Thank You Maryhill Museum for…

Telling Our Stories in Glass

….yet another fun adventure!  We had incredible students at Maryhill Museum’s Summer Art Institute, “Telling Our Stories in Glass” course.  Everyone made a fantastic tile in such a short amount of time!  These educators will go back to their classrooms inspired and ready to bring more art to their students.

Selecting Bullseye Glass

After learning about the types of glass available, participants selected what they wanted to work with from an assortment of Bullseye glass frit, stringer, confetti and sheet glass.  Thank you Bullseye Glass for discounting glass for these wonderful teachers, some of whom will offer a glass project in their own art programs.

Educators creating glass tiles.

Students then began building their tiles.

Building their tiles.

Tiles were made based on the stories participants wanted to share about their lives.

Design Decisions

Making design decisions…. Thank you Oregon Glass Guild for loaning us tools to use!

Layering the backgrounds, and building glass tiles that will be heated to tack and full fuse temperatures.

Maryhill Museum Summer Art Institute: Telling Our Stories in Glass

Finished glass tiles:  vertically, the left 3 rows were heated to 1385º, a tack fuse for texture; and the right 2 rows plus the bottom amber tile were heated to 1485º, a full fuse for a flat surface.

After class students toured my freshly scoured studio to see where and how I work.  Intrigued by all the samples lying around that I keep on hand for inspiration and instruction, they asked excellent questions about various processes.  Maryhill’s Executive Director, Colleen Schafroth brought a gift for me, “Maryhill Museum of Art” by Linda Brady Tesner, a book I’d been planning to buy about Maryhill’s history.  Thank you Colleen!

The day ended with a great meal at Everybody’s Brewing, downtown White Salmon!

Peacock at Maryhill Museum

A post about Maryhill Museum wouldn’t be complete without another peacock picture!  I love these birds!!

Next stop, Palmer Alaska where I’ll be teaching at Half Moon Creek!  Ready or not, here I come!!  Watch my upcoming class section for updates:  I’ll be coming to The Dalles and Portland Oregon as well as Austin Texas this fall; and contracts are already in for Las Vegas and Maui next spring!

Too Much Abundance to Articulate

Why is summer slipping by so fast?  It’s July!!  Wasn’t it just yesterday that I launched Steider Studios Glass Medium™?  I’d like to humbly thank you for all your support!  I am ever so grateful to everyone who tried it in advance and those of you trying it now.  The launch was a very long process, and indeed is still in process with me excitedly waiting to see your results!  We’re all creative beings and each of you will take it to a different place, finding wonderful new uses.  I can hardly wait to see.  Don’t forget to send me photos!

In the meantime, my studio marches forward with deadlines, projects and planning my next teaching venues.

June was very good to me.  It began with a button class in Olympia for the Machine Embroiderers of Oregon and Washington, sampling Steider Studios Glass Medium™; and ended with firming up class dates for this fall and next spring.

Maryhill Museum has invited me to be part of their Summer Art Institute, “Telling Our Stories”.  I’ll be training 20 participants in a brief amount of time how to tell their stories in glass.  It’s open to educators who can earn credit or clock hours.  You can register here.

My travel plans are finally all set for my sojourn up to Palmer Alaska where I’ll be teaching for Half Moon Creek LLC Gallery & Glass Co. I have always wanted to see Alaska and will be heading up a few days early to see as much as I can.  (This eagle was photographed on the Columbia in Hood River.  I don’t have any photos of Alaska yet, but plan on bringing home thousands!)

My local 6 week basic kilnforming class will be held at The Dalles Art Center, starting September 21st on Tuesday evenings.  Each week we learn a different process with different firing schedules so you can see what heat, gravity, glass, your hands & head can produce with glass.  My class is in conjunction with a three person show in October.  My gallery partners will be Anthony Kiser and Scott Berger, both painters.  Thanks to Corliss Marsh, who is hosting us.

In October you’ll find me teaching for Aquila Glass School in Portland, on the 8th & 9th.  This will be the first time I’ve taught Powderology close to home.  Or I should say, the first time since developing and teaching the class locally for Hood River Communtiy Education many years ago!  Thanks to Don, Scott, and all the folks at Aquila for hosting me!

Hello TEXAS, here I come!!  I’ll be teaching in Austin for Jim Berry at Blue Moon Glassworks November 13 & 14; and in Houston for Bob Paterson at Hot Glass Houston just after or just before.  Both Jim and Bob are wonderful to work with and I have several friends in Texas so am looking forward to both these classes!  We’re incorporating something different for each group of students!

If you can’t join me in Palmer, The Dalles, Portland, Austin or Houston, how about Maui?  March 6 – 11, Akimbo Studios is hosting me for a week-long workshop, not to be missed.  Thinking outside the box, we’ll immerse ourselves in all that is Maui while creating inspired artwork!  No glass experience necessary, come have fun while exploring the possibilities in glass surrounded by the open-hearted joy of all participants.

Then I’ll fly back to the Glass Craft and Bead Expo, March 30 – April 3rd for yet another extravaganza of classes, networking, shopping and entertainment that only this event in Las Vegas can offer.  It’ll be housed at South Point again and always fun!

In the meantime, studio production continues to move forward, with all my orders finished and delivered in reasonable time.  There is one special order that I’m excited about that could evolve into something very large that I can’t talk about just yet.  So why am I mentioning it?  Because I’m excited beyond words.  Like a kid trying to keep a secret, jumping up & down with a big smile on my face!  If it indeed pans out, you’ll be the first to know!

On top of my teaching schedule, studio production and the usual marketing efforts one must make, during the last 5 weeks I’ve also been enrolled in a very intense, information packed marketing course.  Kelly Rae Roberts’ Flying Lessons.  Every couple years I take a marketing class to stay in tune with current trends.  This was my first on-line course & I thought it would be easy to keep up with, fitting it into spare time at my leisure.  Silly me!  What spare time?  With all I have going on, it was a struggle, but with ugly weather at least my garden wasn’t competing for my time.  The first two or three weeks was really just a review for me, but then we started talking about licensing, something I’ve been very interested in.  Hoping to find time later this year to delve into it, I wonder how many of you have looked into it & what you’ve discovered.  Licensing, a whole new ballgame.

But for now, I’m starting to pack up all my new work for the Trout Lake Art Festival next weekend.  I’ve only missed one out of 15 years when I had a show at the Japanese Garden in Portland.  The Trout Lake Arts Council produces this venue, locating it at The Barn, a B & B in Trout Lake WA.  It’s a fun, local, juried art fair held at the base of Mt. Adams and the artists are treated very well.   The volunteers bring us iced tea and cookies and even make sure we get a break every once in awhile.  I love doing this show.  Yes, I’m in a rustic barn, but imagine how sparkly my glass looks in this environment!  Hope to see some of you there!

If all goes well, I’ll have more exciting news towards the end of August…. no hints, you’ll just have to stay tuned!!