Summer/Fall 2015 On the Road!

Classes on The Road!

Teaching is one of the most gratifying things I do as an artist.  I love my students! Helping a student realize their goals, dreams, and potential is exciting and fulfilling to me. Whether it's a technical challenge or a concept development issue, I love the the actions of problem solving and overcoming hurdles. Sharing the laughter and support of fellow students during the process, well it just can't be beat! Catch one of my classes in my home studio outside of San Antonio, TX, or jump into one of my classes on the road!

July 18 - 19, 2015 - Jen-Ken Kilns, Lakeland, FL. - Hot Stuff - Harnessing Flow in Your Kiln

Aug. 21, 2015 - BeadFest, Philadelphia, PA. - Metal Clay 960; Lentil Beads with Stones

Aug. 22, 2015 - BeadFest, Philadelphia, PA. - Metal Clay Pendants with Vintage China

Oct. 30 - Nov. 1 - SiNaCa Studios, Fort Worth, Texas - Sculptural Glass with Imagery

Nov. 6 - 8, 2015 - Milkweed Arts, Phoenix Arizona - Sculptural Glass with Imagery

Hot Stuff - Harnessing Flow in Your Kiln

In this fast paced 2-day workshop students will learn the secrets to creating the elusive progressive pattern bar and spectacular pot and screen melts! We'll even learn the set ups for beautiful vitrograph cane! All these exciting techniques create fantastic components for use in sculptural and functional glasswork. Each student will use their choice of centerpiece components to create a gorgeous cheese tray using the new Patty Gray Dam Mold. Students will gain the knowledge of set up and layout of pattern bars, pot melts, and screen melts in the kiln, firing schedules and kiln programming, building dams, pulling vitrograph cane, cutting cane, and more. Be prepared for FUN! We'll be setting up and running kilns, prepping molds, using tile saws, lap wheels, grinders, the sandblaster, and pulling hot glass from the kilns! Students; Please wear closed toe shoes, bring a 100% cotton long sleeved shirt, & safety glasses. Some glass fusing experience is required.

Metal Clay 960; Lentil Beads with Stones

PMC 960 Sterling Silver is an exciting medium that allows you to produce quality, detailed hollow designs in sterling silver without the mess or equipment required for traditional jewelry casting. Beginners will love the ability to create personalized, one-of-a-kind lentil focal beads that they can wear alone on a chain, or add to their favorite beaded designs. In just one day students will create enviable heirloom quality silver pendants that work with any style.

Metal Clay Pendants with Vintage China

Jump into Bezel Setting in Metal Clay! This workshop will introduce you to the exciting world of setting inclusions Metal Clay. We will work with PMC 3 and fine silver bezel wire, to add beautiful vintage china shards and make pendants that are truly romantic, art deco, Asian and more! Don't miss this hybrid approach to new techniques in soldering on metal clay that will open the door to loads of new possibilities in jewelry making.

Sculptural Glass with Imagery

Take your fused glass beyond the bowl! It’s time to create light catching sculpture communicates. It doesn’t matter if you’re going for a loose abstract design or a photographic image, you’ll learn how to make it happen in this exciting new workshop! Each new skill and technique can be applied to small work as well as larger projects, making this a “don’t miss” class. The focus of this workshop is on the development and printing of images in tall, transparent, slab sculptures. Students will learn screen-printing, powder applications, and direct painting techniques to apply their imagery to multiple layers of glass. The image layers will then be fired, stacked, and fired again to create tall thick slabs of transparent glass. The slabs will then be cut, ground, polished and mounted on steel bases. Students will become skilled at preparing personalized images, creating their own screens, painting and layering powders and enamels, and mastering the firing schedules that deliver success. In addition, students will experience effective kiln casting and cold working techniques. Each student will cut, grind and polish their pieces, and learn how to mount their base pieces. Fusing experience is necessary to participate, but advanced skills are not required to be successful!

Las Vegas Glass Craft Expo, and other musings....

This week I venture off to Las Vegas for the Glass Craft Expo! I'm teaching 4 classes; Printmaking Techniques for glass artists, Electroforming on Glass, Glass on Metals; Torch and Kiln Fired Enamels, Modern Jewelry; Beyond Dichroics. I love teaching at this venue because of the mix of students. There are absolute beginners, intermediate level hobbyists, and professionals who make a living selling their work. In addition there are industrial design folks who make glass for tiles, architectural installation, etc. The manufacturers are also present at this venue, so there is a sense of discovery of all that is new and exciting in the field. Being a tool junkie myself, I find it irresistible. if you haven't been to the show, and you are involved in glass, make it your business to go. It's a ball! Just make sure you have money in your pocket, because you will be tempted by all the goodies. See ya when I get back! If you are there...come visit me in Las Vegas! We're at the South Point Hotel and Convention Center  I am in classroom GBB1!  See you there!

This is titled "Good Girl." It's screen printed with enamels. I used Flexi-glass medium and french vanilla powder to create the "torn paper" effect for the background. On the final slump I rubbed some of the enamel from the front into the grooves on the back to color the back a little more of a blush tone. I think it worked out well!
Can anyone guess who this is?...and it's not Marilyn.

This piece is bronze, silver, and copper. It's kind of simplistic and organic.  I like it because it reminds me of the jewelry made during the Bauhaus period (1917-1929). It is true to the materials. It kind of looks like coffee beans, but that's not what I was going for. 

This is my first finished encaustic mixed media piece.
I got to play in my studio and I really wanted to try something new.
I'm still trying to figure things out with this wax stuff, but I really like it!

This piece is 8" x 8".  I love doing mixed media pieces. This is tissue, photos, stamps, wire, paint, and hardware.
I'm looking forward to dong this on a large scale, but I'm learning a lot doing these in these smaller scale.

Wicked Good Pattern Bars!!!

As my friend from Boston sometimes jokes, "Those are wicked good!" My pattern bar class was awesome!  Here are a few samples..... I'm excited to see the next step. And the saw was not clean all day!

Betsy's bookends! Tribal!

A progressive! Stone!

Another Bookend! This is very pacific northwest.

Art Deco Style Roman!

Another Progressive Bar. Hey Valentine!

Bookends!  Kind of Dutch!

Santa Fe Powder Printing Class

I had a wonderful trip to Bullseye Glass in Santa Fe! My buddy Lisa came with me and it was awesome. We had a fantastic meal at Luminaria at the Inn at Loretto. One of the best meals I've ever had in Santa Fe. Thanks to Perry for suggesting it, I should have been quick enough to invite him and Nancy to dinner with us!

Stacy Smith is a fantastic instructor. She made the class fun and inspirational! Erik Whittemore, the resident Studio Manager was the perfect host/TA/collaborator! A big thanks to Morgan and her team for their support. Bravo on my best Bullseye experience ever! In my humble opinion, Stacy is likely the best ambassador of the all the positives of the "Bullseye Spirit!" I hope they elevate her to the appropriate status she deserves. Enough gushing! (Seriously, I hope they'll let her come teach at Wired Designs Studios.....c'mon Jim!!!!)

My fellow students were great to hang with and gave me a wonderful perspective on all of the different ways to employ these techniques. We were all doing our own things, and they were all so great and different! Thanks everyone. I got to hang with Nancy Weisser, Perry and Colleen, and we had an awesome time.

Here are a few of my samples from the class. I'll be incorporating this technique into my Printmaking Techniques for Glass classes going forward.

This powder print was fired twice; once for the background at full fuse, and then once at a tack fuse for the foreground image. I'm using imagery from my Women's Roles and Identities series.

These were images that we were given to play with in order to learn the technique.The 2 on the left are full fuse on 6mm, the 2 on the right are tack fused on 3mm. Both have equal merit and use.

Very little distortion! Halftones work really well.

Part of my Women's Roles and Identities imagery. This is all powder.....no sheet glass. Cool huh?

This was all done in a single firing! Love the effect!

Yesterday I had a private Torch Fired Enamels workshop. My student is a wonderful lady who has seen and done it all! We worked on stenciled enamels, and component projects. I had done the centerpiece of this necklace previously, and just wasn't completely happy with it. So my student and I added some components and took it to the next level.

I'm teaching this technique in Las Vegas at the Glass Craft Expo next year. It's called Glass on Metals!
I know that all my glassy friends will love doing this!!

This piece is copper enameled and riveted with silver connections.
I love acid green and turquoise together!

We were going for something Asian. These look really great on!

Vessel Sinks and Metal Etching 'r Us!

Here are the 2 sinks I'm working on! Today, I drilled the hole and countersink on the silver grey one. It's packed up and ready to go to Jorge in California. It was time consuming to polish that edge, but totally worth it in the end. They'll love it!

This sink is light silver grey and silver grey fracture irid special production glass.

The golds, the blues, the silvers, and the plums...make this an awesome design.

The customer is putting this on a black countertop, but on white you can see how transparent it is!

This is the second sink. It is for my dear friend Luanne's guest bath remodel. The sink is finished, but because we adore her, we're going to do the special flattened, polished edge. It will likely take me a few hours, but I want it to be very special for her.

So tomorrow, you'll catch me hanging out at the flat lap for a while. I'm still kind of sore from the grey sink polishing, but I'll think of this as my abdominal and bicep workout! Sometimes I dance and polish at the same time just to make the time go faster. Since I'm wearing my earphones, I sing at the top of my lungs. I bet I look hysterical to anyone who stumbles in!

This sink is cast. It's a combination of Grass Green, Turquoise, Light Aqua, Clear w/Silver irid, and light sky blue. I hand pulled black sheet glass into stringer for contrasting lines. I know my clients will love it.

Also, on Sunday we had a metal etching class. Here's the project we did...

This is Nicole's bracelet. We etched copper and brass sheet and then cut, punched and connected jump rings and hand made a clasp. I bet she's wearing it right now!

Denise Leone's class!

Here are some of the blocks we constructed in class. There were so many awesome techniques we learned. Thanks to Denise for teaching us so much! My compressor is happy to have the day off! Yesterday was hot and the compressors engine was giving off a lot of heat. The air just couldn't keep up.

Another Baptismal Font! City Year Event Pictures!

The City Year Gala event was Tuesday February 28th. Here are a few pictures featuring the vases we made. One of the vases was a gift/award for this years chairman, Gordon Hartman. 

Gordon Hartman accepting his vase as an award at the City Year Gala 2012 

Another Shot!

Here's a shot of one of the tables!

Thanks to all who made this happen! Especially Stacey C, Stacy L, Judy H, Rene J, and Heidi A! These ladies helped smash glass, prime molds, grind discs, vacuum kilns, wrap vases, and keep my spirits high during all the drama. I love the WD girls!!!

I started the newest commission today. It's another Baptismal Font. This one is for Our Saviour's Lutheran Church. I really love doing these bowls! Anyway, the client loved what we did for Zion Lutheran Church and asked that we do a similar design, but with their colors. We were happy to oblige! Their sanctuary has much more amber light, so we added an amber tint to the mix to make the light coming from the bowl more "golden." I think it will be beautiful!

Here's the glass we choose, later we decided to add 1414 also!

This is in the kiln right now!

 I'll post tomorrow from Mark Ditzler's class at Wired Designs Studios!

The Great Vase Project of 2012 is Complete!

Happy to report that 45 gem toned vases are completed! It's been a challenge to pull it off on time, but the City Year Gala event is on Tuesday night and the client is picking them up on Monday! The vases turned out to be beautiful!

A close up shot of the vases!

I know these will look beautiful with candles in them!

We had a visit from our Bullseye Rep, Devon! She did a great presentation on color reactions. Afterward we had a mini-teach where we made sample tiles of color reactions. We had about 30 attendees!  It was really educational and we had a lot of fun making the samples. Now I need to fire a million 3" square tiles....eeek!

I should have them done by Tuesday morning! I'm sure we'll have some great samples.

Just a peek at some of the samples!

I'm starting a new Baptismal Font commission tomorrow for Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in College Station. I really love doing these things. They are very fun and relaxing. It always feels good knowing that something you are creating will be used regularly in celebrations that bring people closer to their hearts and each other.  I'll keep you in the loop with pictures of the progress.

Finally! There should be confetti!

Those of you who have been watching for this... here it is! 

It's been rough sailing to get to this point, but I'm much closer now. After a LOT of virtual blood, sweat, and tears over these vases, the first 8 came out of the kiln this morning.  Perfect they're not, but they're pretty good, I'd say!  I know they will glow beautifully with candles in them. They'll be on the tables at City Year's Gala event on February 28th!

8 DOWN, 37 TO GO!...there are 8 more in the kiln now.

If I can keep this up with no casualties, we'll make the deadline and be ok. Keep us in your prayers!  Tonight Rene is coming in to help me recycle some of the glass in the ones that turned out poorly, so they'll go into new discs, which we'll then re-drape. Unfortunately, we lost about 25 pounds of glass in the great meltdown disater of Feb 10th, so we'll be breaking up more and casting a new batch of red ones. The folks at Bullseye should be pleased, all toll, this project has used 175 pounds of glass!

8", 9" and 10" vases in multiple colors

Thanks so much for your kind words of encouragement, and offers to help!  Still might need some of that help yet. Fingers crossed!

Another Beautiful Vessel Sink!

Just finished today!  You're seeing it before the client. This beautiful vessel sink will reside in the guest bath in a custom home here in San Antonio. The house is being built by Davis Homes. The design was inspired by the clients marble vanity slab, which is silver/gray with lines of cobalt blue and flecks of white and deep green. The interior designer, Debbie Stoli, is working with the clients to make their home a gorgeous place. I love working with designers because they really see lots of design possibilities when I start pulling out the glass. I think this glass vessel sink turned out beautifully!

This glass vessel sink is transparent steel blue-1406
and clear fracture irid 4101.31

Here's a close up of the texture and the drain.

....and another picture just because I love it!

Last night I taught a mini-class on torch fired enamels. We made some fun copper earrings and other little goodies!  Here's a few photos.

Charlotte and Rene torching away! Having a great time!

Charlotte's first enamel project!  Pretty great for a beginner!

Draping/Slumping in the kiln!

Finally the first batch of discs is in the kiln slumping!  Here's a little walk though my last few days on the project. I'll have a lot to show you tomorrow!

Here are the slumping molds. They've been sprayed with Boron Nitride and elevated on 12" kiln posts. I did that so we didn't have any folding or touching of the kiln shelf.

These are the final discs that I did. Several shades of ambers.

Here the discs have been cold worked, washed well, and placed on their molds.

Here is the Hendrick's sink in the mold. It will be finished tomorrow! Yeah!
Then I'll drill the hole and do the countersink on Thursday.
The glass needs to rest and stabilize before I drill the hole.

This is the demo tack fuse piece that I did with my beginner fusers class.
It's mounted in a frame and surrounded by frit. The piece is 6" square and the frame is 8".
It really pops!