And the Award goes to....

Wow! Almost two months has gone by since we last talked. What a busy time in the studio! This time of year, we're lucky to take those pups of ours on their daily walks. And boy, do they let us know it! Well, sorry furry friends, it's only gonna get worse. Or better, depends on the perspective.

It seems lately this year, that one thing has led to another, and we are now so inundated with new projects we can't see straight. Better adjust those rose colored glasses, and get focused on the new venture at hand.

But first, I think our readers (if there are any out there in the blog-o-sphere) would like to see just what it is that's kept us so busy. Since we last talked, besides training for a 1/2 marathon, (a personal goal of mine for turning the big 50 this year. And yes, I ran the whole way and completed it. Just don't ask how I felt the next day. :) ) we had another opportunity to create some unique awards for our local art museum's 10th anniversary celebration. We just wrapped that project up, and then loaded up the rest of our glass for a 3 day Beaux Cadeux event at their lovely facility. We enjoyed packaging up a variety of our ornaments and glass gifts for several art patrons during this show.

Funny how things work, their director had heard we created the VIP gifts for the King Tut exhibit, and asked us to do something along similar lines. This time the task was to create a unique award for all the patrons and volunteers that helped make the museum what it is today. It's had 10 years of success as The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho, thanks in part to the support of many in our community. So a brief description will offer you the inside look at how we came about with another unique glass project, thinking outside the box.

We've attached pictures of the different phases of the award. First, we cut float glass two layers thick, then cleaned them up and came up with 4 different colors of glass frit that we sandwiched between the two layers. Then we fused them in the kiln. The process took 12 hours for two awards. We created a total of 30 awards.

Cutting float glass

Glass frit colors

Fusing glass awards

Fused glass

Next, we used a mold to slump the pieces into a beautiful  curved shape, and again for every two pieces, the slumping process took close to 12 hours. Below is an example of the finished piece. It has an organic feel, as the back of the award has a great texture to it, and we were happy with the end result. A unique award going out to some well deserving folk in our community. We were glad to be a part of this venture.

Unique glass award

And now, another local business has caught wind of our ability to think outside the box, and they want us to create 650 hand sculpted glass rocks! Oh my, looks like the torches will be roaring full time from here on out.  And our Open House is two weeks away. So much to do, so little time! We could use an extra pair of hands about right now. I've learned a great lesson here, "Be careful what you wish for"!