Friday, January 22, 2010

Apprenticeship in glass blowing

Great vibes this year! We finished last year on a real upswing largely due to the help and company of Emily Lyons (aka, big puff) a sculpture student doing an internship/apprenticeship with us for college credit from the University of Southern Maine, and Alex Carpenter a world traveler, COA student and all around earnest fellow who has begun a glass blowing residency/apprenticeship with us. Working in the hot shop in exchange for access to hot glass is a classic apprenticeship model. Since it was the holiday season we had a lot of work to do and they really helped increase the Christmas ornament production in this hot shop --all the way up to 100 ornaments in 1 day!! boy that felt good-when it was over :)

Emily has returned to Portland to finish up her art degree from U-Maine, and well, we miss her. Luckily she is an Ellsworth native and we have been assured she will be back!
Alex will continue his residency with us for a while longer, happily all the color techniques he has learned and his ability to plug into our glass blowing team will be put to good use as we prepare for the Buyers Market of American Crafts show.

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