Glass, dance, movement

"Freedom, awareness, control"
When I heard these words together for the first time in my dance class, I just knew we were talking about lampwork! But no, it was all about movement and the Barbara Mettler dance method. What an amazing thing- two things that appear so different coming together so nicely. I couldn't help but apply these ideas to my years of lampworking.
Starting with freedom- when you first begin learning lampwork, your glass flows all over the place- whether you feel free or not, your glass certainly is! And I've seen enough students starting out with that freedom- their glass is all over the place, the colors are weird and crazy, and they are just sure of where they're going with that bit of glass. But you learn a different kind of freedom pretty quickly; the freedom to let the glass go where it wants to, and to let what happens happen- at least to a point.
Then it's awareness- well, this is where it gets fun for me! You become aware of what you are doing, what the glass is doing, what effect gravity is having on the whole mess, how the colors look together, how they react with each other, and a million other things- not all at once, but gradually.
And as you become more and more aware of what's going on, you begin to learn control- make that bit of glass do what YOU want it to! We usually start out with dots, then move on to lines and pulling the glass into different designs and patterns.


The glass dance continues back to freedom- now mixed with awareness of things you didn't notice last time, and tempered with control. A different kind of freedom results- a dance where the glass still performs the same way, but you move it differently for different results. and as you become more aware and learn more control. you may find yourself becoming more free with your glass. I often have dreams- or maybe they're visions- where there is glass moving in ways I don't know how to control. And it makes me want to just run over to the torch and give it a try! This is one of the ways that new ideas are born- by letting your mind run freely through things that may even be impossible.

For more about the Mettler dance method, go to the International Association for Creative Dance here: http://dancecreative.org/

Playing favorites with glass

Well, let’s see if I can explain this…
I was reading info about clear glass on a website the other day- Someone mentioned that the clear glass they liked (my clear favorites are either Moretti 006, or Lauscha) wouldn’t be available again until March or April. I remember the first time I heard this about a favorite glass color. My reaction was kind of – huh?? How can that be? What do you mean they only make it at certain times of the year???
That was about 7 or 8 years ago. Things have changed so much in the soft glass world in just that short time. There are new American manufacturers, the German glass companies have started making 104 coe (soft) glass, Vetrofond has come onto the radar ( I don’t actually know when they started making soft glass at the Venice factory), the ‘odd lots’ glasses have come to be available. The story I heard about odd lots glass is that Mike Frantz was at the Moretti factory, and saw some piles of glass rods sitting in a corner of the room. When he asked about them, he was informed that they were basically mistakes and not part of the normal color palette. When he imported them to the U.S. and offered them for sale, the color-starved glass beadmaking community went wild and a whole new, but limited, palette of colors was introduced.
So, what’s to be done? Well, we must just adapt to the vagaries of the glass makers. The Moretti factory on the island of Murano has been making soft glass for centuries (though the factory has changed hands once or twice). They now have to keep up with an artisanal industry that has exploded over the past 20 years or so. Before that, the demand for soft glass outside of Italy was not so large. And we Americans are used to being able to get whatever we want whenever we want it.
Now that I’ve gotten used to the idea, I actually love the idea of being part of such an ancient art form that is still based in some old-fashioned manufacturing techniques. And I just try not to get overly attached to any one color (though I can hardly go a day without my rubino oro). I try and view it as more of an opportunity to get out of my personal box and try new things.
It a bit of Zen and the art of glass beadmaking at work!

P.S. For those of you who not so familiar with glass beadmaking- getting a nice perfectly clear, compatible, glass is not always easy. There are constant discussions on the web about what is currently available, who has it, and how folks like it. Looking out my clear-ish window (which needs cleaning!), it seems almost impossible that I spend time wondering about this.

Win This Fish!

Happy New Year!

This month (January 2009) I am contributing this fish as a prize to the Creative Glass Guild on Etsy. All you have to do to be in the running to win it is to sign up to receive the monthly e-newsletter here: http://cgge.org/emailsub.aspx

Why sign up? To find out what's on special in the CGGE shops, what the team promotions are, and other news. The CGGE is a non-juried group of glass artisans who sell on etsy. You can find lampwork, fused glass, stained glass and glass mosaics in a multitude of styles and colors. Here's a list of the members: http://cgge.org/members.aspx

About the fish you could win- I like to call this fish Ambergris- because it looks amber and the silver in the center looks kind of grey . It's handmade lampwork glass, made with Italian Moretti glass by me in my home studio. It has been well cleaned and properly kiln annealed.

Good Luck and have a great year!

Flying corn, craft sales, etc.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of having a booth at the Arkansas Craft Guild Christmas Showcase. It's a lovely craft show with folks from all over Arkansas participating. It got me thinking a bit about the attitudes of artisans at shows. And about those special orders we all have from time to time.

First, my special order from that show was from another craftsperson- flying corn. Sounds kind of odd, yes? But when I talked to her and she looked around my table to get an idea of what might work, I got kind of excited. She saw a bead that resembled a conceptual ear of corn. My sculptural beads tend to get a bit too realistic, so that is something I was interested in pursuing. You can see what happened from the picture. The one on the bottom was the conceptual corn, the other two more realistic. I love the one on the bottom, but was not convinced it looked enough like corn to please my customer. So I made a couple of more realistic ones. We'll see what she likes. And what will I do with the leftovers??? Corn chowder for dinner, I guess!

OK, and a couple of things about working these shows. It is a lot of work to get ready- at least for me. I take the opportunity to beef up my whole display, as well as making a lot of new product. Actually, I am lucky enough to have a partner for this- he takes care of revamping the display while I make product. Keeps me from being totally worn out before we even get started. Otherwise, I'd have to start on everything a lot sooner. So, it's new fabric where needed, checking the old stuff and washing it, new signage, re-covering anything that's covered in fabric, etc. Then the house is torn apart to find what will work best for display- I need the board from under my bed, tables that we eat and work on, all available folding chairs, the little table from the kitchen, the clamp that holds my torch in place, the list goes on and on. Obviously, those of you who have a whole extra set of everything for display don't have to worry with that!

Then it's off to the show- a rug on the floor of the booth makes it look more finished, especially in a semi-industrial setting with concrete floors. I am fortunate enough to live quite close to the show site, so I bring extra stuff, even some display choices, just in case. I go to set up as soon as we're allowed, just in case there are problems or emergencies. Again, my partner helps make this all go much quicker and smoother. We try different options until we find the look we want, then figure out how to make it work. As you can see from the photo, it's nothing fancy, just a basic black and white background to, hopefully, make the beads visible.

It's show time! The best advice I can give here is, I think, act like you're working for someone else- a good job that you'd like to keep! Dress neatly, try to be rested when you arrive, be good to the customers, stay within spitting distance of your booth, and be on time. I've worked craft shows for others, and I wouldn't want to give myself less energy than I give them. Ok, I think I'm done for now, unless I think of something else I think is helpful!