Discovering Ted

To stir up creativity, I suggest “show searching.”

I must be living in a cave.  Since I have been chained to my desk for weeks going on months now, trying to work on the “business” end of my art (auctions, selling, photos and text, proposals, lining up classes, etc.)  I’ve not really been doing a lot of the art creation that I prefer.

I admit, last night I was too exhausted after caring for a friend’s puppy for the past five days, to do anything that really required brain cells.  Instead, I was preparing photographs for bohemianartcafe.etsy.com and for my upcoming

Glass Act Auction 

on August 20 at 11 a.m.  

(P.S. You’re invited.  RSVP and I will continue to add new and more items for the auction.)

Raspberry suncatcher, will be auctioned at
Glass Act Auction
11 a.m. August 20 

I was sort of bored with the usual TV stuff, having recently finished watching my DVDs of Castle and The Mentalist.  I admit, I haven’t really been watching all that much live TV or checking out UTube lately.  I know the Olympics were on, but honestly, there’s only so much activity a body can watch without becoming exhausted by osmosis. 

Okay, so…maybe it’s been more than a few months that I’ve been chained to the cave I call my office, since last night for the first time I discovered TED talks.

I know many people have been checking this Technology/Entertainment/Design Conference for a while.  Years.  Well, for me, last night it was a revelation.  I was using my Roku and searching through Netflix by just searching a r t.  And up popped Ted Talks about art.


So, tonight, when I continue to work on preparations for Glass Act Auction, I’ll  tune in again and see what inspires me.  If you haven’t discovered Ted Talks, now is a good time.

Celebrating Glass Artist Daniel Yerdon

Yesterday I got away from both my desk and unpacking the studio and went into Ocala for an art meeting and adventure.  Along the way, I happened to stop at a consignment furniture shop that had a "stained glass" sign in its window.  At the very back of the store, there is another shop called The Glass Studio where glass artist Daniel Yerdon has his studio and display shop.  His shop is located at 2005 E. Silver Springs Blvd, Ocala Florida.  I'm excited also because there might be some opportunity in the not too distant future for me to perhaps do a few enameling or other glass related glasses at this venue.  Since I love to teach and don't really have a lot of studio space to do so anymore, this would be so wonderful.  And Daniel is quite likable and approachable artist.

Daniel was working with a customer when I stopped by so I browsed around.  He had some lovely large stained glass panels including this lovely window panel of wine, cheese and wineglass, featuring the bottoms of actual wine glasses in the top portion of the panel.

(c) Daniel Yerdon, wine, cheese, wineglass, used by permission of the artist. Photo by SZing.

Isn't this a lovely panel?  Would be a delightful addition to a wine or cheese shop or a cozy restaurant in my opinion.

artwork (c) Daniel Yerdon, photo by SZing, used by permission of the artist

Spontaneously decided to take photos so I could share them here, so no preparations were made for better exhibiting or lights, but his website shows much better photos of his lovely works.   I love the serenity of the heron.  Unfortunately, the lighting didn't work out for the photograph of a large mermaid panel that I especially liked. Glass can be quite challenging to photograph I've found over the years and almost impossible to not have some glimmer of light show on it.

 photograph (c) SZing of Daniel Yerdon in his studio

This is Daniel.  He was so very friendly and willing to share his work and story with me.  He told me he is a K-5 math and computer teacher during the school year and his studio is open from 4 to 6 or 7 p.m. during that time frame.  During the summer, he opens the studio from 11 a.m. to ummm, I think he said 5 but it might be 6 p.m.  He said he teaches some classes and has students who come by (one came in while we were chatting) to get his advice and assistance on various projects.

 photo (c) SZing

 photo (c) SZing

photo (c) SZing

Daniel works in both leaded and Tiffany-style stained glass and also does fused glass, particularly jewelry.  He uses COE 96 glass as his preference.  In his shop, he also provides supplies to local glass artists if they require assistance getting specific items.  (So good to know since I, for one, usually only like to order if I'm getting a lot of stuff at a time.)

 (c) Daniel Yerdon.  Small glass faces made into jewelry. Used by permission of the artist.

Aren't these little faces adorable?  I just love them.

Daniel and I discussed the continuing popularity of dichroic glass.  It can be quite mesmerizing.

GLASS SCIENCE LESSON FOR THE DAY:

I've always found it quite interesting and love explaining to students how a single pattern of dichroic (dichroic material causes visible light to split in distinct wavelengths i.e., color) glass might have as many as 50 layers of micro lasered metallic imprints on the glass the sum total being less than 30 to 35 millionths of an inch--about 760 to 890 nm--that's nano meter.  1 nano-meter is 10^(-9) meter or 0.000000001 meter.  PRETTY THIN, which is why it is technically called thin-film optics.

The process is apparently quite involved and quite expensive--1/4th pound of dichroic glass (a fairly small amount for a glass artist) can cost $50 or more (retail). The difficulty in making the glass is the reason dichroic glass itself is so expensive and the process requires very specific laser equipment and technological know how.  There are a few suppliers providing a fairly large array of patterns, but it isn't something that anyone could go into the kitchen and create.  I acknowledge here that I am most certainly simplifying the process excessively but I want it to be easily understood by the lay-person, so my apologies to the experts out there who might take exception to this explanation. 

Anyhoo, Daniel uses a lot of dichroic patterned glass in his smaller jewelry piece.  Here is my very favorite piece which I discovered in his shop yesterday. 

 

(c) Daniel Yerdon, Dichroic Gecko necklace.  Used by permission of the artist. Photo by SZing.

Isn't that just the coolest piece of jewelry?  Gorgeous and fun.  If I were still living in New Mexico, I'd be wearing that with a black turtleneck this winter!!

If you happen to be in the Ocala area, I highly suggest a stop by Daniels shop. And to Daniel, I say, THANKS for letting me share your work and taking time to visit with me.  I hope we'll be able to do some artwork together and I look forward to the possibility of teaching at The Glass Studio.



Celebrating 50 years of Studio Glass Art

I am very sad that I am not able to attend the Glass Art Conference in Toledo Ohio this week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Studio Glass art movement.  When we were living in Ohio just a few short months ago, I had intended to attend since it was only a five hour drive.  Sadly, that travel distance is now more than about 20 hours one way and just not "do-able" this time around.  I feel the loss of being a part of this keenly as not only are many of the icons of the studio glass movement going to be present, but there are many mini-classes that I wanted to attend which I will miss out on now. 

While much of the focus of the Glass Art Society is unfortunately focused mainly on blown glass, I feel it is important to note that fused, cast, stained and torchworked glass also has a role in this movement.  I suppose because blown glass has an enticing excitement and immediacy it is certainly more entertaining and visually intriguing in process to watch than the process of laying down frit or painting glass on glass or cutting, grinding, foiling or soldering glass panels are to an audience. 

It is a shame because there are some tremendous contributions from artists who are not primarily blown glass artists--Narcissus Quagliata immediately comes to mind for his astounding large scale fused and painted panels (a little misnomer as he paints with frit and finely ground glass, not paints), Richard La Londe, who I am desperately hoping to get to take a class from in the not too distant future and who also does large scale public art installations, and one of my own teachers whom I adore for his quirky sense of humor and his astounding skill with airbrushing glass on glass, Raphael Schnepf, all have made fused glass works that are every bit as gorgeous and astounding as a Dale Chihuly work (who is my favorite blown glass artist just for his artistic vision and ability to market himself and his work in an extremely successful manner).  You might, if you are a glass artist, recognize Raphael's work as being on the cover of the System 96 glass catalog. 

Raphael giving us our first lesson in airbrushing on glass. 

Raphael and Karen Reed (another of my FAVORITE fused and stained glass artists

and a delightful friend!)

Raphael showing us how to "paint" with glass.

Detail of the process of painting with glass.

Rene Culler, who has focused on fused glass and pushing the boundaries of the medium, and Judith Schaechter who pushes the boundaries with the subject matter she chooses, and Karen Reed who does astounding fused and stained glass artworks, are my three favorite female glass artists and I have great respect for all of them not only for the works they create but for striving to and excelling in yet another male-dominated work environment.  I have many more artists whom I admire and whose work I am fascinated by, but these are my top six non-blown glass favorites.

Besides missing out on the goblet grab, and the lectures and demos that surely would inspire me, the other activity that I am sorry not to get to partake of is the public auction.  While I have not yet won the lottery and cannot at this time afford most of these works, just being able to spend time examining the intricacies of these works is worth the time and cost of attending the conference.  You can see the pieces that will be in the auction here:  http://www.glassart.org/2012_Auction_Online_Preview.html.  Ah well, I hope that I will be able to attend next year's conference.  In the meantime, I need to go... unpack more boxes.