All To Real

I just stopped working on the lyrics to a new song called “Watching the Moon Go Down” which talks about how a petty crime can get hard time in prison but if you steal a million homes you walk away Scott free. I thought I’d check my email before I headed home and I found this. It is a reply from a keyboard player I invited to my Blue Berry Jam Session.

“Hi Gil, Thanks for thinking of me again. If you have a keyboard, I think it is possible that I could make it, although I'm not sure I could make it back, gas wise. Things are so tight now but there may be a break, perhaps thanks to this unsolicited article about me: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pat-lamarche/music-ending-for-homeless_b_1282373.html
The author is kind, but I'm humbled by the pseudonym she gave me. While you are there you'll see links to 3 original compositions I hope you might like.”

Check out the link. It is a touching story. His music is awesome. This guy has played with Merle Haggard, Freddy Fender, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr., and Willie Nelson just to name drop a few – we will be taking a collection at the jam for him.

Come out Thursday. I hope he can join us.

Glass Madness or Mass Gladness

We have been having some super fun and productive classes at Fusion Headquarters. I love teaching and I especially love teaching at Fusion Headquarters because we have all of the glass toys. We have a great class coming up this weekend focusing on recycled glass but we will not be limited to using just recycled glass. These techniques are applicable to just about any glass. Come join us for a great 2 day workshop.

Break a Leg

I was wishing a fellow musician much success on an up coming gig and told him to “Break a Leg” instead of saying ‘Good Luck” which is considered bad luck. Curious, I went to Wikipedia to see what they thought about the idiom. There I found all kinds of theories ranging from understudies wishing the lead would break a leg so that they would get a chance to perform to John Wilkes Booth breaking his leg when jumping onto the stage after murdering President Lincoln. All of them seemed interesting and possible.

My understanding is that "leg" refers to the side curtains and it suggests that the applause ought to be so great that the legs break from so many curtain calls. So it is more than wishing good luck, it is wishing a rousing success. This is my intent when I use the term.

Speaking of rousing successes… we had an incredible good time at the last Blue Berry Jam Session. I hope you can make the next one which has been moved to Thursday Feb. 23^rd. Email me for specifics glaswiz@aol.com

Recycled Glass Sculpture

I’m just finishing up a commission using recycled glass scrap for Tekronics. These are old oscilloscope tubes that were crushed up and fused. The thing is 30" tall and weighs 38 pounds. Which doesn’t sound that heave but it is a trick to wrestle around. I still need to come up with a base for it.

I just finished my new book- Kiln Crafting: Hot Tips for Fusing and Slumping – Collection 1

I’ve been getting some good feedback from those have already had a chance to read it.

"A must read for anyone into glass fusing." Michele Berry

“Well written and well put together.” Henry Bettendorf

“Wow...I learned allot of very useful straight forward stuff! It's great!” Betsy Vailin

“A book that you can refer to w/o dredging through and highlighting what you may need in the future.” Jim Branden

I have written over 50 Kiln Crafting columns for Stained Glass News since 1992. This is a collection of some of those information packed articles. This first book has 16 of those first articles that I updated with new current information, charts and over 80 color photos. Then I added three new articles to fill in some of the holes. I was surprised by how much of the old information is still relevant. Because no one had computer controllers back then I did some major revamping on firing kilns and added some key information on writing a kiln firing program. I cover a lot of different subjects and offer tips on everything from how to get the most out of mini kilns to dichroic glass to how to keep your glass from breaking in a kiln to mold materials and selecting the right mold for a particular project. I tried to make it fun to read and did my best to make complex techniques easy to understand. My goal was to present some of the core information and obscure tricks that many teachers and books have left out so we all can become better fusers. I hope you enjoy it. You can pick up a copy at www.fusionheadquarters.com/

"Thermal Formed Glass" class Oct. 7 - 9

The term Thermal Formed Glass refers to 'shaping glass with heat.' This class will have a bit of a 'three ring circus' atmosphere as students learn ways to integrate kilns, torches and fire buckets techniques to create specific visual effects. Some of activities covered are advanced fusing processes such as 'combing,' 'mosaic,' reverse firing,' 'inlay' and "Pate-de-verre' techniques. This class will cover investment and mold making materials, types of glass, compatibility, kiln firing schedules, annealing and using enamels in cast glass. Students will also have hands-on experience using a torch and the Murphy Fire Bucket, a 2150 degree F. furnace used to make twists, stringers, pattern bars and paper weights. Gil's informative and humorous banter makes this class an educational delight. This is a great class to take if you want to move beyond the basic 'cut, stack and fire' approach to fusing. This is a guaranteed exciting weekend for all levels of glass experience.

Oct. 7 - 9, 2011

Space is limited to 10 students. $480 10:AM – 4:PM

Class Classes

Carmen and I have put together some really fun classes for 2011. I hope you can join us in Newberg for some fine wine, great food, fun company and Glass Madness. Or is it Mass Gladness?

Check out our Class Schedule.