Loving and Loss, Learning and Leaping

We had a busy Valentine season, selling many different roses.

 The month of February was one of loving, learning, loss, and last but not least, "Leap day". We started out the first part of the month by creating many glass roses of different styles and varieties for our Etsy customers. Then we worked throughout Valentine's weekend on our "Hot Date Night" glassblowing lessons. This has been a tradition holding steady for quite a few years now. It is a unique Valentine that couples really seem to enjoy. Some are a bit nervous to start out, but Russ is a great teacher and seems to be able to calm most people's fear of the hot torch flames. Others are eager to work in the Lamp Work flames and seem quite natural for beginners.
I also wanted to share the picture below, made in the past, regarding a unique memorial created for a beloved family pet. 

An idea to incorporate a beloved pet's ashes into glass.

This month projects were also completed that represented some great loss of beloved pets. My sister and her family lost their canine companion last summer. Her name was Rozy and she was part of their family for close to 16 years. Russ finally had the time to create some unique pieces for her. He cut and slumped the white glass first to create a puzzle effect. (She is the missing puzzle piece to their family.) Then he painted on and fired in the kiln, layer after layer after layer of glass enamel paints, until he got the replica of Rozy as accurate as possible. It took about a month to complete. 

Glass Enamels were used to paint these portraits onto glass puzzle pieces.

And finally, we are dealing with heartbreak at the end of the month, as our first grand puppy Bear, has passed away from cancer. It has been really hard to process. We have been through the loss of  our own pets before, but this is the first "grand"dog to pass on. He belongs to our second born son and his family. He was a Shelter dog and had a heart of gold. It never gets any easier, and the grief is still in the raw stage. My heart hurts when I think of all the good times we shared with this great dog. It has been very hard on my son and his wife and kids too. But I take solace in the fact that he has passed on to "Rainbow Bridge" without any more pain from cancer. He was yet another dog that loved unconditionally, like so many that passed before him. And this being a rare leap year, I like to envision him leaping into his new life with joy and memories of the good times with his human family. Until next time, make sure to tell the ones you love, how much they mean to you.....both human and furry companions. 💕💗💕

Grieving the passing of our first grand puppy this past month.

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