Some new glass

Here's some new pieces. Had more than that but they already sold before I could get pictures of them.

Lino Tagliapietra!

Linda and I were in the Seattle / Tacoma area for 7 days and got back on Tuesday the 17th. We spent 5 of those 7 days sitting and watching probably the greatest glass blower that has ever existed on the planet. Lino Tagliapietra. Lino was tremendous. There was a total most of the time 12 people on the floor with Lino assisting. John Kiley, David Walters, and Nancy Callan were his main three. Most of the time all 12 stayed busy preparing cane, cups for incalmo, and assisting with the piece Lino was working on and getting the follow-up piece ready for Lino to take over as soon as the one he was working on was finished. We watched every day from 9 am to 3:30 or 4:00 and on Sunday Noon to 5:00 pm. Lino signed our book that we bought. He wrote to, and signed our names and then signed his name and "Tacoma, 2008". They had this huge exhibit entitled, "Lino Tagliapietra In Retrospect A Modern Renaissance In Italian Glass" The number of pieces of his work was astounding. They also had a large exhibit of Dante Marioni. His ability to produce those long, elongated, elegant pieces seem unmatched. I know Lino is the best but Dante is certainly following closely. (We took 620 pictures! Thank God for digital picts. Thank God for Apple 30" monitors, and Apple tower quad processor computers with insanely large hard drives.) I can't wait to get back in the studio and experiment and practice. And practice. And practice....
Man! We had a great time!
And practice…