News Updates

Another class completed. That was two of the same classes taught within a couple of weeks of each other. We had a great group of students for both classes that brought different ideas and ways of working to the class. Milon Townsend’s wife, Kiyoko Townsend, joined us for the first class in January along with two other permanent faces that participate in our workshops.

We started off the first day by introducing each of the students to various ways of using glass frits for shading, creating imagery using scraffito techniques, vitrograph images & designs, carving images in the kiln on the underside of glass, using GlasTac glue to draw and paint with powders, etc., etc. Restricting the students to use one particular type of technique to create imagery was a challenge…but it allowed them to start thinking about designing a piece and not just throwing something down on the glass. I gave them plenty of time for this process.

For the next 2 days we spent time picking images to be re-created in glass, going over color choices, helping make decisions on creating depth and shading within their pieces, and of course working on their masterpieces. Each student looked forward to every morning in the studio when the big “reveal” would happen and we would discuss what they liked, disliked, what they would change and how they would go about it. Last but not least, was the coldworking on the 4th day. Smiling faces from students at the end of a workshop session always makes me smile.

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Having Katharine (Kathy) Wood come to our studio to teach Enameling on Metal was a great decision. She is not only very knowledgeable on the subject, but someone we can now call a friend.

We started off the first day with introductory techniques and safety and materials information…or tried to. We had one student in the class that had never done any enameling, one who was a metal artist and 2 others that had experimented with several techniques on their own in their own studio. Working with a copper base, the remaining 3 days covered cloisonne, decals, etching, wet packing & dry sifting enamels, creating with fire scale, sgraffito, plique-a-jour, etc. We even incorporated some Bullseye vitrograph stringer with the enamels on the metal. Very cool effects. A ton of information.

It was interesting how some of the fused glass techniques that we use are very similar to the one used in metal enameling. All the students went away very happy and with a little weight gained from the lunches served everyday. We are planning on bringing Katharine back in the fall and bringing other enamelists to the school to teach. Please let us know if there a particular technique that you would like to learn.

Full-time faculty position for Glass artist – Assistant Professor – Glass Dept. – The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

We had a great group 7-8 year old girls here at the studio the other night. They were all from a local Girl Scouts Troup from LeRoy, NY. Each of them made 3 fused glass Xmas ornaments each: snowman (or snowwoman), Xmas tree, and a mini evergreen scene.

Thank God we had our new helper, Jamiee, present since it was a very chaotic 1 ½ hours and we would not have been able to speed through as many of the projects as we did without her. We were all pleasantly surprised at how each of the girls creativity developed as they went along….with a few not wanting to stop.

We loved having them in our studio and we look forward to having them again in the near future…..although our heads were spinning from all the activity in such a short period of time. Very enjoyable group of girls and parents.

Our students found out just how much fused glass pattern bars can be a great way to really personalize their work. Each one will be slightly different, which creates a one-of-a-kind feel to your glass art since it is so easy for a lot of glass fusings to begin to look alike.

The Pattern Bar Crazy and Advanced Bowl Class(es) were developed in response to students that could not commit to Marty Kremer’s classes since they could never take that much time away from work. Most of the students were local….and we had them come in at different dates. So…the classes were not run in our typical consecutive fashion.

The first 2 day weekend in December, involved concentrating on creating pattern bars, pattern sheets….part that eventually get placed into or on our pieces. There is no one way to make pattern bars so we had the students explore a variety of ways to create each of the pattern bars. The students found out just how much fused glass pattern bars can be a great way to really personalize their work. Each one will be slightly different, which creates a one-of-a-kind feel to your glass art since it is so easy for a lot of our fused glass to begin to look alike.

The second 2-day weekend class, one in January (2 day weekend), and one in February (4 day class), involved each student creating a couple of bowls or plates using some of the pattern bars they created in the first weekend class. For the student in February that forewent the “Pattern Bar Making” Class…they used some of our pre-made pattern bars…and they made some of their on the first day. I am getting tired just talking about this. The results were stunning and you could tell a lot of thought and time went into each piece. Each of the pieces were fused and then slumped into forms. The cold working is reserved for part 3…another 2 day weekend…or in the February class, the next couple of days. Are you going crazy yet with the amount of juggling we do???

The last 2 days of the class involved each student cutting, grinding, and polishing their masterpieces. Happy students are always a great thing.