More Good News – Please Vote!

More good news!  My bowl was selected to be featured in the ‘On Fire for Handmade’ Great Finds (Yummy Yellows) Page! I hope you’ll click the link & vote for my sunny…or should I say YUMMY yellow bowl.  http://onfireforhandmade.com/yummy-yellow-great-finds/

The Poll is at the bottom of the page. 1 vote per computer per IP only is allowed. Voting will close on Friday Morning June 7th.  Please vote for my bowl and ask your friends to vote too!

1st place receives a free Listing in the ‘On Fire Gift Guide’ and a free ad spot in the ‘On Fire’ site.

From my ‘Celestial Series’, iridescent sunny yellow with tangerine rings and 22k gold embellishment.  Oh, and it’s available from my Zibbet shop!

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Update!  Thanks to your votes, I won the feature!  My Zibbet shop will be featured here, at On Fire for Handmade through the end of June.  Thank you!!

Quiet After the Sale

My studio sale is over and I’m basking in the quiet.  In the midst of slowly packing up all the artwork displayed throughout my house, I reflect on how much fun it was.   Not wanting to be left out of any fun, my dog Treasure was our official greeter.

Old friends and new stopped  by & almost everyone who came through took some of my glittery glasswork home with them.  Friday was a bit slow, but I wasn’t completely ready by 10 am. so I was okay with that.  Plus it gave me another chance to play with my new Lytro camera! https://pictures.lytro.com/SteiderStudios/pictures/96179

 

One of the highlights for everyone who tried them were the Petite-Vanilla-Scones…a recipe from the The Pioneer Woman given to me by my dear friend Chris at Everyday Heartbeats.  “Very moist”…”Delicious”…”I’ll have another” were the words most frequently heard.  Truly, they were quite wonderful & even though I’m not often in the kitchen, I’ll bake them again!

Many bracelets went home with fun, creative women that I loved having here.  And a few were purchased by very generous men as gifts for their wives!

I love seeing all my work out and displayed.  It gives me an opportunity to take stock without having to dig through boxes.

One of the many highlights for me was a hug from an interesting woman after our conversation about art and creativity.  My head swells with this, but she said I was inspiring!

Treasure was exhausted after three days of greeting so many new people.

At the end of the day, it was a great show!  If you missed it, you can see a sampling of my work at The Columbia Gorge Hotel in conjunction with Hood River’s Blossom Festival next weekend.  It will be set up in the large banquet room near the restaurant.  “Art of the Gorge” will take place Saturday, April 21st from 1pm until 5pm with a reception from 5pm to 7pm.  On Sunday the show will be open from 9am until 2pm.

I’ll be gone a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon to sit on a panel discussion about blogging at ‘Artist 2 Artist’, a professional development opportunity for artists sponsored by Columbia Arts.  If you’re an artist, it’s a great opportunity to grow your business, network with other artists and learn in a cooperative educational setting.

First Friday in March, Opportunity to Preview Gorge Artists Open Studios

Steider Studios Celestial Series

A quick update to let you know I’m still alive and producing art, packing it up and delivering it!

This week I delivered work to The Pines Wine Tasting and Gallery in Hood River OR for a preview show of the Gorge Artists Open Studios Tour.  The opening is tonight from 6 to 8 p.m., at Second and State and the show runs through the end of this month.  You’ll have the first opportunity to purchase our cool new maps for your self guided tour, April 13, 14, 15.  Notice, the tour is THREE days this year!  That will give you extra time to tour all our studios plus a bonus night in the Columbia River Gorge, surrounded by inspirational and magnificent vistas.  If you’ve followed my blog for awhile, you know where most of those vistas are.  If you haven’t, just leave a comment or send me a note and I’ll be happy to share some of my favorite haunts.

Steider Studios Celestial Series

Also celebrating our Gorge Artists Open Studios Tour during the month of March is the Columbia Gorge Hotel!  They are hosting artwork from a group of us in the lobby and in their Valentino Lounge.  There will be some other interesting events at the hotel this year, stay tuned!

Steider Studios Celestial Series

The majority of my time the last couple of weeks was spent preparing for the Glass Craft & Bead Expo in Las Vegas March 28 – April 1st!  I’ve been ordering supplies, glass, and kilns, for some fun new classes in addition to Exploring Glass Powders (the one day condensed version of Powderology).  Shimmer Shine and Sparkle was filled so we added a second class that’s still available!  I also have room for more students in Color Theory for Glassists and I’d love to see you in this color-filled class!  Are you going to the Expo?  What classes are you taking?  

Steider Studios: Celestial Series

Back to cutting glass and packing, I’ll see you at the party tonight!

Flow Magazine: Gallery of ‘Women in Glass’ Winter 2011

#149 is my celestial bowl!  Honored to be included in Flow Magazine’s 7th annual Gallery of Women in Glass.  Winter 2011 issue.

December Digest

December has been a whirlwind month with holiday happenings, sales and keeping my galleries stocked.  It’s been a wonderful month for me, and looks like it’ll end with a flourish.

I’m honored & excited to be included in the Flow Magazine’s 7th Annual Gallery of Women in Glass!!! My bowl is surrounded by such amazing inspiring glasswork, I feel humbled to have my work next to such talented artists.   TheFlowMagazine (on Facebook – go like them!)   The Flow Magazine.com  Go buy the magazine & check it out!!

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Not to mention our annual Baking Day with my grandchildren who are unbelievably more fun with each passing year.

Our idea this year was a 3D sleigh with reindeer.  My practice project turned out great, but we decided to have the kids decorate the cookies before ‘gluing’ it together with frosting.  We didn’t take into consideration how much frosting and candies would be used on each cookie.  Or that the weight would be different on each side.  So, they didn’t stand up perfectly, but they were very tasty to eat!

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In just a few days I’ll be delivering work for Columbia Art Gallery’s ‘Trash 2 Art” show.  All the artists are working with recycled or reclaimed materials.  The opening is First Friday in January and runs through January 30th.  I plan to write a more detailed post about this event.

From my heart and little cabin in the woods, I wish you a safe and healthy…wonderful and joyful…spectacular and prosperous…2012.

Hello July, Let the Sun Shine In

I am thrilled to have my work included in this week’s Fantastic Five, a regular feature on
Zibbet’s blog showcasing five items chosen from the entire Zibbet shopping site.  Keep in mind there are more than 5000 yellow items alone!  Written by Judy Youngquest of Portable Graffiti Graphics,  Proofreader, and Wild Goose Chase, the Fantastic Five article is published weekly.  Thank you Judy!

I spent the last two weeks with young people who give the greatest joy to my life.  As usual, they were inspiring.  All-Star team practice, dance recitals and loads of fun between.

Home now, it’s back to work filling and shipping orders, producing new jewelry to replenish my dwindling supply; and preparing for Trout Lake Festival of the Arts, which arrives every year the third weekend in July.  You’ll find me inside the cool and shady rustic barn.

Early August you’ll find me teaching again for Half Moon Creek in Palmer Alaska.

Welcome to Palmer Alaska

I’ll be teaching ‘Powderology’ and ‘Build a Better Pocket’ (brief class descriptions can be found on my Class Listings page).  I can’t wait!!  Join me!!!!

Living Between Studio Tours

For my studio sale I pack up all my personal possessions and turn my cabin into a Glass Gallery.  Usually it’s only for a Sunday afternoon.  As you read in my last post, this year I’m participating in back to back weekend studio tours, so my living area will look like this for a week!  I love seeing all my work surrounding me instead of boxed up waiting for the next art show, but my dog is used to having her toys thrown for her evening entertainment.  Not this week!  

My studio has all my experiments, and seconds displayed along with tools and mica for glass artists that I sell.  This means I can’t work for a week.  Guess it’s a good time for a staycation!  You’ll find me in the garden….

Oh, and if you didn’t get to the Gorge Artists Open Studios Tour, you can still come up and see my work during the White Salmon Artists Studios Open House on Saturday May 21 from 10 am to 5 pm.

Good News, Bad News

Opening the kiln lid is like Christmas every morning.

I’ll start with the bad……

Fireborne Glass Gallery is closing its doors today.  I’ve shown there since 2001  and have always felt partial to it.  Cool little gallery downtown Portland.  I became good friends with the original owners, Lisa and Myrna and was the instigator who introduced the current owners, Becky and Len to the gallery when it was up for sale.  I thought Becky would be a fabulous gallery director/owner and I was right.  She’s sophisticated, charming, and always has a friendly smile for you.  I was thrilled when Becky and Len decided to buy it.  I’ll still see Becky because we’re friends and Oregon Glass Guild members, but I’ll sure miss Fireborne.

You know me, I can’t dwell on sad news for long….The GOOD news is I delivered almost five dozen bowls and miniatures to the Museum of Glass Store in Tacoma on Friday.  I received the order last month and worked hard to get it finished while also producing for my gallery show at The Dalles Art Center this month.  If you are near Tacoma or The Dalles, please go see all my beautiful iridescent new bowls!!

More sad news, we had to cancel Powderology at Blue Moon Glassworks in Austin.  Unfortunately not enough students signed up to make it happen.  I was looking forward to my first foray into Texas, but I’ll get there another time.  I’m sorry to disappoint those who had signed up.

Finishing with Good News, my classes in Portland and The Dalles were fun-filled, energetic and most importantly successful for the students!  Aquila Glass School hosted my Powderology class mid month where I had extraordinarily creative students.  What a great resource Aquila is!  My Basic Kiln-forming, 6 week introductory class at The Dalles Art Center will finish up at the end of the month and I’m pretty sure we have new converts to the world of glass.  Thank you both for hosting me, I had a wonderful time.

As an aside, my comparisons of Artfire and Zibbet are going very well.  In the evenings I’ve added small works like buttons and stars as time allows.  I’ve even sold a couple of things!  I’m learning more about SEO (search engine optimization) and tweaking both shops with each new page of information I read.  Do you have advice for selling on-line?  I’d love to hear it!

 

If you like this post, sign up to receive an email for future posts so you don’t miss anything.  It’s easy, just click the box at the top right of this page that says ‘Sign me up!’ and type in your email.  It’s right under the yellow close-up photo of my work.

My Dance Card Overflows…

“Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ … into the future”

How did the first fifteen days of September slip by so fast?  I’ll tell you!

September started off with a large order for my Celestial Series bowls from the Museum of Glass gift shop in Tacoma.  I can’t tell you how thrilled I am, especially since their focus is on blown glass, not kilnformed!  I spent days just cutting out the blanks for almost 5 dozen pieces, while doing a Happy Dance in my studio.  I can’t wait to see the display of bright colorful Celestial Bowls in their beautiful and well-lit gift shop.  I’ll deliver my work the first part of October and I hope you can go see …. I mean …. go buy it and take it home with you.

The first part of October also rings in with a gallery show at The Dalles Art Center.  I’ve planned and prepared for months and will be showing with Anthony Kiser and Scott Berger.  The opening is a first Thursday celebration, October 7th from 5 to 7pm.  Hope to see some of you there – come see my sparkly new work!

Along with my busy production schedule, preparations are underway for an intense class schedule in October.  If you’re interested in learning how to work with powdered glass and you’re in the Portland area, join us at Aquila Glass School for my two-day Powderology class on October 9 & 10.  It’s the first time I’ve been hosted in Portland – Thank you Don & Scott for inviting me!

If you’re interested in learning the basics of glass fusing, join us at The Dalles Art Center on Tuesday evenings, starting next week for my Glass-Fusing-for-Beginners class.  Or sign up for the Hood River Community Ed Beginning Glass Fusing and Intermediate Studies for the Returning Student on Wednesday evenings.  I promise you’ll have FUN and I’ll teach you so much that you’ll be able to set up your own glass studio if desired!

In November I’m excited I’ll be traveling to Austin Texas where I’ll present Powderology at Blue Moon Glassworks.  Traveling classes are fun, exciting, and intense because there’s so much to pack into such a short time frame.  If you’re in the area I hope you’ll join us!  This will be my first time in Texas – what are the ‘must see tourist attractions’ that I won’t want to miss?  Thank you Rose & Jim Berry, for hosting me – I can’t wait!

And there’s so much more…..but for now I must get back to the studio & produce all that work I’ve promised … so I can ‘Fly like an Eagle’……

A year ago today….

…I began this blog.  Today is my blogiversary! I realized yesterday that my very first post about a project I did with middle school students was published on Feb. 10th 2009.  The year went by so fast that I almost missed my blogiversary!  Interesting that I’m about to embark on another adventure with middle school students, this time in my own town of White Salmon.  The teacher wants a glass mobile hanging from the skylight at the entrance of the school.  I’ll tell you more about that when I have some photos to share.

When I began blogging, I searched for and read hundreds and hundreds of tips about ‘how to’ blog, ‘why to’ blog, ‘when to’ blog and everything in between.  I stumbled my way through setting it up, adding widgets, pages and links.  I watched my stats every day and confess I still do.  I am always thrilled to see how many readers have found me and actually return to read more.  And when someone leaves a comment, well I’m just plain over the moon delighted that I stirred you into responding!

I have to thank a couple of mentors who are wonderful bloggers as well as artists.  They were so compassionate and gentle while leading me through the tiniest of baby steps to get this blog and me to where we are today.  Drumroll please…..

Setting Moon over Cascades

The first Thank You goes to Cynthia Morgan of Morganica, who always inspires with her blog and is so brilliant at everything blog and glass related.  I believe she knows everything in the universe and if you haven’t read her blog, you’ve been missing out on great fun, instruction and inspiration.  A glass artist, writer, and so much more, go read her blog right now.

Summer Sky

Thank You to Toni Johnson of Daily Vignette who made sense of my rambling questions.  I didn’t exactly know how to ask for what I wanted to do, but Toni always managed to decipher what I wanted or needed.  She then not only took me there, but told me the next step as well.  She also co-developed and co-authors Vision and Verb a collaboration from ‘women of a certain age’.  A phenomenal photographer as well as glass artist and friend, if you haven’t read Toni’s blog yet, go read it now!

Red Yellow Blue

Somewhere along the midway point, I met Kathleen Krucoff, who writes Reflections of a Glass Artist. Talk about the motherlode of information!  She knows everything about blog and internet marketing.  One of the most creative people, a gifted, talented artist working with glass and metal.  Web designer and author of numerous blogs, she also happens to be married to a wonderful photographer, Daniel Krucoff.  Yes, you know the drill…go read her blog right now.

Triple Splash

There are many others who have helped me along the way, with inspiration and suggestions of topics to cover.  Lastly, I want to thank you, dear reader for encouraging me by the simple act of inviting me into your space, and listening to what I have to say.  I love hearing what you have to say so don’t be shy, let me know you were here.  You’re the reason I’m here, after all!  Tell me what you’d like to see here in upcoming posts.

Insert for Japanese garden sculpture.