Catching up

I haven't been keeping up with the blog as often as I would like. I am hoping that I have the time and fortitude to do that going forward. My experiences of this past summer have led me to revelations about myself and my relationship with glass. In July, I spent a week blowing glass with a group of artists at the Pittsburgh Glass Center in a class taught by Ed Schmid and assisted by Ben Johnson. It was the hottest week of this year. The ambient temperature in the hot shop was 120 degrees, and I'm not talking about directly in front of the furnace. It was a tough week physically to get through. I know I came close to heat stroke at least once that week and had to call it a day. I learned a lot that week. My fellow artists were some of the most supportive/creative people I've had the pleasure to meet. What I discovered is that although I've had an interest in glass for the past 16 years of my life, I had not really had a passion for it. This class, the people and the physical struggle of getting through the class awoke the passion in me that must have been waiting just under the surface. Up until this point, I had made my glass items for myself, or to give away as presents or to donate for charities to auction off. I've not wanted to create an inventory of items because of the expense and fear that they may not sell. That is going to change starting now, well starting about a month ago. There are so many techniques that I want to explore and ways of manipulating glass that I want to try to gain mastery in that in order to finance all of this exploration and improvement in my technique, I am going to start making glass items to sell. I am going to pursue my fused glass, flame worked glass, blown glass, and the occasional stained glass simultaneously. Within the next 4 months or so I am going to open a web site with my glass and start selling on Etsy. I will also, once I reach a critical mass of inventory, start doing the occasional craft show. Who knows, I may try to enter some art contests. I will provide updates as I go along. In the mean time, to the left are items I made during my one week intensive class in July.