A Lesson Taught in an Analog World

I was accepted into a winery art show over June 10 & 11. My inventory is a little low and what I would consider stale. While the beads from last year were diverse and unique, my desire to branch outside of beads has been growing.

Two products have risen to the top of my idea pool, gravity pendants and sculptural mushrooms. If you are thinking, "Huh, that's a little random," I would agree. The gravity pendants offer a new world of glass control and the mushrooms are theraputic to make. (And, they came after a mistake making glass buttons.)

If you visit many glass artists' studios, you will see a familiar object.... chip controlled kilns. This may come in the shape of a PC or simple digitry. My studio doesn't have this because it is on my project list to build sometime. This weekend proved why I need one.

I was making a number of gravity drop pendants and started to get hungry. I headed inside and one of my housemates gave the remotes for the entertainment center. Being a holiday weekend, there were many day-long specials. For our viewing enjoyment, we opted to watch the Discovery Channel and their back-to-back episodes of Deadliest Catch. If you haven't seen this program, it is a reality show covering the trials of the Alaskan crab fishermen. WARNING: This program is addictive and will make you lose track of time.

It all happened over a 3-hour period. My kiln temperature crept around 200 degrees in that time. After prying myself from the show, the temperature gauge was hovering around 1150 - 1200 degrees. This temperature is a point where glass begins soften. I lost numerous pieces that will be sacrificed to the cold-working gods in the future.

Moral of the Story: If you plan to leave the kiln for an extended period of time, make sure to have a digitally controlled kiln or begin ramping down the kiln for the day.

What's next

I just finished back-to-back courses from Loren Stump. If his name doesn't ring any bells, visit StumpChuck. He teaches murrini, sculpture and encasing in glass. My mind is full of idea and through some of the demos, new pendant designs began to grow in my head. So, once I settle down in front of my torch, beware world!

Another thing of interest is when I was demoing for the Bay Area Glass Institute's annual Farmer's Market. I started to make little glass mushrooms. They happen to be quite cute. I also see more small sculpture (beyond mushrooms) in my near future, too.

My mind is ablaze with ideas. The only thing standing in my way is the execution.

The break

If you've been reading the blog, you might have noticed a large gap between the previous post and this one. My studio is up in the Santa Cruz mountains. January and February are the coldest days of the year. Put these two items together and you get a freezing cold studio. So cold in fact, that it has become difficult to create the basic bead without having it thermal shock.

Have no fear, I am not getting out of the business, I am rather waiting for Springtime. This is a time I hope to re-energize my creative and glass (and silver) work.

I look forward to showing a whole new product line in the upcoming months.

Beads, beads and more beads (Jan 2006)

Wednesday night was a decent little bead night. A little more than 40 beads were made. Many, a part of the Lymon series, but there were also made other interesting color combinations.

Instead of digging into the new glass supplies, I returned to what was currently on my bench. It created some really nice beads, including some unique bright yellow ones (thanks color reactions!) and crazy amethyst-y ones.

Now that I'm back in the studio, I need to get the ol' digital camera out.

The glass has arrived (Finally)

When I made it home last night, sitting in the middle of my living room was a large white box. Inside was a large amount of Effetre and Vetrofond glass. Tonight, I begin to burn the glass. New colors...... New Ideas...... It'll be an interesting evening.

Don't you hate.....

Tuesday, I finally get back to the studio. One lucky thing is that I cleaned up a bit over the Christmas break, so there wasn't too much shuffling that had to be done. I'm working on some beads from my Ly-mon series and after a few beads, I have only one inch of glass of a certain color in my fingers. As someone who likes to see 10 fingers and 10 toes on myself, I decide to put the color down and search for more of that color. Argh! I appears I'm out of that color. I rush into my home and search there. (Yes, I have a stash of glass rod in my house, too.) Much to my dismay, there is zero of that color.

I move on. A few flat ribbish beads and another project (fake amethyst) done and I call it a night. It kills me that once I get motivated, I run out of glass. It might be time to organize my glass. (A project I'm not really looking to.)
It'll be interesting to see what happens when I return to the torch this Friday or Sunday night. I have about 30 pounds of glass that should be delivered next week.

Cheers all!

Sunday.... "If I had a Hammer" class

Today's class at Wired Design Studios was the "If I had a Hammer" class. It was a lot of fun. From the name, you should think, "If I had hammer, I bet that class has to deal with surface design." If you thought that, guess what, you'd be right on the money.

Our class turned out to be mostly an earring class. While that would disappoint most guys who don't have pierced ears, I was excited. One, I realize that the techniques I learned can be used on any type of metalsmithing I might focus on in the future. And, two, it forces me to begin to look at earrings differently. How can I change things up a bit in order to create nice looking jewelry. If you know my work, it is simple glass beads with silver findings. Now, my mind has been opened to look at silver with glass differently.

Look out world! New designs, new ideas, new products. A trilogy of happiness!

I would like to thank Gail, the instructor for both of the classes. I learned tons and you opened my mind. Even better, everyone I met at the studio was excellent. Some might attribute that to good-natured Texans. I say "Pah" to that. The staff absolutely loves glass and it appears that they enjoy passing along that love to anyone and everyone they can.

San Antonio

I am in San Antonio, TX for the weekend to attend a few classes in simple metalsmithing. Saturday's class is in setting and soldering. Sunday's class is in surface design and creating jewelry without solder.

The classes are being held at a studio called Wired Design Studios. It is located in a part of San Antonio called "Artist's Alley," a collection of small studios and shops that showcase art, fashion and craft from around the San Antonio area. Visit the various studios and shops found throughout the complex if you're in town. You'll enjoy yourself.

The class was great. The instructor Gail is patient, knowledgable and is a great teacher. In the Saturday class we learned basic soldering techniques, creating a bezel and setting stones in the bezel. Woohoo!!!! A piece of the puzzle has been demystified and I'm so excited about the future of my work.

On a separate note, I also visited a friend from college in Austin. I met his two children and spent time chatting with he and his wife. It is refreshing to see the awe in a child's eye when they see handmade art. The honest reaction from one of the children reminds me of why I am doing this.

Next, a review the "If I had a Hammer" class.

Neat little gadget - non glass post :)

I haven't been creating my own artwork lately, yet I have been teaching glasses and helping other glass artists. One of the artists now has a new website. Check it out at Kimangers.com.

This shows my true Silicon Valley roots..... Technology. In that same ilk, I found a neat little gadget that I thought I'd post up here. There are plenty of small transmitter type devices for mp3 players and iPods. I currently do not have any type of mp3 player, so I was looking for something that could suit my desire to playback mp3s from my collection and then, when I get a player, would function as my little radio transmitter thingy-ma-bob.

Enter the i-Rocks FM transmitter. On the surface, it looks kind of bulky and white. Look a little closer...... Do you see the USB connection? That connection is for any standard USB thumbdrive. Load that thumbdrive with mp3s and voila! You now have a simple mp3 player. It also has support for the standard mini connection for an mp3 player. If you are like me, mp3 player-less, and have a ton of spare USB thumbdrives, then this device is for you.

Now, I really need to get back to the studio.....