Behind-the-Scenes at Sassy Glass Studio : Dogwood Art DeTour - April 11-12, 2015

Spring has sprung at Sassy Glass Studio!

Read on to find out what's happening in April and May...

Every now and then I get a request from someone who wants to watch me work in my fused glass studio, see my kilns or view all of my fused glass goodness, and I often can't accommodate these requests because I don't actually work in my glass studio full-time. Most days of late, I am toiling away at my laptop in my office just outside of Downtown Knoxville, across the hall from the ALM Photo studio and offices. For the last few years, I have been spending more and more of my time working on Pink Spark Creative, my creative business mentoring and consulting business and as a photographer than a fused glass artist. And it seems that I tend to be in the glass studio more often teaching fused glass classes than creating fresh fused glass goodness. It finally hit me recently that I'm an educator at heart, so I have been spending much more time teaching and coaching than creating.

I share all of that with you now because this is the first year since I started Sassy Glass Studio that I will not be exhibiting at the Dogwood Arts Festival on Market Square (formerly the Market Square Art Fair), but I am participating in the Dogwood Art DeTour on Saturday and Sunday, April 11 and 12, 2015. So the good news is that you get to come visit my glass studio which will be open that Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 5pm and watch me work, ask questions and even purchase some of my fused glass goodness. It is your personal behind-the-scenes look at Sassy Glass Studio!

There are over 20 working artist studios open to the public for the Dogwood Art DeTour so you will have plenty of places to stop and visit on your way to or from Sassy Glass Studio in Fountain City. I look forward to meeting you and sharing my love of fused glass with you. I'll have plenty of chairs and some snacks too, so you can come hang out as long as you would like. Just don't judge me if my lawn is impeccably manicured and my gardens free from weeds! I'll be busy filling custom orders in the glass studio over the next week and a half until the Art DeTour.

Other exciting events coming up...

The first Market Square Farmers' Market of 2015 season is May 2, 2015 from 9am to 2pm and I'm listing the dates I will be participating below. My MSFM participation is very lean this season for the above-mentioned reason of affording myself more time to teach fused glass classes and focus on making time to enjoy life.

Mark your calendar to visit Sassy Glass Studio at the Market Square Farmers' Market
May 2
May 9
June 27
July 11
August 15
September 19
October 10
I also intend to participate in the Market Square Holiday Market each Saturday before Christmas in December.

Fused Glass Classes
Fused glass classes are scheduled when it's mutually convenient for the student and me which, as I mentioned above, is one of the reasons I am participating in the MSFM less often and freeing up more Saturday's. If you are interested in signing up for a class or would like more information, simply click here to email me or call me at 865-406-3870.

Get Crafty With the Knoxville Creative Hands Street Team
As many of you know I am one of the founders and Team Captain of KCHST, the local Etsy team and we're excited to be hosting the Etsy Craft Party again this year. The Craft Party will take place on June 5, 2015 from 6pm to 8pm at the ALM Photo studio. More details will be posted on the KCHST Facebook page as they become available. We're currently seeking food and beverage sponsors for the event, so if you or someone you know if interested, please let me know.

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Dogwood Art DeTour | April 12 & 13, 2014

Want a behind-the-scenes look at the process of creating fused glass goodness? Or maybe you just want to see where I work. Or just want to watch me work. {I know, you think all that beautiful glass is the work of fairies and gnomes!} You'll have just such an opportunity on April 12 and 13! I'm thrilled to have Sassy Glass Studio on the Dogwood Art DeTour again this year along with 19 other working studios. The complete list is here and each location will have maps available too.

Sassy Glass Studio on the Art DeTour a couple of years ago

I'll have lots of fused glass art for sale {you'll get to see new pieces before their public debut at the Dogwood Arts Festival Market Square Art Fair on April 25-27!} and you'll have the chance to enter a drawing for a $25 gift certificate. But only if you come by and see me. So mark your calendar, check the listing of artist studios on the DeTour and plan a fun art filled day. If I were going on the DeTour I would map out my day to include a breakfast, lunch and cocktail/dinner stop along the way!

Visit my Etsy shop to get a preview of items currently available and check back for new pieces that haven't made it there yet! If you see something you like and want to purchase now and pick it up on the DeTour, let me know and I will remove the shipping charge on Etsy.

I look forward to seeing you on the Art DeTour! Come see my work AND come see me work!!

ON A SIDE NOTE:

Now is the time to sign up for Fused Glass Classes! The weather is perfect to work in the studio and open the doors to the sounds of the birds. Click the links to find out more information on Beginner Fused Glass Class and Intermediate Fused Glass Class!

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Dogwood Arts Festival | April is for art. And wind. And rain.

This year marks my seventh year participating in the Dogwood Arts Festival Market Square Art Fair. The event runs over the weekend of April 25 through 27 and takes place in Downtown Knoxville. There is a wide variety of art as well great food, think funnels cakes and corndogs, as well as lots of entertainment. Preceding the Art Fair is the Dogwood Art DeTour which is a self-guided tour of Knoxville area artist studios open to the public on April 12 and 13. This is a great opportunity for you to come and watch me work. Or just chat. I usually do a lot more talking than working during the DeTour. Don't miss either event!

April is for art. And wind. And rain.
What's most interesting about this being my seventh year is that my first year was almost my last. The weather was crazy and my tent exploded in a downdraft. I refer to the explosion as the 'tent incident' and share the tale with other artists setting up for the Dogwood Arts Festival Art Fair for the first time. I don't do it to scare, just to educate on the dangers of wind. An article appropriately titled, 'Festival faces twists and turns', appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel on Saturday, April 12 2008 in which I said "Yeah, the weather's bad, but we've been able to work with it." and as if in spite of this comment my tent incident occurred late Saturday afternoon. The tent incident prompted my husband, Allan, to go into research mode to find out what sort of tent would withstand the crazy weather in East Tennessee. This research resulted in us obtaining what I now refer to as the "mondo artist tent" shown below. We asked the guys picking up the trash if they would take the busted up tent away and they did! We did; however, keep the broom sticks we used to hold the busted tent together.

It's certainly a sturdy tent. And it is pretty too. And it is very good at keeping the rain out. Like in 2011 when it rained really hard and everyone left early, except for me and Allan. Because we were the only ones who stuck around, we got on the WATE news that night. You wouldn't believe how many friends saw the report and texted me that evening. And the next day people searched me out just to say they saw me on the news. The moral here is to never leave early. Unless there is a hurricane warning and then it is probably a good idea to vacate.

Back to the wind. There was another year when the wind was a problem for Sassy Glass Studio. Take a peek at this fantastic post from Moxley-Carmichael's 'The Blue Streak' back in 2010 about how the Dogwood Arts Festival has improved and has real art. {A side note: it really was bad for a few years. Shew!} Anyway, shortly after Cynthia Moxley photographed the gorgeous blue art panel in the photo above, it blew over onto the ground and broke. Crazy wind strikes again!

This is the last wind story I promise. The first few years I exhibited at the Dogwood Festival Art Fair people would ask why I didn't have anything with dogwoods. So after years of being asked, I finally made some fused glass vases, plates and pendants. I should have known there was trouble brewing when I created these pieces. First of all it was difficult to figure out how to make a realistic looking dogwood from glass and second, I wondered if they would actually sell. Well, they didn't sell. But only because they never had a chance. I had a great display right at the front of my booth so everyone would see the pieces. This was also the perfect place for the wind to catch the table, lift it off the ground and slam it down. Yes, the glass broke. I lost most of the dogwood pieces. And that was the end of creating fused glass dogwood art for me.

 

So, as you can see, April is a month filled with art and wind and rain. But don't let the weather keep you from coming out to the Dogwood Art Festival events this year and checking out all of the fabulous art. We artists are a hardy bunch and we'll be there rain or shine. Or wind.

ON A SIDE NOTE:
There are still a few more days to celebrate!
March is National Craft Month and there are three ways you can celebrate in Sassy Style! Find our more in this post. This is the only opportunity this year to save on fused glass classes!

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Fresh Fused Glass Goodness | New blog series

It's been a busy month in the studio between the reorganization and redesign and creating new pieces for upcoming shows. I love sharing photos of the new pieces I create, often with some background on how it was created and the creative thought process behind it, and decided to create a series "Fresh fused glass goodness" that will appear on a regular basis on the blog. This will be a great way for me to share the process of creating some of my work. This is the first post in the series featuring some of the pieces I have created over the last month or so. The glass studio doesn't have a heating/cooling system so I have to fire up the space heater when I am going to work out there, which means I don't get as much studio time when it is very cold. But Spring is on its way and I'll be creating more fused glass goodness in preparation of the Dogwood Art DeTour and Dogwood Arts Festival Market Square Art Fair in April.

These pieces below have been created using what I refer to as "remainder glass". This is the glass that is leftover when I cut squares and circles. I stacked the pieces into circles and squares to create "new" pieces of clear glass and then I added additional glass embellishments and accents. The pieces were them full fused and then slumped or draped into or over molds. I love how thick and heavy these pieces are! Let me know what you think of this new process. I love getting feedback!

ON A SIDE NOTE:
Sassy Glass Studio will be at the Ironwood Art Fair on Friday, March 14th from 5pm to ?? and Saturday, March 15th from 10am to 4pm. Find out more information here.

March is National Craft Month and there are three ways you can celebrate in Sassy Style! Find our more in this post.

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Refresh and Reorganize | a mini studio makeover

{ Organized + Refreshed = Increased Productivity + Inspired Creativity }

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of cleaning, moving and tossing stuff in the trash. The glass studio is a work in progress, but I wanted to share a short video {kind of like a moving portrait} of the refresh and reorganization. All that's really left is some painting and then I can hang some shelves, a cork board and some art on the walls and be done with it. For now. Eventually I will paint the floor, but that will involve removing everything from the studio and I don't have time for that now. Maybe next January!

The area I have been reorganizing is my main workspace. We boxed in an area about 10 feet X 10 feet when we started working on the "Great ALM Photo Office|Studio Project" about 6 years ago and outfitted it with items we already had, like shelves, a desk, tables and even the wainscoting and window were things kicking around the garage. Yes, my glass studio is in what was once a boring detached two-car garage/workshop. During the "Project" we built up on top of it and out the sides to add another garage bay and a large porch. What I love most about my entire glass studio space is that I can open the overhead door in the gallery/classroom area and work pretty much outside. I will be sharing photos and updates on that area when I get it finished up. All of my reorg/refresh has to be done in time for the Dogwood Art DeTour on April 12th and 13th when my studio is open to the public. Who wants to see that I usually work in a messy, unorganized space?!

Here is a "before" photo:

Yeah, it was a mess. It's a happier space now!

Here is the short "after" video:

Here are some photos I found of the glass studio being constructed. Wow! Looking back on these photos, I really wish I had painted the walls before moving everything into the space so I could get working. The walls still look like this. Gross!

I'll share more photos and/or video as I work my way through this project. The gallery/classroom area will have a nice comfy couch so my mom can wander down to the glass studio and watch me work. {We moved my mom in almost a year ago and she has a hard time getting around so it will be nice for her to have a place to sit and hang out with me.}

Don't miss out on the fun of  celebrating National Craft Month in Sassy Style! March will be a fun month of crafty awesomeness!

{ON A SIDE NOTE}
There are still a few days left in the Warm up with the Hot Winter Sale going on through February 28, 2014 in the Sassy Glass Studio Etsy shop! Save 20% with coupon code HOTWINTERSALE.

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Fusography | Show off your fabulous photos!

{ Fusography }

It's a word I made up to describe the pieces I create by permanently fusing a full-color {or not} image, whether it be a photograph or other graphic, to a one-of-a-kind fused glass piece. Several years ago, probably more like four years ago, I set out to find a way to combine my two passion/professions: photography and fused glass art. There were plenty of decals you could DIY, assuming you could lay your hands on just the right type of laser printer, but these decals would only fire to a sepia tone. I wanted COLOR!

So I spent a lot of time Googling full-color decals and a multitude of combinations thereof until I found In Plain Sight Art. I was so excited when I found them. They are artists who print exactly the type of decal I needed! And it wasn't ridiculously expensive. And they are super easy to work with.

My first decal order was of artwork by a friend {see finished bowl below}. I was super nervous about messing something up and it took me several weeks to get up to courage to actually create the piece. I wrote a step-by-step post about Fusography a while back outlining the whole process. It's not for the beginner or anyone not having a great attention to detail. The step of getting the decal off the backing paper and onto the glass is tedious and if not done right, can ruin the whole piece. My patience is tested every time. I sweat while working to get the decals off the backing paper and onto the glass without any bubbles.

I've been sharing photos of Fusography pieces I have created and I have had a lot of fused glass artists ask me about the decals, but I have yet to find another artist {besides the creative geniuses over at In Plain Sight Art} sharing art they have made using the decals. Of course, you need to have a digitally programmable kiln and many fused glass artists don't use one, but I figured somebody out there was doing the same thing I am.

One of my business goals for 2014 is to increase exposure of Fusography, get more custom orders for it and experiment with different types of designs and techniques. It's unique and since it gives customers the option of using their images, whether they are professional images they have permission to print, Instagram photos, mobile phone photos, or photos of photos. See...lots of possibilities! I bet right now you are thinking of some images you would love to have on coasters or pendants. Custom created fused glass art is a fantastic gift idea, but it is even more awesome when you embellish it with a photo of someone special or your own photography.

Here are the decals on order right now! I just uploaded this image file to In Plain Sight Art and I will have them by the weekend. As you can see I can add a lot of images to one sheet! There are several images on here for customers, but a lot of them are for new pieces I am creating for the Etsy shop and for the Dogwood Arts Festival Market Square Art Fair and Dogwood Art DeTour coming up in April.

Next up with Fusography is a video tutorial sharing the entire process from creating the decal sheet, placing the order, fabricating the fused glass blanks for the decals, firing and finishing pieces. I'm excited to share one of my passions!

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