My new Glass-Fancy.com Website

I have been spending some time updating my website.
The old one was looking a bit patchy and I really wanted something smoother looking.

Well, … here is a sneak peek!

It may or may not be fully functional yet, so if you do run into any problem, please check back in a few days and everything should be up and running.

Let me know what you think, please!

Astoria Artisan Market in Queens

Yesterday afternoon, we drove all the way to Queens to check out an artisan market plus beer garden that I just found out about.
The name is Astoria Market and is located in Astoria, Queens.
It was quite a hike from the eastern part of Long Island where we are. And the traffic did not help either despite the fact that it was a Sunday. It looked like the Mets or some other team (pardon me, but I don’t have a clue about sports) were playing and we had to drive right past the stadium.
But once we got there, we had a blast!
The artisan market is located inside the main hall of the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden. It is a small and very cozy event that takes place on several Sundays throughout the year.

Then, after you are done browsing the artisan products, you simply step outside into the beer garden, where they have a good selection of European and American beer and food and live music. The whole atmosphere is very central European and I did feel right at home.

So, although the artisan market is a bit small, it is easy to make your visit a whole afternoon event.
Check them out on the web (http://www.astoriamarket.com/) or in person if you are in the area!

Keeping track of things

Traditionally, when I venture into an unknown and new realm of sorts, material wise or skill wise, I pick something that is well beyond the scope of a beginner and then chew off all my finger nails in frustration until eventually, I get a hang of things and learn.
That is exactly what happened when I started experimenting with glass fusing. I did not start with a beginners project like smart people would do. No!
I needed to figure out the basics of glass fusing at the same time as developing a pattern for encasing cremation ashes that would yield the exact same results every time I fused it. It was quite obvious that I needed to write down precisely what I did and the results of it if I wanted to get anywhere. I started a note-book and, more or less, I have been sticking to this habit ever since.

It’s a very good habit to have. So many times I thought about not writing down anything because “there was just no way I would ever forget that one”. Unfortunately, I have a very selective memory and it’s truly amazing how many facts my brain files as ‘not worth keeping’.
Despite the fact that I took notes about my projects and experimentations, I always felt that it would have been so much more useful if I could attach photos of what I was doing. Sure, I drew sketches and diagrams wherever I could but, as everybody knows, a picture is worth a thousand words.
When I got my iPhone, I did not realize the amazing possibilities that came with it for quite a long while. And it was, in fact, an entirely different matter that made me discover the Black Book app.
It is a very simple but tremendously versatile little program for the iPhone and it’s free. HERE is the iTunes link for it.
The basic principle on which it works is the ability to add a title and notes to a photo, which can then be organized in different categories.

So, for me, that means I usually take a photo of the kiln content before I fire it. I add notes like the dimension of glass pieces, the glass arrangements, glass used and anything else that I deem relevant. Most of the time I also add the firing schedule. Then, once the firing is done, I take a photo of the kiln content again and make notes about things gone right and things gone wrong. I usually also add thought on how I could improve on mis-haps or mistakes.
For more extensive notes, I still use my note-book but my phone has really been very helpful in keeping track of things because it makes it fast and efficient and therefore it is easy to stick with it.
The only thing that is a little bit awkward is the lack of backup ability. I periodically send the entries to my email address, which is easy enough to do but it would be even nicer if the developers could add something that would make it more efficient.
So, this is how I keep track of my projects and document my learning curve.
If you have anything to add or have another super-duper method, it would be great if you could share it here! =)
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will take something useful away from this post!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

It has been a long time since my last post.
I finished the semester and despite the fact that I had some health problems and ended up in the hospital smack in the middle of almost midterm time, I managed to do really well in the classes I took.
Now I finally have a little bit of time to play with glass again and that called for a new line of furniture knobs and pulls.
I was really attempting to do something that looks distinctly different from the ones I had done in the past and so I went with the tack fusing technique.
The first ones I did were all based on the principle of a bright solid color on a black background and are full of contrast and very bold looking.

Then I started thinking about maybe trying this pattern on a light background with transparent glass and that is when things turned out a bit funky.

Personally, I did find, they border on ugly but when I asked my husband, he said they would probably look OK when you see them on a piece of furniture. So, I went and took some pictures of them on my entertainment center and I have to admit, he is somewhat right, but not entirely.

At this point, I really wasn’t sure what I thought about them anymore. I was stuck looking at them all the time but actually seeing less and less.
So, I put the question to the people of Facebook and the Zibbet forum. I asked for brutally honest opinions. I did get some comments from people who didn’t like them and I was most impressed with that. I think it’s always easier to leave positive feedback than negative and I appreciate these people chancing some kind of bad reaction since sometimes “your honest opinion” doesn’t necessarily mean that.
I also got a lot of positive feedback (which I, obviously, appreciate as well!!!) and some very interesting thoughts.
All in all, this made me realize how different something can look to different people. I used to think that everybody sort of sees the same color, for example, but some simply prefer something that looks lighter or darker etc. Now, I wonder whether different people actually see something entirely different based on their brains interpreting the visual information in a completely different manner.
I think this is so very fascinating that I wish I could do some kind of actual experiment. I wonder whether there already is some scientific study on that.
Well, now that I am almost entirely off topic, I will close my ramblings by thanking everybody that took part in my opinion poll! It was very interesting and helpful and it resulted in me listing the knobs that I would have otherwise just throw into a dark corner of my ‘dungeon of glass’.

One of these things is not like the others

Recently, I have finished 4 new cold worked fused glass pendants.
Actually, none of them are very new at all.

I tend to keep one or two fused pieces from most of the batches I fire and put them into a box for safe keeping. They usually remain there until there comes a time when I have too much other stuff going on and don’t have any time for fusing. At that point, I grab one here and there and finish them.

When I looked at the 4 finished pieces, what popped in my mind was the Sesame Street game and song “One of these Things is not like the Others” and it’s basically been stuck there ever since.

So, let’s line ‘em up and see if you can figure out which one is not like the others:

… ♫ … before I finish this song. =)

Enough with the stripes! Bring on the cracks!

I just wanted to introduce you to my new Fracture line of knobs (Name courtesy of Nic East).
It seemed to me that I have been stuck for too long in the stripes kind of mood. So I tried something entirely different this time.
To me, they have a cartoon sort of look so I’m thinking of a cabinet in a young teenager’s room.
What do you think?

Carissa Rose; Art with Attitude

The other day, I stumbled upon Carissa Rose’s work on Artfire and I’m enthralled!

She is a tattooist in training but also works with pencil and paintbrush. In her own words, her “art is inspired by tattoos and people”  and it isn’t hard to relate to her statement once you see her work.

The first thing that hits you (or me, as it were) is the contrast. “In your face” color cuts the deepest black into pieces. No shades of gray; no compromise!
Most of her subjects are young women but although femininity is dripping off of them like the colorful run-lines of paint that you can see in so many places, they are certainly not stereotypical beauty-queens without a mind of their own. They are characters, and as real, with all the facets of darkness, as the fields of perfect inky black.
Her work skillfully speaks to the observer. In many of her pieces you have strong eyes staring straight at you from the painting, involving you in the scene.

This is some serious art with attitude!

Thank you to Carissa Rose for the permission to display her work!
Artwork shown ©Carissa Rose Stevens. Do not use, edit or publish without authorized consent.

Obsessed

They say, admission is the first step.
I admit, I am a KNOBAHOLIC!
Lately, any creative idea that pops into my head has something to do with knobs and/or pulls. I cannot help myself!
I have had these symptoms before regarding other creative stuff and I know from experience that I just have to ride it out.
School is going to start in a few days and that will put a damper on my knobbing, so I enjoy it while it lasts.
Here are some pictures of the latest cabinet knobs and pulls I made.

Another idea that is growing in my mind is the third part of my Tips and Tricks for Product Photography.
It is very likely going to be about non-misleading photo editing. So, I am already gathering material but the idea will still have to marinate a little longer.

My new website for the fused glass cabinet knobs & pulls

If you follow my blog, you know that I have been working on developing a line of handmade fused glass cabinet knobs and pulls.
Previously, I have been making fused glass jewelry and my website, Etsy and Artfire store are dedicated to jewelry. So, I thought it would make more sense to separate the two categories and make a new website and Etsy store for only the knobs and pulls.

I found this awesome site that enables you to make a flash-based website for free. They have so many great looking templates that are easy to modify to your requirements and you don’t need to know anything about any code or how to make a website at all.

It came out great! Click on the picture below and check it out!

2010 in review

I would like to wish everybody a successful, healthy, and happy new year!

Yesterday, I got back from my Germany trip and it’s good to be back in NY.
I took some time this morning to sort through the pile of emails in my inbox and I found an awesome message from wordpress.com that reviews how this blog did in 2010. Periodically, I had been checking the stats but I was surprised to find how good they look when you put them into a full year summary.

So, before I share this email with you, I would like to thank you, the reader, for finding the posts here worth your time. I am very thankful for your consideration and your interest and I hope I won’t let you down in the coming year! I would also like to thank all the people who were gracious enough to share a link to my blog on their page. I know there are so many good sites out there that I feel very lucky for every single link!

THANK YOU ALL !!!!!!

So, here is the email with the 2010 review:

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 17,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 4 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 44 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 96 posts. There were 130 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 40mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was November 9th with 117 views. The most popular post that day was My Tips and Tricks for Product Photography, Part 1.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were glassart.wordpress.com, facebook.com, glass-fancy.com, en.wordpress.com, and twitter.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for fused glass jewelry, fused glass, precious metal clay jewelry, glass jewelry, and precious metal clay.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

My Tips and Tricks for Product Photography, Part 1 July 2010
10 comments

2

Vampires vs. Goth, à la South Park October 2009
4 comments

3

Delicately Crafted Needlepoint Accessories For You And Your Pet September 2009
1 comment

4

My 2 cents on Art Clay Silver 650 Slow Dry Metal Clay February 2010
16 comments

5

Work In Progress September 2009