Showing posts with label 2015. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2015. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

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.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Universal Understanding


Earlier this summer I had an "Ah-ha" moment while on a morning stroll with our furry companions. I was hoping we could enter a new piece of art work into our State Fair this year, and put on my creative thinking cap while briskly walking the dogs. My better half and partner has always had a fascination with anything regarding Space, the "final frontier," and an idea started formulating in my mind of how he could combine his love of glass with his love of the Universe. I hurried home and described in detail what my vision was to him. (This happens quite often, when formulating new ideas for pieces of art, with us both bouncing ideas off of each other.) He immediately began the research involved to take on such a project, and decided slumped and fused pieces were the way to go for the Universal effect that we  were collectively tuned into. 


Countless hours and kiln firings later, our solar system was complete and ready to be put into orbit, along with distant galaxies. Below is the final result of the piece that will be on display at the State Fair the first week in September. It is quite a large piece measuring 36" x 48", and has a 3D effect, with the planets set on standoffs at different heights. Many hours were put into getting the planetary detail put together in a way that was originally envisioned .  We are interested to see what the general public thinks of this particular piece of slumped and fused glass art. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by the Eastern Idaho State Fair and take a peak at it, and let us know what you think.

Our solar system is included in this piece titled "Universal Understanding"

Below are some other projects worked on during the months of July and August as well. We have been experimenting with some unique shapes and fun designs of slumped and fused clocks as well. 

Slumped and Fused Wall Clock
Slumped and Fused Standing Clock

There were also a few more western themed and wildlife, nature pieces created. We can't seem to stock our Etsy store with enough hummingbirds, before they "fly" off the shelf! 

Hummingbirds with flowers are a top seller


Pair of wolves on the hunt

Blown glass bucking bronco ornament

And finally, we're currently working on a large order for some float glass Christmas trees. Yes, I'm sorry to say, it's already time to start thinking of the holidays, especially in our line of work. We will be spending a good amount of time in the Studio restocking our shelves with a wide variety of ornaments, so stay tuned for ideas for unique gift giving for the not-too-distant future.

Preparing scalloped and engraved float glass Christmas tree ornaments