Meet Joan of Petsinglass

Meet Joan of Petsinglass

You can visit her store here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5169439

How many years have you been an artist?

I never considered myself an artist. Art classes were torture for me in school. It’s only been in the last few years that my overactive imagination has become constructive and given me the ability to express myself through glass. I received my business license with the Commonwealth of VA in January 2006. For about a year before that, my work was sold at a local stained glass store.

How many years have you worked with glass?

My first stained glass class was in January 2004. From the first class, I knew this was something I would enjoy doing for a very long time. With the help of a very patient instructor who didn’t mind answering my million and one questions, I’ve been able to develop my skills.

What triggers ideas for new projects?

There is really no one thing that triggers the idea for a project. Inspiration comes from just about everywhere and everything.

When do ideas come to you? How often?

Ideas pop up at the weirdest times and the strangest places. I work full-time and do glass as a hobby right now, so I can be sitting in a meeting and an idea will pop into my head, or driving down the road there can be an interesting looking tree along the way, or a squirrel can run across the road. It’s not something I try to force or do intentionally; it’s just something that “happens”.

What percentage of the day do you think about or work on your art? There are days when working in glass is all I think about. Then there are days when it doesn’t even cross my mind. Sometimes I have to literally force myself to sit down and relax a bit, otherwise I would continue working on projects that will end up sitting in storage.

Do you create daily?

Whenever the inspiration hits, I will usually head for my work room. Sometimes it’s not possible due to other commitments, but if I don’t have to go to the office the next day, it’s not usual for me to be working into the wee hours of the morning. It’s very relaxing for me. Time seems to fly by when I’m working on glass. I try to not work on anything for more than an hour or so during the week after work because it’s difficult shutting down the creative side of my mind when it’s time to go to sleep. The really bad part is when I lose track of time and don’t realize it’s time for the dog to go out until he comes in the work room and starts poking at me. I’m just lucky he’s such a good dog! Otherwise my home would be a total disaster!
How important is it for you to create art?

I have found that glass work is very therapeutic. It helps relieve the stress of the day and gives my imagination an outlet that nothing else ever has. It’s very relaxing for me. Time seems to fly by when I’m working on glass. I try to not work on anything during the week after work because I have a hard time shutting down the creative side of my mind when it’s time to go to sleep. But on week ends or nights when I don’t have to go to the office the next day, I’ll stay up all night and just work on glass. The really bad part is when I lose track of time and don’t realize it’s time for the dog to go out until he comes in the work room and starts poking at me. I’m just lucky he’s such a good dog! Otherwise my home would be a total disaster!

Do you feel that choosing the artist’s life has been a sacrifice?

Have you given up certain luxuries?

Since I still work a full-time job and only do the glass work during free time, I don’t think I have given up anything. Once I can retire and devote more time to the glass work, that will probably change.

Describe your studio.

Organized mess is probably the best description for the work room. Everything has its place, but it usually doesn’t end up there. No one else would be able to find anything easily, but it works for me.

Tell me something about you.

It’s probably obvious from my store, but I LOVE animals; dogs in particular. I’d rather spend my time in a room full of dogs than socializing with people. They are so much easier to figure out than people. I volunteer for two dog related charities (Blue Ridge Assistance Dogs, which trains Service Dogs for the physically disabled, and The Magic Bullet Fund, which raises money for dogs in the US with cancer whose owners can’t afford the high cost of treatment on their own) and alternate donating proceeds from sales between the 2 charities. I’m looking forward to retirement at the end of 2008 so that I can spend more time being creative.

Merry Christmas!

If I could have a Christmas wish come true,
I would wish for wonderful things to come to you.
I wish you happiness in everything you do,
And not many worries or problems will come to you.

I wish you hope that can brighten the cloudiest day,
And strength to accept all that life sends your way.
May you rise each day with sunlight in your heart,
And may all your hopes and dreams never fall apart.

With my warmest thoughts and memories of you,
I wish that all your joys and wishes will come true.
When these special wishes are delivered to your door,
There is no doubt they will be accompanied by many more.

Of all the Christmas wishes delivered to you yearly,
There couldn't be another that's wished more warmly or sincerely.

~ Author Unknown ~

Merry Christmas Everyone!
~Yvonne~

Meet Lawatha

I am pleased to introduce you to Lawatha.

You can visit her Esty store here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5006039

I'm 51, have been married almost 33 years. Our son will soon be 31, our daughter is 29. We have no grandchildren yet, so we spoil our two lovable dogs instead. Casey is a 4 yr old golden retriever who can do no wrong, and Bailey is almost one years old. He is a cairn terrier and a constant source of entertainment. He is one funny little guy.
I've been working with stained glass for over 25 years. I started fusing 2 years ago and since then have been neglecting stained glass in favor of fusing. I love opening the kiln and seeing how the glass transforms after fusing.

I am retired from civil service, and now consider my glass business my full-time job. I love the flexibility of working when I want, and taking days off when I want. I generally put in anywhere from 4 to 12 hours a day on glass and my glass business.

I also love photography, and I've found a way to combine my photography with glass by making color decals of my pictures and fusing them onto glass. I also use my customer's photos to make personalized photo pendants for them. Those are usually pictures of their children or their dogs, but I can use any picture or design they give me.

I don't consider working as an artist a sacrifice at all. In fact, it's the opposite. If I were to go back to a 9 to 5 job, that would be a sacrifice. Giving up being able to work on glass, giving up my photography, would be a sacrifice. I don't feel I've given up any of life's luxuries, my needs and wants are pretty simple. In addition to glass and photography, the loves of my life are my family and my dogs. That's pretty simple.

My studio began as a little corner in my husband's wood shop. He built me a wonderful workbench and fixed up 1/4 of the shop as my glass studio. Soon I was taking over his workbench. I added a second kiln and needed more room. I now have possession of half the shop, and I'm still spreading over into his work area. Soon it will be all mine, and he'll have to build himself a second shop. Well not really, but we joke about it all the time.
Lawatha

Meet Sharon of shasglasscrafts

Meet Sharon of Shasglasscrafts

You can visit her wonderful Etsy store here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5036468

How many years have you been an artist?
I’ve thought of myself of a creative person rather than an artist. I’ve had so many different creative outlets since I was a child, I guess it’s been most of my life.

How many years have you worked with glass?
After admiring stained glass for years, I finally took a class in 1991 at a local studio. I then bought all the tools and I’m still at it.

What triggers ideas for new projects?
The shape of a piece of scrap glass can give me an idea. Colors and nature inspire me. Really it could be anything.

When do ideas come to you? How often?
I have had ideas or designs come to me in dreams several times this year.

What percentage of the day do you think about or work on your art?
It varies. When I’m getting ready for a craft fair stained glass is on my mind all day every day. I’m between events right now, so I’m trying to take a breather for a week or so.

Do you create daily?
When I’ve got an event, I stay in my studio up to 18 hours a day. The rest of the time, no, I have to clean the house and do laundry sometimes.

How important is it for you to create art?
I have been creating “something” all my life. I’ve done crewel embroidery, counted cross stitch, I have made bench cushions and roman shades, hand painted plaster figurines, among other things. I’ve stuck with stained glass which satisfies my creativity like nothing else.

Do you feel that choosing the artist’s life has been a sacrifice?
Have you given up certain luxuries?
Certainly. I’ve never had a manicure, because I grind my fingernails along with the glass!

Describe your studio.
My studio takes up half the laundry room in the basement. My space is 10 x 10 with plenty of storage shelves. My husband built my work table for me and built in a rack for my glass sheets. We recently put up drywall, lighting and ceiling tiles. I have 2 task lights attached to the shelves above my work bench. My spare table is covered with boxes of scrap glass and needs to be better organized. I build windows on the pool table, which is in the rec room, which is next to the laundry room. I like it because it is out of the way and I can work undisturbed and also get the laundry done.

Tell me something about you.
I have lived in the Nashville area all my life, but we plan on moving out of the suburbs to someplace remote and quiet in a year or two, someplace I can have horses.I have been married since 1973 and we have 3 grown sons and 2 wonderful daughters-in-law. No grandchildren yet, though. I got my nose pierced for my 52nd birthday just because I’d always wanted to do it. I wear a diamond stud. It was a lot less painful than I thought it would be.

Meet Madeline & Mickey Of Gimmebeads

Meet The wonderful husband and wife team--

Madeline & Mickey Of Gimmebeads

You can visit their Etsy store here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5239208

How many years have you been an artist?
Madeline has been an artist all of her life. Her mother was a painter and she started drawing and painting when she was very young and has a B.A. in fine art. Mickey on the other hand has always loved art and surrounded himself with artists, but really never was an artist. Married an artists, raised kids that were artists, but he basically just watched, besides art is a way of living not a thing you do.

How many years have you worked with glass?
We both started in glass about 3 years ago. Madeline started working in design with glass beads and about 2 years ago started making beads herself. Mickey doesn’t know what in the world to do with a piece of glass, but he keeps on making things. Mickey started off working exclusively in so-called soft glass and then started blowing glass using the borosilicate glass a couple of years ago.

What triggers ideas for new projects?
Gosh, I have more projects in mind that I’ll ever be able to complete. I have ideas that range from huge installation sized pieces down to insect sculptures and from purely functional pieces to purely decorative. Almost everything I see out there registers in my head as an interpretive piece in glass. The forms in nature seem to be so closely constructed in the same flowing form that glass takes as it is worked.

When do ideas come to you? How often?
Ideas come to me all of the time. I sometimes find myself waking up with a new idea. Sometimes, I am driving along, spinning imaginary glass in my hands when a new idea for a pattern will come to mind. Sometimes I’ll see someone wearing a shirt or dress and think about how to bring out what they have on. There isn’t a formula for me.

What percentage of the day do you think about or work on your art?
Well, we both do have jobs that we do in the real world, so we have to sign off for that part of the day. We wake up really early for most folks (we live on a farm ya know)…. When we get up, get coffeed and dressed, we start working on our projects and usually spend a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the late afternoon or night actually working on things. Now, thinking about art…well….I’m not sure we ever really stop.

Do you create daily?
I won’t say that we create EVERY day, but it’s darned close to it. There is the odd and rare day that we don’t work on one of the projects.

How important is it for you to create art?
I think we both feel that living is art, or maybe it’s “art is living.” If we are in touch with the things that are surrounding us, it seems very natural to create things that fit within that. I really can’t imagine not making things that express that relationship.

Do you feel that choosing the artist’s life has been a sacrifice?
Have you given up certain luxuries?
Well, as I’ve indicated, we both have real world jobs so we aren’t really sacrificing that much to do what we love. We live in a very rural area, without neighbors that live in mansions or drive anything but Ford Pick-up trucks. There is very little pressure on us to keep up in any way or to have a bunch of things.

Describe your studio.
Our studio is about one quarter of the garage that has been loaded down with tables, rolling steel tool carts, torches, oxygen tanks, cabinets loaded down with glass, hoses, foot pedals and a godsend in the form of a CD player/radio. We sit on stools or stand in front of our carts and listen to music while we make glass things. There are a couple of buckets around full of water with wooden blocks custom cut that we use as wet forms to shape glass. Most of the time a single blowhose is draped over the knobs that I use to adjust the propane and oxygen that goes into the torches to make the kind of heat we need to melt glass.

Tell me something about you.
Madeline and I started late in life down this particular trail. I think we both would have loved to have started years and years ago, but we look forward to getting better in every way at our glass working. I love the challenge of doing something that can never really be fully understood. When I was a little boy, I used to watch my uncle who was a relatively famous glassblower. He would pull hot globs of glass from his furnace and make the most beautiful things. I never forgot how even after he had been doing that for 40 years, he still loved it like it was the first day.