The gathered art gallery and studios

A variety of my glass focal beads are made into pendants and for sale at the gathered art gallery and studio in Toledo, Ohio.  Visit the gathered’s  Facebook page for the location. Art walk happens often!! In downtown Toledo, Ohio from 6-9 pm on some Thursday nights. (To learn more about art walk in Toledo click here) The gathered is having an open party to celebrate. If your in the area, stop in and visit!! A variety of my work is in this big display case!  Enjoy!

Planning the journey

2012 is going to be a busy good year.  If it goes as I imagine, it would be something like this-

Experience my kids grow (boys-8 and 11), Work with my family business, Make Custom order glass keepsakes for Customers, Make art for the sake of Art!  Update my blog and website (or, get someone else to), Visit the Furnace Glass work at April Wagner’s studio, visit the Dearborn Glass Academy’s Events, make  some production beads, attend the  GAS Conference in Toledo, Ohio,  prepare for 3 juried art competitions, Maybe buy a new home and a new studio? (depending on how the “this economy” treats me), get Oxygen delivered regularly, spend 2 days with JC Herrell in a big glass room, work with some New Gallery’s, and start another business.

Now, to figure out how to make it all happen. This next couple weeks is about figuring out the best way to pull all of this off.  Time to draw up a plan!

A selection of my beads can be purchased at my Etsy shop.

Want something custom? Visit my on line Gallery, and contact me!

50% off decals!!   Glass Artist’s can put decals in, on, and around glass, fuse or flame on! (1350 F) On sale at my website  until March 8, 2012!  Then, the decal Biz is going places! (More on that later.)

Happy 2012! Thank you for checking in!

The E-Zine by Jet Age! Spotlights the decals!

Cyber space offers Artist’s so many opportunities to learn the ropes. Get inspired! The sky is the limit. I am excited to tell you about the New On Line E-zine about glass art inspirations. I have been watching it evolve into a place awesomely inspiring to visit.

…”a JetAge Studio e-zine about glass artists, glass organizations, news and business. Our vision is to bridge the networking gaps, share ideas and bring glass artists from all around the world together to get inspired!”  (copied straight from the site!)

I was honored to have my New Lampwork decals in the October Product Spot light!

Go check it! CLICK ON!

“This economy” Broken art equipment and what is really going on with me today. REAL LIFE

uh! oh! WARNING- REAL LIFE POST!

The only thing worse than getting out of art school and realizing you need hundreds (if not) thousands of dollars to build your studio is;  your equipment breaking.  (after you already spent the thousands of dollars…)

So, the bad news, my torch was clogged, and had to go to the factory (Bethlehem Barracuda) for repairs.

THE GOOD NEWS! It will be back next week (Bethlehem customer service rocks!). And! This will give me some time to work on my book, and my other super secret scientific enamel projects. 😉

REAL LIFE costs too much! Selling on the Internet is not really working out these days. Luxury is not a priority during the “this economy”; to the middle class computer world….So, I am venturing out. Working with some different Galleries to establish a plan for future outside representation.  I was planning it that way from the beginning, anyway. I just wanted it to be on my terms, not the “this economy” terms.

(I was faced with a stressful reality the last few months. My Husband is injured and is not working, and the bills are not going to go away. Starting today I will have to put 40 (plus) hours a week toward working another job. (A job with a regular pay check!) It was going to be a part time thing, but now it is a full time situation.  Either that, or loose everything, and move somewhere warm. I am not sure that would be good for my children to experience. I do not want to give them a false reality, that giving up is good. Or, I do not want them to think Life is not Hard. Cuz, taking care of ourselves is not easy.  Truth be told; my self says, “if I did not have kids, I would probably book town, for a less expensive life style.”  That is not depressing. Just real. I need to accept things, and do everything in my power to make them better. Time will heal the wounds…)

I have cancelled classes I was going to take, and have given that savings to the dentist. (My children have a lot of dental issues.)  I have put off my passion; my art. I feel like I live in detainment sometimes, but I am trying to stay positive. And, hoping things turn around. And, some things are turning around…

I am about to begin as secretary of GLASSACT (south east, Michigan’s chapter of the International Society of glass bead makers Guild).  I am excited to get more involved in fund raising for art education, creating awareness about this wonderful  glass medium, and I want to become a better communicator, and manager of this art stuff I do…

I am working on some large scale sculpture work, that is all within the walls of my studio, and I believe I will be more like a MAD scientist.  Discovering things that people just do not see often.  I guess I am back to being that closet Artist I was so go good at being for MANY years. Except, I have the Art blog, and the website, and the Etsy shop, and the auctions to occasionally pull thru and offer a little grocery money…I will continue to list items on line. Except, the pricing Will be more controlled, and retail. Not wholesale. I sell a lot of work for whole sale prices on line. That will stop!

I usually do not get that personal on the art blog. I guess this is really a documentation of how things really are. One thing is for sure, I am probably color coating the situation. I do not want to fool you into thinking everything is okay. I do want the best. I want you (and myself) to see that things are going to get better. We are (I am) at rock bottom. And, I am going to climb back up.  

Perhaps the art blog is really about the struggle to be an Artist. Or, the struggle to support myself with funds from my art.   I wish that it was not a struggle, and maybe I am doing something to make it harder than it needs to be?  Do I need to start mass producing pretty little bead objects that act as only function, and prettiness? That is not my passion. My desire to create art has only been to meet my desire to express myself, celebrate moments that others can be personally connected with.  The concept is important to me, not just the way it looks.  I guess this is why we sometimes call it, “the monster within”.  

This must be one of the vehicles I take to get to where I need to be.  I’ll keep you updated on this real life post.

Cleaning up the studio; found some art to share.

Traditional Italian style people sculpting; 'year 3' by Sheila Morley

Practicing Italian style sculpting is a side kick in my studio. I practice every now and then. I set the people in a bowl, and at the end of the year it gets pretty dusty, so I clean them, and this is last years in a bowl.

Italian  Style sculpting is absolutley fascinating! I used to watch some people (in a window of a cute Michigan town) sculpt clear swans. (I was a child on vacation somewhere on the great lakes; we had a boat when I was growing up.)  That was the closest I ever got to this majical art form as a child. You watch glass become molten, and then imediatley following it  becomes perfectly representational.  A blob becomes a limb, LITERALLY!

In approximatley 1 min. a leg is formed.  Loren Stump introduced me to this beautiful art.

This is my 2008 pile of practice people. (what’s left of it.) Every now and then I take all my glass people and throw them together into an interesting people sculpture. They are not where I want them to be yet (anatomically). They do make some funky sculpture!

If I had an aquarium, that is where I would put them. (Right now I am storing them in a box.)

Like this one- My first people ever! (2006…a little Marge Simpson hair going on…) I named these, “Thing one, and Thing two”…about 2” tall people.