New Spring Colors and Projects

Colorful glass eggs accent a real bird's nest we found in our yard.

Bird's nest completes our birdhouse outside

Time for us to check in again with our monthly blog. I'll keep it short and sweet this month. We are both ready for Spring color, and ready for March to be over. The winds are howling outside right now and it can grate on one's nerves after days on end of the same windy weather patterns. Just like the predictable winds, March was no exception to our pattern of staying busy in the Studio. 

While we had plenty of orders to take care of, I had been wanting to do something with this bird's nest I found in our yard. It had fallen from one of our trees. Russ created some colorful eggs, and I spruced up one of our bird houses outside with the recycled bird's nest. A fun project to create on the side.

Below are projects completed in the Studio while the March winds were whipping. The glass is hand sculpted in our lamp work flame. Some of the glass, like the crosses, are made using slumping and fusing techniques. There tends to be a wider variety of color when working with soft glass, as compared to the hard blown glass.

We've added a customized label to some of our ornaments this year.

Colorful balls remind us of an Easter basket full of colorful Spring eggs.

Glass crosses and a variety of other ornaments created for a customer.

Flowers were still in demand this month, and we had a variety of special orders to finish, like the anemones and tulips pictured below.

Our first try at a new flower

A pretty bouquet of Anemones

Glass Tulips are a perfect gift this time of year.

A completed glass tulip arrangement

One of our new baby chicks tip-toeing through the tulips

 Now that March is coming to a close, we are pondering which project to complete next. Hmmm, April showers bring May flowers. Maybe it's time to start thinking about doing some wedding bouquets.

March Madness

The howling winds of March are here. This is what we Idahoans call "March Madness". They are relentless this time of year, wears a person out just listening to them. Even inside the studio I can't escape the high pressure waves of endless and excessive wind gusts. Spring is rarely pretty up here, and slow to produce any blooming bulbs like daffodils or tulips. Jealously I'm aware they are already popping up in lower, less hostile environments, unlike our high mountain desert. 

So we have no choice but to improvise from our desire for a lovely windless Spring day full of flowers blooming and birds chirping. We create our own "Spring" lamp working glass scenes like the one below. Of course you can get a lot done in the Studio when the winds keep you from tooling around in the garden and yard. We have been working on a number of projects this month to keep our minds off the howling winds outside.

Daffodils and butterflies created for a customer

Below are two donations we made for the Snake River Animal Shelter's Fundraiser to be held at the end of the month. They are raising funds to build a brand new shelter for our town, and we are happy to help donate to their cause.

Scalloped and Engraved Float Glass Incorporated with Blown Glass

Last month we showcased the Papa Murphy's heart shaped glass pizza award. Lucky for us, they enjoyed the finished piece so much, that they place another order for more. We should have this large order complete some time in April. This takes a huge amount of kiln time, as there are so many layers and lots of cutting, crushing, and sawing parts to complete the pizzas. 

Many pieces of glass are needed to create a life size version of a pepperoni pizza

Every piece has to fit exactly right and fire in the kiln correctly or it could spell a recipe for disaster, and the process starts all over again.

Fitting on Pepperonis  before firing in the kiln

Thank goodness we invested in this Cutter's Mate, it has helped ease the process of cutting so many pieces of glass to a precise dimension.

Cutting out parts with our Cutter's Mate

Hopefully by the time we complete the above project, the winds will have died down and we can get to the business of planting bulbs, listening to birds chirping, and enjoy the rebirth of Spring in our gardens. Meanwhile, we'll just stay out of the volatile weather and create our own Spring renditions inside our warm Studio.

Blown glass hummingbirds and flowers created at the torch