More Pictures! - Upload fixed

Hello,

Here's some of our newest work.

I told you that I was commissioned to blow some wall art for the new Bank 2 location in Yukon. Some of these platters are the ones that have made the cut. Some still made the cut but are going in our restaurant - Italian Jim's Pizzeria @ 342 S. Mustang Rd. in Yukon Ok.


This Cerulean Blue piece is about 19 inches x 17 inches and has a Diablo Red lip wrap and is optic molded with a twist in the optic mold pattern.


This piece is about 24 inches x 22 inches and is Cherry Red with a few chunks of yellow and a bright yellow lip wrap. It is one of my favorite.


This piece is about 17 inches x 18 inches with Brilliant Yellow, optic molded with a twist, and a Diablo Red lip wrap- Also a favorite.


Micah got me a kilo of Cerulean Blue for Christmas. This is the first piece we did with it. We love this color - we added a few chunks of #3 frit Canary Yellow to this. It's about 16 inches x 15 inches.


This is Opal White iwth #2 Frit of Cherry Red, #3 Frit of Canary Yellow, and maybe some #2 Frit of Lapis Blue. It's 24 inches x 17 inches.


This one is Adventurine Green in the center, with Bristol Green on the outside edges surrounded with a Diablo Red lip wrap. I wanted to do the whole thing heavy in Adventurine Green and tried to do so, but it was so stiff I had trouble working it. It's about 17 inches x 17 inches. The picture doesn't do the Adv. Green justtice. You ought to see it in the sunlight.


This Bowl is Cerulean Blue with an Adventurine swirl in it. It is about 14 inches across. That Cerulean Blue is very pretty.


This vase is Cerulean Blue with a Cherry Red lip wrap and a dropped foot. It stands about 14 inches tall.


This vase is what I blew for my wife, Linda for Valentines Day. It is about 15 inches tall and is cream with a garnet body wrap.


If you click on this picture and look close, you will see a very fine "thread" of light biege "threaded" around this piece. It is Gaffer 50 - Black in powder form with the biege thread and lip warp. You ought to see the "threading" process. It's awesome to watch. Micah and I made it look easy,.


This piece is part of the "Tiger Stripe" series. It is black with a Curry body wrap and a Curry lip wrap. The threads on this piece are a little thicker and you can easily feel the texture of the thread around the vase. It's about 12 inches tall.


These are our flowers, "one or two steps removed from nature." Have stems about 13' long on them. We think they are pretty cool. We are gonna practice doing these until we make some really, really, really good-looking ones. (DZ)


This little piece is kind've cute. It's Lapis Blue with a cream thread "noodled" on, spun out and swung to get that fluted look. It's about 10 inches tall.

Heap big thanks to wife, Linda and boy, Micah for being great helpers. Bye for now - keeping the furnace hot!
CM

Class in Wichita

Last month Linda and I went to Wichita Kansas and took a glass fusing class for a couple of days at Wichita Center for the Arts. Kim Hughes taught the class. We went, we learned, we fused, we had a great time. Here's a photo of Linda getting everything juuussst right.

2 Great Helpers - 2 Beautiful Platters

Glassblowing is so much easier with good help. There are plenty of guys that make going solo look easy. So far, I'm not one of those kinda guys. Maybe someday. In the mean time, the Lovely and Gracious Linda was highly instrumental in the effort tonight along with talented, handsome, and strong - Micah.

We're working on the Bank 2 platters - getting better on the new techniques. We did a Adventurine Green with Opal Nile green lip wrap - and a Cerulean Blue with a heavy optic mold and diablo red lip wrap.

They turned out beautiful thanks to Linda. Linda realizes there's more to life than being just really, really, really good-looking! She is showing her versatility. (Zoolander Flashback)

I am still working on taking and uploading the pictures. Waiting on that 2-3 hour block of time when I don't have anything to do. You know how that goes.

Later Gator.
CM

The Pressure!

Hello everyone!

Micah and I went out to Andy Boatman''s Blue Sage Studios the other day and saw him/them installing his new furnace. It sure is nice! Looking forward to blowing some glass out there soon and showing Andy and Brent how real glass blowers do it.

Micah is sure good help. He likes the glass blowing and, as Derek Zoolander would say, "He is getting really, really, really good!" Micah blew his first piece tonight and did really, really, really good on that also.

We made some funky flowers (one step removed from nature).

Commission pieces are nice but the added pressure can be intense on getting them done by the deadline.

Ross @ Bank 2 has commissioned us to blow 3 new pieces for their new Bank location @ SW 15th and Morgan Road that just opened this last Wednesday. I have banked with Ross for almost 9 years and have followed him from Canadian State Bank to when He started Bank 2. His customer service is the BEST! I would say that even if he wasn't paying me an obscene amount for these commission pieces. Ha! Ha!

To do Ross' pieces, Micah and I have had to learn some more new techniques and it has been a learning process. Finally we completed one Saturday night that is a keeper. We did another one today - we'll see how it comes out tomorrow morning at about 9 am.

At least 1 down and 2 to go in about 7 days before his big grand opening. Pressure!!!!

Well I better go get cleaned up - I will try to post some pictures soon.
CM

More Pictures

Here's some more pictures. The first photo is a red bud vase with green body wrap. It's beautiful! I haven't been able to get into photoshop and change the orientation of the photo yet (That's why it's sideways) I may do it or not. If you have a LCD flat screen monitor you can easily pick up the monitor and turn it counter clockwise and look at the vase correctly.

Picture #2 is a bowl with Opal Nile Green optic molded and a black lip wrap. I'm looking forward to exploiting this color combination. I think it will make some pretty light fixtures!

Picture #3 is awsome! It is a commission piece for Mike Stanley for his valentine. It is a fluted bowl with curry on the inside, black on the outside, and a curry body wrap! It's from the "Tiger Stripe" series. It rivals the black with cream body/lip wrap commission pieces for Lucia that were posted on this blog on Dec. 18th, 2005. I look forward to doing more with the Tiger Stripe Series!

Picture #4 is a valentines gift for my youngest daughter Krista. It matches the animal print theme in her room.

Picture #5 is a valentines gift for my oldest daughter Kim. She loves brown and pink. I think the color combo rocks!

Gonna be doing some more better stuff as time goes on. I've been blowing more light fixtures in for the restaurant. I have also been blowing matching bud vases and will be blowing matching oil lamps in time. Each booth will have a themed light fixture, vase, and oil lamp.

We're doubling the square footage of our restaurant and I am looking forward to more of a retail presence for the glass and doing more decorating and uping the atmosphere a notch or two.

Looking forward to Andy Boatman getting his new furnace this week. Micah and I will be making a trip to Blue Sage Studios to make sure he's on track! Ha! Ha! We will really be going to get him to help us stay on track.

I went to Bixby this last Friday and finally got me a piece of 304 stainless steel plate 1/2" thick that is 2' x 3' for my marving table. I will be upgrading my marver soon.

I have had 3 folks ask me about glass blowing lessons this week. Thanks for the interest! Possibly late spring or summer. We'll see.

Thanks for checking out my blog.
CM

Some Pictures

I figured out that I have to add pictures from another computer because I think something is wrong with my computer. Here are some photos - I will send more later.

Thanks
CM

Furnace Upgrade

Wow! I installed a new high pressure blower on my furnace and the glass is so hot that it's almost as thin a water. Big difference to what it used to be. The neat part about that is I can get thinner "gathers" and create more depth and I hope better effects. I was using the blower that came with my glory hole because it was more powerful than the other blower I had. Now I switched my glory blower back to the glory hole where it's supposed to be and its considerably hotter than before. It's almost like I have a new furnace and glory hole!

I took more pictures today. I am going to start trying to upload my pictures from a different computer and see it that works.

Andy suggested Picasa - but that's not set-up for mac use.

Looking forward to getting a mac G-5 one of these days.

Thanks to Mike Stanley, Lucia, Glenda, Rolene, and Lisa for the orders for commission pieces.

I have still been busy with the restaurant expansion and still finding time to work out and keep that weight that doesn't belong on me off.

Looking forward to seeing Andy and Brent @ Blue Sage Studios soon (I hope!)

See ya!
CM