Well 2011 was a pretty crazy year! One where…
- I attended two weddings
- Went to Glass Camp again at Corning
- Got an amazing in-house job
- Moved to California
- Learned to blow glass
- Bought a car… and a HOUSE
- Turned 31… on the same day my best friend had a baby!

So, as you can see, I’ve been busy ;o) But as things are starting to settle down, I’m looking forward to the new year. Hopefully it will be a year of lots of art, great friends, my rad family, learning, and a lot more.

I’m spending the day watching hockey (winter classic!) and unpacking my new sewing room, so I definitely hope that soon i’ll have some crafty things to show y’all. I still need to blog my greatest hits from glassblowing, but that will also come soon.

So I hope all of you have a wonderful new year – that you’ll dream big, be kind, stay crafty, and strive for something greater than yourselves!

My first month of glassblowing… with mixed results…

“[New York] is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.”

Okay, so I totally took that Horace Greeley quote out of context (especially since he was talking about Washington, not New York, and um, the Homestead Act and not a new job…) but the point is that I have picked up and moved cross country… and dragged all my crafty along with me ;o)

The Stereoette shop is currently in storage for a while so there won’t be anything for sale until I get established on the West Coast which maybe be a few months from now. But I’ll still be crafting and will try to update the blog as I go!

So, as usual, I did “glass camp” this summer – this time around I took Pippa Beveridge and Rene Culler’s Architectural Glass class at the Studio at Corning Museum of Glass. We spent a week learning a ton of different techniques, from casting, to layering, to enameling, to sandblasting – all of which are appropriate for large scale, architectural projects.

We started out with a lesson from Pippa on making ceramic molds for casting.

Using that technique, I made my own mold and cast this longhorn panel (which apparently looks like a meerkat upside down).

Next, we learned about the different things metals will do when embedded in glass – including changing the chemistry of the glass. I made numerous small samples and kept detailed notes on what metals I used where. Hopefully I’ll be able to recreate some of these effects on future projects.

Next we played with kiln carving. In that process, the glass is melted over a ceramic “fiberpaper” which leaves divots in the glass. Take a look at this dove I also made in class, below:

And, after you have all your shaped divots in the glass, you can pack it full of bits of colored glass (aka frit) and fuse it again, resulting in one solid piece. And, its a continuation of the Major Tom pieces I’ve been working on back in my studio in New York.

You can also get color onto glass through a variety of stains (ground metals like silver which change the chemistry – and thus, the color – of the glass), enamels, pigments, and paints which get fired onto the glass, as you see in sample pieces I made in the picture below to practice techniques.

Near the end of the week, we dove head first into our final projects. Mine incorporated a variety of the techniques we’d learned – embedding metal, enameling, sandblasting, silver stain, using glass frits and powders, and stuck to the spaceman theme, with some worker bees in honor of my late grandma.

I had the awesome opportunity to have photos taken of some of my projects by a professional photographer on the museum’s staff, and she taught me a few tricks of the trade.

And of course, we went to the museum to check out some real architectural glass in action.

I’m looking forward to creating a wood or steel panel to mount my final project on so I can enjoy it on display.

My friend is having a baby. We don’t know his name yet, but we affectionately call him Buddy. And today, said friend had a baby shower to celebrate his arrival!

For my present to dear Buddy, I made a ‘onesie’ baby romper from my beloved (yet ancient) Kwik-Sew for Babies. And, I suddenly remembered why I never, EVER, use pearl snap buttons on ANYTHING.

Because they are IMPOSSIBLE to set.

Seriously, I spent hours setting pearl snap buttons, and ruined half of my supply of them. I’m sure there’s a gadget that you can use to set them but I don’t have one (a gadget I don’t have? GADZOOKS!) so I ended up using some insane combination of balancing a ball peen hammer on top of the snap, and hitting that with another jeweler’s hammer. I ended up with about a 50% success rate, a few pokes from wayward prongs on misset button parts.

Here’s a detail shot. I haven’t worked with jersey knit in ages, but it went more smoothly than I anticipated. I was impressed with my little Viking – he’s a sturdy little sewing machine ;o)

I’m asking y’all to take a break from the regularly scheduled programming for a first look at a fabric I designed for this week’s Spoonflower competition. For those of y’all who don’t know, Spoonflower is a great website where you can design custom fabric and have it printed. They also hold weekly fabric design competitions. This week’s theme is roller derby!

Voting has begun!
Go vote for my roller derby fabric over at Spoonflower! Its the one called “Derby Girls by JoiLakes”

First, Michele and I did the Bust Spring Craftacular. Our booth looks great, huh?

Here’s a closeup of my display.

And Michele’s fabulous new display, plus her happy smiling face!

This past weekend, Michele, Alison and I did Renegade Craft Fair in McCarren Park. Despite a nasty weather forecast, it ended up being a great weekend.

What’s so funny, Alison?

Yeah, keep laughing, ladies ;o)

And here’s my booth setup! See the new pegboard with my new stained glass and suncatchers? Yay! Love it!

I had new stuff like this robot suncatcher!

But not everything survived the inclement weather – a big gust of wind took our tent and these two pieces were casualties. I’m hopeful that I can fix the stained glass panel.

And a happy customer!

The first one is the Bust Spring Craftacular and Food Fair. Michele and I will be teaming up for this one for the first time, although we have done their holiday shows in the past. The fair will be held on Saturday, May 21st, 2011 from 11am-8pm, at 82 Mercer Street between Broome and Spring. Its a new venue for us, and indoors, but should be fun!

And the second is Renegade Brooklyn… Alison, Michele and I took the summer off last year, but we are back in full effect this June 11th and 12th from 11AM – 7PM each day. It’ll be in McCarren Park in Williamsburg, and we’ll post more details soon.

Hope to see y’all there… new post coming up soon about the new Stereoette stuff i’ll have there!

Yesterday I went to the New Collectors/Young Designers Night at SOFA. Julie came along… but neither of us could have expected what an amazing experience it was. It was like going to a baseball game, expecting to sit in the nosebleed seats, and then being escorted to a seat the flippin’ dugout. We expected artists to give talks, but what we ended up experiencing was one-on-one conversations with some of my favorite glass artists. Sadly, cameras were not allowed (the above photo of a Benjamin Moore piece is one of the press photos available on SOFA’s website) but photographs alone wouldn’t have been able to capture what a great night we had.

The first artists we met were Benjamin and Debora Moore. I was a huge fan of Benjamin’s work and after going to SOFA, I’m an equally huge fan of his wife’s. The Moores are two of the most neatest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. They both were so warm and so willing to talk about their artistic practices. And I think I was most impressed that my star struck gushing over their work didn’t even phase either of them… well, gushing over their work, and our gushing over Debora’s hair (us naturals have to stick together!).

The next artist we met was Marlene Rose, who we asked about her sandcast sculptures. She was also incredibly nice and talked us through the process of sandcasting. I’m actually sort of intrigued by sandcasting, and would really like to one day try fusing into or slumping over sand. Marlene is taking it a step beyond that, though, and is casting molten glass into wet beds of sand. Its a process I’ve seen on video, and I think its incredible.

We also popped by the booth by Echt Gallery, which was showing work by Oben Arbright, who I remembered from a feature in Glass Quarterly a while back. Oben’s work is cool, but the thing that blew my mind at their booth was a pair of pieces by Shayna Leib. I have been obsessed with Shayna’s work for a long time, and to see the pieces up close was absolutely mindblowing. I could have stood back there and stared at them all night, except we wanted to go meet another of my favorite glass artists…

I have been a giant fan of Alex Gabriel Bernstein‘s work since Gordon and I went to the Affordable Art Fair a few years ago and one of his galleries showed me some glass and steel sculptures like I’d never seen before. At the time, I thought that his sculptures were electroplated, but as he explained to me yesterday, he actually fuses chips of mild steel into the glass in a procedure that is absolutely brilliant. He talked to us about his studio practice, and had great pointers about summer programs to check out. Also, he was really encouraging to Julie and me about pursuing work we’re passionate about. And it is obvious that he is passionate about glass. He got me thinking about a life balancing glass and my law practice and all the stuff that makes me tick. I know I’ve said this word a thousand times during this post, but meeting one of my artistic heroes was really amazing.

Also amazing? Jeweler Yael Sonia. I love kinetic things. I love shiny things. And so, of course, I was drawn to Yael’s work like a magpie. What I didn’t expect was for Yael to kindly chat with me and Julie for a half hour about jewelry and fashion and whatever else came to mind. And I surely didn’t expect for Yael to let us try on jewelry she knew we weren’t able to purchase. (Can I just say, though, that I have never felt a ring that felt more comfortable than this one that can also double as a pendant? I tried on a version that didn’t have pave diamonds on it, but if you ever really want to impress me, people, THAT IS THE RING TO BUY. Anyhow, Yael is an amazing designer, and a sweet person. I’m a fan ;o)

The last glass artist we met was Abby Modell, who turns out to have her studio in my neighborhood! Abby is as addicted to color as I am, which is obvious from the work on her website. Sadly, her website doesn’t show my favorite work by her, a HUGE fused glass triptych that she created especially for SOFA. Abby was also a fountain of information on coldworking and glass blowing and was incredibly encouraging to me about continuing my glass work while Urban Glass is renovating over the next few years.

Anyhow, sorry for such a long post with few pictures – to make up for the pictures I couldn’t take at SOFA, here’s a slideshow of the pictures I took at the Armory show, which Jocelyn and I attended last month but I didn’t blog about. Here ya go!

So, here is my last big glass project! I am a member of a glass message board where we talk about glass casting, fusing, and other “warm” techniques. Every year, the members do an exchange where they make magnet sized pieces to send to one another. Magnet sized… but without magnets because at some point someone figured out that attaching magnets really increased the shipping costs! All the participants get one example of everyone elses’ “magless.”

I wasn’t really sure how I wanted to approach the project so I tried a few prototypes. My friend Rachel had recently showed me this amazing music video by David Crowder band done in stop motion using a lite brite, and I was totally inspired. (I totally loved those things as a kid!) I tried a few things out with chopped up pieces of glass rod – some on white backgrounds, some on clear. I also added black powdered glass frit to some of the samples to see if I could get that “lite brite” effect.

I fell in love with the look of the pieces on white backgrounds with black frit, so I started by chopping up a bunch of glass rods. Normally they are used for lampworking, but they are perfect for this project. I used a mix of 96 coe “veiled” rods, sold by Gaffer USA which have color surrounding clear centers, and regular 96 coe cathedral (transparent) glass rods in bright colors.

I cut 50 one-inch square pieces of white glass, and then glued seven centimeter-long pieces onto each square. I use regular white glue for this as it burns off cleanly in the kiln.

So then I had to gear up for the powder frit section. Safety first! When dealing with powdered glass, you have to protect your lungs by wearing an appropriate dust mask. This one filters both vapors and particulates, so its perfect for both powdered glass and for soldering jewelry or stained glass.

Holding the sifter over the glass piece, I put some powdered glass into the sifter, and then rubbed the spoon over the handle of the sifter, which shakes the glass down onto the piece. Then, once the powdered frit is sifted onto the piece, I used a soft paintbrush to gently knock the powder off of the top of the bits of glass rod.

Repeat 49 times, load them into the kiln as many as you can fit at once, tack fuse the glass so the powder glass melts completely but you still have tall rounded bubbles of color, and you’re ready to go! It took me about three kiln loads to get them all done, but oh well.

Here they all are all together! (They’re numbered so I can remember who made what). Some of them are really amazing, using multiple techniques and equipment I’ll have one day in my dream studio ;o)

I had a fabulous time working on this project and I’m looking forward to participating again next year. It is a great incentive to learn how to do some new cool stuff!