Happy Halloween!

We wanted to take a minute and wish you a happy Halloween.....

Blown Glass Black Cat and Pumpkins

 This month in the Studio we've been creating some fun Fall projects. We took real leaves from our trees and fired them onto Float glass. Then colored in the imprints with enamels, and placed  them on Kao Wool for a unique glass enamel piece.

Enamels before firing in the kiln

 We also created a fused Fall scene piece (pictured right) for a gift given this month, to one of our sons and his family. We love the Fall colors on both pieces.

Enamel and fused Fall Leaves

 Now to wait for the little goblins and monsters to come knocking on our door. (Then back to work we go, to get ready for our first Fall Artisan Show.) Have a spook-tacular Day!

We recently visited our local "Boo at the Zoo." Enjoy the night of Halloween! 

The Colors of October

"Hiding in the Woods"

If you know anything about me, you know that October is my favorite "color". 😊 And some of this month's glass creations just happened to reflect some of those vivid orange, red, and yellow hues of Autumn, currently on full display in many of our forests. The Slumped and Fused piece pictured above is nestled in a Birch branch.

Idaho's Fall Colors

Also residing in the Autumn foliage are a good number of mule deer and some white tail deer. Russ sculpted the mighty Buck pictured below, and placed it on an antler.

The Mighty Buck

I also finished a bunch of bright red blown glass chili ristras for a customer this month.

Glass Chili Ristras

The slumped and fused vase below incorporated just about every color on the spectrum.

Colorful Fused Glass Vase

This next creation wasn't inspired by the beauty of the Fall scenery. However, this month Russ was driven to create the piece below because of what has been going on with the political discourse in our country. His thought process went along the lines that the issues we are facing are not just a matter of "Black and White." Labels continue to tear us apart..... "Right vs. Left," "Wealthy vs. Impoverished,"  "Straight vs. Gay", "Christian vs. Agnostic," etc. etc. If we don't get our collective acts together soon, and figure out how to work together instead of continuing with the current polarization going on, our Democracy could melt into an uncertain future. What if we worked harder at embracing each other's ideas and worked  towards solutions for the common good. After all, "the future is in our hands" to create a colorful, healthy and vibrant America, and remember what it really means to be a great country. Lately it seems we have lost our way, it's time to get back on track. 

(A little back story on the creation below.)

"The Future is in our Hands"

The many layers in the fused piece below were another October creation.

Multi colored fused glass plate

To end a very busy month of October, Russ is taking on a rather large endeavor. There are many layers and contours to fill in with this project. 

A work in progress

There have been multiple firings in the kiln, of this Crested Crane, and Russ is working on the background environment. Still a work in progress.

Many firings in our kiln until it's complete, stay tuned.

Well, that's a wrap for this month. Looking forward to the little ghosts and goblins coming around to  trick or treat. That reminds me, I better get some pumpkins carved. Yikes!

Pumpkins from our garden.

Peaks and Valleys

Time for another blog entry as to what's going on in the Studio....This month was spent organizing a variety of  different types of glass, and wrapping up our Yellowstone order, plus creating another float glass mountain scene. The wolves pictured below were the last of the glass wildlife packed up and headed to the Park Stores. I got to hand deliver all the pieces personally, and enjoyed a side benefit of Old Faithful erupting while I was there. The Park looked healthy and vibrant,with patches of snow still hanging on in the high country.

Our Border Collie Maggie seems to want to help with the work.

Howling wolves headed for Yellowstone Park

Once back from the day trip, it was time to focus on organizing glass in the Studio. Also, as seems to be the norm now, we have to attend to a constant stream of Etsy orders coming in every month, like the colorful teardrops pictured below. 

Swirls of color were added to these teardrops

It's always nice to get creative in the Studio and try something new. Russ actually had time to create a unique piece of new art work for one of our Nephews this month. Below are the steps taken to create the "peaks and valleys". Russ started out with a concept drawn out on paper. Then he used the new glass saw that we purchased at the Glass Expo a couple months ago, to cut away the mountain range and rolling hills in sections. This project was all made out of float glass.

First stage of the "Peaks and Valleys" Mountain Scene

Cutting into the glass with our new saw. Such an improvement from the old one!

The next step was to fire them in the new kiln, to heat the rough-cut glass down to a soft edge.

Float glass ready to be fired in the kiln

Kaowool was placed under the float glass' top edges for the mountain peaks. This technique is used to give them the contour and illusion of snowy peaks. Once fired, it peels off.

Kaowool technique

The kiln was fired up to 730 C to get the effect Russ was going after. The final stage was to sandblast the rolling hills that were placed in front of the mountain range. 

Firing the Float glass

The finished project is pictured below and will be used as a back splash behind their kitchen sink, and once installed, can be seen from their kitchen and living room area in their home. We're hoping it works with their vision of what they want for their home's decor. They live in a beautiful valley in Montana surrounded by rolling hills and mountains. It was a challenging but fun project to take on. 

"Peaks and Valleys"

Below is a different background for the picture. It was so big that taking a picture was a bit of a challenge. Looking forward to having it delivered this weekend. Now on to a myriad of other projects, because around here the fun never ends. 😊

Grass is always greener on the other side....

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.

So Busy It's Scary

Whooooo's ready for Halloween?

You want to know what's scary this month? Besides the local hauntings, little goblins, and creepy crawlies....blinking an eye and realizing it's already over! It seems like a blur, so much done in the Studio, yet so far to go. 

We started out October like we ended September, blowing and sandblasting hundreds of dove ornaments for a non-profit organization that found us on Etsy. Wouldn't seem like a daunting task, except there's just the two of us, with a short time frame to get the work done. That counts for many, many hours of labor, and boy were we happy to ship them out the door this week. I think if there had been one more day of that noisy compressor blasting away, our dogs would've committed some kind of murder upon us for hurting their ears.

A small portion of a very large ornament order

We did manage to get away once in a while, and happened to come upon a scary looking forest one weekend, while looking for firewood. Scary as it looked, it felt really good to breathe in the forest and Autumn air, instead of dealing with the dust that accompanies our sandblast activities in the Studio.

Spooky forest

Also, everything was put to an abrupt halt earlier this month, when we were notified our 3rd grandchild was on his way.  What a beautiful reprieve from the tedious goings-on in the Studio, as I realized grandson #3 would come into the world on what was my very own day of birth, many years ago. He was welcomed into the world with lots of love, a perfect baby boy, and I couldn't believe we were both to share a special bond with this day. What a grand thing for this grandparent. I was gifted the ultimate present on my birthday. A precious day to be treasured for the rest of my years of life.

Our 3rd grandson is having sweet dreams

Once the happiness of welcoming our grandchild into the world had subsided, we headed back down the road home, and right into the Studio to complete lots of unfinished projects. The pieces below were created this month, along with the large order of doves.

Shark, Stingray, Starfish and Coral Scene

The War Cry

Mama Bear and her cubs

And now that Halloween is just about here, I think we'll take the time to spend with family members, and do some fun spooky hauntings before the next holiday orders come rushing at us full speed ahead. So busy it's scary!

Our carved pumpkins