A new dessert...

Paleo "Almond Joys"...Steve and I came up with these a few days ago, dried dates, coconut oil, cacao powder, and an almond. These are insanely good!

The Sun for My Son...

My last class glass blowing class was this past Friday.  After skipping a week, I found myself really ready to get to the class and make my next piece.

I had a nice time chatting with Agnes, and the other class mates.  I told her about the last dream I had about glass after the bowl class.  That night in my dreams, I was making a sun.  I was telling everyone it needed to be bright yellow, for my son.

Agnes helped me think it through and I had help from Cody and Renee to put it together.  I did a lot more on my own on this piece than the other two pieces.  I wanted to try to do as much of what I learned this time, being the last class.



It's yellow, with spots of red, and orange, with a shimmer too.







Max thinks it's pretty cool too!



I had such a great time making all my pieces of glass art!

Stella...

After the first glass blowing class finished, Agnes said to make note of any dreams of glass we had.  I thought it was a given I would dream about glass, because my dreams are so vivid, and I dream regularly. I didn't know just how much the dream that night would unfold into the piece I made the second week.

That Friday night, I dreamed I was making small paper-weight sized strawberries.  They were red with green tops.  When I woke up, I made note in my journal about the dream, but didn't plan on talking about it to Agnes.  I thought that surely everyone dreams of the glass-blowing class after they are there for over 4 hours playing with glass and fire.

The second Friday rolled around and it was time for us to choose the colors for the bowl we were making.  She let us look through some powder colors which went all through the glass, rather than in streaks like the chips of glass do.  She pulled out a blue, and then a pinkish color.  "This one's called Strawberry", she said and she poured a little out.

I thought I should tell her about my dream at that point, so I did.  She told me it would be a pink color, but we could add red and it would look like a strawberry.  She said that her pieces will come to her in dreams, and if you get inspiration in a dream you should go with it.  That's how my second piece came to be a strawberry bowl.



I was first of the four of us to go.  Agnes helped a lot on my piece, along with her apprentice Cody.  There were a lot more techniques to making the bowl, and a lot more involvement from all of the "team" of students and teachers.  It was a fun class and I really love the bowl.



The Friday I was to go back for my last class, Agness called as I was leaving to say that the gas was leaking, so we wouldn't be having a class that night.  I had to wait two weeks to see my strawberry piece. When I got there this week, I was excited to see my bowl for the first time, it really looks like a strawberry.

It was pink with swirls of red throughout.  Because we put it in a mold, it made some really interesting shapes in the glass and some air got caught too, which I think makes it awesome!






When Agnes asked me about the bowl, I told her how I wanted to use the strawberry color as soon as she brought it out because I thought it would look like my Nanny's vase, that I got from my Grandmama.   I told her how similar the color was, and how it was funny how I've thought of Nanny several times since starting the glass blowing because her names was Stella Agnes.  Agnes smiled and said, "My middle name is Stella.".   I just had to laugh.

Strawberry Bowl with Nanny's vase

The bowl carries a little bump on it's side from where I touched the side of the furnace while spinning it and bringing the pipe out.  Agnes said we could try to fix it while we were working on it, but I wanted to keep it.



Because now, it REALLY looks like Nanny's vase!



I've named my bowl Stella.  I don't know yet what her function will be, but for now she just makes me smile.

Fire and Glass...

For my birthday, Steve got me an amazing gift.  A three week glass blowing class at Agnes of Glass  in Denver.

My first week, I was pretty nervous leading up to the class.  My biggest fear, breathing in through blow-pipe, called the punty pipe, when I was supposed to blow out.  In hind-sight, I don't know quite how I could accomplish that mistake, but nonetheless, I was nervous.

Agnes, and her apprentice, Cody, are there through the entire process of gathering the crystal glass, marvering (rolling the hot glass on a steel table to shape it), blowing the piece out, shaping it with blocks and newspaper, and tapping it off of the pipe to put it in the oven to cool slowly.

I've been amazed at how much I've enjoyed this form of art.  I thought I would, and have always had a fascination with watching glass art, but there is something pretty amazing about making glass.

I'll share the first week's pieces, then as I get the others back, and photos taken, I will share those as well.

First, I got to make a paperweight.   I chose blues as the glass chips I wanted for the flower.  There were endless options, but these caught my eye right away.



We gathered the crystal, marvered it, put the color on, gathered again, shaped it with newspaper while rolling the tube on the bench, and then put a pick through the glass to make the flower.  Mine made this awesome bubble.





That same night I got to make this amazing meditation globe.



I went with similar colors without realizing it.  It's crazy how when the glass gets so hot, it all looks red, so I maybe should have tried a different color-scheme, but I love the way this one turned out too!

I blew the air into this globe, and then Agnes and Cody helped to get it much bigger and shape it.  I think unless you are a Master Glass Blower, you have help on your pieces.  And I'm glad they're there to help out!  When we put the "cookie" or base on the bottom, the glass can sometimes drip into the piece.  Mine did, and then came bubbling back up!  It was pretty dramatic.



I stamped a "D" on the bottom to show it was mine.



I'm just back from my last class, where I made another globe.  I'll take pictures of the little bowl I made the second week and just got back tonight when the sun comes up tomorrow.  For now...I'm off to dream of fire, and melted glass.