Wonderful class last weekend! The night lights are ready to go home with their artists! Such a wonderful and enthusiastic class.  I do love watching students go through the creative enlightenment process starting with "What should I do?" and ending with "Wow, these all look so cool!"

I just completed the auction piece for the fundraiser for Special Angels of The Woodlands.  What an incredible program for adults with intellectual challenges and disabilities.  The Woodlands is my hometown and my dad was one of the founding fathers in its creation, so I hold a special place in my heart for the piney woods of east Texas (in this case Montgomery County). 

If you are in the north Houston/south Conroe area and have aspired to own one of my pieces (shameless pitch I admit), please consider the auction for Special Angels on Thursday evening, April 5th at 314A Pruitt Road, Spring, 77380.  It is a wonderful cause and will go towards lifting the lives of those with mental disabilities.  To learn more, click on the link above.

New Designs (L to R):

1. 113 Snow Mountains Styx
2. 115 Ocean Sunset 
3. 114 Restless Sea
4. 119 My Sunflower
5. 120 Paintbrush & Bluebonnets

So after nearly a year of prototypes, changes and negotiations, Aspen Light Glass is going to be featured at the US Senate Gift Shop in Washington DC just in time for the spring cherry tree blossoms :)  It is something quite different from the usual in that we are using stencils and powders to create the Capitol silhouette and then building the cherry tree blossom vignette in classic stringers and frit.  Hopefully we can get it all wrapped up and shipped out before the blossoms emerge, but in the crazy climate change weather these days, who knows when it will actually happen.  According to Punxsutawney Phil, I have at least 6 weeks to go before the spring event.

So, new designs are in the making.  There will be 5 new designs in Aspen Light Glass, including a winter mountain, 2 beach, and 2 flower scenes...who knows...maybe more.  I'll post the finals when they are done and then onto the new Earthfire Arts series.

The new year will bring several changes to the studio.  We will be expanding the Aspen Light Glass Studio line with possibly new beach/ocean themes, prairie scenes (yes sunflowers), desert Southwest landscapes and Texas Hill Country memories of home to name a few.  

We will also be adding a new line to the Earthfire Arts Glass that will introduce reverse image palette knife glass with frit work.  I have done several of these a commission pieces in the past and now will be making several as a permanent line to dimensional glass.

Look for more information in mid-February on our line expansions.

We will be doing southeast and west coast summer shows this year in San Francisco and Orlando.  At the ACC San Francisco show, we will be selling both retail and wholesale lines so if you have wanted to buy directly, this will be an opportunity to at the show.  Orlando will be the new wholesale show--American Handcrafted--which is the rebranding of the ACRE shows by Emerald.

Finally, we will be posting the 2018 class schedule in late January.  We are planning on 3 or 4 classes this year, including basic fusing and slumping, creating glass night lights, the glass ornament class and working in mosaics and fusing together.  Class size is limited so don't wait if you are wanting to attend a class.  Registration links will be posted on the class page.

​2018--bring it on!

[This is a rewrite on previous blog post...]

Recent events have raised a concern regarding intellectual and creative property rights. My previous post felt heavy-handed so I am rewriting it in a straightforward manner so that readers and followers understand my position.  Most importantly, I do not want to offend my followers and know that I greatly appreciate and support all who keep up with my work.  That is why I blog in the first place--to share ideas and create a dialogue.

The internet has opened up huge opportunities to share and market artists' work.  With that comes the challenges of how to protect an artist's work from duplication without the their consent. I post my work using the many tools available including my website and social media and through years of hard work and persistence, it has made a difference.  I also blog on some of my methods to share the path of experimentation with others so we can learn together.

I do not allow direct copy or reinterpretation of my artwork without my consent.  This is especially true if an artist is widely marketing the work on the internet or selling the art work.  If you are in doubt, contact me.  

If you have taken a class from me, then I take the position that I am relinquishing certain rights regarding my methods and that you will use that knowledge to create and develop your own style in your artistic pursuits.  It does not extend a right to directly duplicate my work, but does allow a student to use the tools acquired in class to explore and develop their own artwork. If a student wishes to sell work made in workshops or classes, that is also reasonable as long as it is properly cited and referenced as to its origins. I do not think it is fair to teach a student how to paint with glass while telling them they cannot use it to market and sell their own work.  It is realistic though to expect a student to use those tools to develop their own unique style in the future.  That is the whole point of teaching and taking classes in the first place.  In the converse, if there is a method or style that I wish to protect as my own, I simply won't teach it.
 
I hope this post is clearer and more appropriately states my position.  Consider this a segue to a larger dialogue on creative property rights--it is a very difficult and elusive subject for many artists and if we start opening up the conversation about it, maybe we can all come to a better understanding on what it is and how it pertains to our own creative businesses.

​We shouldn't have to always be looking over our shoulders worrying about whether or not a piece may be judged as too similar to someone else's, but we should consciously make the effort not to copy someone's work.

What a fun Saturday afternoon with 6 wonderful ladies :)  The students made 2 to 3 ornaments each using various shapes and themes using pre-cuts, frit, powders, stringers, noodles and dicro glass (top image pre-fire and post-fire below).  Now to get them drilled, delivered and hung on that special holiday tree.

Next class is planned for the spring (probably late March) where we will create fused glass night lights!  Check the class schedule on this website in January for more information on upcoming classes for 2018.