I MUST POST!!

I can no longer NOT POST! I am *still* not finished with the class write-up and schedule (what can I say? It's been a month!), but I did get my article written and off to Glass Patterns Quarterly, I did get the first draft of the summer camp write-up done, and I am working on the class thing. Also accomplished were a big order from Bullseye including--are you ready for it?--a case of white Tekta. This is one of the holy grails of glass, and I have the only case in existence. It's going to be the April special for the studio and that's a big thing as no one anywhere has ever had it for sale before. Think of it--a fusible white class in a an even 24"X72" sheet that cuts like butter. I think I'm going to have to put together a strip-piece class for a transparent and white glass just to celebrate!

Thanks to Fox News and Good Day Atlanta we have had date nights booked pretty solid for the past couple of weeks. Now it's time for the next marketing push: I had 1250 brochures printed up and bought a box of clear acrylic brochure stands for them and I'm going to take them around to local businesses I patronize and ask them if they will let me put them out, We'll see what kind of a response that gets. I've also been sending brochures home with the people who have done date nights to hand out to their friends. Between word of mouth and the brochures, I think we can continue our momentum.

Now I just need to get momentum going on the classes... This weekend I have a windchime class at the studio through Oakhurst Community Gardens. I'm going to do this one a bit differently than I've done the previous classes. Instead of having them fuse the pieces for their windchimes, I'm going to have them assemble pre-fused pieces... I think. The trick is that I only have them for a couple of hours. If I had them for two sessions we could fuse in one and assemble in the other. Maybe the answer is to have them assemble everything up to adding the glass, then have them put together the glass bits for me to fuse. Then I would attach the glass bits when they came out of the kiln. No, I think I'll give them lots of pieces of fused chime bits with loops fused into them, and I'll let them design and assemble their own chimes and take them when they go.

___________

Now back from my ikebana chapter meeting, missed my glass delivery, trying to get it rescheduled... It's a day. AND a thunderstorm is rolling in. Maybe I better get back to the class schedule.

Summer Camp is Ready!

Hey, I could use some help with this summer camp doc. Any glaring inconsistencies, grammatical errors, bloopers? Any and all feedback welcome!

General Information
This summer Siyeh Studio is offering a few young people the opportunity to explore in depth a wide variety of hot glass techniques in our small, urban, production and teaching facility located in the heart of East Lake. This is not your typical 30-kids-to-a-group cattle-car summer camp staffed by high school students. Each of our sessions is limited to no more than six attendees—four for glass blowing. The instructors are our core group of instructors who teach all of our regular classes throughout the year.

All tools and materials are provided, and no previous experience is necessary. All we require is that all participants come enthused and ready to focus and learn a lot about GLASS. Healthy snacks are provided in both morning and afternoon sessions—please let us know in advance of any dietary restrictions. Everyone should be bring a full water-bottle everyday. Participants in the all day sessions are required to bring their own lunches.

Please call 404-373-4729 or email brenda@siyehglass.com to reserve your spot—space is EXTREMELY limited.

Half Day Sessions
Glass Blowing
Ages: 12 - 18
Dates: June 14-18, June 21-25, June 28-July 2, July 12-16, July 19-23, July 26-30
Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Cost: $400
Enrollment: Min 2, Max 4

Come learn glass blowing (traditional furnace working techniques) in an intense summer session. Each day students will learn and practice a variety of techniques and make their own artworks including flowers, paperweights, tumblers, bowls, mugs, and more!

Glass Casting
Ages: 10 - 18
Dates: July 12-16, July 19-23
Time: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Cost: $325
Enrollment: Min 3, Max 6

Participants in this session will make glass castings in pre-made molds, sand and plaster. Their designs will incorporate natural objects such as shells and also sculpted or modeled clay and wax. Each person will make several projects during the course of the week in the process of exploring every aspect of casting from the beginning design to the end finishing work.

Kilnforming Glass
Ages: 10 - 18
Dates: June 21-25, July 12-16, July 26-30
Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Cost: $250
Enrollment: Min 3, Max 6

Kilnformed glass is glass that has been melted and shaped by the heat of the kiln. Unlike glass blowing and bead making where the glass is handled hot, in kilnforming the glass is designed and assembled cold and then put into the kiln to melt into an entirely new piece of glass. In this session participants will learn the basic techniques of glass cutting, fusing (melting together), slumping and draping (shaping by heating over or into a mold). Then they will rapidly move on to design considerations and additional techniques such as stenciling, texturing, wire inclusions, and much more. Each person will make several projects throughout the week.

Glass Beadmaking
Grades 8 – 12
Dates: June 14-18, June 28-July 2, July 12-16, July 19-23, July 26-30
Time: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Cost: $250
Enrollment: Min 3, Max 6

Each participant in this session will learn to make his or her own glass beads with a minor torch in this intense one-week session. Each day is packed with new techniques to learn from basic round beads to dots, raking, decorating with metals and frit, and more! Each class will start with a demonstration of a new beadmaking technique and then participants will have plenty of time to practice on their own beads. Each person has a torch and a full set of tools to work with. All beads are annealed and available to take home the following day.

Glass Jewelry Making
Ages: 10 - 18
Dates: June 21-25, July 26-30
Time: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Cost: $250
Enrollment: Min 3, Max 6

This comprehensive hands-on glass jewelry making class starts with design considerations and then goes right into the techniques used to create brilliant dichroic glass jewelry and cast glass cabochon pieces. We will cover channel and grinding techniques, decorative options including micas, stenciling, and etching, and finishing choices such as adhesive and bail options. Students will make several pieces in the course of the week.

Full Day Sessions
Glass Craft
Ages: 7 - 9
Dates: June 14-18, June 28-July 2, July 19-23
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Cost: $325
Enrollment: Min 3, Max 6

Glass Craft begins with a modified kiln forming class in the morning. Participants will design and make their own fused and slumped glass artworks including tiles, sun catchers, plates or bowls and more. The afternoons will be spent designing pieces for the next day as well as making found-object art in other media—chalk, wire, wood, crystals, shells, etc.

Kilnforming Glass & Glass Jewelry Making
Ages: 10 - 18
Dates: June 21-25, July 26-30
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Cost: $375
Enrollment: Min 3, Max 6

Kiln forming glass in the morning and glass jewelry making in the afternoon (both described above).

Kilnforming Glass & Glass Casting
Ages: 10 - 18
Dates: July 12-16
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Cost: $375
Enrollment: Min 3, Max 6

Kiln forming glass in the morning and glass casting in the afternoon (both described above).

Kilnforming Glass & Glass Beadmaking
Ages: 12 - 18
Dates: July 12-16
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Cost: $375
Enrollment: Min 3, Max 6

Kilnforming glass in the morning and glass beadmaking in the afternoon (both described above).

Banned from Posting

For those of you who wonder why I haven't been posting, it's because I have been FORBIDDEN. I am sneaking in a quickie right now to let you know what's happening. I am being held in a dark basement somewhere south of Atlanta... No, wait, sorry. That's another story.

I have been forbidden to post again until I have the summer camp write-up and the class descriptions done. It was initially a very reasonable request from the Siyeh Glass webmaster, but as I have dragged my feet for weeks and weeks, we have no come to the point where I don't get to write ANYTHING else until they're done.

So I am being treated well. Please send food... no wait, wrong story again. I am over my cold, but Jessie has it and has been home in bed for three days. Dave is in Austin. We will get through this.

Sick as a Dog...

... Except that the dogs aren't sick so I don't even know what that phrase means. I am trying to take it a bit easy today. Class ran long last night--I left Brian demoing beadmaking (the subject of their next class session) and went home to crash. Dave was right, I did leave the J with a little too much responsibility and though she had showered, she had not fed the pets or put herself to bed before I got home. We both crashed hard to Magic Treehouse "Ghost Town at Sundown" on her iPod. Today I lack energy for more than putting up the videos from the Fox shoot yesterday. Enjoy!

Intro:


Beadmaking with Brian:


Kilnforming with Yours Truly:



Glassblowing with Lee 1:


Glassblowing with Lee 2:

WHAT A DAY!!!

1:15 am -- woke to see Todd ambling across our bedroom on his way to the door from our en suite bathroom. (He was apparently sleep-walking and is used to more of a trek from his bedroom to the bathroom than exists in our house with the guest bedroom and bathroom separated by a door.)
4:00 -- awake.
5:00 -- still awake, but determined Not To Get Up.
5:45 -- up.
6:50 -- dressed, hair washed and primped, face made up, at the studio.
7:00 - 10:00 -- hosting the Fox Road Warrior crew and shooting mini date-nights.
10:02 -- the calls and emails start coming in about date night and classes.
11:25 -- the power goes out at the house and takes down the network for the studio...

The rest of the day -- STUFF, stuff and more stuff.
7:00 - 9:30 pm -- third of the survey classes in the studio (taught by yours truly).

I'm exhausted beyond reckoning and will post pics, videos, stories, etc., tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy a quickie of the Creative Loafing ad which came out today (and was almost eclipsed by the Road Warrior program).

Almost Famous

The post this morning is necessarily quick and brief. More tomorrow. I am at Chocolate coffee bar for my computer-work morning with Dave. Coincidentally, the Fox news Good Day Atlanta team is also here filming. I say coincidentally because they will be in Siyeh Studio filming tomorrow morning from 7:00 am to 10:00 am and I am here today to prepare the website content for Mike so we can be ready for the anticipated onslaught after tomorrow's morning on tv and Creative Loafing ad. Oh my. Stay tuned! Tomorrow, Date Morning with FOX! I'll be posting the video segments here, or you can watch them LIVE tomorrow between 7:00 am and 10: am on Fox Atlanta. Live, did I mention it was LIVE tv? Five separate segments of a live date morning... Hope no one catches on fire. (Do I have them all sign release forms?)

Need Help

Though it is Sunday, I need some help. I am taking out my first ad in our local weekly paper, Creative Loafing. It's urban, edgy, and widely read. The reactions to my choices here have been strong and opposite so I am searching for more help. So here are my choices for my ad. The first is straight up, the other is... not. So which one should I run? Be frank. I have to decide tomorrow morning.

The Week Endeth... NOT

Is waiting for coffee more or less frustrating than waiting for Godot? I wouldn't know. I don't know Godot, but I am more than a little impatient for coffee this morning (who knew?). And speaking of waiting... The Point of Sale program I have been evaluating (and using in the process to create all of my orders from the BMAC) came to the end of it's trial period unexpectedly this week and locked me out of my data. By buying a physical copy of it online and having it shipped instead of just buying a license key and downloading it I saved $270 (over 50%). But since then I have been waiting for the software (with the license key--which is all I really need) to arrive. It should have been her yesterday. I hate waiting.

I am scattered and swamped today so it's a perfect time to post. Posting will clarify (what can really be accomplished in what's left of the day) and organize (those tasks I am meant to accomplish) for me. But first a recap of the week since I last posted.

Wednesday Todd and I helped Dee clean and organize a tiny corner of her studio. Oh. My. Goodness. Let's just leave it at that (and we'll be going back next Wednesday for a repeat--I'll wear a hazmat suit this time). Wednesday night's survey class was great and I have several new ideas for more classes. I forgot my camera (again), but one of the people in the class took photos and sent them to me (thank you Melinda).


Today--without Judy who is on vacation till St. Pat's day--I ship the first monumental load of orders from the Buyer's Market. I also finalize my current order for Bullseye and get it to Geraldine. While I am in an ordering mood I need more shipping supplies, though that may fall off the plate till Monday because I have my ad for Creative Loafing to design and submit today and that's going to take some time. Finally, I am a week behind on getting my taxes to Helen (the accountant) as I had four pages of expenses from the personal accounts to enter along with a year's worth of mileage. I got the mileage done right away and even finished up the personal expenses, but now I am wading through the P&L statement and Balance sheet to make sure everything is categorized appropriately and doesn't say "confirm" on it and I still have to adjust the materials inventory and cost of goods sold numbers for the year.
That sounds like more than enough to take up my day, and I'm sure there'll be more things that come up on the fly. Darn flies.

I'll be in the studio both days this weekend working on orders on Saturday and teaching a garden stake class through Oakhurst Community Gardens on Sunday.

Tuesday and TUFFY!

A grande mocha in a Starbucks go-mug, "Brass In Pocket" by Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders on the sound system. I'm in Commerce to do a metal pick-up from Elaine of Black Cat and it's... snowing. Unbelievable. March in teh south and yet more snow! At least it's not an earthquake.

The week plods on with its ups and downs, jam-packed schedule, and little bits of real life. In fact, I'm not sure why I'm posting--other than to remark on the snow. I guess it's just habit when I sit waiting in Starbucks to post. Tried to take out an ad in the Decatur Focus yesterday, and found out that not only do they have a waiting list for the April issue, but they don't like my kind and won't take do business with me because my business isn't in Decatur. Bummer. Now I wait to hear from the Creative Loafing people and I consider other marketing/advertising options. Maybe I could make my own little presentation stand with pics, cards and brochures to drop off in local cafes and coffee shops...

Okay, Elaine is here. Time to exchange work and get on the road again.