The Wayward Flame

Keep 'Em Coming

2012-01-26T21:42:00.001-05:00

This week I am working on regularity in my studio schedule. No matter what I make, I need to be making on a regular basis if I want to expand my knowledge and experience, not to mention make a buck. Not all of my creations turn out awesome, but then again there will always be room for improvement, even when I get good.

So pendants are nothing out of the ordinary, but I did whip up some swizzle sticks at someone's suggestion, which look very stylish in drinks! They are the perfect size for tumblers.

Also in the works... CHESS SETS! I am very excited at the prospect, and at the same time intimidated at the sheer number of hours each set will take to produce. At least 32 hours per set, I'm estimating. I've dabbled a bit and made a few test pawns so far, but I have yet to really get going on it. It will certainly be a long-term project, and of course, photos will happen when I get there.

The 2012 Etsy Crusade

2012-01-18T15:54:00.002-05:00

The day has come - I am setting out into the world of Etsy.

I have finally decided to take this whole "selling my wares" thing somewhat seriously, because I think it could become not only a stream of income (if only enough to feed back into the process and be self-supporting), but also satisfying. If anyone has any tips or important things to note, I would love to hear them. I expect as I go along I will be constantly learning and improving.

So! Please check out my shop and tell me what you think: Fine Specimen on Etsy

I think it certainly in still in the process of becoming cohesive, but you gotta start somewhere.

I Mustache You For A Drink...

2011-12-26T19:35:00.002-05:00

Here is some mustachioed glassware! I need to work on making my 'staches a bit more clean and distinct, but other than that I am quite pleased with how these turned out. A little bit of sharpie goes a long way (*ahem* Carolyn K, that one's right up your alley!).

I'm happy with the size and straightness of this mustache glass, but for some reason my bottoms are never flat enough for my satisfaction. Ah well, just another thing to keep working on.

Holiday Season

2011-12-22T22:52:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas!

Christmas ornaments! Products of the first trip down to Corning. This was my first time making ornaments. Most of them turned out pretty alright.

Aaand - terrariums! From our second visit to Corning. This one has three little blown out feet that have been filled with pebble substrate, and is now a tiny terrarium that can either sit on a surface or be hung. I was only able to complete five terrariums, some of which are only for hanging. Here they are all together.

Photos from the third trip to Corning will be posted after Christmas. ;)

Gift Tags

2011-12-13T18:56:00.000-05:00

Check it out... I was rummaging around my apartment for things to make cute gift tags with and I dug up an old test print from my color photo class in college, which was nice and stiff photo paper with a white back - perfect for writing on - and also a few pages ripped out of an old Sears & Roebuck catalog reproduction from waaay back in the day, full of old school drawings of anything you could possibly think of. (My favorite are the bikes.) So I cut 'em up and glued 'em together, and this is what I got:

Just goes to show that you really can make awesome creations out of very little. I feel as though there may be more of these in my future...

Corning Pilgrimage #2

2011-12-11T23:38:00.001-05:00

So we ventured back down to Corning this past Wednesday and Thursday for some more burn-a-licious molten-glass-slingin' fun. Wednesday didn't go so well, but I was pretty happy with Thursday's haul. (Photos of pieces made will appear here soon!)

It felt very normal and natural to be in the hot shop despite the fact that I haven't truly spent any large amount of time in one since the Alfred days - Blowing glass is so enjoyable! It's satisfying in a way that not many other activities are for me. I appreciate the physicality of it, and even though I can't touch the piece I'm working on with my hands, it's sort of like a puzzle or a brain teaser trying to gauge the best steps to take, reading how the glass is acting, and coaxing it to do what you want it to. And then after all your effort, you end up with something beautiful.

And!! I came home to discover that I had made my very first sale on Etsy.com! I've really been meaning to revamp my online shop there, since there are currently three listed items and no banner to speak of. I didn't expect to sell anything until that happened, but I suppose it helps that it is the holiday season. So far it's been a good December. :)

Corning Pilgrimage #1

2011-12-01T20:41:00.001-05:00

For the first time in far too long, me and a friend ventured down to Corning, NY yesterday to, get this - BLOW GLASS. Whoa. Crazy, I know...

So much fun! It was especially awesome because I got to see three of my former classmates (glassmates?) from my years at Alfred. We went nonstop for five hours, which seemed to me to be the perfect amount of time, at least for small production pieces which is essentially what we were making this time around. No photos of the finished products yet, but we will be picking up the things we made next Wednesday, when we go down again for another five-hour timeslot.

This was our first time renting time at the Studio at Corning, and everything went well. They have very nice facilities, and I feel confident that much of whatever rustiness had built up from my long absence from the hot shop has been shaken away by this "back in action" blowslot. So, hopefully some of the multitude of ideas that have been aimlessly swimming around in my head and in my sketchbook (read: tree goblets, asymmetrical terrariums, colorful cups, and mustachioed ornaments...) will come to fruition next Wednesday!

Shop Local!

2011-11-25T23:01:00.001-05:00

Despite the fact that there has been an underwhelming amount of snow so far, it is pretty much that time of the year when people begin to shop in masses rather than small groups, and when it is the most important time for me to make sure I have my products out in the world for people to notice.

So, here is my little tidbit for your valuable holiday shopping information: if you live in the Rochester area and would like to procure one of my pendants they are available for perusing and purchasing at Archimage and, as of this past Monday, at Zak's Avenue (in the photos), at which location there are also a number of earrings for sale. Shop local!!

Also - Happy Thanksgiving! A small list of things that I am grateful for:

pie
bicycles
sunshine
YouTube
the Great Lakes - both the enormous fresh water source as well as the outstanding brewery
having a job that I do not dislike
my family & friends

Christmas Tea & Craft Sale

2011-11-21T18:01:00.004-05:00

This past Saturday was the Annual Christmas Tea & Craft Sale at Ogden Baptist Church. I exhibited my pendants & earrings, marking my very first craft show! I did not know exactly what to expect, but I think it went pretty well. I've never been able to convince myself to do one before, either because I didn't think I had enough product to be very successful, because of bad timing, or because I was being a wimp and didn't want to sit in one place for six hours. But! It ended up being totally worth my while.

An added bonus was the free tea, coffee, and delicious homemade hors d'oevres.

I found that the earrings did not sell nearly as well as the pendants, which were the focal point anyway, and much more impressive. I really got it together in the weeks preceding the sale, and cranked out lots of new pieces. While I'm still honing my imploding skills, I'm happy with the progress I've made since I got my little Bobcat torch.

Next year I will have to expand my variety somehow... Maybe wine stoppers, or candle holders, or ornaments? What would be awesome?

Business Cards

2011-11-09T13:10:00.003-05:00

My business cards have arrived! And they look super clean, and feel very nice on fairly thick cardstock - I decided that it was no longer acceptable to be writing down my information on little slips of paper for people, and I really wanted something that was eye-catching and memorable for people to take. Although I only ordered 50, simply having these cards is already feeding my motivation. It is validating this seemingly minimal glasswork that I do "on the side" by highlighting some of my accomplishments on paper and adding a level of professionalism.

I designed them on a site called Moo.com, which lets you use up to 50 different images/designs in a single order of cards. I have to say, I am very pleased with the quality of the cards.

On a different note, a show is coming up! On Saturday, November 19th there will be a Christmas Tea & Craft Sale at Ogden Baptist Church in Spencerport, NY from 9am until 4pm. I will be selling my pendants there, as well as a few pairs of earrings and possibly other small decorative items. If you're in the area, you should stop by and say hello!

Reticello

2011-06-28T11:04:00.002-04:00

Here is a part-way done photo of my second attempt at reticello (a sort of lattice design technique). My friend Doug does some mind-blowing ones, and so far mine haven't turned out anything close to what I had in mind - what I really need is to put in some hours practicing. There aren't enough hours in the day! :/

Honeycomb

2011-06-08T10:54:00.005-04:00

Well guys, here is my second ever honeycomb attempt that I decided to twist up, and I am actually very happy with it. (The first try was about an inch tall and looks mildly cool but doesn't photograph well.) That creamy mud color started out as green - I must have done something weird with the flame, but I'm okay with how it turned out.

Monday was the first day in a while that I've gotten to torch. I didn't even make it into the studio until 11 pm, and I torched until 3 am (would've gone even later if I hadn't had work in the morning). Even though it was only four hours, I managed to get a few pieces that I'm pretty happy with.

I tried two new techniques - honeycomb and reticello. Both have the potential to look amazing, but my first modest honeycombs look far better than my first reticello, so I will save photos of reticello until I'm not embarrassed to show them. :P

This one is a bubble trap that evidently only worked on half the pendant...

And here is one of the new style flower pendants I've been working on, with pointy petals. Some pretty decent looking ones like this in various colors (white and blue, sandy brown and turquoise, purple and black, etc.) are currently inhabiting the front counter at Archimage.

Eye Candy

2011-06-04T17:27:00.004-04:00

Sorta. :) Here's just a few pendants. I did have some newer ones but they immediately went out into the display case at Archimage for sale. I will post more photos soon! My next big production day is Monday...

And here is my fish Charles and the coral I made him. He digs it.

What Happened To May?

2011-06-03T11:49:00.002-04:00

Welp. May flew by. I have been busy running around trying to get all my ducks in a row, and lo and behold, it is now June. Time for a recap on the fruits of my month of May -

I have 3 batches of pendants floating around in the world waiting to be sold: in the front counter at Archimage (boutique), in the display case at Temstad (car mechanical shop), and with the Warehouse Arts crew for their five remaining shows this summer.
Swooped down to Corning last weekend for GlassFest. Missed 2300˚, but got to watch Paul Stankard and Davide Salvadore in action, among others; caught a show with a piece by my old glass professor Angus Powers as well as one with work by an awesome MFA graduate of Alfred, Joanna Manousis. Lots of familiar faces and talented friends.
Wandered around the Lilac Festival, which is a great place to get springboard ideas from other glass artists. Gave me a kick for my chess piece dilemma.
Also in the works: a roll or two of black & white film in the SLR, an art quilt involving a fish, and some bottle cap magnets just for fun. :)

Once I get my production cranked up a few notches, I may venture into the world of Etsy. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Good idea? Bad idea?

Quick Update

2011-04-07T00:10:00.003-04:00

So! A person I went to college with - Dan - who also, incidentally, lives in Rochester has co-founded a pretty exciting project called Warehouse Arts. They are currently in the fundraising stage, but eventually they would like to provide a space for artists of all mediums to work, teach, collaborate and display their work.

Their website is picking up steam, too, and you should check it out! I believe I will be attending a planning meeting this Sunday, so perhaps I will follow this up with exciting developments soon...!

Setup

2011-03-24T17:44:00.004-04:00

Today I finally set up the torch I bought a year ago in my friend's basement! And her flame is beautiful! One of the pendants I made this afternoon - I think - turned out very clean, but we shall see when it comes out of the annealer. Here are some pendants for you to peruse. The ones in the boxes will be auctioned at a silent auction on April 1 to raise money for the Warehouse Arts project, a new venture which one of my friends from Alfred and some of his friends are trying to get off the ground.

Read Me

2011-03-23T22:27:00.003-04:00

Because I'm in the midst of so many great literary-related things, I feel that I should share them with you. I went to a Zine and Craft Fair this past Saturday where there were indeed a lot of great Zines and Crafts people had put together, and now I have a hankering to bind some books out of repurposed paper and make bottle cap magnets. Not to mention make a zine. They're so straightforward and informal and I think that's great, though they might be a tad wasteful as far as making a bunch of copies and such. But still!

Books I am currently in the middle of and would so far recommend:

"The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
"The Universe in a Single Atom" by the Dalai Lama

Books I just received from Amazon.com:

"Ideas and Opinions" by Albert Einstein
"Concerning the Spiritual in Art" by Wassily Kandinsky

Book my friend recently lent me, which I have not yet started, but am excited to read due to the fact that this friend lends me particularly delicious books:

"Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas" by Tom Robbins

Lastly - Does anyone have any periodicals they subscribe to that they really enjoy and feel they absolutely get their money's worth for? It would be nice to get a magazine or something that is just chock full of substance and not dry, but still interesting. I guess I don't have a specific genre I'm looking for, so throw me whatever you got. :) I'm gonna go read. Goodnight!

Windows

2011-03-03T19:16:00.004-05:00

Pulling three days a week at the stained glass job on real-person-9-to-5 hours is whipping me right into shape! Tonight I have blisters and a few cuts on my fingers, and my whole right arm aches. Rending opening and hefting crates full of lead is one type of physical strain, which I actually find satisfying, but then there's also the smaller, repetetive motions of cementing or dismantling windows that you can be at for hours at a time, trying to go as fast as you can without breaking anything - and after a while you reeeally feel it in your wrists and forearms. Well, all over your upper body to be honest.

But don't get me wrong, I am actually quite enjoying this job. Lately the physical effects have just been making themselves apparent. Today I did something new in the shop - I used a soldering iron to remove rebars from a window. Not hugely glamorous or anything, but it's a good example of how every step of the process is a balancing act between being physically forceful and handling everything gently, keeping just the right threshold on the amount of pressure you use at any given time. To illustrate, the heavy soldering iron (in this case the largest one we have) needs to be held in just the right place and a specific angle against the rebar, maybe a centimeter above the surface of the lead so that it doesn't burn through the lead, yet not so high up that it doesn't do the intended job and melt the solder - and the same thing on alternating sides of the rebar until it lets go. A relatively small job, it would seem, but one slip of the iron and you're gonna break some glass. Using that type of muscle control for eight hours can really work your shoulders into knots.

So I went in on Wednesday with freshly painted nails left over from the weekend and left work with about a third of it gone, as anticipated, from dismantling a window with my hands bagged up underwater in latex gloves that were continually poked with little sharp bits so that tiny holes were created and subsequently filled in with water, which sat inside my gloves until I noticed and got new ones. Trench hands, anyone? And I didn't have blisters yesterday, but boy do I today... still, I'm happy with the progress I've been making. I feel like this job is going to make me super stained-glass-literate fast. Bring it on, windows!

Short Update

2011-02-17T18:55:00.003-05:00

I know it's been a long time since I last posted.

I have been without a stable internet connection for a time now, and life has also been keeping me rather busy, what with two jobs and all - around the time of my last update, I got an apprentice-type job at a local stained glass studio. Exciting! So that plus my other job, plus keeping up with torching and all the other things that crop up around here, well... it ends up in me not being a very good blogger.

I have been selling pendants! I should really put up some new photos, because the last detailed photos I posted of my pendants, I feel, are no longer an accurate representation of what they look like. I've sold just over twenty so far, and it never gets old. Every time someone buys one, I get such a feeling of satisfaction.

Soon I will be venturing into, more or less, uncharted territory - working hollow!

Glow In The Dark

2010-10-12T01:02:00.002-04:00

Perhaps I was inspired by the bright-colors-and-lights bike ride I went on last night when I decided that tonight I would finally experiment with the glow-in-the-dark glass powder I ordered. (It is not cheap, but how cool is glow in the dark glass?) I hope these puppies turn out! There was a cautionary note packed with the powder about lots of little air bubbles forming and causing thermal shock problems, and the end product potentially cracking, but I'm pretty confident that I used the stuff correctly.

So here I am starting out making a pendant. (I actually have process photos for a change!) At this point I think I've flattened the end of the clear rod, put a colored glass dot design on the flattened surface, and begun imploding the color. (Imploding basically means melting the glass at an angle and allowing gravity to pull the clear glass over and around the colored glass, so that the colors end up inside of the clear glass.)

Here's pendant #1 in mid-implosion. I wasn't sure if the glow-in-the-dark powder would come out opaque or transparent, so for this first one I decided to put a colored dot on each of the glow dots so that the colored dot would ultimately end up inside the glow glass. Not sure how that will turn out, but I'll find out in the morning after the kiln has come down.
And for pendant #2 (this is before imploding) I made the central dot with glow glass, surrounded it with blue dots, surrounded those with glow dots, and made a final (somewhat sloppy) ring with the blue. (It will look blue when it has cooled.)

And here is that same pendant #2 after I've imploded it, put a backing color on, and puntied it onto another glass rod. (Sorry about the poor quality photos.) The final step is to put a loop on top to make it into a pendant.

First Friday at Collier Craft Studio

2010-09-11T20:42:00.010-04:00

So the photos from the gallery opening back on August 1st didn't turn out so well, but that's okay because improvements were made to the display and content of my work between August 1st and First Friday, September 3rd, 2010. So here is some documentation! Thanks to my wonderful cousin for volunteering her camera to my cause! (Updating this would be a lot easier if I actually had a functioning digital camera.)

Collier Craft gallery is set up in a fairly unconventional manner, with less dramatic, museum-style elements and more of a craft show feel, with work leaned, layered, and densely arranged. It makes for a pretty compelling atmosphere, one in which you want to really look everything over in case you missed something glorious.

Everything is for sale!

There was even live music!

I give Collier Craft gold stars. While the fluorescent lighting leaves something to be desired, there's not much to be done about it since the space is used by a bank during tax season.

Here's me and Lindsey, the lovely Miss In Charge, Visionary and Gallery Organizer Extraordinaire. (She's great!)

Implosion

2010-08-30T19:03:00.007-04:00

I finally have some pendants that are ready to be displayed for sale! I got a hold of some cords to string each of the pendants on, some little boxes to house them, designed a little insert for them, which I scanned and touched up and saved to a thumb drive, and finally went to Kinkos today and had them printed on fancy card stock. I cut them all out, made slots for the cord, et voila!

Also currently happening is an exhibition at a new studio called Collier Craft in East Rochester. I have four-ish pieces on display as well as a number of pairs of earrings. The photos of the opening didn't actually turn out so well, but one of these days I'll give you a visual of the exhibition. It's pretty cool! My first show since my senior show at Alfred. It will be open until January 1st if anyone would like to check it out.

Pendants

2010-08-03T19:18:00.002-04:00

Here are some of the fruits of my labor! They do look better in person, when you can really see all the colors and layers and depth to them. Perhaps I'll photograph the actual process of making them sometime.

Back in Boro

2010-07-29T16:07:00.002-04:00

Here I am after making three borosilicate pendants after a hiatus of over a year. If you can't tell by my expression, clearly I am psyched. They aren't fantastic, but I'M BACK IN BORO! And I will continue to be until further notice. :)

2010-05-17T09:36:00.011-04:00

A year ago yesterday, I graduated from Alfred University. I didn't hope, then, to still be in Rochester now, but through much effort things have not stagnated as much as I was afraid they would if I remained here for too long. Still... I'd prefer to be on my way sooner rather than later. I'm working two jobs now, and even still making barely enough to live on, let alone to sock away into a "Get The Heck Outta Here" fund.

BUT. Despite my recent lack of involvement in the world of glass art, I still have my toe in the water that is glassworking - Firstly, my friend Sandy let me set up my torch at her house (she's got two already, plus two annealers, so I've got a buddy to work with). I would like to return to flameworking borosilicate pendants sometime very soon, but for now we've just been cranking out beads to make into jewelry and sell. So far I've made 36 pairs of earrings for one particular event, which will be both my and Sandy's maiden voyage into the craft fair-type event circuit. I will post another update about this after the event concludes.

Secondly, I have a commission that is begging for my attention, and I have to admit, I'm a little nervous. I wouldn't want to mess it up on the first try, which is an issue because I've never just waltzed into a hot shop and produced exactly what I intended to produce (well, maybe vaguely with vessels a couple times, but never exactly!). Usually it takes me at least a few tries, if not a few visits to the hot shop. So. I think I just need to suck it up, plan exactly what steps I'm going to take (which won't be foolproof, since, for example, I'll need to use a garage - a place to keep glass warm while you work on something else, usually another component to the piece in the garage - and I've seen and had many experiences with things cracking in the garage), assemble a team, and go for it.

I'll post photos of both these things as they progress. But for now, it's Lilac Festival week in Rochester, so here are some pretty springy things.

Notice

2010-03-05T15:24:00.002-05:00

Hello readers,

I wanted to let you know that the reason I have not been updating lately is because I recently moved, and we have not yet obtained an internet connection. Once I have internet again I will resume updating the blog.

Thanks,
Ruth

Productive Groundhog Day

2010-02-02T14:59:00.003-05:00

Happy Groundhog Day! I've been having a super productive couple of days - Yesterday I mailed in my health insurance application, picked up the first of possibly many applications for a second job, and did a load of laundry, and today I went through all my clothes to see what was in good enough shape to take to a consignment shop, did two more loads of laundry that included my bed sheets, and cleaned up my closet a bit, in the process of which I found this awesome old trunk that I assume was my dad's when he was a kid because it had a bunch of "Boys Life" magazines and really old Tarzan books and books about outdoorsy stuff inside it:

I took all the stuff out of it and put it in bags (which still reside in my closet...) and it needed a good wipe down with a wet paper towel, so I did that and also put a bunch of incense sticks inside it in hopes of getting rid of the intensely musty odor that greets you when you open it up.

The funny thing is, I've been craving a trunk like this lately. Not that I would have bought one, because to be honest I really don't have room for one! But I was window shopping around Craigslist just to get some sort of satisfaction. I love old trunks!

I have to go to work in a little while, so I'm going to sign off now and see if I can't get anything else done before then.

Onward!

2010-01-17T18:24:00.006-05:00

Unfortunately, I don't have anything super exciting to tell you in my first blog post of 2010. That's the reason I haven't updated since the last day of December - I was waiting until I had something at least moderately cool to gab about, but my artistic life as of 2010 is exceptionally dull so far. I am well aware that I have no one to blame but myself for my lack of action, but in the words of Oscar Wilde, "It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating." I know my job is only part time, but it sure seems to eat up a lot more of my day than the hours I get paid for...

Anyway, I suppose I could tell you about one of my Christmas gifts. One of my cousins got me this book for Christmas:

I cannot tell you how ecstatic I was upon receiving it. It is not typeset - it is written by hand, and it has tons of hand-drawn images and a sheer buttload of information ranging from the bare basics all the way up to reticello and mold-blowing. After you get through the 270 pages of the main part of the book, there are then sections on tool care, health and safety, a glossary (including the term "glass bug," haha), an index, a section for your own notes, a directory of sources, suppliers, organizations, schools and book dealers, and even a "scrapbook" section which features a bunch of quickie how-to drawings of things like dragon-stem goblets, piggy banks, and "good-for-life" homebrew bottles. Awesommmmme book... It has crossed my mind that this would have been a really good book to have had as a textbook back in college. Oh well, it's mine now! Bahaha. (Thanks Liz!) Onward!

San Diego Part 3: All the Rest of It

2009-12-31T12:19:00.010-05:00

The tiniest pine cones I have ever seen.

Obligatory seagull photos.

On the way to Mt. Palomar observatory. The first trip was unsuccessful, as the observatory was closed due to icy conditions or some such, but the second time we went it was open. Although it was a very cool thing to see, huge and with lots of cool scientific feats involved in its construction, it was fairly anticlimactic - sort of like an hour and a half drive to a small museum.

At the observatory. I think it was more than 5,000 feet above sea level (thus the snow). No one was around but us really. Inside the telescope was this massive glass lens that was casted in Corning (I think it was some odd thousands of tons heavy, took three trucks to transport it up the mountain, one pushing behind the one that was carrying it and one pulling from the front, and it took around ten years to cold work/polish. Something like 10,000 pounds of glass was polished away. It was pretty insane.)

A fat and happy squirrel at Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park.

San Diego Part 2: Seaweed

2009-12-30T19:55:00.007-05:00

Yes, seaweed gets its own post. I've seen seaweed before, but never like this. This here is legit SEAweed, from the freakin' ocean. None of this lake business. It looked like aliens. Or sea spaghetti with a goiter. But it was quite pretty. There was a tropical storm that hit the day we arrived in San Diego, and I guess all the wind caused crazy waves which carried all this seaweed onto shore, and it was lying around in huge heaps everywhere on the beach and there were these giant trucks and fork lifts going around cleaning it up. It looks like it misses being underwater. It's not used to gravity.

San Diego Part 1: Art Stuff

2009-12-30T19:15:00.014-05:00

Here is some of the awesome artsy stuff I saw during my week-long stay in San Diego:

By Leonardo DaVinci. We went to the DaVinci exhibit at the Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park. They had a bunch of models of his inventions set up for the main exhibit, but I was more attracted to the series of sketchbook drawings put up in one of the corners.

Awesome. Seen at Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park. I forgot the artist's name. It was something Russian-sounding. I'm so bad about writing things down... Sorry artist, your work is excellent!

This is a not-so-excellent photo of the small hot shop area that was set up at Spanish Village Art Center. No one was using it because the lady who ran it was ill the day we visited (go figure), but it's used to give introductory glassblowing lessons.

And here are a few corners of one of the galleries in Spanish Village. (Spanish Village Art Center is pretty sizeable. There are tons of little galleries to check out, and multiple artists per gallery.)

This piece was one of the ones that particularly struck me. I used to work mostly in 2 dimensional mediums, and this was a nice example of drawing in something that is normally a 3-d medium. I just appreciated it. Yeah, glass powder!

And here is a glass that I gave my brother for Christmas one year that I drank out of while I was there. That was nice. I love that I can give people functional things like bowls and glasses that I made myself and can actually be used on a daily basis, or at least frequently.

December '09 Alfred Senior Art Shows

2009-12-06T16:58:00.011-05:00

Yesterday I worked a six hour morning shift, after which I returned home for approximately 14 minutes (my goal was 10) before jumping in the car again and heading down to Alfred to see the three art shows of the graduating seniors. I was not disappointed - the shows were stellar. Three of the five individuals showing were my classmates and friends in varying capacities, one of them was in my class, right from Freshman Foundations, and all of them are excellent people.

The first show I saw was Zac Weinberg's. The photo above includes his "Redundancy Lamp." I really admire his glass and neon work. He not only has the craft and the concept of his work really solid, but also the way he presents it. There were two girls, one of whom I knew by face but not by name, who were singing and playing the guitar with a neon sign behind them that flashed "Applause" after a song ended. (And they were really good musicians! I couldn't believe the singer's voice. It was fantastic.)

Obviously there were more things in the show(s) than I have photos of, but here is one of "Animal Goblets For Animal Cans" (I may not have the title exactly right since I'm recalling it from memory but it was something to that effect).

Next I saw was Bill Warner's show, which consisted of roughly shaped and beautifully textured ceramic work. The colors made me happy. And so did the raised-slip line drawings that stood out of some of the pieces! That was something I hadn't seen much of, if ever, before. They depicted outlines of people in various poses, my favorite being of someone in mid karate kick, which I didn't get a non-blurry photo of, but you can kinda see it in the bottom right piece two photos down.

Finally, I reached the excellent show of my excellent friend Wunetu Tarrant. She used lots of different materials in her show - cast glass, giant thrown-looking and hand-built pottery, cast bronze and iron, wire pieces, drawings, moss and rocks, to name the ones that are coming to mind. The giant pots/trees were crazy and larger than life, and even though she had many objects made from a lot of different materials in a limited space and her pieces varied drastically in scale, her show still felt unified. It was a visual feast!

Congrats Alfred BFA seniors! Your shows were killer!

Magical Felt

2009-12-02T17:31:00.004-05:00

Check it out. I made some arm warmers out of a wool sweater I found at Goodwill, and they actually came out okay. I got the idea when I went into the city to check out some craft fairs (namely the holiday sale at More Fire Glass Studio and the Second Storie Indie Market at the Visual Studies Workshop) and there was a vendor selling things she'd felted from thrift store sweaters. Since I'm broke, naturally, I told myself "I could totally do that." And so I did!

The cut ends are not straight enough for my satisfaction yet, so I'll even those up soon, but these arm warmers are indeed very warm and cozy. It was hard to get a decent photo by myself, so bear with the not-so-great picture. But back to the process of felting... it's magical. I know I don't really have cause to be so mystified since the process makes a lot of sense - basically you just agitate and heat the knit wool until it's matted into felt, but it was so cool to just pop the sweater in the washing machine and 30 minutes later, BAM. Felt.

My next pair is going to have thumb holes.

Scissors & Glue

2009-11-25T00:03:00.009-05:00

Things I have been cutting up: magazines from the 50s (Better Living), papers from my 2nd and 3rd grade box, and current science and art magazines. I really like the images from the 50s though, too bad I only had five magazines. My room is a mess again. Didn't take long. :P

Don't know exactly what I'll use any of the cutout images for yet. Just building up a stock of things to use should I want them, I suppose. Also, I found a bunch more fabric that would look awesome covering books. There is SO much fabric around! In the garage, in the barn, in my relatives' attics and basements - and I'm usually able to find things that are relatively old and sort of dated-looking, which I love. This latest fabric I found is a deep blue and rusty brown tie dye-looking fabric, with the dye-less areas being white. It probably looks a lot cooler than I'm describing it, it doesn't look like your run-of-the-mill tie-dye really. It's quite striking and almost African-looking. Anyway, I bought some board today to use for more hardcovers. I was using a bit of leftover board from a bookmaking class I took junior year, but that's all pretty much used up. The last of it went into the blue floral book in that last photo.

I really enjoy making these books, especially since I'm using cloth that isn't boring to cover them with. The only drawback is that I don't have an awl, which makes it a bit painful to put holes in the quires of paper (pages nested together). I use six sheets per quire, and shoving a sewing needle through them all six times with my bare hands gets irritating. Gnarly calluses, here I come! I think the normal number of sheets per quire is eight or twelve... but my poor fingers wouldn't do very well if I added another two or six layers of resistance. I gotta get an awl.

Rabid

2009-11-23T15:47:00.006-05:00

Acrylic and black permanent marker. Not necessarily finished. I messed around with the colors a tiny bit but it just doesn't pop as much in digital format. Don't really know what led me to paint this, since I don't paint a whole lot these days. I think maybe I was just sick of not making things, but I actually kinda like it. Hehe.

Bookmaking

2009-11-19T12:25:00.004-05:00

Lately I've been working on a number of cloth-bound books using old fabric I found in my aunt's attic. Here is the first one I've finished. The spine is a little less reinforced than I could have made it but since it's small and my first sort of test-run book, it's okay. The book is roughly 4" x 5.75". I didn't pay attention to the grain of the paper and board this time around, so the covers are a bit bowed from the glue in the photo, but I have since flattened it out. There are 68 pages of Canson sketch paper inside.

Jammin'

2009-11-18T14:46:00.012-05:00

It is getting to be that time of the year - actually, what am I saying, it is smack in the middle of that time of the year (how did that happen so fast?) after the growing and harvesting is all done with and the winter holidays are rapidly approaching. I spent the first three or so hours of today making jam with my aunt. I adore making jam with my aunt. We made four batches - strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry rhubarb. My aunt's jam is like none other, even though it has practically the same ingredients as lots of jam (sugar, fruit, pectin, and a teeny bit of butter). I don't know what makes it so superior to everything else. Maybe love, or the fact that she grows ALL the fruit herself. :) Anyway, I thought I'd share some photos of the process.

She reuses glass jars and lids to put the jam in. Wooo, green!

Yes, that is actually more sugar than fruit. I like to just focus on how great it tastes when it's done and just accept the fact that it's a LOT of sugar.

These are the two giant pots involved, with one more small pan on a back burner for heating the jar lids. The silver one on the left is what the jam is made in, and the black one on the right is full of boiling water. The jars go in this one to heat up while the jam is made, and after they are full of delicious jam and lidded they are re-immersed for about ten minutes and then finally taken out - after this final step, the jam is done and can be set aside to cool (which takes a looong time).

Et voila. Jam. :)

One More!

2009-11-10T23:14:00.002-05:00

NotPaper - A blog about collage. One that I just discovered tonight. And it's pretty cool.

Artist Blogs to Check Out

2009-11-06T14:43:00.003-05:00

Today I think I'll talk up a few of the art blogs I read regularly, due to the awesomeness of the artists as well as the fact that I know some of them:

Late Breaking Noose - the blog of Judith Schaechter, who has rapidly become one of my favorite glass artists. She works in stained glass, and each of her pieces leaves me in absolute awe. Her style is a bit dark and sometimes grotesque, yet stunningly beautiful all at once. Fantastic, and just my kind of thing.
The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet - This is a terrific blog that will keep you up to date on the latest and greatest happenings in the glass world. You'll discover a new glass artist at least every few posts.
It'll Glow On You - blog of my friend and former-classmate Carolyn Kassnoff, who makes really a broad variety of things, including sharpie sketches, super fun plush lamps, photos, neon work and awesome batik silk scarves. She also talks on a regular basis about the work of artists she admires (recently Sandow Birk and Bruce Nauman, for example).
Art Without A Net - A Boomer Tale Of Art School - blog of another friend and former classmate, LuAnn DiPaglia, who is currently hashing out I believe her final year at Alfred. She has recently been casting little bells and pendants in bronze, and also painting. This is definitely one of the more detailed and engaging blogs I've come across, periodically waxing philosophical - such is the life of an art student. Love it.

Check 'em out.

My Latest Artwork

2009-10-28T16:07:00.003-04:00

Not to mention the seeds that came out of 'em - I roasted them in olive oil and seasoned them with salt, garlic, and chili powder.

The top guy is actually my dad's handiwork.

This is what happens when I go job hunting.

2009-10-20T17:40:00.010-04:00

I come home with an obscene amount of books.

I realize that this is fairly tangential from the intended subject matter of my blog, but nevertheless: today I found out that the maximum number of books you can take out from the local library at once is 35.

(I only have seven library books out but that's going crazy since it's me we're talking about. I just had to ask at the counter to make sure I was safe - turns out some people read a LOT. And I've always been slightly envious. It's not that I'm lacking interest, because I'm interested in quite a lot of things, as my selection above probably tells you. I just really don't have the attention span required to be a "reader.")

But man it feels good to check out a pile of books.

Also I applied for another job today. Cross your fingers...

EDIT: I am now immersed in "Arabic: At A Glance" and it is kicking my butt so far. My goal for this week (other than to acquire gainful employment) is to demystify this language, at the very least. I have done some lessons on Rosetta Stone already, but I am still pretty lost, and I think repetition and writing things down will help me immensely.

This and That

2009-10-14T19:57:00.006-04:00

This has been a fairly eventful week - I've been applying for more jobs and venturing further into the crafting frontier, not to mention doing a bit of traveling around NY state. No source of income as of yet. Hopefully that will come together sooner rather than later... In the mean time I've been keeping busy making things like these quilted coasters. I personally have something of an aversion to (more or less) unnecessary items like coasters, but I think these are kinda cool-looking and hopefully someone will want them or be able to use them. With the help of some family members, I dug up a good amount of fabric with great colors and patterns. The craft sale's in November, but I'm still trying to decide if I can produce enough to justify getting a table.

I also got some exciting mail this week:
The fall issue of The Flow arrived, and I spent a solid five minutes staring at/drooling over that chandelier on the front cover. Good stuff. It's too bad the magazine only comes out with new issues quarterly, cause I eat it right up.

Speaking of eating, I just want to share with the world that I made hummus for the first time ever this evening and it tastes spectacular. I think the reason I'm not so much into baking, but very into cooking is that I dislike measuring things. I will occasionally work from a recipe, but if I do I doctor it relentlessly and dump in lots of miscellaneous things until it tastes exactly how I want it to. Or close. To this particular hummus I added (beyond the basic chick peas, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and cumin) sun-dried tomatoes, plain yogurt, chili powder, rosemary, tahini, whole sesame seeds, and salt. It came out a very nice orangey color because of the sun-dried tomatoes, and a near perfect consistency with the occasional un-blended chunk of tomato. Awesome!

Blast From The Past

2009-10-08T17:59:00.005-04:00

Last night I went over to my friend/senior-year-of-high-school-glass-teacher's house to catch up and make some beads. It was awesome to see her again! (She literally changed my life. I probably would not have gone to Alfred, had the best four years of my life, or even been an art major if it wasn't for her.)

She has a Bethlehem Barracuda torch and a Nortel Mega Minor. (I used the Barracuda even though I was only making soft glass beads. I did test out the flame capabilities though, and I bet that thing could melt some good sized boro.) The Barracuda is the torch I started out on in high school.

The beads I made are hopefully going to go toward a Christmas Tea & Craft Sale in November. It's still up in the air whether I'll have enough sellable stuff. I'm sort of low on ideas, and I don't really have the means to make jewelry other than hemp, so if you have any ideas please feel free to comment. I was thinking of making little quilted coasters or something. I want to make more pendants too. I'll have to see if next time I visit G I can work boro, cause I bet those would sell.

Bam.

2009-09-24T20:51:00.008-04:00

As long as I'm unable to do anything with glass, I've been working on this quilt - my first one ever - which I fondly call my Ugly Quilt, since it's made with scraps of fabric that I inherited (rather than picked out myself). I figure everyone needs a nice warm shabby-looking blanket. I don't know what it is about quilts but they always remind me of family and Thanksgiving and Grandma's House. The uglier, the more at home they make me feel. It doesn't have sides or a back yet, but it will soon enough. Then I have to actually quilt it. Should be interesting. It's definitely the right time of year to be making a quilt, I just hope I have it finished before it gets cold enough to need it.

I don't know how people make those crazy geometric quilts with teeny triangles and have everything line up just right. Despite the fact that I measure everything, it somehow ends up wonky still. There's also the fact that I can't sew a straight line even on a sewing machine. Half of the squares on my Ugly Quilt quilt are unevenly matched up.

I did set out to make an ugly quilt though. I wonder what is it that makes ugly things endearing?

Peace,
Ruth

Checklist

2009-09-21T16:43:00.002-04:00

Done:

Cleaned the piles of junk out of my to-be studio space in the garage. Hopefully that will move forward soon.
Visited Steve at Kent State and helped him make a piece in their hot shop - which, for the record, is intolerably hot! I was dripping sweat in under ten minutes. We were only working for about half an hour I think, and I was feeling faint and nauseous after about 20 minutes - I got chills I was so hot. I can't fathom how people can finish pieces in there, but I have tremendous respect for them. That must be what it's like to blow glass in the Middle East or Australia... HOT.
Taken cards from glass artists at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Next step, send emails!

To Do:

hand in all my job applications and land at least one of them within the next week or two
sell the rest of my textbooks and other stuff on Amazon
make a quilt

Lack of Posting

2009-09-08T14:34:00.003-04:00

My lack of posting is due to the fact that I am visiting family in Minneapolis, and have been away from home since last Monday. Checkin out some sweet glassblowing though at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival...

The glasswork there beats the pants off the glasswork at my local Renaissance Festival - there were at least six different booths that sold just glasswork, (tons more if you count the jewelry that incorporates glass and the mosaic and stained glass work) three of which did live demonstrations where they actually made cool stuff instead of dumb bottles or simple cups and vases. I saw a heating technique I'd never seen before or even thought of, where a guy that was making a goblet rotated the object on the blowpipe parallel to the glory hole so that the top of the object got heat but the hot bottom cooled off a bit, to even out the heat.

It seems like there are definitely some options out here for pursuing glass. I took some cards...

Crawling Around the Interwebs on this Dreary Wednesday

2009-08-26T14:10:00.004-04:00

A few interesting things to check out:

My new website, as mentioned yesterday. I feel pretty good about it so far, but I'm still not sure if it is accessible to everyone. I know my dad's computer probably can't handle it because it is way too slow, but I like to think most people have reasonably fast computers these days.

The AMAZING stained glass work of Judith Schaechter, who I have only recently discovered. She is now among my favorite artists. If I worked with stained glass, this is the kind of thing I would go for - creepy and simultaneously breathtakingly beautiful. The colors she uses are just amazing, and I love the illustration-y feel. I think she definitely chose the most effective medium for her images - they would not be even close to as stunning if they were done on paper or digital. Soak this stuff up!

And I'm probably the last one to hop on this bandwagon, but Boing Boing certainly lives up to its subtitle - "A Directory of Wonderful Things." It's just fun to read.

Website

2009-08-25T21:55:00.002-04:00

I finally have something like a website to show off my work! It is brand new, and I've never had a website like this before, so any feedback would be appreciated, especially about the portfolio section. As it is, some of my photos get cropped weirdly, such as the tree goblets, "Rooted" 1 and 2 - you can't see the base! This would be unacceptable if the website didn't look soooo clean. I mean for making that on a free website editor, can I really complain?

I have never paid for website hosting before, and if I can keep it that way I'd like to, as long as I'm unemployed and all. So tell me what you think. Is this an okay website, pseudo-sophisticated and professional-looking? Will it do for now?

http://www.wix.com/ruthhill/glass

Does it load in Internet Explorer or Safari okay? I use Firefox, and it works pretty well for me. Also, do the images come into focus immediately for anyone? Because there's a bit of a delay for me, but maybe that's just my connection being difficult.

Some interesting thoughts from "The Art Spirit" by Robert Henri. Go read it!

2009-08-20T10:18:00.004-04:00

"There are mighty few people who think what they think they think." p. 89

"Today must not be a souvenir of yesterday, and so the struggle is everlasting. Who am I today? What do I see today? How shall I use what I know, and how shall I avoid being victim of what I know? Life is not repetition." p. 115

"Appreciation of life is not easy. One says he must earn a living - but why? Why live? It seems as though a great many who do earn the living or have it given them do not get much out of it. A sort of aimless racing up and down in automobiles, an aimless satisfaction in amassing money, an aimless pursuit of 'pleasure,' nothing personal, all external.... It takes wit, and interest and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish, and spirits must flow. There must be courage. There are no easy ruts to get into which lead to happiness. A man must become interesting to himself and must become actually expressive before he can be happy." p. 141

Visiting Artist

2009-08-11T16:22:00.009-04:00

Thursday and Friday evening of last week were occupied, respectively, by an artist talk and a hot glass demo by Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen at More Fire.

These were awesome.

Karen was warm and affable, very pleasant and compelling to listen to. During her talk she showed images of her alternately quirky and lifelike glass dogs, tree branches, flowers and owls. The owls and birds were of particular interest to one of the More Fire girls, who brought in three live ones to spread awareness about the not-for-profit Wild Wings program, which I believe she co-directs. From their website: "Wild Wings is a not-for-profit educational organization that houses and cares for permanently injured birds of prey (raptors) which are unable to survive on their own in the wild any more."

I really wanted to take the class that was being offered with Karen over the weekend, but unfortunately there was no way I could afford it. I did return the following night to watch Karen's two-hour demo, during which she went the route of gaudy and vibrant as opposed to realistic and lifelike, which makes sense since the realistic things she makes take way longer. In two hours she cranked out a surfboard, a bulldog, a poodle, and a wave, and put the surfboard on the wave, the bulldog on the surfboard, and the poodle on the bulldog dominatrix-style. It was amazing how well she got the proportions down! She made the head of the poodle first (and probably the bulldog, but I missed that one), kept it warm in the garage, and then made the body without having any size reference other than straight-up memory. And when she put them together, they were perfect. Crazy. I didn't get very good photos, but maybe if you look closely you can get some idea of what this thing looked like. (Click to see full-size)

The Help

2009-08-03T15:06:00.005-04:00

I just got back from a five(ish)-hour stint lending an extra pair of hands at More Fire Glass Studio in Rochester (off of East Ave). After meeting and speaking with its owner Elizabeth Lyons just a couple weeks ago, I was very excited to have the opportunity to help out occasionally on an as-needed basis. While it might not sound like much - and perhaps not actually be much - I am a bit bemused at just how excited I am about this. I am SO happy to be doing things in a hot shop again. The two women I worked with today are so friendly and super chill. Reminds me why I love glass folks. You'll occasionally run into a "glasshole," but most glassblowers I've met and worked with are particularly wonderful, laid back, good-natured and welcoming people.

And hey, I might not actually get to be the gaffer for free for a while - probably not while I'm in Rochester; not until I find someplace where I can exchange shop assistance for blow time (Philly? Portland?) - but ya gotta start somewhere. And as long as I'm using this summer to do whatever I want while I still can, I might as well milk the hell out of it.

Which reminds me, again, how much I want to create a setup for my torch in the garage. It's just so full of stuff. Even when my room gets messy and I don't know where to start cleaning it, I just sort of start moving things. The space in the garage though... I literally do not know how to begin. There is no place to put anything. When I pick something up I just end up putting it back in the same spot I got it from. I think I need help - it's a big job for just one person. Once it's all set up though, it's gonna be good. Let's disregard for now the fact that I don't have an annealer.

10 Days Part IV: 53rd Venice Biennale

2009-07-27T13:03:00.014-04:00

Actually, we just stumbled upon the Biennale. I didn't know exactly what it was, and Dad even less so - I don't even think he'd heard of the Venice Biennale. So the idea was sort of bouncing around in my head, but I wasn't intent on seeing it. We happened upon a doorway in a very plain-looking square one day, and dad went through it into a small courtyard and started talking to the lady at the desk. It turned out to be not only an art exhibition, but one affiliated with the Biennale, so we took a pamphlet and a map of all the other exhibitions, which led us on a voluntary scavenger hunt all over Venice to small galleries and venues - most of which were in really old buildings with beautiful architecture! We ultimately ended up at Giardini, which is a huge garden at the south-eastern tip of Venice, and probably the largest concentration of artwork in the Biennale. Here is some of what we saw (not quite in chronological order):

10 Days Part III: Murano, Venice

2009-07-23T18:56:00.015-04:00

The last and least ordinary city we visited during our ten-day jaunt in Europe was Venice. We spent four days wandering around the tiniest alleys I've ever seen, feasting on hazelnut and lemon-basil gelato, soaking up the sunshine and, of course, checking out the art and the glass. The island of Murano alone, not to mention the rest of Venice, was pretty saturated with glass. There were even glass statuettes of the Virgin Mary.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get very good photos of the glass that we saw in the shops and galleries because the people in them don't allow photographs to be taken. I did manage to get a few though. It helped to talk to the people in the galleries and tell them that I had been studying glassblowing - with modesty of course, since I'm only fresh out of college, and the glassblowers on Murano started doing it when they were tiny and have been doing it for years and years and years - but when I showed them I wasn't interested so much in the product as the process, their manner seemed to change. One of the galleries even had a guy come fetch us from the store, lead us out the back and through some small alleys to their production shop, where we watched a couple of guys making pieces for chandeliers.
Nothing huge or fancy; production stuff, but it was still very cool to see. Note that the above photo is a great contrast to most of the other hot shops we saw in Murano, which were a part of the tourist attraction and had guys whipping out quick vases and pulling cats (something I have never been able to do, granted I've only tried a few times, is pull a pony) accompanied by abrupt commentary. However -This is the small window outside Cesare Toffolo's gallery and shop, which should give you some idea how ridiculous his work is - super thin and precise. Toffolo Studio was on the bottom floor, a shop for which the products are I believe designed by Toffolo and produced by himself and other glassmakers, and Cesare Toffolo's personal gallery was up a flight of stairs. His work looks incredible when it's right in front of you.
I don't know if I'm allowed to put this photo online, but chatting with the nice lady that took us up to his gallery and asking nicely, I was allowed to take ONE photo, and this piece wasn't on his website at the time I think, so I chose this one. You can see it big if you click on it. It's hard to see the images inside the balloons - it's really not a very good picture - but they were done painstakingly by graffito, and there are little men inside the balloons gazing proudly at them or painting them. I think my favorite pieces, though, are the ones of the little glass men inside the hourglass and the pitcher, pouring out (which are on his website). Rock on, Cesare.
We also visited the Museo del Vetro on Murano, which was no Corning Museum of Glass, but very historical and informative, and it did have a bit of contemporary glasswork. They didn't allow photos in their either, and I wasn't motivated to try and sneak any, except for this last one which was one of two lonely-looking sculptures in the garden behind the Museo. Still, if you're ever on Murano, I would reccommend stopping in. Back on the main island of Venice we saw some of the 53rd Venice Biennale at the Giardini location and in small galleries all over the island, which I think I will post a photo update of later.

10 Days Part II: Vienna

2009-07-20T10:53:00.016-04:00

We somehow managed to wake up without the aid of an alarm or a wake up call in time to catch our train from Prague to Vienna (we had no clocks, working phones, or watches. We told time via digital camera). We visited Schönbrunn Palace, which houses on its grounds the oldest zoo in the world, called Tiergarten. It is one of three, I think, zoos in Europe with giant pandas, and it definitely had some of the best habitats for the animals that I've ever seen. Besides the Tiergarten, Schönbrunn had a hedge maze and two hedge labyrinths - this place is massive - and acres and acres of grounds and gardens to walk through, every inch complete with fountains and statues and flowers. The pathways are all topped with clean-looking white stones. I don't think we made it through even half of the grounds, although we might have if you include the enormous zoo and the patch of hedge mazes.
Vienna also had quite a bit of art to offer, of which we only scratched the surface while we were there. Even at Karlskirche, a baroque-style cathedral, there was a small gallery exhibiting Christian-themed art from the 70s and 80s (some of it had a sense of humor). My favorite place, though, was St. Stephen's, a beautiful gothic cathedral with catacombs underneath, which we took a short tour of. We also visited the Museum Der Stadt Wien (Museum of the City of Vienna) where there was art on display that dated from the beginning of the city's history up until pretty recently - I saw a blown glass hand grenade from Austria's struggle with the Ottoman Empire and also some Gustav Klimt up a few flights of stairs. We didn't even make it to the gigantic museums quarter because there was so much else to see.The rest of my photos can be found here.

10 Days Part I: Prague

2009-07-18T13:54:00.011-04:00

The Czech Republic is SO cool. Especially for a place with such a depressing history, but maybe that's why I'm drawn to it. After all they've been through, the country is finally on the upswing. It seems like such a together culture, united by its unfortunate past.

Among all the other things we crammed into the one full day plus the previous afternoon we were actually in Prague, we visited the Alfons Mucha Museum near Wenceslas Square, which was fairly small but really interesting. They had not only some of his most famous posters on display, but also sketches and test plates, which I loved. We also went to the Museum of Communism (more accurately, of Anti-Communism). That was also quite interesting, but very heavy, especially compared with Mucha's dreamy, idealized Art Nouveau - which, by the way, they have a lot of over there, especially in the architecture. (In my opinion, the USA is downright ugly compared to pretty much all of Europe, although a friend pointed out to me that we do have some lovely wilderness.) Allow me to illustrate (You can see the rest of my photos here):

Cathedral at Prague CastleStatue of Saint Wenceslas at Wenceslas SquareA building decorated in art nouveau style next to a beautiful towerEven their train station is art nouveau, even if they don't use this part anymore...And here's a sketch by Mucha for good measure.

Praha, Wien, Venezia...

2009-07-06T00:18:00.006-04:00

I'm leaving for PRAGUE today.

I'm thinking I'll just not sleep tonight, since we leave the house around 4 in the morning, which is in about three hours. So I might as well just keep getting things together. There's a Red Bull waiting for me in the fridge anyway.

Our itinerary is still sort of unplanned - me and my dad have been known to be rather spontaneous about this sort of thing - but we have our hotels booked. Prague for two days, Vienna for three, and Venice for the last four. I am gonna see some art. I know very little about the history of the Czech Republic (or of Austria and even really Italy for that matter) but I DO know from multiple classes, projects, and research assignments on glass that the Czechs and Italians know whats up with the stuff. At least one day of this trip will be spent wandering around Murano, on a scavenger hunt for Lucio, Cesare, and Gianni, and visiting the Museo Del Vetro.

So. I have a lovely selection of plane food ready to go:I thought it would be nice to bring along some tea for the trip to have on hand, and I also have a newly discovered taste for Marcona almonds, which were introduced to me last weekend - they are delicious. And you really can't go wrong with Terra Chips or Kashi Cherry Dark Chocolate granola bars.

As the trip has gotten nearer I've been thinking how un-European my wardrobe is. I hope I don't stick out too much, but I have a feeling my dad might stick out a bit more than myself over there. I like being the stealthy kind of tourist rather than the fanny-pack-wearing, camera-all-over-the-place, in-your-face-Americans-screaming-"pick-my-pocket" kind of tourist, but I think it will be okay (I do not own a fanny pack).

Wish me luck!

Reading Material

2009-06-29T15:49:00.007-04:00

Last week, this little gem arrived:I am slowly accumulating more coffee table books, and figured I should have at least one about glass. The other two I have thus far are "Amphigorey" by Edward Gorey and, while it isn't precisely a coffee table book but actually a graphic novel that I'd like to show off to people, "Inland" by my friend Kate. Not that I have a coffee table to put these on at the moment, but when I do, they will have a home!

"1000 Glass Beads" is a book that I've been exposed to a lot ever since I was a senior in high school (almost five years ago) just beginning to learn about glass. Some of the beads seem fairly basic to me now, although there's no denying that all of them took extreme precision to create - I am often a bit impatient when it comes to spacing dots or shapes evenly, so I appreciate the effort that goes into making the pattern on a glass object consistent. At any rate, there are some lovely beads in this book.

Aaand, the other day this came in the mail:
My first issue of The Flow, a magazine about lampworking. It's only published quarterly, but we'll see whether the content is enough to persuade me to subscribe for another year. Milon Townsend is featured in this issue, and it's interesting to me that he lives so near me and is so well known, and I didn't realize who he was when I SAW him blowing glass at the Sterling Renaissance Festival a few years back. He makes some amazing things. I remember asking him whether he needed any help or an apprentice or anything, but he probably gets a lot of that. So I took his card, which surprised me years later when I dug it up in a pile of papers - Milon Townsend??! How did I get his card? Oooh yeeeah...

GAS Conference

2009-06-13T16:44:00.012-04:00

The Glass Art Society is holding it's annual conference in Corning, NY this year. The conference will be going on all weekend, and even though I can in no way afford to become a member of GAS AND buy a conference pass without having the student discount (which I was silly not to take advantage of while I had the chance), I still managed to take in a whole afternoon/evening of conference events, which were spectacular! I went down with my friend Carolyn to help her set up her light pieces for the "Neon On The Bridge" show and was hoping to get some conference action in the process.

I ran into tons of friends and acquaintances from Alfred - most of the glass seniors of '09 were there (i.e. my classmates) along with graduates from the past few years, MFAs and professors. There were galleries and exhibitions along Market St (the main drag), lots of little shops that had a bunch of different wineries that set up inside for tasting, glassblowing demos next to a stage for live music, and of course the fabulous light show on the pedestrian bridge, coordinated by the one and only Angus Powers.

I even managed to unexpectedly get my dinner and drinks for free thanks to a nice guy working at the pizzeria we ate at. I wish I could go to the rest of the conference, but I suppose I'll just have to become a member of GAS and go to Louisville next year. I'm young yet.

Where I Left Off

2009-06-09T17:39:00.008-04:00

Dreaming of a Furnace

2009-06-08T18:10:00.002-04:00

I miss having the option of blowing glass pretty much whenever I want. Now I have to pay per hour to blow, and I've never used a public access hot shop before, not to mention there's only one in Rochester. I really wish there were somewhere around here where I could exchange shop assistance for blow time. I was just starting to make some interesting things, and I was really getting into these corset vases:

New Torch

2009-06-04T19:40:00.005-04:00

As it turns out...

The day after I discovered the widespread lack of GTT torches for sale, someone on Lampwork Etc. (a handy little lampworking forum I've recently become a part of) sent me a message that she had a used Bobcat that she was going to put up for sale, and asked if I might be interested in buying it - to which I, of course, replied "yes please!" So with a torch on its way after all, I am concentrating on making my studio space ready and also compiling a nice mix of music to have on hand for whenever I can get blazin'.

In the past I've noted that Primus and Reel Big Fish are two excellent bands for accompanying lampworking. Ska and reggae in general are great. I find that energetic music is often optimal to lampwork to, but occasionally something more mellow does the trick - I think this time instead of just one giant random mix, I'll make a few different playlists to accommodate for mood swings. Some winners going on the "break in the torch" playlists so far, in no particular order:

(besides Primus & Reel Big Fish)

AC/DC
DeVotchKa
The Clash
Crystal Castles
The Toasters
The Black Keys
Fugazi
Gogol Bordello
Chemical Brothers
Django Reinhardt
Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad
Johnny Cash
Portishead
Santogold
Pixies
Red Elvises
Peter, Bjorn and John
Thievery Corporation
Bloc Party
Gorillaz

and yeeeah maybe a little Snoop Dogg... :)

Backorder

2009-06-02T14:44:00.003-04:00

I guess I wouldn't have had any way of knowing this without ordering one first, but apparently at this point in time GTT torches, GTT being a very small company, are in short supply. The lovely folks at Mountain Glass Arts, whom I ordered through, gave me a call to break the news - on a related note, they are very good about taking care of their customers!

So, unfortunately, it might be a bit of a wait until I get my hands on glass again. In the mean time, perhaps I'll busy myself with drawing...

Torch

2009-06-01T22:36:00.003-04:00

I ordered my first torch today! I am super excited and I hope it arrives this week, although it probably won't come until next week. It is called the Bobcat and it is by GTT (Glass Torch Technologies), a very popular brand of lampworking torch that is widely claimed to be very well made and excellent all around:

I figure I can't go wrong with GTT, and the price was right - for a starter torch anyway, I think it was a good choice.

2005-2009 in Summary

2009-05-31T21:56:00.013-04:00

During my time as an art student at Alfred, it was hard for me to pick a direction and get focused, but glass finally won out - I couldn't stay away from it. I was afraid that once I chose a medium, all of the other materials I loved would fall by the wayside, but once I chose to work primarily with glass I realized that I wasn't as limited as I had imagined I'd be.

Welding and paper-making are two things I wish I could continue with, and absolutely will if I get the chance. It was definitely harder to make time to work with other materials once I started focusing on glass, but as hard as I try to not pick favorites, hot glass remains my true love.

So for now I will buy myself a torch and get set up for lampworking. Hopefully it will come together in the coming month, if not in the coming weeks.