Alright Already, I'll Post!

It's been a week since my last (admittedly lame) post, and after being NAGGED TO DEATH, I thought I'd better post again. Just a hint, if you don't hear from me it's because we're HOPPING! Since I last really posted we got the new crucible glass melting kiln from Olympic Kilns and are up and running with date nights in the hotshop again. I also taught two FULL kilnforming classes on Saturday, finished and shipped the large cast awards commission (and cracked my Dyson shelf in half in the process), put together a proposal for a local homeschooling group for a day in the glass studio, received a HUGE glass delivery from Bullseye, and we began construction on the new kiln room! The old kiln room will be the new kiln-forming classroom and kiln-forming open studio space, leaving the front room as a 100% torchwork classroom and open studio space. Now if I could just get the online class sign-up and payment processing finished, I'd be ready for the hordes of eager glass artists.

I expect the new kiln room to be finished in a week or so, right before I head of to the winter Buyer's Market show in Philadelphia and just in time for the opening of a new wi-fi enabled coffee, pastry and sandwich shop in the little commercial shopping center next door to the studio. I am looking forward to working with its owner for our classes, dates and workshops. She is interested in providing fresh hot coffee and pastries for our events, and I am interested in: a) not making coffee myself, and b) supporting another little local small business. And speaking of other local small business, I hope to meet with a woman who is the choclatier and owner of a new business in Decatur this week. She called me in December and proposed being our new chocolate provider for Date Night. With the Valentine's Day weekend coming up and us being booked solid except for one slot, we need to get moving on this one.

Speaking of the Buyer's Market, I have been asked to participate in a panel discussion on "Outside the Box Thinking: Great Promotions" there on Saturday morning. I'm going to talk about our Date Night program and its impact on the studio. Got to get the slides into the Rosen Group today. If you're doing the show, please come to the panel discussion.

One last item to bring up; we're planning an expansion of the hotshop this spring too. I would like to add another smaller studio space onto the existing hotshop so we can run simultaneous date nights while still providing a quality, private experience for all the participants. It'll not only mean another space but also another annealing kiln, another glory hole and another glass melting kiln. We love Olympic Kilns!

Okay, I'm late, the studio is open, and I have the Date Night book at home leaving Judy powerless. I also have the power cord for her laptop (which has no battery) leaving her even MORE powerless. Got to get a new one of those today.