The Trouble Is....

I threw my shoulder out this past week. I have pulled muscles before, but this was just excruciating. Still not quite sure what exactly I did, but wow was it sore! I couldn't raise my arm, nor turn my head and my entire right side was aching with a splitting axe going through my right eyeball.

So, I was on codeine (and now vicodin!) for this past week. The trouble is that we have been blowing glass bottle stoppers for the past two weeks and it's now up to me to do the cleanup so that we can photograph them. But doing the cleanup is so painful right now!!! OUCH!!!

I have a few of them done, so BJ has taken the photography of those, but there are so so so many more on my table. And they're all just so beautiful!!! Here's a few:
This one is one of mine, emerald green, medium blue and a wisp of golden. It's very nice, and I made it so it would slightly flare out from the wine bottle.

This one is like my marbles, using a pink/ivory with an overlay of red dots. The pink/ivory swirls on the inside and gives off somewhat of a golden tone. It would be fantastic on a chardonnay bottle.

Now this one is one of BJ's. He just can't seem to grasp the concept of "reserved" or "small". He just loves to stretch the glass to see how far he can go with it. This one is very special to him. It uses reds, the pink/ivory and a few other hints of color and then swirls and twists it up so that it looks like the wine is splashing out of the bottle. It's a wonderful technique and makes for some very interesting and fun shapes.

Now I just have to take enough vicodin so that I can clean up and polish the rest of the pieces!! You won't believe those. They're just friggin amazing.

Tomorrow... I swear tomorrow....

Peace,
Joy

A Marble in its new home

This beautiful green marble now has a home on the east coast. The setting is gorgeous letting the sun come in. We consciously made the choice to have our marbles be translucent, transparent in places rather than solid opaque, so that you could see through to the other side to get more intricate things going on in each, plus the light being able to shine through is just spectacular. I'm so happy this one has such a nice home with such loving people. It's owned by an amazing artist who has quite a history of doing incredible work - Roy Scarfo and his wife, Carol.


This great marble is now owned by artist David A. Hardy, travelling halfway around the world to its new home, to be surrounded by dinosaurs and space art from a long history of David's creations. Its little bubble eyes in the blue remind me of Wall-E, and I'm so happy he has such a good home now. It's always fun to see where our creations go, how they're used or displayed. More often than not, we send them out and never see or hear from them again. It's a treat to see and know that they're received and loved. Thank you, Dave and Carol, for sending us these photos.

Peace,
Joy

Massive Sale

In honor of our new President (YAYYY!!!), we're having a massive sale on all our stuff. It's 30% off! Can you believe that? Outrageous!

Anyhoos, anything on any site we have can get the discount.
Spherical Magic - http://sphericalmagic.com/
My site - Glass Nebula - http://glassnebula.com/
Our marbles - Losture Marbles - http://losturemarbles.com/
BJ's work - http://imperialearth.com
and even my cat bowls - http://MyCatsCradle.com/

Just enter the code "Yes We Can" into the cart and it will give you the discount.

Send me a note if you don't see something you know I've talked about, like the new winestoppers...

Peace,
Joy

Commissioned VS. Personal Art

I often get asked, and wonder myself too, do I prefer commissioned works or making my own pieces to then sell. Many artists refuse to take commissions, feeling that it will compromise their artistic integrity. I can see their point, but if you work with your client right, this doesn't have to be the case.

Commissioned work is fine with me, as long as I can get along with the client. I certainly like being paid up front and having a solid job as I work. If the piece comes out different than originally thought up, I can chalk it up to experience and learning and start another one that will be the commissioned art piece.

If the piece is close to what was commissioned, and I feel it's a better work of art, I'll talk with the client, explain my views and usually the client agrees and accepts the piece. I don't think I've ever had a client that refuses and wants their money back. One was very close, but after a week, she called back and said she wanted it after all!

As for personal works, I do like to work on these, as they let my creativity go where it needs to go. Sometimes commissioned works can be this way, if the client says "Whatever you want to do!" (And I just LOVE those clients!!). I have so many interests and so many techniques available that I never run out of ideas for personal works. In fact, I have so many projects going, it is sometimes overwhelming! Sometimes, they sell and sometimes they don't. That's the rough part - not knowing if all the work I'm putting in will help me continue as an artist. I guess that's why some of the projects still sit, months and years after I started them, unfinished. I don't know if they'll sell, so I feel guilty about spending time working on them.

I wish I had the freedom to just paint or build what I want without having to worry about the business end of it, but I guess very few artists ( or anyone for that matter) has that kind of freedom, so I'm not alone.

Peace,
Joy

Why I Like Working in Glass

I've worked in other mediums (media?) but have found a strange quirk in myself that is really irritating - I fiddle. Yes, I play the violin, but I also just keep nerdling on things forever. When I work in traditional oils, I would keep going in and redoing things until all I had was just a mess. When I started reverse painting on glass, I was not able to keep fiddling with the work and finally it would be finished.

Why? Well, reverse painting is done the opposite way of traditional. I *start* with the foremost details and then work my way back to the background color. I have to sign the painting near the beginning, and as each layer goes on, the previous layer is covered up on the glass and so I can't go back and work it anymore. It forces me to complete the painting. If I finally decide that the painting just isn't working, I have to scrape the whole thing and start over. The pain of doing that is usually too great, so I just let the painting be what it is and move on to the next.

The same is pretty true with glassblowing. Of course, we plan out the colors we will use and the basic design and shape and function, but as the glass is molten, we can't go in and really tweek anything if it's going different from planned. Sometimes that's the best thing too! We'll be working on a specific design and the glass will start to go a different direction. We are learning to be flexible enough to say OK and take it in the new direction to see what it wants to be.

This has been a really hard thing to learn too, to NOT force control over the glass. Sure is fun and cool when it works though!

Peace,
Joy

I Get To Blow Glass Today!! WooHooOOOoo!!!

I don't get to blow glass very often, so when I do, it's a real treat.

But wait, if I like it so much, why don't I do it more often? Well, if I ONLY blew glass, I'd do it every day (or most days...). BJ and I are very diversified though. Along with the glass, we paint, build sculptures (out of the glass we blow), build furniture, websites, 3D modeling and animations, plus lots of other things.

Probably tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll have to spend a large chunk of the day printing, matting and then framing one of our artworks. Plus I do a lot of marketing and all the office work (bills, invoices, mailing lists, yadda...). On the days I blow glass, it pretty much takes up the entire day. If I have to do anything over a couple of hours (framing, errands, meeting, sick cat....) I can't blow that day.

A Day of Blowing:
11PM the night before: I fill the furnace with batch (crushed clear crystal) and start the firing. It takes 15 hours and heats up the glass to a molten 2175 degrees!
1AM: Go to bed!
9AM: I get up, infuse myself with tea and wake up with email and cnn.
10 or 11: Get to do a little work on other projects - maybe do a print, glue up some wood, a little carving, get shipments ready, etc.
1PM: My partner, BJ Johnson, arrives at the studio. He fires the Glory, which takes about an hour to get to 2000 degrees.
2PM: We go out to start. BJ cranks up the lights, the pipe warmer and gets the tools waxed and ready. I fire up the annealer. It heats up to 975 degrees in about 20 minutes. I also crank up the tunes on my ipod through the speakers. And we're ready to blow!!!
8PM!! We finally call it a day, ready to go in, make dinner and vegetate a bit. The glory is turned to low and the furnace allowed to cool to about 1200 degrees, so that I can fill it back up at 11 and start again!!

It's a full day, exhausting, exciting.

Comment, please, ask questions.

Peace,
Joy

Three New Marbles

This is a wonderful paperweight. It's 2 inches across and is really fun with the little bubbles inside. It's on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=250352945066
for just ridiculously inexpensive.

There is also this one:which is very pretty with the deep gold and the ivory mixing together. It's at an even more ridiculous price on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=250352950424

And also this one, which is my favorite (so far...) :

This one is just really cool. The blue is textured like alien skin, and then it has two eyes (bubbles) at the very top, exactly spaced in the blue. The salmon pink and the transparent violet swirl up and wrap around the blue. It's a great combination of colors and very pretty. I'm going to go for this combo again the next time we blow. I think I can do some even cooler things with it. Yes, it's on ebay too: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=250352956760

Peace,
Joy

Happy New Year

I hope you all have a good new year. This past year was difficult for me, and I'm still digging out of it. I go from great hopefulness to near tears, but I think the hopefulness is winning out. Even though things are tough, I feel like my artwork is beautiful and it is surely what I'm supposed to be doing.

but sometimes I get so lonely.

wishing you the best of success this coming year.
Joy