I suffer from studio envy. Visited Chuck Franklin's 13,000-square-foot studio in glassland last night and immediately added it to my studio envy list. I think that makes six glassland studios that I'd like to live in some day: Doug Randall's new studio-slash-home that is as beautiful as it is functional Bullseye Glass' R&D center (especially the great big honking kilns [...]
Wow. THAT was fun. Spent the afternoon demonstrating pate de verre techniques at Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Part of the museum’s month of glass, it’s sponsored by the Oregon Glass Guild. Supercompetent Bob Heath (president of the Portland chapter), played assistant the whole time which made a LOT less work for me (thanks, Bob). [...]
I wonder if there's a word for "beyond exhausted?" I'm certain there are words for "beyond contented." Pleased. Delighted. Charmed. Enchanted. Yep, those work. So...the Portland 2008 Glass Art Society conference (mostly) ended last night, and I'm pleased, enchanted and plumb wore out. Learned a great deal, got all kinds of energizing ideas for new work and validation (or redirection) [...]
Whew. Long, fun day at the Glass Art Society’s Portland 2008 conference, an impressive opening day. Some great talks and demos, still meeting old friends and discovering new ones. Inspiration abounded, but I have to admit that the technical exhibits held the day for me. I love having this many manufacturers in one room, ready to solve my problems. The [...]
Pre-conference day at GAS, and it was a GAS. Unless you’d signed up for studio tours or somesuch, all there was to do today was register at the Portland Hilton (and if you’re a volunteer, wend your way to my table to check in), and see who’d already showed up. Well, that and–if you were among the select few who [...]
WARNING: FERVENT SALES PITCH AHEAD NON-GLASSISTS SKIP THIS POST GLASSISTS, LISTEN UP!!! Fellow glassists, by clicking on a single link (and having 12 hours of fun), you can save up to $145. When was the last time ANYone connected with glass ever SAVED you money? You can thank me now–I’m part of the volunteer coordination team for GAS 2008, and [...]
Just got back from the Oregon Glass Guild's field trip to Seattle; had a lovely time, very nice people. Special thanks to Robin Knoke for organizing the trip, which was amazingly inexpensive and very informative. OGG chartered a bus to drive us all up to visit the Spectrum glass factory, stop in at Olympic Color Rods (which supplies a fair [...]
Outside, been doing the BECon thing (and weathering jokes from bellboys about BECon, D-CON, etc...) down at the Hilton. Logistically, it's been a nightmare; Portland, "The City that Works," isn't working very well right now. About half of downtown Portland appears to be under construction, streets and all, which has made navigation and parking problematic. And the Hilton, like all commercial buildings, stays at a balmy 65 degrees inside and mostly serves iced drinks, which means I've been freezing the entire time.
Right after I posted about BECon and Dr. Linton's color theory class, Bullseye posts pictures of the class (and no, I'm not reading the New York Times...). Interesting look at BECon, though--if you ignore the mention of me in the photo it's worth reading....
Was honored by the presence of two really wonderful artists, Mel and Les "Twinvision" Rowe-Israelson, last week and this. They're in town to focus on building some reasonably massive glass sculptures, meeting up with the rest of the glass community and...BECon.
