Only the Beginning...

Coffee in the San Francisco skyline mug, "Roundabout" by Yes on iTunes. Both are in honor of Johnathon Schmuck, now winging his way back home to California after whipping some old glass artist butt for the past four days. I'm tired to the bone (and I'm not the only one!), but totally exhilarated. I may suffer complete sensory overload and shut-down this year with all the mind-expanding (mind-blowing) professional dev I have scheduled.

I know people who love to go from class to class and workshop to workshop, but I frankly couldn't do it. Four days of fusing to blow, blowing (or having blown as it were), and preparing for coldworking have given me so many new ideas for my own production work that I think if I took workshops more often my head would explode and I'd completely lose any shred of "my" in my work. But the past weekend was just right--I even hope to have a new roll-up line ready for ACRE at the end of May.

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A few hours have passed since I started this post, and in the interim I have booked my plane travel to BECon, booked all of Dave's flights to and from Austin through the end of May--and booked three more days at Duckbill Studios working glass roll-ups with Tadashi, Licha and Lori in May. No reason to let the grass grow under my feet. I think this is a very under-served area of collaboration in the wholesale show niche (and speaking of Niche... don't be too surprised when September rolls around if there's a bit of a "roll" to my submission!).

Tomorrow--in addition to all the regularly scheduled studio activity of firing, shipping, sending off invoices and quotes, preparing for shows, etc.--I will edit some of the footage I shot over the weekend at the workshop. I tried to video everyone's roll-up pieces from start to finish--eight people times two days times about 45 minutes per project... I have a lot to edit.

I also have my own pieces from the workshop to coldwork--and a draft copy of Johnathon's new book, "The Joy of Coldworking" to read and review. The timing couldn't be better for me with the work I need to do on my pieces--thanks to Johnathon for letting me do the read. The book will be out in May and I'll post a link to the pre-order page as soon as I get it. Johnathon is a great teacher--his seriously comprehensive knowledge is combined with a quirky sense of humor into one relaxed, easy-going package. I can't wait to read this book!

Now for a key to all the pictures: The top right is Johnathon using a shaving brush to wipe the schmutz off of the shelf-side (the outside) of my first piece after it was initially rolled up. Like the way the bristles flame from contact with the molten glass? The next two pics are my first piece before fusing and after fusing, midway through the roll-up. The shiny happy people are the glory-hole team for my roll-up--Johnathon on the pipe, Tadashi and I on doors. The last pic skips ahead (way ahead) till all the pieces for the day were rolled up, blown, safely tucked into the annealer for the night (and much of the next day), and then cooled off. The My piece is the one on the bottom right. More pics of it as I coldwork.