Having a Blast and Cutting Loose!-COA Spring Term Weeks 3/4.

Blowing. Blasting. Cutting.
 The techniques just keep coming!
 After 1 month together in the studio, the class has reached the sweet spot. The gooey center of the class where the baby steps have been taken and we can set our sights on our creative goals. Last week we began to add cold working techniques to the mix. 

First up, Sand Blasting. 

Get some bottles.

Apply a resist.

Fire up the blasting cabinet and see what happens!

Next, cutting.We fired up the glass bandsaw and deconstructed some bottles. 

And of course everyone has been developing their blowing skills. In week 4, everyone learned how to bring a punty.

If we needed any more proof that this is a great group of students, they provided it for us last week by baking Linda a birthday cake!

For more photos and info check out our FB page.

Blowing Bubbles

The second lab day in the studio was a day spent building the foundation of basic skills related to blowing dangerous sticky hot molten glass. Keeping the long steel blow pipe turning while trying to pirouette across the studio and into the glass blowing bench, where one must pick up strange tools and deftly shape the 2000 degree dripping substance is .... well,... just plain exhilarating!!

Glass blowing is kind of exciting and challenging like a sport. However it's governance by more Venusian principles of beauty, makes it seem equally like a dance. Couple this with the opportunity to make split second creative decisions about shape and the experience as artist/artisan send the spirit soaring. The desire to pick up the blow pipe to try it again and again feels something like the addictive quality of a good video game. "Oh that was fun now let me try it again, try to make another shape, try another gentle wrangling of that bubbly membrane of light...!"

At this point in the process of teaching beginning glass blowing, I often remind the students that at this early stage, we are not making glass, we are making Glassblowers. That their will is secondary to the techniques we are practicing. Soon, very soon however this will change & the movements will become more confident. Once safety has been established, we can expect the arrival of the muse surfing in upon a flood of ideas and waves of glass!

College of the Atlantic-beginning glass blowing class.

This Saturday marked the first of day of hot shop time for the courageous College of the Atlantic students in class "478I-an Introduction to Glassblowing and Sculptural Expression". COA is a renowned environmental liberal arts college. Their motto "Life Changing. World Changing.". It is a place for folks who want to re-imagine the world as a much better place and to do all they can to make it happen. The favorite method of learning is hands on!

I find it an honor to teach the human ecologists who were able to sign up for our class. The wait list was heartbreakingly long, and I wish I could get everyone of the students willing to work with glass a chance to do so.

Our studio is located in a large reworked warehouse, the abundant heat we generate from working with the glass is funneled into other parts of the building and manages to almost completely heat our living quarters located on the third floor. I like to think this is an environmental innovation that other kiln and furnace using artisans may find themselves doing in the future. Our approach is a passive reuse of the energy. I like to imagine that one day we might be able to engineer something even more exciting. Working on the campus of COA is so encouraging for this type of dreaming! Oh but I digress...

The first studio class is fundamental. We move through the space, twirling a long steel rod on tender fingertips. We walk up to 2000 degree fiery portals and peer inside. We place the end of the rods and blowpipes in to a glowing crucible to extract a blinding gather of molten goo.

We slow our racing hearts when it all seems too strange and dangerous.

Then we eat cookies and fruit, laugh, pet a small creature who is perhaps even more fragile than we are...

This orientation to the studio is all about safety, and the first attempts at working with the glass are empowering, exciting, inspirational and unlike anything else.

Every moment is filled with soooo much information.

Hands on? oh YES!

Fire Gathering December 17th 2011

Annual Fire Gathering December 17th! 10am-8pm

This event is a time when folks who have spent time blowing glass with us are invited to come back to an OPEN STUDIO. Kid friendly until 4pm.

Other fire wrangling artists are invited to collaborate in the space and share their medium. It's a time to stoke the creative fires as the sun reaches it's weakest state before celebrating the solstice and it's return. So if you would like, please come to our annual party, find a last minute gift in our gallery, watch a number of creative fires burning through out the space, and raise a glass or cookie to the joy of life!

Made possible by our local sponsor -THE FIREY SUN.

Blue christmas from f/8nate (nate parker) on Vimeo.

christmas fire party version 2010 from f/8nate (nate parker) on Vimeo.

Holiday Season 2012

Well here we are with the warmest of Novembers trying to get into the holiday season!

I am still eating salad greens and going for long walks with Serafina, so the burr factor hasn't made me start singing It's a "marshmallow world" or anything.

The furnace is on and the ornaments are flowing through our busy hands as we melt swirl, rake and dunk the gathers into all manner of traditional decorations. We are told our ornaments are often left up all year since they are too pretty to only use on the Christmas Tree. Thanks!

You can find us and a great batch of sparkles (blown glass) at the upcoming crafts shows. We are making lot's of gift items for you to choose from.

Art For Dogs Sake -Nov 19 Cape Elizabeth, ME

A super way to feel good even before the gift giving begins is to come to the following show to see us, and to help some homeless pooches :D

Saturday, November 19 · 10:00am - 4:00pm

Sprague Hall, Cape Elizabeth, MAINE

1 Charles Jordan Road, Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Lucky Pup Rescue is a nonprofit organization dedicated to placing dogs in a ‘forever home’ where the needs of the dog and the life style of the adopting family are met ensuring many happy years together. They work to re-home both local dogs in need (regardless of breed) and southern dogs from overcrowded shelters. They have helped place over 900 dogs in 4 short years!

Directions: From Portland cross the Casco Bay Bridge and head South on Route 77. You will pass the IGA Shopping Center & Cape Elizabeth High School both on the Right. Just after Cape High turn Right on FOWLER ROAD, follow to the end. Directly across the intersection is Sprague Hall.

Designing Women in Portsmouth, Nov. 26, 2011, Portsmouth, NH

Frank Jones Center
400 US Highway 1 Bypass
Portsmouth, NH
9 am-4 pm

This is another way to feel good in so many ways, being a localvore, buying USA and helping women in need. the mission of Designing women is to showcase high quality arts and crafts by women artisans and benefit local, nonprofit services that support women and their families. In past years we have worked with breast cancer support groups, transition to work programs, art/therapy retreats, shelters, and counseling programs.

Island Arts Association Holiday Craft Fair

9am to 5pm- Friday

9am to 3pm- Saturday

The IAA's 38th Annual Holiday Craft Fair features high quality crafts by Mount Desert Island area artisans in a wide range of media including pottery, jewelry, knits, photography, quilting, handcrafted bags, handblown glass, woodworking and more. Proceeds from food sales help support the heating costs of the MDI YWCA. Free IAA shopping bag to the first customer for each vendor each day. Free coffee on Friday from 3 to 5 pm. Free cookies on Saturday from 1 to 3 pm. Free gift wrapping for IAA purchases all day on Saturday.

Atlantic Oceanside Conference Center

119 Eden Street, Route 3 Bar Harbor, Maine

, Bar Harbor, Dec. 2 & 3

Designing Women in Portland, Maine Saturday, Dec. 10, 9 am-4 pm

Portland

Woodford's Church

Woodford Street
Portland, Maine

Luncheon available

Land and Sea

EXHIBITION “LAND AND SEA” June 17^th to July 29^th,

REBECCA KRUPKE AT ATLANTIC ART GLASS,

An opening for the artist was held June 17^th from 4-8pm

In the show, “Land and Sea” Rebecca Krupke teams up with Ken and Linda Perrin of Atlantic Art Glass to explore the idea of solids and liquids within their artistic mediums. Whether captured on canvas through images of the land and sea or formed from molten glass, both are interconnected with the landscapes and seascapes that drive their artistic works.

This is the first exhibit for Krupke in the Ellsworth region; the exhibit will feature over a dozen original oil paintings intermingled with the Perrin’s glasswork.

Rebecca has shown in over twenty International Juried Exhibitions throughout the United States, Canada, Ireland and Italy.

She received a grant in 2003 from the Printmakers' Council of Charlottetown to be an artist-in-residence and subsequently spent six months in Prince Edward Island, Canada producing a concentrated body of prints, paintings and drawings.

In March 2007, Rebecca exhibited at the Galleria Sottoportego in conjunction with the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy. As a Visiting Artist, Krupke taught courses on mono-printing techniques.

Her work concentrates on a moment in time. Drastic control of light sets a mood in the viewer.

Preparing for this show Krupke says,“Light casts life, sparkling, casting shadows and shining...Oil paintings and glasswork are liquids slipping into solids. Both reflect nature, and personal connections and both are elements of the earth taking new shape through the artists’ vision."

Press, The Edge

Press, Village Soup

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

Ken in Erica Gordon's Class

Michael Cullen preparing a "pyroglyph" on wood.

HMS0C is located about 45 minutes from where we live. It is on beautiful Deer Isle here in Maine.

It is a magical place, and idyllic place, an inspiring place. Artists come from all All ALL over the world to study with each other.

Linda in her wood working class.

Every spring, a course is offered in alliance with the brilliant Maine Crafts Association, an organization determined to further the artistic opportunities for the artisan in Maine.

Although this program has been going on for a million years... Ken and I have never attended, that is, ....not until this year.

We had always been encumbered by the usual "artist making a living" syndrome. "Ooooh we are too busy" etc. And Glass blowing is never offered in the spring....

But do you know what? Who cares? We went to learn about other mediums!!

Ken studied with Erica Gordon, a real pistol ready to bring blacksmithing into the future!

The cool metal components Ken create during his work shop.

And my instructor was Michael Cullen, who taught us how to sharpen our wood tools and then how to use them! Wood carving, who knew it would feel like doing cookies in a chevy, Chevette on an icy parking lot? I am hooked!

I know it seems like because I do glass every day, my muse should be fat and happy, but I need a "hobby" and playing with wood is like coming full circle for me since I cut my artisan chops many years ago building furniture for Cheryl Riley.

Ken and I had a fantastic time, and have vowed we will never miss this opportunity again!

Enjoy the photos below,(all photos were taken by Judith Paolini author of the Inspired Gardens) and go to Haystack any chance you get!!!

John Clark with a draw knife, my new favorite tool.

The camaraderie is the best!

Giving thanks indeed!

Presenting!!

This spring we have been visited by the Downeast Senior college,

we have been visited by 5th and 8th graders from the Holbrook, Maine elementary school, and we have gone to the "Elm City" to present in a PechaKucha. It's fun to say yes to all these requests to share what we love to do.

To see a video of the PechaKucha see below I was the ultimate presenter, so there was plenty of time to get nervous...!

Atlantic Art Glass: Linda Perrin at PechaKucha Waterville vol. 3 from PechaKucha Waterville on Vimeo.

The group from the downeast senior college pictured above braved the cold spring weather in early April to visit the studio, learn about our process and to watch a glass blowing demonstration. After all the fireworks the visit sank into a lovely conversation about the blown glass jewelry we make. The bright color of the beads was eye candy for the ladies.

The group from the Holbrook School was super fun, the kids were almost as enthusiastic as their chaperones and teacher, Lynn Nickerson! We truly enjoyed showing them up close and personal how something so hot can be so cool!!

Buyers Market of American Craft

It's that time of year again, we have been getting ready to show our glass jewelry and whimsical blown glass vases and such at the wholesale market place in Philadelphia. The show is called the buyers Market of American Craft. For those interested in buying USA, buying quality, and buying work that will sell in your artsy shop. This is the place to be!!

February 17-21. in Philadelphia, PA at the Pennsylvania Convention center.

New this Year

Tassel Necklace

Happy Endings Vases

and Orbit Ornaments

Here is a video of how we make these! It is our version of the traditional Christmas ornament or friendship ball.!

Studio work in full swing!

Full swing indeed!

Photo credit, Nathan Parker, shown below arriving to the studio.

Here he "Caffi-Nates"before getting on the Cane Train.

Nate has been blowing glass with us at Atlantic Art Glass for NINE years!!

I met him under the hull of a red bottomed lobster boat in "Hulls Cove" Maine. There he worked construction for RL White and Son. Now he understands every facet of our work in the studio and has been the most reliable and creative force!!

Can you guess what I'm doing and why??? :D

FireGathering

Happy Holidays everyone!!

What do you want for Christmas?

christmas fire party version 2010 from f/8nate (nate parker) on Vimeo.

Nate Parker made this video during our FireGathering holiday celebration at the studio. It was a day to warm our spirits around the fires that allow us to hand make gifts and such for the season. The artisans enjoyed working, as the community gathered around the fires that aid the joyous process- Glassblowing and Blacksmithing. Many participants were asked what they want for Christmas ... thanks to all who came!

Glass Blowing Classes/ Winter 2011

The 2011 winter glass blowing classes will begin January 8th!
Classes for beginners and advanced students.
Enrollment is limited so sign up now before we fill up!

207-664-0222

Beginning Glass Blowing
This course is designed for beginners. Emphasis is placed on learning the basic skills necessary to complete simple blown vessels. Class time is divided between demonstrations and supervised work time, with individual attention for each student. No glass working experience is required. Tuition: $375.00
This is a five-week course (meeting Saturdays at 10am -2pm). Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, as class sizes are limited. Full payment must be made by first class


Continued Glass Blowing
This class will build upon the skills acquired in previous glass blowing classes. It is also a prerequisite to studio rental. The class will explore the use of color and bit applications. The course structure will include demonstrations to suit the individual interests of participants.

Private lessons, $75. hour.

4 or more students can schedule a group rate.

APPLICATION

Raking!

We are having the most beautiful fall! it is lasting forever- the golds, acid greens and vibrant reds are above and below!

I am feeling such harmony with the season, and the excited colorful leaves blowing around like party goers celebrating the cycle of life.

Well in the spirit of the season I did some raking-- but not leaves. I raked glass into pretty swirly feather patterned lines of "Linda" colors.

After a long spell of having the furnace off for a variety of reasons. including being a bit more environmental (lowering our carbon footprint) and a bit more economically efficient, we are blowing again. It just plain feels good to be back in the hot shop. It is nice though, how idealism and capitalism are no longer mutually exclusive!! I love all the talk and action about more sustainable business practices and folks understanding the importance of buying local, and even better looking for locally made.