July Beauties and Babies

Trying to capture the natural beauty of various florals around our property with a version of  blown and sculpted glass.

This July was very full of family, flowers, and furry kittens. I'm sharing some of those pictures with you this month. Even though we are constantly working on new projects in the Studio, sometimes it's nice to take time to smell the flowers and enjoy a simple life now and then.  

Sculpted Rosebuds

A sampling of our wildlife sold in Yellowstone Park Stores

     We enjoyed the birth of our sixth grandchild and 2nd granddaughter at the beginning of the month.

Our brand new granddaughter born in July. 💖💖

The Kittens I talked about last month have kept us on our toes. So silly, naughty and cute, all wrapped up in little balls of fur. 

Our rescued kittens

The following pictures are my once-a-year share of  the flowers around our property, plus our garden and chickens. We like to quote Bilbo Baggins from the Hobbit...."It is not such a bad thing to enjoy a simple life". This month of July we are doing just that, by enjoying family reunions, babies, kittens, working on our yard and gardening. We hope you can take the time to slow down and enjoy the simple things too this summer. 

One of many flowers in the yard.

Many blooms going on in July

Our glass flowers try to blend in with the lilies.

Beautiful colors!

More pops of color

Pink Daisy

Pretty purples

Our garden sign highlighted with fused glass pieces.

More Daisies

Sunflowers are one of my favorite!

Some of our chickens

Hollyhocks galore!

Until next time, take the time to enjoy a tall cold beverage in the hot summer sun.  

February was Fierce

February started out nice enough....we had quite a few snowstorms this month and played outside in the white powder with our furry friends. We also celebrated a couple of birthdays in the family, including our youngest grandson turning 1 earlier this month. But midway through the month we both came down hard with the Crud! It hit us something fierce! It especially hit Russ hard, so our annual Valentine rosebud lessons had to be rearranged until he got to feeling better. Today is the last day of the month and he's still not quite 100 percent. This is the first year I can remember whole school districts shutting down because of that nasty bug spreading all throughout our valley. I'm glad we are on the mend now.

Our 5th grandchild turned 1 year old this month.

 Before Russ got sick, he had time to create a few new fused projects, including the wall art below...a callalily scene for our daughter-in-law, who celebrated the big 30 year mark this month. He used stand-offs to hang it in her home. It took multiple firings in the big kiln.

Fused Callalilies ready to fire again in the big kiln.

Finished art work

A large order of blown glass hearts and many roses were also worked on and shipped out this month, in between each of us dealing with fevers and coughs and sniffles.

Another fused scene (pictured below) completed this month represented the many chickadees that come to our property in winter in search of food. It can also be used as wall art and is for sale in our Studio. 

 We had a request at the end of the month for these medallions to go along with a book that a local author had written. We were barely able to squeeze this order in, after dealing with the sickies for weeks on end!

A custom order of Star and Heart blown glass medallions

 Now that we have just about conquered the Crud, we are really looking forward to warmer weather and Spring flowers blooming, akin to our glass tulips pictured below. Believe me, we are so done with "Cabin Fever"!

New Year, New Projects

A Large Glass Snowflake hangs in our Studio window.

 On a positive note, there are only two days left in January.....then time to say goodbye to the January blahs. Actually, not much to complain about today. We are enjoying fairly normal weather while much of the country is in a deep freeze. And as I've said in the past, a cold, cloudy day brings out the creativity in the Studio. So actually, January is a good time to get busy around here. And busy we've been! But it's not all work. We managed to enjoy a weekend at the Driggs Winterscape festival. (Always nice to take time off to have some winter fun now and then.)

Snow sculpture at a winter festival in January.

January storm blowing through.

Our dog stands patrol while I shovel on a winter day.

The month started out with a big fusing project. It was requested by a tennis pro shop in Texas, for an award they were giving to their tournament participants.  Clear COE90 glass was cut into hundreds of circles, then enamel paints were hand painted on to create a tennis ball ornament, adorned with a snowflake on top. It was a big project to start out the year.

Hundreds of tennis ball/snowflake ornaments were created this month.

Tennis Ball Ornaments ready to be fired in the kiln.

The finished ornaments.

 And now we have a new project we are working on for another Non-profit organization in Utah. The heart ornaments below are created using a large, high heat lamp work flame. Colored pyrex rods are added for a light airy, and wispy effect. These large hearts are using up a lot of oxygen. Russ went through one tank in a day! Hundreds of these will be completed in February. We are also gearing up for "Hot Date Night", where Russ will teach couples how to make a glass rosebud for Valentine's Day. It's a fun event we try to do for the locals every year. 

Currently we are working on another large order of blown glass hearts.

 The trick is to stay busy at the torches in the winter months, so we can enjoy the Spring and Summer months in the great outdoors. A customer brought in the flower sculpture below that they had purchased from us a few years ago, to get repaired. We were happy to have the colors of Spring in the Studio, for a fleeting moment. Well, time to get back to work on this cold January day. Until next time, stay warm out there. ☃

This colorful blown glass piece makes us look forward to warmer weather.

Dog Days of Summer

I took a picture of Russ taking a picture of a beautiful Idaho sunset. 😊

Family reunions filled up a lot of weekends this month, and already August is coming to an end. Nice thing about that, is no more air conditioning should be needed. One thing you can count on in Idaho, is our short summers. We can't complain though, while much of the country swelters in the summer sun, we rarely see the 100 degree mark. However, this August saw plenty of smoke from fires near and wide. That made it hard to breathe, but also made for some spectacular sunsets. And it did get hot enough a few days, to refer to the term "Dog Days of Summer". Makes it hard to work in the Studio at those temps., but we did manage to work on a few projects this month. One of them had to do with the passing of a friend's beloved pet. We also enjoyed spending time with some of our grand kids, romping around in our backyard playground.

Russ playing with our grand daughter in our backyard.

One of our friends lost her beloved furry companion Newton, this past month. She requested a memorial be made with his ashes. Russ came up with a slumped and fused design that incorporated the dog's ashes with the paw print. I created some flowers that also had the ashes incorporated in the middle and added it to complete the memorial gift, shown below. We would like to offer different versions of this idea to customers who would like to remember their pets in this way. We were thinking a framed piece that could hang on a wall would work well also.

Fused Glass Paw Print with a pet's ashes incorporated.

The finished Pet's Memorial.

In the picture below, Russ created a panel of trees based on the four seasons. We just need to attach it to a steel frame and it will be ready to hang.

Fused and screen printed glass - 4 Season Tree Panels

And there's always room in the kiln for a few new slumped and fused pieces, pictured below.

Striped Slumped and Fused Platter

Slumped and Fused Abstract Bowl

Once in a while, Russ gets inspired to create something for our living space. This month he wanted to recreate a slumped and fused piece inspired by our time spent in the mountains. Many hours were spent sawing, shaping with kaowool in the kiln, and sandblasting the float glass to create the scene of the Tetons. It was also tricky attaching it to the pine wood base and installing in our living room. But now that it's up on the wall, we can enjoy this very large piece of glass art work for years to come. 

We've already had requests to re-create something like this piece, so back to work we go. We'll miss the care-free days of summer, but at least the coming cooler temps will make it easier to work in the Studio. Well, that about wraps it up for the summer, enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

Wall Art - Slumped and Fused Float Glass- The Grand Tetons

A Quick Tour

 

What's up with A Touch of Glass these days, you may ask? Well, this month I'm keeping the blog short and sweet, as we are preparing for a great adventure. (I'll explain more in July.)  We continue to stay busy with various custom projects requested by some local customers. Meanwhile, I've posted  a video of the latest works in our Studio. We hope this summer you have time to make some lasting memories. Until next time, enjoy!

All the Feels in February

Our luster pink glass roses are on display in many forms this time of the year.
(This one was created in the past for a family member, for her wedding.)

This February turned out to be quite different than year's past in the Studio. Normally we promote our "Hot Date Night" for Valentine's Day. Couples sign up for an hour long session and learn how to make glass rosebuds. But thanks to our latest bundle of joy and 5th grandchild arriving a few days before, the lessons were put on hold this year. (Which suited us just fine! We loved welcoming him into the world. He's just perfect, and our little Valentine!)

💘💘💘💘💘

Our fifth grandchild born in February

 When we came back from our visit with our kids and grandchild there was actually time to create some new pieces just for kicks. The decorative slumped and fused glass plate below is my new favorite. The light captures a new color every time I look at it, thanks to the iridescence. 

Multiple fused layers of Iridescence 

This upcycled bottle was slumped onto one of my favorite molds. A nice trivet or piece of kitchen art.

Slumped "Bon Appetit" Glass Bottle

Russ worked over the microphone from last month's blog, for a client's wedding cake top. It was sandblasted for the finished touch.

Sandblasted Glass Microphone

He also experimented with another scene, but is not quite happy with it. A few more trees painted with glass enamels should add the finishing touch to the first picture. Another customer requested a special winter scene plate that could hold a picture of her beloved pet. I added a picture of two of our furry friends for display purposes. Russ used glass enamel paint for the snowflakes.

Winter scene accented with Enamels and an added picture frame.

Winter scene, not quite finished.

Believe it or not, it is time to look ahead to the next holiday season, as we already have clients across the country asking for new ornaments. We are happy to oblige, as it's always fun to come up with a new pattern, like pictured below. Enamel paints are used as highlights to the glass.

New Slumped and Fused Ornament Creations 

Meanwhile, I am enjoying the quiet solitude of winter up here, along with the many varieties of  birds like the chickadees pictured below, that like to frequent our back yard feeders. I can't complain about being snowed in, as the winter has been fairly mild for an Idaho winter. There are already vegetables sprouting up in the greenhouse. Hopefully, we can fit in a cross country ski trek in the mountains before the snow melts. Until next time, enjoy the little things in your life, they really add up!

Chickadees like to hang out in our bushes when they aren't at our bird feeders.