Glass at The Oklahoma History Center

We are honored to have our glass on display at Distinctly Oklahoma Magazine's 1 year aniversary at the Oklahoma History Center tonight (Aug. 26th, 2008). We had four days to design and come up with a significant number of pieces to display at the event. We designed and fabricated the steel armature and finished last night after midnight. We blew over 30 pieces for the centerpiece along with a number of other things at different tables set up thoughout the event. Here are a few pictures. I should have told Micah to smile. He was a tired puppy. The last 4 days have been long and involved and on top of that, we didn't finish until around 1:00 am last night and he had a catering in Norman this afternoon. (I catered in Seminole at noon today as well) We were both tired puppies! We really enjoyed the evening! The folks at Distinctly Oklahoma are really nice and the reception was "first class". They had catered food from an extraordinary pastry chef from Benvenutis in Norman, extremely good tenderloin and pulled pork sandwiches from "The Ranch" in OKC, and some other places (Those were the only ones I ate at - I got too full too quick!) We can't wait to go eat at Benvenutis soon! That tenderloin sandwich and pulled pork sandwich were awesome! Big thanks to Krista who came and helped Micah and I set up. She has the touch and the knack for knowing how to set up and decorate. Linda came down as well. Only Anna and Kim couldn't make it. We missed them. There were a number of other pictures of more glass but didn't get them posted.

Our FIRST Chandelier!

Our first stab at a chandelier! This chandelier measures about 40 inches wide by 40 inches tall. We forgot to count the pieces before we put them on but we are guessing the total will be about 100 give or take. We had planned on about 80 or so pieces but at the last minute we decided to redo the metal framework on the substructure of the chandelier. After a bit of "tweaking" it ended up a little bigger and looking somewhat medieval before we attached the blown glass pieces to it. We blew our first one out of clear glass,"just because" and also we may put some fiber optics in it. We have some samples blown of different colors so people can see what the chandelier would like in various colors. The photographs don't really do it justice. You need to see it in person. Even though it's our first one, it's beautiful!
Thanks to Andy and Mara for coming out tonight to take a look. Really looking forward to collaborating with Andy on some things!
Looking forward to going to Tulsa tomorrow catering for Italian Jim's Pizzeria and then stopping by and seeing Sarah Diggdon at her "Tulsa Glassblowing Studio". Sarah came to Italian Jim's Pizzeria a few weeks ago and we really enjoyed visiting with her and feeding her some great pizza!

Finally Pictures!

Wow, what an ordeal. Most all of this I had taken up to our restaurant (Italian Jim's Pizzeria - located at 342 S. Mustang Rd., Yukon, OK 73099 - 405-265-0919) - ( Yes, shameless plug! ) where I display and use as a retail outlet for Bella Forte Glass.

I had to bubble wrap, put in boxes, load in pickup, carry home, take out of pickup, carefully unwrap, clean with glass cleaner,(still missed a few spots), go to Home Depot, buy more lighting, come back home, install new lighting, photograph, wrap up, load pictures on computer, upload on blogger, load in pickup, take back to pizza shop, yeah, you get the picture. Note to self, "Next time, TAKE PICTURES BEFORE TAKING THEM TO THE DOGGONE PIZZA SHOP!"
Anyway, I like the "Gold Ruby Extra" pieces with the "Florence" interior and accents. This was the first time I had used the Gold Ruby Extra - A new favorite color!
Sorry the photograph of the Violet Blue Bowl with the lapis blue lip wrap was washed out - The Cerulean Blue with florence set is a favorite as well. The Saffron platter was okay, I liked the saffron really well but should have chosen another color for the lip wrap. (Brain freeze!) The last photo is Old Gold Transparent with lemon yellow body wrap & red lip wrap.