul while I'm there.) So, I've been working toward getting things ready for that show. I've been making pendants and Madeline has been making earrings and other things. I thought I'd show you a pendant that came out nice. The picture has lots of reflection in it, but I think you can get the idea. Here Comes the Sun King. Doesn't it look just like a Sun King? I think this may have to become my pendant.




Monday, February 23, 2009

So....Bamboo Jungle?


Continuing in my odd glass journey, I learned how to make some organic forms from a terrific glass blower named Mag Mangkang. Included was bamboo. Mag is part of the Frabel Team that will participate in the Annual Art Glass Invitational meeting this year. So here is a very small bamboo forest. Expect more of these forests in the future. I can definitely get lost in them

Friday, January 23, 2009

Valentine's Day




So I always try to do something for Valentine's Day. This year I decided to make something that florists could use as a promotional. Sooooo.....I started making glass flowers that could hold in their little hearts a little glass heart on a silver chain. That way, the Valentine gets real flowers, a glass flower to keep and a heart to wear. I think they make a great gift! What do you think?






Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

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?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

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.

Friday, August 22, 2008

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.