Goodbye to a busy 2019

One of many of our glorious Idaho sunsets.

Last day of the year, and I am finding myself in a state of reflection.  Thankful for so much, including the success we've had this year in our little Studio on the hill. We are both exhausted from the recent months of hard work, and many late night efforts to keep our glass orders shipping out in a timely manner for the holidays.  Time for a well-deserved break. We created so many ornaments this year, too many to count.

Chili ristras created for a customer.

Russ is going to take some time to work on this artistic piece while we have just a bit of down time. Many layers of glass enamels to fuse in the big kiln. I will post pictures when it is complete. 

When completed, this trout will look like it's caught in a net. 

Because of our new furry friends, we also had some home improvement projects to complete this month. Our pantry didn't have a door on it, so we decided in order to keep the kittens out of the food, we needed a door. I am really loving the end result, and of course glass was incorporated in the project. Screen printed enamels were fired in our large kiln, on float glass, to finish this project off. 

We added screen printed float glass to our new pantry door this month. 

We say we need a break from the Studio, but in all reality, there is always something to work on, including another large custom commission of tennis ball snowmen, pictured below. It was requested by a tennis organization in Texas and has to be out the door very soon. 

Tennis Ball Snowmen commissioned by a tennis organization.

We barely got the tree decorated in time for Christmas this year, and now that it's up, it's the kittens favorite "play toy". 😉

Our kittens won't leave the tree alone. 

Our favorite part of the holiday of course, is spending time with our sons and their families. We enjoyed their company even though many of us had some kind of  sick bug, and were a little under the weather. We managed to go to a local ice castle event while they were here. Definitely appropriate in these frigid temperatures. 

At the Labelle Ice Castles

Many great colors accented the ice tunnels.

My favorite! 

Enjoying time with my darling grandson.

Now on the last day of 2019, reflecting on what a year it's been, we are nursing our dear lab/retriever dog, as he was in an accident recently. We are hoping he makes a full recovery, as he is just like a child to us. It pains us to see him in pain. So, while others are making merry tonight, we will snuggle in our jammies with him by our side, and welcome in 2020. Wow, that just sounds so futuristic, can't believe what a time we are living in. Here's hoping the new decade will bring new opportunities for growth and prosperity.  Happy New Year!

Hoping our sweet boy feels better soon. 

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.

Once in a Blue Moon

The month of January started out with a full moon and is ending with another "super blue blood moon".

January is going out with a bang, with it's "Blue Moon, Super Moon, and Moon's Eclipse occurring on the last day of this month. Otherwise known as the "Super Blue Blood Moon".  I don't know if that phenomenon is the cause of our re-energized attitudes, but it helps that we have been able to take a collective breath earlier this month, from the holiday rush of last year. We have been able to accomplish quite a bit in the last few weeks, and have re-prioritized what needs to get done in the Studio. We've cleaned up the holiday clutter, and are setting goals to create new projects with silk screening endeavors, later this year. We are still waiting on some key components before we can get started with this new technique that we look forward to working with, on glass. 

Right from the get-go, we started out the new year with a large order that kept us busy for a while, a commission from a Tennis Club in Texas. They requested tennis ornaments with a snowflake theme. We experimented and came up with this design, using soft glass and glass enamels. We filled the kiln up a few times to get them all done in time. 

Snowflake-themed glass tennis racquet ornaments fresh out of the kiln

Another customer requested an unusual wedding cake top to go along with her passion for entertaining - the glass microphone pictured below, highlighted in silver luster.

Blown glass microphone requested for  a wedding cake top

Russ enjoyed creating the blown glass multi-colored road runner, now we're thinking it needs a float glass cactus added on to complete it. 

Multi-colored glass road runner

And of course, many times in the world of slumping and fusing, what we think has turned into a complete fail, ends up turning into a "beautiful disaster". The layered piece below was meant to be a beautiful vase, but the colors just weren't coming together, so Russ totally changed his thought process and went a whole new direction on the scene below. He used standoffs to mount it in our Studio, and I have to say it looks spectacular standing out from the wall like it does...gives it a 3D look, and a much better outcome than the vase would have been. A happy fail. 

Slumped and fused glass art with enamel accents

We also like to take time to leave the Studio now and then and enjoy the Nature around our property in these winter months. And living where we do, we still get all kinds of wildlife coming into the yard this time of year, looking for anything that isn't covered up and ready to munch on. We've had to move our bird feeder 3 different times, as the deer can't seem to get enough, and we don't want them to get in the habit of expecting a free meal. I think Russ has placed it high enough now, that old Mister Buck can't reach it anymore, like he does in the video below. We love the deer, but have also realized it's important for them to eat what they are used to in the mountains, lots of fibrous twigs and branches, and as much as I hate to admit, not our bird food.

This herd is so fun to watch from a distance. We have to be careful going around the neighborhood at night, as you never know when they will dart out in the street. They seem pretty healthy from the mild winter we've been having this year. Unlike last year, when many of our deer and elk populations didn't have enough food to eat because of the devastating Henry's Creek Fire that was human caused a few years ago. I'm glad they seem to be rebounding this year.

Mule Deer Herd in our Neighborhood

So we come to a close of the first new month, in our new year, with the new blue moon, along with new ideas brewing for the coming months. Happy New Year!