Hummin' along

Just in case it gets hot and feels like summer, I have been getting up early to blow glass with Nate Parker on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The pace is always good and the quiet time before all gets bustling is lovely.
Well last week on Thursday the day started out as usual, but ended in what we are fondly calling a magical moment. I blew, it got hot, I had help preparing for the upcoming Maine Crafts Guild show. all was well and good, that is until, the humming bird entered the scene. It rose to the top of the hot hot ceiling and fluttered there unsuccessfully trying to escape. Pushing it's tiny head against the ceiling like a fly against a window no progress could be made. I have seen this before sometimes bees or in this case humming birds go after our glass because of it's vibrant colors. I think they mistake it for blooms or something tasty. When a humming bird gets caught inside it will flap it's wings, invisibly quick until it just can't flap any longer. In exhaustion it will finally careen to the ground. This is what began to happen only I caught it in Ken's hat before it fell. We all began running outside as though filled with the birds passion for open space. Running outside, I grabbed a ribbon, and requested some sugar water, Ken obliged.
Lying in the hat in the garden we gathered around the poor little humming bird...it appeared nearly expired. I offered it the sugar water dipped ribbon and it's beak opened to reveal a hair thin tongue which licked the small droplet it contained. Yippee, he righted himself. We offering the sugar water repeatedly and wondered if it was sweet enough...no energy seemed to return to the iridescent fairy bird. Rachel got it into her head to dip her finger into the residual sugar on the bottom of the cup, and gather some crystals up under her nail. This she gently offered. A humming bird drinking from your finger?!?! Have you ever imagined such a thing? The tingle and tickle of the teeeeeny tongue lapping at the sweet finger. Blink blink and a snap of the camera, another blink and the creature flew up and away. Happily we watched the empty sky, after it's flight. Had that really just happened, had we seen the tongue, the green feathered body the trusting eyes had we been giant flowers for a moment? Rachel called it a magical moment. Truly it was.

Texas to Maine

The current time is about 12:30 AM - and I have just arrived at Atlantic Art Glass Studio in Ellsworth, Maine. It's where I'll be staying for the next three weeks.

I really love it here in New England. The air is so fresh because A) fresh ocean air blows in from the sea and B) there are massive amounts of trees around here. And the trees are spectacular :D

My aunt and uncle are glass blowers, they make art out of hot melted glass. Pictures to come, but I have to say they're gorgeous. They have some glass cups in their kitchen and it's kinda cool to be drinking out of my aunt and uncle's artwork!

Well, I'm about to go to bed, it's been a super long day of traveling through three, four states. Plane trip was three hours, driving was four.

Fresh Face!

Well the calendar says it is "Summer" but it is feeling like it only in fits and starts. I am wearing a Gap tee shirt that says something like "Time is an Invention" and it seems ultra true right now. Months and days have names, hours line up, but really if you look around everything is so fresh and original that no amount of quantifying or counting can change it. June with 23 days of rain, July was nearly the same, with continued soft gray, ominous skies. But now the calendar turns to August. Surely a switch will be flipped and the sun will shine and swimming will begin. I wonder though, does the sky know the page has been turned and a new beginning should deliver our expectations? I mean it's time already isn't it? Hmmmmm? Perhaps time is an invention, one meant to numb us and help us through the ever new. One where we can "I know" it away if we call it by it's name. Five o'clock, lunch time, 3:30, Monday, TGIF, --August.... Well what ever you call it the days around her are fresh as a daisy, and an inner sun is shining since we have a had the great honor to host a new visitor to Atlantic Art Glass, glass blowing studio.
Drum role please......watch for the new adventures chronicled here of our niece, Rachel-Addie. Her fresh and inspiring perspective is enough to charm the hurried humming bird....you'll see what i mean, check back for more posts, soon.

Happy Anniversary

We are celebrating our first year of blogging today! Thanks for paying attention to any part of it. We have had e-visitors from Singapore to Somerville and have enjoyed sharing our adventures with everyone and their grandparents. It has been a joy to share our glass making with the public in our studio as well as over the internet.Today being a special day I took some random photos around the shop to mark the occasion. Ken blew glass today. We had a great crew on board with newby, Emily Lyons one of Ellsworth's very own darling daughters.
Katie Dube was in the studio clearly a vital helper
....whose motto is better late than never.
We even had the ethereal Martin Brief in the shop, he is responsible for our great web site yippee. But as usual all the rainy day visitors enjoyed seeing Serafina the wonder dog (and door bell) as much as as they did the hot glass.
Cheers!

Tough Stuff

Check out this article on architectural glass. Great reading as Ken and I weld up some glass and steel, sculptural pieces this week. Sparkling, beautiful and enduring.

As Unbreakable as ... Glass?

Sally Ryan for The New York Times

A CLEAR VIEW A project lets visitors see all angles from the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago. Builders are experimenting with new materials and methods to expand the use of glass in construction.

Growing gills, in search of sunshine.

I always say that the only people happy with the cool grey weather in the summer are the glass blowers, it makes dealing with the heat so much easier. BUT,
22 days of solid rain in June, and "Summah" enthusiasm has shifted to salty walks through fog, and my flip flops are more like squish flops...
I can only assume all this rain is what has inspired the glass I am blowing these days---up from the depths comes the notion of creatures who are comfortable with so much WATER.
Mer people!
It's fun to think that something so fiery hot can evoke something so cool and watery, but in the melting pot of my life it's the only way to do it! --and really rather than trying to figure out where this handsome devil came from I am just enjoying his visit, and happy he swam out of my furnace.