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.

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

Little Terrariums

A few days ago I taught a class in miniature glass blowing - I couldn't help but play around a little near the end of class and my mind starting wandering to mini terrariums... this afternoon I put some plants in two of them! First some small glass beads in the bottom, some dirt, a little water and then a few strands of my favorite little succulent plant...

The Future of Making is in Your Hands

I'll be speaking at a conference this week for crafty entrepreneurs like myself. Its looking to be a great event! I just went thru the list of speakers and made sure everyone's blog is in my blogfeed. The list of speakers makes me smile! Networking is awesome! This conference is called "The Summit of Awesome". I love the name. Makes me want to take some sort of rock star pose as I say it
I heard there are a few passes left for sale for the conference. It will be held at the Kennedy School and if you are a local crafty entrepreneur, I guarantee there will be much to learn. Check it out :)

here is a link for a great article in the Oregonian about the conference:

http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2010/06/portlands_community_of_crafter.html

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)

The Cousteau Classics

Want to have some fun making beads! Come join me!
I call this series the Cousteau Classics

Each class (call it a fun workshop) is 1 1/2 hours long and costs $99 (this covers all materials and supplies used - all you have to bring is yourself and a good time!). The idea is to have fun making some whimsical aquatic creatures at the Aquila Glass School.
The Cousteau Classics series includes:

• Fish (Feb. 16th 2009)
  
• Turtles (Feb. 2nd 2009)
  
• Manta Ray (Jan 26th 2009)
  
• Dolphin (Feb. 9th 2009)
• Sea Horses (TBA)
  

Introduction to Working Borosilicate Glass

Tonight I am teaching a class introducing the art of torchworking with borosilicate glass. Its a very fun medium - everything in the picture above was made with boroslicate.

Your imagination is the limit with borosilicate glass. Its very forgiving to work with and here in Portland we happen to live in the midst of the largest boro color producing companies! So there are many beautiful colors to play with. Borosilicate glass is well known for interesting color effects.

This class that I teach (Introduction to Borosilicate) is a great launch pad for any crafty person desiring to get into working with this medium. Knowing how to do a good glass weld is pivotal to most any boro creation - check out this video of James Minson making part of borosilicate chandelier! And working is color is what makes this medium fun!

We cover the basics - 1. Welding Glass and 2. Playing with Color

What we make? A 3-dimensional cube and some pendants
note: we do not make everything in this picture - the image represents a variety of things that could possibly be made in boro - the class is 3 hours long and introductory level :)

You could make a pendant like the one I am giving away this week!

To find out when this class is offered (if you aren't joining me tonight!) check out the schedule on the Aquila Glass School website

Give-Away: FREE Pendant

Who wants a free pendant!! Post a comment on this entry and get a chance to win this little beauty!

Its green and white and clear borosilicate glass - its about the size of a quarter. The lines of color swirl gracefully around this little pendant made by yours truely (ME!).

This week I am having a Torchworking Week - what does that mean? It means I am making a concerted effort to get behind the torch as much as possible and all my blog posts will be oriented around glass torchworking. Did you notice I even changed my banner in honor of this week? :)

So enjoy! heres a sneak preview of some of what I will be blogging about this week:

• how torchworkers can personalize handmade candles
• Wednesday I am teaching a class introducing Torchworking Borosilicate
• next week my Cousteau Classics Beadmaking series is starting, so I will blog about that
• and there will be a couple whimsicle surprises as well

stay tuned - especially you torchworking friends of mine - I hope this week will be full of fun reads!

and hey - this pendant could be yours! Winner will be chosen Jan 26th 2009

Playing with Fire

Class last night was a good time! I taught some fused glass artists to play with fire, we made glass embellishments for their fused glass pieces!


The Aquila Glass School has a blog now, I blogged about the class last night.

The Aquila blog will be a way for me (as well as Don and Scott) to post pictures about all the current goings-on at the glass studio. Its a fun quirky place, there is always something going on, now the trick will be getting everyone to take pictures all the time.

Fused Glass Embellishments

I am teaching a class on October 20th called "Torch for Fusers", the name says it all: you learn to make embellishments for glass fusing using a torch.


The above picture shows a glass flower that I created in the torch which later I fused down onto the glass circle.

Here you can see the finished piece.



Class takes 3 hours and you will learn a number of techniques that make for really fun embellishments. We will do flowers, petals, swooshy lines, dots, encased dots (which are pretty much really simple millefiori), latticino (swirly canes) and curly cues. Its a great way to take your fusing to the next level. Some of those design elements that involved a curved line or a rounded organic touch can be achieve by using a torch to manipulate the glass. So this class is a great way to open up your fusing, as well as a fun way to learn how to use a glass torch!

If this sounds interesting - call the Aquila Glass School to sign up or ask questions - I teach this class periodically during the year, so even if its 2009 when you are reading this, if you would like to sign up call: (503)240-9449

.

Learning to Make Beads

This coming Monday I am teaching a Beginning Beadmaking class

Have you ever wanted to learn to make your own beads? Come and play with me and you will be well on your way. Not only will you learn to make beads, you will also gain access to unlimited torch time at the Aquila Glass School (they only charge $8.50/hr for torch time! (glass not included) included is gas, annealing, and tools - wow)

Beginning Beadmaking is such a fun class, introducing the art of playing with fire to create small glass objects. Its an ancient art and a modern facility, I promise you will enjoy yourself. I love seeing what people make, you never know, and some first-timer beads are masterpieces that couldn't ever be recreated!

There is space available in this class - click here if you are interested in reading more about it - or call the shop to sign up: (503)240-9449

Be the Change

This construction site is in Portland Or where the Portland Saturday Market food court used to hang out on the weekends :)

After all the work is finished, Mercy Corps will be moving into their new global headquarters.

Are you familiar with Mercy Corps?
Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities.

Do you live in Portland and work as a entrepreneur/artist/small business-person?
Mercy Corps Northwest is an incredible resource. As Mercy Corps’ local economic development office, Mercy Corps Northwest promotes economic self-sufficiency through microenterprise development and self-employment in the greater Portland, OR-Vancouver, WA region. Started in 1998, Mercy Corps Northwest assists entrepreneurs in their desire for economic stability through starting or expanding a small business.

Let me just point out three amazing services they provide:
1. Classes: many many opportunities, for making business plans, doing taxes, hiring employees, etc
2. Asset Building Programs: a matched savings program(for every $1 you save they match you with $3), helps economically disadvantaged people learn to budget and save money to start or build a business or become more profitably self-employed.
3. Mercy Corps Loan Fund: loan fund provides financing and technical assistance to low-income entrepreneurs who need capital to start or expand a microenterprise.

and this doesn't even mention the mentor program, the online resources, and endless other opportunities.

Focus

A group from my local neighborhood highschool (Madison High in NE Portland) came into the studio to do some torchworking with me today. Here they are happily learning to make torchworked figurines, we made animals: snakes, slugs, turtles and elephants.

The kids were part of a group called "Focus" for students that are struggling with their studies in this large public highschool. Focus is so amazing that they have become their own program, separate from Madison. The kids learn to focus, stay in school, graduate from high school and get guidance in placement for continuing their education or getting jobs. One of the staff in the Focus program, Eddy, loves working with glass and she has taught her students to fuse. For a few years now she has been bringing groups of kids to Aquila to learn more about glass. So today was one of these "field trips" for a select group of guys. Eddy is great - she is a constant positive force for her kids and she is able to help them get grants to be able to do fun things like play with glass. She's an amazing teacher and its great that she brings in these groups to learn to torchwork.

It certainly keeps me on my toes, working with teenagers... but I am happy for them that they have such a good time. I would have LOVED to learn to torchwork glass while I was in highschool.

Borosilicate Glass Pendants

I love the way a simple borosilicate glass pendant glows in the light, polychromatic as it is. This pendant is one dot of a fantastic color behind a globe of clear.

Last week at Aquila I taught a class in making pendants, we had a real good time and made some beautiful glass! The picture above was the first exercise, a little amber purple under a ball of clear. Beautiful eh?! Below you can see a picture of part of the class hard at work having fun. You can sign up for my classes thru the studio or thru PCC - there is a link on the right.

Torchworking Classes

I have an intro to Borosilicate Glass class today - thats learning about working with Pyrex glass using a torch - its fun stuff! - and then in the evening I'm doing a rain-check class in making geckos - like the cutie-pie pictured below. I made him!

I'll take some pictures and share them later on tonight. Both are fun classes.

Anyone can join me in class anytime, check out the Aquila Glass School website for descriptions and a calendar... or go to your PCC class roster and sign up thru them (same price)