Studio Upheaval

Everything is in the process of moving in my studio right now! We are re-arranging the whole place - the tables where we torchwork are moving to new spot, the kilns are doing a dance number, the office is moving clear to the other side of the place, and right now its just kinda scary and fun all at the same time.This is a view of the front door (on the left side of the picture above) . Its a bit crazy coming in the door at the moment. But after the pile moves, there will be a nice new greeting area and the guys' desks will be up front. Happy smiling faces to greet you at the door!
The guys put the big kiln on a pallet jack and parallel parked it in its new location. That was pretty exciting! :)
And here this cute artist is just beading away with all the moving going on around her! Its just a creative kinda place!

Shipping

Fortunately I had some shipping to come back home to. I did A LOT before I left town. And I made some new business contacts while I was away. Today I spent a few hours shipping my artwork.

I like shipping. Its a bit hectic and time consuming though. But I make it fun, including little freebies, sometimes a story, always a sticker or two. I like getting good mail, and I hope to think I send out good packages.

This is a snapshot of my packing station in action today.

4 Uses of a Shop Vac

This weekend the Portland Crew had brought air mattresses with us to sleep on in the labs in NY... on Friday night Amy missed her train to Boston and ended up sleepin' over at the spot with a few of us - we had plenty of airmattresses for her to use but no functional pumps to blow them up with (snafus - one of them had no batteries, the other was dead...) so we tried the ever-handy ShopVac. Dang this worked well! This picture was taken in the moment, it took all of one moment for the mattress to become completely inflated. Awesome, if I say so myself :)

And earlier that evening we had learned 3 other new uses for the ShopVac from our other fellow NW invaders of the EtsyLabs - Majestic. They made this video about their favorite non-conventional uses of the ShopVac - and man this video makes me laugh! Check it out: http://majesticsituation.blogspot.com/2007/10/3-things-to-do-with-blower.html

So there ya go - 4 new brilliant uses for the ShopVac:
1. Foam Party
2. Confetti Blower
3. Sky Guy
4. Instant Air Mattress Inflation

who said you have to clean with a ShopVac :)

Im in NY!

I am in NY. I am at EtsyLabs. Trunk Show! Oct 26th 6-8pm

For Pictures of our weekend, check out the PDXEtsy Blog

Good Weather!

I dare say this is INCREDIBLE WEATHER! Late October, yet so beautiful and sunny that I had to pull over the car and take a picture of Mt. Hood in all its glory. The mountain appeared so crisp and beautiful, with the new first snow of the season. (2 days ago it was pouring rain)

I also love this picture because its got the Airport in the foreground - tomorrow I am flying out to NY. I'm all giddy with excitement.

Glassworks Tour

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

Today I took a small group on a tour of the Northstar Glassworks factory in Tigard (just south of Portland Oregon).

Abe and Nancy welcomed us with open arms and gave a great tour. Thank You!

We got to see where they make the furnaces and the chemistry behind the mixing of the glass - and then the most fun for me:


the hot furnaces full of beautiful colors!

Northstar Glassworks makes some of my favorite colors in borosilicate glass rods. Blue Moon and Amber Purple (both amazing colors!) were a hit on the tour. We watched as a hot batch of Blue Moon became rods, and Amber Purple is always a super star!

The glass manufactoring in Portland, Oregon is truly amazing. Northstar is one of 4 companies that produce colored glass materials here in town. Portland is a glass town - and I LOVE living here!

They take a hot pot of colored glass, stick a rod of clear glass down into the surface, pull up and out and a trail of hot color will follow, the glass is pulled out (carefully adjusting the height of the rollers to control the diameter of the rod) in one continuous trail of hot yumminess, until the bottom of the pot has been reached.

Online Scavenger Hunt

This is Betsy

Until Oct 26th there is an online scavenger hunt on Etsy.com

If you can find Betsy (she was made by one of the artists flying to NY for the PDXEtsy Trunk Show on Oct. 26th) convo her location to PDXteam.etsy

For a list of shops to look in: go to PDXEtsy.com

The prize: one lucky winner (randomly selected from all the correct answers submited) will be mailed a gift bag of wonderful handmade goodness by artists living here in Portland Oregon.