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Hoping to blow glass!

For the last month the furnace has been off but soon we will return to hot glass stories and adventures but in the mean time this was a delightful little adventure.

Recently I drove down to Rockland to meet with Frances, the buyer of fine Maine made products for the Farnsworth Museum shop. Happy discovery was that the Robert Indiana show dates have been extended. Instead of ending on October 25 it will continue through the better part of the winter. Now all the busy Mainers who haven't had the chance to see things during the summer season will be able to get their butts over there to see, Robert Indiana and the Star of Hope.
It's easy to combine business and pleasure, so after a lovely sunny meeting in the garden discussing an online museum shop and a project to create an exclusive design of blown glass jewelry for the Farnsworth ... (More about this later!)
We headed down to In Good Company a beautiful little bistro with great "nibbles" and refreshing wine choices. Nothing like a Portuguese white to accompany a late lunch. Frances gave me some new roasted kale recipes, and in true artsy form, she knew the inside scoop regarding the artist whose work hung on the walls..-Rockland has the amazing ability to make you feel like you are sitting in an old gas lit cafe in Paris at the turn of a century experiencing world class cultural phenomena through small town gossip. Really a great community, intimate and far reaching, unpretentious and hip. --All in all a fun productive Day!

Eepy Bird!!

Maine is so cool! I got to meet Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz of Eepy Bird two performers of Oddfellow Theater in Bucksfield Maine who became the Rock Stars of a viral video involving Mentos and Coke. This meeting took place at Haystack's Creating in Maine Symposium. the 24 hours were jam packed with some of the most amazing Mainers! Artists, entrepreneurs, and policy makers. A pretty yummy and encouraging mix of like minded and supportive people. Fritz and Stephen gave a presentation about their creative process. Just what happens between experiment #1 and the famous Experiment #137. The amount of time they spend with the (ordinary) object of their current musings, the notes they take and .... the laughs. They also spoke about the special quality of Maine and how they choose to live where they do because of their community. To this I can relate, the place and people here combine to make, pardon the expression, ...the way life should be... I hope to cultivate the relationships that were made at the Haystack session, to look further into the interesting information presented in bits and snippets during the petchakutcha or slide slam...but now, .... on to getting ready for Common Ground Fair ...yippee, more good times and good folks showing their truly good work. ...see you there!

Upcoming Shows

Maine Crafts Guild, Portland, Sept 19, 20
Common Ground Fair, Sept 25, 26, 27
Harbor Arts, Camden October 3, 4

Northeast Harbor, Invitational Crafts Show

Don't miss it this is one of the best showings of our work all year.

NorthEast Harbor, Neighborhood House Invitational Arts and Crafts Show

The third annual Neighborhood House Invitational Arts and Crafts Show will take place August 13, 2-7 PM; August 14, 10-7:00; and August 15, 10-5 PM

Go to www.nehnhi.blogspot.com for more info!!

Dancing with Fire

Guest post by Rachel Addie, niece of the Perrin's and summer visitor/sweat laborer...
As a Texan, born in the heart of Dallas (where the temperature varies between eternal damnation and sauna), I'm probably more comfortable in the face of fire than the average Mainer... or so I like to think. But I was still trembling as I was handed my first glob of glass on the end of the puntil. And I'll be completely honest - I screamed when I completed my first "paperweight." It's a dangerous dance with a blazing partner, and you don't have any time to stop and think - you just go. The glass is always cooling, always hardening, becoming less and less malleable. The entire process is like a free fall. You can't stop. Once you get going, you go until your glass item leaves that pipe. And dance really is a good word for it, because it's so similar to music. It's a fast-paced sort of thing, but it's a combination of songwriting and performing. You plan out your piece, and then you go. But when you pull out that piece and see it for the first time at room temperature, it's all worth it. It's a jewel, a transformation of all your discomfort and sweat.
A tangible representation of something I believe - suffering produces beauty, a gentle spirit. Well, the first attempt wasn't exactly beauty, but it was a cute little thing. It's the one on the left. I call it the "Crystal Turd".The one on the right is my second attempt, and I liked that one. :) So yeah, that's all for now. I faced the furnace today, a giant box of flaming death, and survived. I call that success.

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.

Summah !!

Summer is here, it really feels like it. The sound of road work stimulates the air and infuriates travelers. Greens have become deeper, richer in the filled out trees brimming with birdsong. Ahhh, and walking around barefoot or in flip flops is second nature again. Sigh
The Studio, ahhh the studio , all the windows are open all day long, from the earliest mornings starting at 6am until twilight when we visit with friendly neighbors passing by for one reason or another. The gallery is filled with pedestals of the latest blown glass work. Shimmering and telling the story of our lives. Since the move from Hulls Cove, the palette of our work has changed. The ocean inspired glass remains but now garden colors have appeared. I don't always realize why I make something until after it appears, how it is a reflection of my life, of it's beauty.
And the visitors to our gallery have cheerfully returned, with encouragement beyond what ever the latest dismal news may be. The appreciation for our work and the purchases that prove it are really uplifting. One woman filled two big bags with glass, saying she was buying all her Christmas presents with us. Whoa..but let's not get ahead of ourselves, it is Summah and I want it to last...
Photos to come...we have been blowing lots of our own work after the stimulating joy of teaching and will catch you all up on that front anon.

Transparency-COA-Glass Exhibit

Final Project Review

At the end of the introduction to glass blowing class taught in our studio through the College of the Atlantic, the final sculpture projects were due. The creative process had run it's course and the assignments to incorporate a large orb, or what is termed a glass blank into an expressive glass sculpture were handed in. During the term I emphasized glass art history, glassblowing technique (through rigorous glassblowing exercises making basic shapes) and individual expression. For the final sculptures, we explored the skills the students already had and tried to incorporate and combine them with new glass working techniques, both cold and hot, into the pieces you will see below. Emphasizing the importance of documenting one's art work we took "professional" photos of the work in the class room as the pieces were being introduced by the students and critiqued by their peers. AND finally the fulfillment of the creative process was an exhibit of the work at the Great Hall of Turrets on commencement day at the end of the spring term. Please enjoy the following as you would a catalogue from any fine art exhibit as the work of the students of AD4391, COA's Introduction to Glassblowing with Linda Perrin is truly of the highest caliber.

Cosmic Broccoli
Jacob Weisberg

Sol
Andrew Curtis

Fiber Glass
Rebecah Wartell

Lotus Lines
Kelly Enberg

Catch of the Day
Alex Carpenter

Clava Thessara Infinitas
William Eckley

Fountain
Stephen Byrne

These artists made their parents, the college and me very proud.
colleges in maine, glass blowing art

Glass Exhibit, Maine, College of the Atlantic

(a sneak peek at Kelly Enberg's sculptural glass)

The new glass makers of College of the Atlantic will be showing their work at the Great Hall in Turrets building June 6th from 10am to 6pm. A reception of coffee and light deserts at 4:30 will include an opportunity to meet the sculptors and the beginning glassblowing instructor, Linda Perrin. Ken Perrin who has been a technical adviser on many of the final projects will also be on hand. Prince Rupert's drops an ancient party favor of glass blowers, illuminations and artistic ruminations are promised features of the reception as well.
"Transparency" a glass sculpture exhibit at Turrets, June 6th 10am-6pm
Ten brave students have been expanding their minds and gathers of molten glass in the Introduction to Glassblowing class new to the course line up this term. . Don't miss the opportunity to see the sparkles in person on June 6th from 10 am to 6pm in the Great Hall of Turrets. A reception at 4:30 will allow the new glass makers of AD4391 to illuminate your understanding of the mystifying process of shaping molten glass. Really don't blow it and miss this unique opportunity to see some evocative glass sculpture made by people just like you.

Glass Flowers

Everyone I know is in the garden these days. Sweet heat wafting through still springy breezes, lawn mowers roaring constantly, and color popping out of the recently thawed ground. In my yard grass grows tall and I ponder the untamed look to the grounds. If only I knew how to make blooms happen. My garden remains a wild child. The above blooms are made of glass, they are the impressionistic flowers of my imagination. I play with color, and love the bold brush stroke like shapes.

Outside the Bubble

In the glass world the near endless pursuit of the mastery of technique can entrance one in the challenging meditation on the nature of a molten glass bubble. For over 5000 years glass has been flowing through the history of mankind, from the earliest beads made in early Egypt to the opulent sculptures bedecking alters of leisure. What will happen next?

In the introduction to glass blowing we have begun the meditation on the bubble.
Om...It rests molten hot in the 2100 degree furnace, begins to flow as we gather it up, we repeatedly heat it and bend it to our whims, it expands as the breath of life is blown into it through long steel pipes constantly spinning in fumbling, yet competent hands, it is caught up in wooden blocks and squeezed with the birdlike beak of the jacks, relying on partnership for support, we break it free of it's origins, and we discard the pipe complete with moil cracking off like firecrackers that we no longer even notice, the bubble is brought to a fire polish through another extended exposure to the heat, and we diligently open the rim into the defining shape of the vessel. Do we recognize that we are a vessel? The vessel of creativity? Do we witness a harmony of self and purpose in this process? Do we have something to say with this unique opportunity and material? These are the next questions that the students of "AD4391" are facing.
At the beginning of the course each student was presented with a large bubble shaped blank, the assignment; to include it in a larger sculptural expression. Here are a few photos and a movie of the new makers de-constructing, exploring, recreating and embellishing their bubble as they reach outside the meditation of glassblowing, and begin to see their own reflection as creative individuals. Andy blasts through (with a sand blaster), Becky cuts (with a wet band saw), and Kelly reflects on her progress.
Stay tuned for info on when and where these final sculptural pieces will be shown on campus!

We're Open and we got The Blues

But in a good way. In the spirit of COA-eco awareness, we have been recycling glass and creating a delightful blue color to work with. It has been super fun, and the students seem to like it as well.
Most important in this posting I want to thank everyone who helped make our season opening such a huge success!! It was a sell out day, a day to connect with our community and spread the word about Ellsworth Arts, and the great energy we have percolating here at Atlantic Art Glass.
Thank you to the mandolin and guitar players, the cookie maker, Julie Greenberg, and the cookie eaters who managed to devour dozens of chocolate, white chocolate chunk, hazelnut yummers, thank you to our glass divas, Jodie Perry and Katie Dube, who packed tons of glass into recycled bags for the multitude of customers who made off with some real treasures. Thank you to the parents of our students who came to encourage the creativity and daring of their glass blowing children in my charge during this beginning glassblowing class, and thank you to the glass gods who shine down upon us as we share what we love with those who are interested. I am sorry to say we have no pictures of the sunny event since we were having too much darn fun to stop and think about it, guess you just needed to be there, maybe next time....