Red Carpet alias Welcome Carpet

(Yes, during the process of the installation, the colour became a topic of conversation and the client re-baptised it Welcome Carpet instead of Red Carpet. )

Back to end of 2009. Once the winners of the Art Journey were announced, the real work started. As a glass artist in the very early stages of an artist career and a total novice with regards to public art, it was a saving grace to be introduced to Stephen and Marcus of the Trinity Session in Jo'burg, who would be the project managers from the artists point of view.

With a wealth of experience with public art commissions in Jo'burg, I (and the other artists of this first phase : Anthony Harris (Voting Line), Duncan Stewart (River Memory), Mxolisi Sapete (Sit, Talk Trade: Fishbird), Anthony Coke (Sit, Talk Trade) and Anton Momberg (Conversation Piece)) was in good hands and looked forward to a quick, interesting and fascinating learning curve.

What I did learn in the period between commencement and finish of the project was that, working with a whole team in discussion and implementation stages, one has to make compromises to fit the public art sphere. It's quite different from creating in an environment of a private studio.

But I grew up fast (art wise) and besides having my creation visible in a public domain, I take with me an encyclopaedia of new experiences whereof some were good and some not so. I've made a big step forward gaining a better understanding of the art world and the interaction between artist and the public domain .

An interesting glass year

To say the least .... .I just updated my website when linking to my blog I suddenly realised that it's been almost 18 months since my last entry. But I've got all the excuses in the world as it has been a fascinating year for me if nothing else.

Sometimes Murphy's Law works FOR you instead of against you and that eventually resulted in an incredible experience in 2010.

My other passion (besides family and glass) is Scouts. Was a girl guide in Belgium for about 13-14 years and later when my kids got old enough, we got involved as a family. I especially like the opportunity to be creative and am quite involved in finding creative projects to put Scouts in the limelight.

One of my Scout Colleagues' girlfriend works at the museum and she encouraged us to submit ideas for public art in Nelson Mandela Bay, as seen from a youth movement's point of view. We got the brief and while working on ideas for the Scout submission I thought, ... what the heck, I might aswell submit ideas for myself as glass artist, which subsequently did.

I didn't make the prizes in the first round, but at least got (together with the scouts project and a few other art submissions) an honourable mention. This encouraged me to submit entries for the second round which would consist of 5 particular positioned art pieces on the Donkin Reserve in Port Elizabeth as part of the Route 67 experience.

End 2009 there was a prizegiving function and we went, even if it was to see what project would eventually win (I had submitted at least one idea for each commision). After the few speeches, the art pieces and their respective winners were announce. I hovered between thinking I didn't stand a chance and perhaps my idea was unique enough to stand a chance! My emotions went up and down like a jojo! And then , ... the unbelievable happened : the winner of the Red Carpet piece was announced... and it was ME! It was the most exhilirating feeling of the world!

I was in for a rollercoaster ride and boy , was it ever that!

Roland Create to the Max

A long hiatus (computervirus) ... but I'm back ... to tell about a great experience! Just this past weekend hubbie and I flew to Joburg to attend the

I had surfed the web and stumbled on this Roland competition a while ago. I used to work with a Roland machine when I was still in the signmaking industry and use it now for the sandblasting and acid etch parts of my glass designs, so I decided to give it a go.

And low and behold ... got the phonecall to say I was one of 5 finalists and would I be happy to come to Jo'burg! So here we were!

We could mingle with the other finalists and see what their creative submission for the competition had been : tecnical and mechanicl components, labelling for hospitality industry, wrapping surfboards and 2 glass entries: Glass Initiative and the eventual winner: Glass Art! with a beautiful illuminated glass carving.

Our entry was a bowl and coaster set with cultural design details based on the 11 official language groups of South Africa.

Glass goes Bollywood

Say Bollywood and immediately we've got visions of bright and hot colours, sparkling jewels, gold, silver, bling bling, .... .

That same spirit of luxury indulgence is now captured in the newest and hottest thing to hit the glass art and craft world : dichroic glass. Since its development for the aerospace industry, artists have started using this glass to create unique items for public, art, home and personal use.

Dichroic glass is glass that contains multiple micro-layers of metal oxides vapours, condensed on on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. The main characteristic of dichroic glass is that it has a transmitted colour and a completely different reflected colour, as certain wavelengts of light either pass through or are reflected. This causes an array of shifting colours to be displayed, depending on the angle of view.

Dichroic glass before use in various fused applications.

Dichroic glass can be fused with other glass in multiple firings. Due to variations in the firing process, individual results can never be exactly predicted, so each piece of fused dichroic glass is unique. Dichroic glass is specifically designed to be hotworked but can also be used in its raw form. Sculpted glass elements that have been shaped by extreme heat and then fused together may also be coated with dichroic afterwards to make them reflect an array of colors.

colourful door knobs by Uneek glass fusions , beautiful plates by laurelyourkowski, jewellery by argeebargee, architectural applications by john blazey.

The glittering, playful, rainbow magic of dichroic glass makes it very sought after for jewellery, home details that are the talk of the town and large, mesmerising archtectural installations and artworks. Glitz and glam has never failed to capture the imagination of humankind!

Art: hobby or business?

I started working with glass as a hobby, but during the few years I was studying and researching, I felt more and more that I wanted to develop this into a proper business. What do they say: if you turn your hobby into your job, you never have to work again, because you enjoy it so much it doesn't feel like work.

I'm not yet there, but I need to ask myself the question: Is it a still a hobby? Or am I already getting myself into a business state of mind?

The biggest question of all is : do you know the difference? Think about what makes a business a business. Think of how a big company runs things. They have a business bank account and business credit cards, they keep records of all business expenses, they keep records of all sales, they pay all their expenses from their business bank account, and they know when they have made money (a profit) and how much. And you would certainly never see the CEO of a company going out and buying printer supplies from his or her personal bank account.

Do I run my business like this? Here's the harsh reality as seen by Adam Martin from Abundance Bound: "If the answer is no, then you are not running a business. If the answer is no, then what you are doing is merely engaging in a hobby, and it may be an expensive one. You might be saying: I'm no accountant, I'm an artist. True. However, as painful as it may be, you can learn to keep proper track of your business finances and keep them separate from your personal finances." (My dad would Love this statement!)

Let's look at the suggestions by the writer:

• Know/discuss financial starting point: you need to know from where you are starting from in order to know how to get to where you want to go. Having an accurate snapshot of your finances as they are is essential as you begin the wealth-building process, and it also allows you to truly see how much, where, and on what your money is going.
• The absolute most important thing to do for your business is to separate all your personal income and expenses from your business income and expenses. You would not see the CEO of a Spar or Builders Warehouse go out and buy printing supplies from his or her personal account, and you should not do this either. This means you need to have a business bank account. If you do not, then all your income and expenses are mixed together and it is far harder to keep track of everything.
• Once you have a personal account and a business account, you put only your personal earnings (possibly day job such as waiting tables, tutoring, etc ) in your personal account and you put your business earnings (work sold to a private client or art exhibition, etc ) in your business bank account. Likewise, you would pay for all of your personal expenses (rent, groceries, clothes, vacations, etc ) out of your personal account and you would pay for all of your business expenses (glass, tools, electricity account of kilns, etc ) from your business account. It sounds simple and straightforward, but may not necessarily be easy.

Some organisation pointers from the writer:

• If you feel you don't make enough money yet from your business to pay for all of these business expenses, simply make a loan from your personal account to your business account, BUT make sure you record that loan. When the business becomes profitable, repay the loan.
• You should also have a separate business credit card (even if the card is in your personal name). You should only be charging personal items to your personal credit card (and hopefully you are paying off the balance every month) and business expenses should only be charged to the card that you have designated as your business credit card. This way, if you are carrying a balance on your business credit card, then the interest will be tax deductible. This is not possible if there is even one personal expense on the card.
• The grey area: what about those expenses that are sometimes personal and sometimes business. These are things such as mileage on your car or household expenses if you work from home. For these expenses you must keep very clear records of when and how much of your expenses are personal vs. business. Keep a small book in your car to record business mileage. Make sure you keep all your household bills (mortgage/rent, phone, hydro, etc ) filed away so that you can use them to determine what portion you can write off as a business expense.

There are three very important reasons why it is important to treat your business like a business.

• If your business is not run as such, you will never be successful. And if you do not treat your business as a business, you will never make a business income.
• If you do not keep appropriate records, records that clearly indicate you are running a business, then, if you are audited, the IRS may classify your business as a hobby. This could mean loss of tax deductions, and you may even have to pay penalties. Worse, the IRS could go back through previous years returns, and apply the same filter to your deductions. This is not what you need when you are trying to make your business profitable.
• You will be able to track the progress of your business easily. You will be able to look back a year from now and say, Wow! My income went up by that much? Or, Yes! I finally turned a profit this year!

You can do this. Have faith in yourself and your business. It will grow and you will be successful. Just remember to keep the personal separate from the business and keep clear records of the two. Then you can watch your business grow and never look back.

Anyone for beads?

Be it that I have moved into other fields of working with warm glass, bead making is still fascinating as it can truly be regarded as a "homebusiness"and has been (and still is) done by many cultures and communities in the traditional way.

The technology for glass beadmaking is among the oldest human arts, dating back 30,000 years Perhaps the earliest glass-like beads were Egyptian faience beads, a form of clay bead with a self-forming vitreous coating.

Glass beads are usually categorized by the method used to manipulate the glass. Most beads fall into three main categories: wound,drawn and molded.

Probably the earliest beads of true glass were made by the winding method (lampwork) . Glass at a temperature high enough to make it workable, or "ductile", is laid down or wound around a steel wire or mandrel coated in a clay slip called "bead release." The wound bead, while still hot, may be further shaped by manipulating with graphite, wood, stainless steel or marble tools and paddles. This process is called marvering, originating from the French word "marver" which translates to "marble". It can also be pressed into a mold in its molten state. While still hot, or after re-heating, the surface of the bead may be decorated with fine rods called stringers of colored glass. See how lampworking is done.

The drawing of glass is also very ancient. Evidence of large-scale drawn-glass beadmaking has been found by archeologists in India, at sites like Arekamedu dating to the 2nd century CE. The small drawn beads made by that industry have been called Indo-Pacific beads, because they may have been the single most widely traded item in history--found from the islands of the Pacific to Great Zimbabwe in Southern Africa. There are several methods for making drawn beads, but they all involve pulling a strand out of a gather of glass in such a way as to incorporate a bubble in the center of the strand to serve as the hole in the bead. In Arekamedu this was accomplished by inserting a hollow metal tube into the ball of hot glass and pulling the glass strand out around it, to form a continuous glass tube. In the Venetian bead industry, the molten glass was gathered on the end of a tool called the puntile, a bubble was incorporated into the center of a gather of molten glass, and a second puntile was attached before stretching the gather with its internal bubble into a long cane. The pulling was a skilled process, and canes were reportedly drawn to lengths up to 60 m long. The drawn tube was then chopped, producing individual drawn beads from its slices. The resulting beads were cooked or rolled in hot sand to round the edges without melting the holes closed; were sieved into sizes; and, usually, strung onto hanks for sale.

Today the drawn bead process has been mechanised and beads are extruded by machine. We know the resulting product better as seed bead, a small type of bead typically less than 6 mm, traditionally monochrome, and manufactured in very large quantities.

Pressed or molded beads have always been popular in Eastern European countries and are made by heating thick rods of glass to the molten thick honey stage and fed into a machine that stamps the glass, including a needle that pierces a hole. Like the drawn bead method, the beads are rolled in hot sand to remove flashing and soften seam lines. One `feed' of a hot rod might result in 10-20 beads, and a single operator can make thousands in a day. The Bohemian glass industry was known for its ability to copy more expensive beads, and produced molded glass "lion's teeth", "coral", and "shells", which were popular in the 19th and early 20th century Africa trade.

Some artists have also gone the route of using lead and borosilicate glass tubing (like they use for for neon signs) to make hollow blown beads .

Modern Ghana and other countries in Africa have a lively industry in beads molded from powdered glass. Women use powdered glass, grinded from commercially available glass seed beads and recycled glass, to make colourful beads. The molded ground glass, if painted into the mold, is called pate de verre, and the technique can be used to make beads, though pendants and cabochons are more typical.

Beads have grown in popularity and are widely used in a great varity of applications, far beyond the traditional concept of jewellery. Fashion, art, functional art ... the versatility of the humble bead ensures it will be around for another 30.000 years.

Development of Studio Glass

Glass art is that part of the glass industry where glass gets used as an artistic medium. Applications can include stained glass, working glass in a torch flame (lampworking), glass beadmaking, glass casting, glass fusing, and glass blowing.

As a decorative and functional medium, glass was extensively developed in Egypt and Assyria, brought to the fore by the Romans, who developed the art of glassblowing, with the stained glass windows in European cathedrals as living proof of spectacular art and skill. Great ateliers like Tiffany, Lalique, Daum, Gallé, the Corning schools and Steuben Glass Works took glass art to the highest levels.

(Tiffany, Lalique, Steuben)

Glass from Murano (also known as Venetian glass) is the result of hundreds of years of refinement and invention. While there are currently more hotshops and glass artists working in Seattle (USA), Murano is still considered as the birthplace of modern glass art.

Prior to the early 1960s, the term "glass art" referred to glass made for decorative use, usually by teams of factory workers, taking glass from furnaces with a thousand or more pounds of glass. This form of glass art, of which Tiffany and Steuben in the U.S.A., Gallé in France and Hoya Crystal in Japan, Royal Leerdam Crystal in The Netherlands and Kosta Boda in Sweden are perhaps the best known, grew out of the factory system in which all glass objects were hand or mold blown by teams of 4 or more men. The turn of the 19th Century was the height of the old art glass movement while the factory glass blowers were being replaced by mechanical bottle blowing and continuous window glass.

The United States has had two phases of development in glass. The early and mid-1900s had a number of factories such as Fenton, Stuben and others turning out both functional and artistic pieces. The second phase of glass in the United States happened in the 60's when Harvey Littleton, Dominick Labino and Marvin Lipofsky kicked off the studio glass movement by creating small-scale furnaces for the use of glass as an artisic medium. This modern studio glass movement caught on in design schools and Littleton would go on to found the first fine art glass program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison; Marvin Lipofsky, founded the second university-level glass program at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964; and Dale Chihuly initiated the glass program at the Rhode Island School of Design that same year.

(Harvey Littleton, Dominic Labino, Marvin Lipofsky, Dale Chihuly)

As more artists learned from artists before them, a growth of studio art glass spread across the country, with the largest concentration of glass artists working in Seattle. The Pilchuck glass school near Seattle has become a mecca for glass artists from all over the world. Students, who may actually be college students or established artists, have the opportunity to attend masterclasses and exchange skills and information in a environment dedicated solely to glass based arts.