Good Tidings

One of our large blown glass Angels created by our Lamp work torch.

Have you ever had the feeling that external forces are helping you along in life, without being able to pinpoint the exact cause for your good tidings? This sums up our 2015 year in the Studio. Call it a guardian angel or whatever phenomenon you'd like, but we felt like the season was full of exciting and memorable creations, to where it felt like something outside ourselves was sometimes helping us along our paths of creativity.

A blown glass scuba diver ornament

The year is winding down and we are finding ourselves reflecting once again, on so many unique, fun creations of glass, from the beginning in January, right down to the very end of December.  

A unique piece of art features a fused glass trout swimming in a riverbed

Of course, we have had our share of mishaps too, like the trout scene above. Countless hours were spent on the fused piece, only to find out it was damaged during shipping. That's the luck of the draw, when it comes to shipping glass. But we try not to spend too much time and energy focused on the failures, and instead, like to focus on the overall success of the glass art we created in the Studio.

Blown glass treble clef ornament

Many ornaments were shipped out the door the last quarter of the year, from doves to candy canes, to Christmas trees, to musical ornaments. 

Lovely Calla Lily Arrangement

We also had time to create commissioned pieces like the elegant luster pink Calla lilies pictured above. They are nestled in one of our recycled and engraved wine bottles for a unique centerpiece for the home of our customer.

Slumped and fused pieces featured at our Annual Open House this year.

The fused pieces above, and the blown glass elk below were featured in our annual December Open House. We look forward to the community coming to our Studio this time every year to watch us blow glass and browse through our large selection of ornaments and glass art.

Blown Glass Elk were also featured at our annual Open House

We did a commissioned Idaho Falls Temple for one customer that came to our Open House. There are glass pine trees surrounding the building, just like the real time landscaping.

A commissioned blown and sculpted glass Idaho Falls Temple

We had time to make a unique tiki ornament for all of Adele's brothers and sister, to remember the fun we had at her family's reunion. It was held in sunny California earlier this year. The reunion had a tiki theme and we gave these whimsical ornaments to help them reflect back to good times with the family.

Whimsical Glass Tiki Ornaments

We also had time to make new ornaments right up to the last minute. One customer requested the cute penguin ornament below.

Commissioned blown glass penguin ornament

These scalloped float glass trees were a bit of a challenge to make, but the end result was what we were after, with an engraved greeting on the front of the ornaments.

Scalloped and engraved float glass Christmas tree ornaments

Another customer asked to have their pets blown out of glass to mimic the real thing. This was also a challenge to get exactly right, as the colored glass is much harder to work with. We hope the recipient was happy with this piece.

A customer's pets were recreated out of colored glass

Once all the orders were complete and picked up, we got to business preparing for family to come. We still pick out an old fashioned pine tree to decorate, just like the old days, when our kids were younger and we would go into the forest to chop down a tree. We eagerly awaited the arrival of all of our children on Christmas Eve. The little grandchildren were all gifted Christmas pajamas and this Grandpa and Grandma were in heaven surrounded by all our children and their families.

Our old fashioned Christmas tree

The most precious gifts, our grandchildren

Cute ornaments we made just for our grandchildren

We enjoyed some much needed time off from the Studio and played in our back yard's winter wonderland with our oldest grandson. It was quite cold, but still fun to enjoy a very white Christmas this year.

Fun in the snow with our grandson

The slumped and fused snowman candle centerpiece felt appropriate to make this year too, with all the snow that's been falling in our neck of the woods.

Slumped and fused winter snowman scene accented with a candle

Jack Frost is also working his magic lately. Everything is shimmering and bright under a full moon Christmas picture that we took out our front window. We would like to thank each and every customer that has purchased from us and helped us continue to thrive as a small business, and look forward to another new year of great tidings. Season's greetings and a very happy new year from 

A Touch of Glass Studio.

Jack Frost is helping us end the year out right with a beautiful winter scene view out our front yard.