Walking Adventures

Today I had an adventure with Portland Public Transportation. Tried out an easy route from my house to my shop using the 33 bus and the yellow line of the Max Train. In a total Leah moment I got off the bus too early (instead of at the train stop like I was supposed to). Moment of confusion, no biggy, I knew where I was, so I just started walking. About a mile down the road I passed a bakery, the amazing Grand Central, and stopped by there for a sandwich... then I ended up at Mississippi and walked all the way down the hill to Interstate (at least another mile) where I picked up the train. How did my route run so amook? I dunno. It took 2 hours to get to my shop. Which usually I could drive to in 15 minutes. But I had a good time! The walk was brilliant and the weather was sun-shiney. I successfully did make it to my shop and back. And I got a bunch of work done. So I can't complain.

I could complain about the fact that my car died last Thursday (the transmission on my perfectly good '99 Rav4 just ate sh*t and now I am facing $$$$ to fix it or donate it for a tax refund and get a new car). The predicament is overwhelming and the reality of the matter is I have no wheels now. My brother let me use his car last weekend to vend at the Saturday Market, and today it was soo nice out and I simply don't have time to shop for a car with all the prep-work for Thanksgiving weekend at the market, I gotta get work done. So public transport was my wheels today - and it was an adventure in many ways. I have been meaning to use my bike and public transport more... so I am taking this opportunity to do so. (and trying to remain calm all the while - what else can I do!)

Handmade and Affordable Glass Christmas Ornaments

the Christmas Tree Ornament section is now open in my online shop!

These glass tree ornaments are the perfect gift this season!

Completely handmade by me, Leah, and affordable for you, my beloved customers!

They look like little presents (packages of glittering joy!) with little bow ties on the tops (I make the bows using a torch, then I fuse them onto the 2.5" squares). The "wrapping paper" patterns are made in a variety of different ways, the red ornament above is made by scattering my scrap pieces of red glass on a thin piece of iridized glass (there is a silver or gold iridescent film on the back of the ornaments so they will glitter on the tree with the lights and all) and I kiln fire all this scrap to turn it into a big flat sheet that I then cut up into small squares. Processes like this allow me to keep my cost low and consume some of the little pieces of scrap I have left at the end of the year!
The snowflake pattern is made using copper foil and a paper punch. I blogged about them a while back.

All of these ornaments are for sale now in my Etsy shop. Great for gift exchanges and family gatherings!

Happy Holidays!

Family Passions Passed Down

I have been thinking a lot about family lately.

Loved ones facing crisis, emails from family on different sides of the country, my heart is aching a bit right now and my brain has turned to stories from the past.

My maternal grandmother, Birdy Bergstrom, passed away before I was born. The story here is that she was an avid paperweight collector, her collection combined with her sister-in-law's to create the foundation of a paperweight museum. Her brother John had bequeathed his house to the city of Neenah Wisconsin, along with the glass paperweight collections, to become the Bergstrom Mahler Paperweight Museum.

My mother grew up in Neenah WI, just around the corner from her Aunt and Uncle Evangeline and John - she remembers them quite well. I grew up in Cleveland, OH, and there were paperweights throughout the house, dotting the mantel and holding books in place on various shelves. It wasn't until I was in my 20's that my mother took me to the Museum (we were in WI for a family reunion) and I got to learn all about the paperweights.

It felt as though a passion of my grandmother's had been passed down to me. I had begun blowing glass a few years before learning about the Museum and paperweights have always been a favorite of mine. I remember making paperweights in my first glass class and thinking that I could just make paperweights for the rest of the 8 week class! They were so amazing! Here's a picture of one of the first paperweights I made back in 1999. (its probably not the first one, I gave most of my paperweights away in the beginning and this is just the first one I found around the house when I went to take some pictures just now)
Its interesting to me that although I never met the woman, my mother's mother, I feel a bond with her that we both enjoy glass. Thats a good feeling.

The last picture here is of the front of the paperweight in the first picture. Its a special edition paperweight featuring Evangeline Bergstrom, I believe they were created when the Museum was founded. As you can see in the engraving on the back, I have the 3rd of 250 that were created! It was one of the paperweights I grew up with in my Ohio home and when I became a full time glass artist it was given to me.
Evidently a passion for glass runs thick in the blood.

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Glass Mobile in the Garden

This mobile adorns the side of the Weinstein house in their beautiful Portland Oregon garden. I love my customers, and I love getting to have pictures of my mobiles in their homes!

It dances in the view from the kitchen sink.

I would be happy to make your kitchen window have a mobile in the view. It's my pleasure!
visit http://www.LeahGlass.com for more info

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Christmas Ornaments

I've got to get my Christmas ornaments listed online... they are wonderful little glass treasures, great for gift exchanges and family ornament collections.
I am not happy with the pictures I've taken so far. The ornaments look great on the tree... the lights blew on my little display tree though, so no twinkle action... I have another idea to try this afternoon (a santa hat?)They are supposed to look like little packages, with a bowtie at the top that I make in the torch and fuse onto the little glass square. The square I make in all different patterns... so the photography is something that I have really only begun. So far I just don't think the background or the staging screams Christmas yet... I've got to try a little harder to really show how cute these guys are! And then I've got to figure out how to list them so its not too hard to buy more than one (and I am hesititant about overwhelming my shop with ornaments...)

Etsy

Well this is a pick-me-up! I just logged onto Etsy and saw one of my favorite wee mini mobiles dancing around the center of the Front Page. Yeah! Thats good for a few hundred clicks and hopefully it will make me some sales. Its been a long time since I saw myself on the front page of Etsy. The front page switches out so often now, my mobile will probably be up there for maybe 20 minutes or so. I am so glad I happened to log onto Etsy and see it while I could! It bugs me that the artist gets no alert or notification of your front page status, so its really random to actually see yourself there. Most of the time the only way to tell is by noticing that suddenly you have short upsurge of visitors to your shop and perhaps a small rush of sales (then you can log onto flickr where some awesome Etsy users post pictures of the front pages and you can check to see if indeed something in your shop was featured... its kinda elaborate and round-about, but hey, curiosity killed the cat, and Etsy users are crafty like that!)

So today was such a pleasure! Thanks Kimiko611!

Win Free Stuff from the Portland Craft Mafia!

The hunt will last 11/15/2008-11/29/2008. The winner will be randomly drawn from all correct entries. The lucky winner will be announced no later than December 1. The entire box of goodies will be mailed out with plenty of time before the holidays.

to enter check out the PDX Craft Mafia Blog for all the details (of how to play and what you'll win!)
http://portlandoregoncraftmafia.blogspot.com/2008/11/win-free-stuff-from-portland-craft.html

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