Pictures from the Glass School

its a slideshow - press play

Aquila Glass School

1628 N Columbia Blvd, Unit A - Portland, OR 97217

This is where I teach torchworking classes - look how much fun people are having! I love this place.

the View from the Shop

The shop where I teach is in North Portland in an old train barn on Columbia Blvd.

There are three key things that I associate with my commute to work:

• the train (I love the colors and shapes of the graffiti and train cars)
• the smell of cookies (there is a Kraft (used to be Nabisco) plant a few blocks from the shop)
• the view of Mt Hood

The train always honks as it goes by the shop (there are 3 bridges it passes underneath, so they all honk 3 times). There is a lot of industry around the shop that uses these trains, as they head to and from the big ports on the river. They only thing I do not like about the trains is when they honk just as I am opening the front door - this makes me jump and I think they do so just to see my reaction! Its loud!

The cookie factory is always pumping out cookies and crackers, they make Oreos and Wheat Thins. When the insanely wonderful smell of chocolate wafts in the breeze my brain always says "brownies!" - I used to think they must be making brownie mix in that factory, but I have since learned it is the chocolate cookies for Oreos! And what I thought was the intoxicating smell of Vanilla Wafers in the making, is the vanilla cream stuffing for the Oreos. Yum. One day I hope to get a tour of this factory. Oh yes I do!

Best of all though (does it get better than the smell of cookies?!) is the sight of Mt. Hood. The view is amazing from Columbia Blvd. She glows majestically, perfectly framed by trees around the road. I always want to snap pictures, a few days ago I couldn't resist as the sun was setting and the mountain looked so amazing. That is the photo above.

The view of Mt. Hood has always been a present factor in my work as a glass artist. The first shop space I rented was in a barn up on Mt Hood. I rented there for a couple of years. Learning to snow board in the winter and enjoying the cold rivers in the summer were integral parts of working on Mt. Hood. It was an awesome way of working as a glass artist. And now I will always have this positive association with the view of Mt. Hood.

In my garage studio at home I made a painting of Mt. Hood and hung it behind an old window (there's a wall that I thought should have a window and so I put a fake one there!).

Kiln Glass Resource Centers

Let the glass flow...

Last night I had the awesome opportunity to join a group of artists at the Bullseye Glass Company to discuss KGRC. That would stand for Kiln Glass Resource Centers. Everyone is in town for BeCon and Bullseye generously hosted a meet n' greet round table event for the owners of Kiln Glass Resource Centers. We had a great discussion - I have so many new ideas now! And it was great to meet so many incredible people. Nathan Sandberg gave us a great presentation about achieving movement in fused glass. It was called "Going with the flow" and featured the work Bullseye did with artist Jun Kaneko. Really inspiring. I am drawn to movement in artwork and this presentation was all about causing motion in the glass with your kiln forming process. Very interesting.

Bullseye has a class that Nathan teaches for this technique

Lets Make Buttons

My mother had a basket of buttons with her sewing supplies. I used to love looking at them all, savoring all the little details and differences between them. Did your Mother or Grandmother have a button collection? I have one of my own now, and my collection is made even more amazing by all the handmade glass buttons I have made. A couple summers ago I created a dress that used one of these buttons as a simple clasp on the back of the neckline. It made the dress even more impressive. I've also made some purses that used glass buttons... and a little sock monkey with handmade button eyes... I'm always looking for fun ways to use these buttons.

Want to make some glass buttons of your own? I'll teach you!

Do you make clothing or know a designer who would like to use handcrafted buttons? Do you want to take your craft to the next level with some handmade buttons? They could embellish a purse or a book cover or a handmade doll... They could be the perfect finishing touch on some clothing! Why use store bought mass manufactured buttons when you could make your own! The potential is endless.

There is no pre-requisite for the class.

No experience necessary.

Yes you will play with fire.

No you will not hurt yourself.

I promise you'll have a great time!

Call 503 240-9449 (the Aquila Glass School) to sign up for class

registration is required

May 9th 2011 . Glass Button Making Class . 6-8pm . $124

(all materials and tools provided)

my Groupon experience

I buy coupons on Groupon.com all the time. For some reason when I see a sweet deal on this website my brain says "why not?!" and I click the purchase button. They are so cheap and its such a great excuse to go out and do something I might have wanted to do.

Now I am as close as I'm gonna get to the seller end of the deal... its not my Groupon per say, but the studio where I teach that is selling a Groupon today. And its for a class that I will get paid to teach, so this is the closest I will ever get to the business end of Groupon - usually I am a buyer of these coupons! This is my big 5 minutes of fame being the seller.

Its pretty exciting selling a Groupon. I am a fan of the company. Brilliant business-model really. They basically take 50% of all money they make selling coupons (the other 50% goes to the vendor - although the deal is not actually as clean as that, but to make a long story short, we'll just call it 50/50). And they sell A LOT of coupons, so really, they make a good deal of money. In February of 2011 Groupon did $62 million in sales, in one month.

Evidently the owner was offered a buy-out deal from Google to the tune of 6 billion dollars, and he turned it down because he still has more vision for what he wants to do with the company. That makes me curious. This is a business-model that cannot protect themselves from being copied and there are already good competitors out there, in fact they have bought a lot of their competitors along the way.

While Groupon continues to grow wildly and make an insane amount of money quickly, it is not a great fit for many small businesses.

On Wiki the example they give for a failed Groupon is a coffee shop in Portland that was inundated with thousands of Groupon customers on the first day of selling the coupon and they simply could not handle the traffic. Wiki also sites that Gap sold over 400,000 Groupon coupons and their server crashed at the influx of traffic. Incredible.

However there are businesses that benefit from Groupon. Take for example the Oregon Coast Aquarium that is usually kinda empty, lots of nice volunteers waiting around just hoping to get to talk to a visitor. Well they just sold a Groupon that will get 50,000 visitors thru their doors in the next year. That is 50,000 people enjoying the Newport Aquarium that might not have otherwise, they will shop at the giftstore and eat in the cafeteria. Not to mention the amazing fact that Groupon sold more than $120,000 worth of coupons for the Aquarium in 2 days. I think its pretty incredible.

On the flip side, some businesses really don't think it thru and end up selling a coupon that costs them heavily. Say for instance a restaurant that sells an $8 coupon, they sell 1,500 of them on Groupon, making them $6000 (which they will get in 3 chunks of $2000 over the course of the year) but now they have to make and sell $24,000 worth of product. That is a lot of product for a restaurant to sell for only $6k. They will lose money on this deal, between their cost of supplies and staff, there is no way around this heavy loss. In fact, I kinda feel guilty buying restaurant Groupons. All I gotta say is if you do, tip heavily and buy a few cocktails when using a restaurant Groupon. For realz. I don't know why a small business-owner restaurateur would possible sell a Groupon. But they seem to get talked into it all the time. What I think is that they just don't realize how many will sell, they don't crunch the numbers, and they don't do their research. Groupon claims the biggest draw back for small businesses like this is not being able to deal with the flood of business they will drive your way. Perhaps businesses don't believe them when they say that.

Okay, before I start rambling on and on, my point is this - the Aquila Glass School is selling a Groupon for a beadmaking class. We crunched the numbers, we learned from our first Groupon (it was for a Fusing class which Don thought might sell a few dozen then 1,300 sold in reality!) and now we are at it with a bead class. If all goes well I will have a thousand or so new students in my classes over the next year. Lots of full classes and more future glass addicted crafters. For the studio it is a good thing.

Positive Feedback

I received this email after a class I taught last night:

I totally appreciate you, your class and your teaching style! I've listened to you teach various torchworking classes over that past few months and love how much fun you make it. I'm glad that I asked you about the torchworking for fusers - I think it is really what I need to just add some additional little loving touches to my pieces. As I was falling asleep last night my mind was creating those little twisty piece candy cane type pieces (latachino?) and imagining how to use them.

Your laugh is infectious and it helped make the atmosphere so light and simple that, like you said, it really was like kindergarten and there was nothing I could do wrong.

Thanks again. Not everyone can be a great artist and also be a great teacher. I think you have done both!

-Gina Granato

Thanks Gina! And thank you for letting me share your kind words on my blog!!

I hope my students know I appreciate them as much as they appreciate me! Teaching classes for the past 7 years has been a pleasure, an act of reciprocity and a constant challenge.

Come take a class with me - I promise to show you a good time, certainly laughs will be had and you will get to play with hot glass in the flame!!

http://AquilaGlassSchool.com

Fusible Decal Paper on Glass

My friend Laura made these little glass pendants using images that were printed onto photo fusing paper. She pointed out that if you use French Vanilla Bullseye glass (the reactive glass 0137) instead of White (0113 or 0013) the decal looks almost black (note: its not really black, but the dark brown reaction with the vanilla looks black!)

The image above shows one decal fired on White Glass under clear (the pumpkin) and another fired on French Vanilla under clear (the witch). I'd bet the new Reactive White (0009 Reactive Cloud) would also make the decal look sorta black.

At the Aquila Glass School you can get Don to print out your images onto "Photo Fusing Paper" (he has the paper and a laser printer) and many people use this product to put images into their fused glass projects. They bring in their image saved onto a memory stick and he prints it out onto the decal paper. You wet the printed paper and slide the decal onto your glass. The results can vary, but its a simple and effective process.

The iron oxides in the laser toner make the image withstand high temperatures of firing the glass, afterwards it leaves a sepia-tone type image (sort of a burnt rusty color).

Here is a link for more information and prices for having Don print your decals:

http://www.thestoreataquila.com/photo_fusing_paper.htm

to check out Laura work:

http://appleglassoriginals.etsy.com

.

New Studio Space

I am moving into new studio space - the shop that I teach at, the Aquila Glass School, is renting out some upstairs space to myself and a couple of friends. Its a great space, and Don is fantastic to work with.

The electrician is coming on the 15th to put in all the power lines (4 kilns and two big lights). I had Tim help me build crates to hold the glass (and Amy already had the amazing crate shown above). I forgot to take pictures of the space with the new stuff in it. Today I picked up great shop tables to work on (thank you craigslist). Its been sorta intense, everything is heavy and this is an upstairs unit. Next week my goal is to pick up the kiln I am purchasing at Bullseye and get it up there. Anyone strong and burly want to help? Sheesh. I am dreading getting it up there. Today I picked up the cement board to line the surface that will hold the new kiln. So I am ready, just nervous of moving a kiln that weighs over 300lbs up a flight of stairs that turns in the middle. Yuck. I am hoping I can take the lid off the kiln and that way we only have to move 2 lighter and smaller pieces. Of course this royal "we" doesn't really include me - lets be real - honestly its Tim and who-ever else big-and-strong I can sweet-talk or pay to help heave this beast. :) A friend of mine rented 4 big burly movers when she bought a Paragon. They came in, they moved the thing, they left. It was awesome. Made it look so easy. C'ept she had to pay them for 4 hours (when in took 20mins) to make it "worth their time". hm...

Glass Frogs

Monday I taught a torchworking class at the Aquila Glass School - we made frogs out of borosilicate glass. Such fun in the studio - as always! If you'd like to come join me for a class like this sometime, and curious about what you will make - check it out! We made little frogs that I call "Coqui" because they are small and cute like little Puerto Rican Coqui frogs... Pictured below is a little handful of frogs I brought home to photograph so I could share in my blog what we made:Glass Coqui frogs and frogs on rocks (less fragile - no little feet that can break off) and frogs on pendants (wearable frog sculptures) - last night we also made some lizards on pendants (pictured in the first shot in this blog post)