Gathering of the Guilds Photos

Today while I was at the Gathering of the Guilds at the Portland Oregon Convention Center I was going to walk around and take pictures. Just as I got started I realized that not all of the artists would like their work photographed... at the very least I needed to ask their permission! For lack of time (crowded show! too much patience required to ask everyone's permission... so I figured I might try again on Sunday and talk to the artists, obtain permission and proceed where possible...) until then - I took pictures of the signs (and I even made sure it was okay to do so!) I must say that the Woodworkers and Handweavers had amazing signs! Look at that woodcarving!!! The Glass Guild sign could be way more dynamic - what about a glass sign! Wouldn't that be beautiful... maybe its easier for the little guilds to agree on commissioning their handmade signss. The larger guilds seem to just have banners like the one above...

All I gotta say is its a great show this year and I am looking forward to taking more time to really walk around. Here are some pictures of the Aquila booth - see my mobiles floating around...

Gathering of the Guilds

Come visit at the Convention Center - the Gathering of the Guilds of Oregon is in full force down there. The Glass Guild (in which you can find my work), the Potters Association, the Metal Arts Guild, Woodworkers, the Bead Society, Handweavers and much much more are all representing with artwork from hundreds of local guild members. Its really an incredible show!

Some facts:

• the OPA (Potters Association) is the largest ceramic showcase in America!
• there are wonderful demos happening all the time in the Ceramic show as well as the Glass show (I might be doing some demos for the glass show in the evenings...)
• Crafty Wonderland will be there too on Saturday and Sunday
• hours of operation: 10am-9pm Fri and Sat. 10-5pm on Sunday
• its FREE so come check it

I'll take some pictures later today... seems odd to post this without pictures, but I forgot to bring my camera when I was setting up yesterday...

Crafting Crafty Ladies

This video is from 2008 - but its great! Check it out the OPB show Oregon Art Beat did a segment about how crafty Portland is, featuring Crafty Wonderland, the DIY Lounge and Queen Bee

the Story: Printmaker and a Glass Artist Exchange

The LeJa Method - as Jan and I like to call it - has been created out of months of experimenting and brainstorming.

An exchange of ideas, a printmaker and a glass artist, coming together to bring traditional block printing methods to results in art glass.
Jan has carved hundreds of linoleum blocks with her original images over the years - we now sell simple glass plates showcasing her prints in different colors. The image is sealed within the glass and appears clear and crisp, little imperfections and unique qualities that speak true to hand printed imagery.
We sell a tutorial on Etsy.com that offers an inexpensive resource for the printing techniques and tips and tricks for different color results.
It started with my desire to get images into my fused glass art. Printing on the glass in my mobiles offer a new potential to tell a story, adding content and texture to my work... I am so process oriented though... so in the end it became more about the process and we really locked down on a simple and successful method of printing in glass.
I have blogged occasionally about the process and the antics - and this post is intended to be a reference - a table of contents of sorts

• Images Printed on Glass - inspiration
• Images on Glass Experiment - the fun begins
  
• Images on Glass II - early experiments
  
• Images on Glass III - and more early results
• Images on Glass IV - experimentis with copper powders
  

we play with different ink types, glass powders, glass frits, other powders and whatnot until we achieved the desired result: a clear image in a variety of colors!

Oh Ballz.

This week has been a hard week - long week - it had its up and downs.

Low Point: I was sick. Down with some nasty germs that took me out and made me lie in bed and sleep for a few days. Sneezing, coughing, sore throat, headaches and chills... the whole germy 9 yards. Not fun.

High Point: I went out to the Cirque du Soleil (awesome!), went to the driving range with Tim (also awesome) and I managed to squeak out a bunch of work by the end of the week. Okay, maybe not a bunch - but things did get done. I went down to Bullseye and restocked on a whole rainbow of glass colors, and a heap of clear glass. I've got summer shows to stock up for, this is pressing on my mind. Mobiles were made, orders were filled and shipped, glass was cut clean and fired in the kiln. But thats about it, and honestly it sounds like I did a lot when really I did a lot of sitting around on my ass blowing my nose.

I would love to send a note to the germs that infested me and tell them to stop being so exhausting! Its really inappropriate timing and unacceptable. I've got a business to operate and glass to play with. Impending shows to prepare for. I need more motivation and less germs.

The market was exhausting today - Portland weather was weird, some rain, some cold, some warmth... I took this picture of my booth with one of the fun Jelly Lens toys (the wide angle jelly)... the pictures of the Cirque were taken with the Jelly Toys as well, the sparkle lens one... and it was kinda drizzly out, which made for even more sparkles from the water on the car windows...

Taking My Work With Me

Today I am headed over to my friend Aimee's house to hang out with her while she heals from surgery. She must remain inactive for a few weeks, so I am headed out to visit her. Aimee is my amazing friend/assistant and knows how I am always keeping busy... tomorrow is Saturday and the I will be vending at the Portland Saturday Market, so there is always more work to be done... mobiles to be put together... always.
So I packed a to-go kit for myself. Taking my work on the road with me!

Pictured below is the tool kit packed with goodies... the inside is filled with glass that I need to attach swivels... the tray has bits and bops, useful tools and such... the lid has extra tools:
Thanks for this tool kit Jan! It rocks! Its deeper than you're average tool kit, which makes it hold a lot.

It Rains Here in Portland

Portland Oregon has a reputation for the rain. These days the weather seems to always say "Chance of Showers" when honestly right now the sun is shining outside... occasional rain with mostly beautiful skies. What can I say. All these intermittent showers make Portland a very green city. The flowers and the trees and glowing. In fact, my lawn is growing quite fast and its getting embarrassing - but the dandelions look so cute with the daffodils and yellow tulips! I am too busy to cut it, and I kinda love how it looks long :)

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm Pictures

Today I went out to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm with some friends... Tonight I taught a class at the glass school... I am very tired now, but I thought I'd share some pictures from the farm (I took 943 pictures!!)

Seedlings

basil. for this summer. I started it in seedling trays because its cold out... visions of bushes of basil tempt me. spring is full of potential.

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Ted Talks: Kinetic Sculture Artist Arthur Ganson

Night Adventures

Okay - so my taxes are done and I've got huge stacks of glass discs in production... I was planning on going into the studio last night and working - but instead I played hooky!!! Evening adventures were meant to happen! My friend Jan convinced me of such (it wasn't hard)
First we went and saw a movie at Living Room Theaters - which somehow I had never heard of... this is how they describe themselves on the website:

Living Room® Theaters is a visionary new concept created by longtime filmmakers. We set out to reinvent the way films are viewed and distributed. And to change everything we didn't like about conventional and art house movie theaters - from the film selection to the lobby ambiance, food, seating and service.

It was great! We saw Alice in Wonderland and ate delicious food and then we had a drink afterward. I have to go back and have a date with Tim there. Its definitely great date material.

Later walked across the street to Powels books which was barely still open... I found some excellent books and also a couple fun toys for myself. These little jelly lens things you can attach to the lens of a small camera and make sparkles (I also got one that makes it look like a wide angle lens). This made for some fun night-time photography until the jelly plucked the metal ring around my lens right off my camera (woops) and then the camera also ran out of batteries.

Okay - then last but not least we stopped at the food carts on Hawthorne for a late night fried pie. Why not? What a night. Thanx Jan :)

Happy Easter!!

It Rains Here in Portland

Its been raining a lot in Portland. And hailing. And snowing up on Mt. Hood. Easter vacationers are getting lots of powder to ski on this weekend, sorta unusual, but the ski resorts love it! Down here in the valley its just been rainy, on and off, and windy, and pretty wet. Good weather for staying indoors and doing my accounting! :) I will not be vending at the Portland Saturday Market this weekend. If you're looking for me down there - email me - I am probably sitting in front of my computer doing accounting!

This umbrella pictured above is an old favorite of mine. The goldfish swims in the handle, and its bright orange. I love it. I have a small collection of umbrellas. Although Portland rain is somehow superior to umbrellas. You just don't really need em, most of the time. But I like them none the less. Most of the time locals just use a water proof jacket.

Long Week... Feeling Ragged

Its been a long week... sometimes juggling many balls isn't so easy. Teacher, student, artist, friend, sister, lover, book-keeper... which of these titles doesn't fit with the rest?! Ah yes, book-keeper. I am more of a professional procrastinator than a book-keeper!! ha! So now is crunch time. This weekend I am staying in and hitting the books. The Quickbooks that is :)

Actually, to be honest, Quickbooks has kicked my ass and I retreated with my tail between my legs and bought a new copy of Quicken as well. Quicken is so simple in comparison! I am signing myself up for a class in the ol' Quickbook. Previously I have used Quicken for 7 years and it did the job, but not much more. Since my computer was stolen I am faced with starting completely new and fresh, I thought I could handle the new software. Might as well make the best of that disaster and do my books in a new way that would be even more beneficial to my business. Quickbooks offers a lot in terms of tools that would be useful to my growing business. Unfortunately it also causes head-aches and nausea. I have an appointment with my tax lady on Monday - no time to f around with new software.

So that is my week. My own personal hell. And yes I have considered paying a CPA. Instead the week wizzed by me in a whirl-wind of 2 classes (Making Marbles on Monday and Introducing Beadmaking on Wednesday) and 3 meetings, software snafu's and constant creating to keep up with inventory and sales - I keep meaning to post pictures of my glasswork or classes or whatnot... just hasn't happened.

I promised myself no playing hooky and taking adventures until my book-keeping is done. This includes taking zillions of pictures and spending my free time editing photos to share on the ol' blog. All work and no play - that is what procrastination manifests.