The Joys of Teaching

At left is a piece made by my daughter, Shasta Fowler, who is in her last semester at Montclair State University, completing a BFA in Painting. It is a 4" square, fused and painted and fired again. It was a bit of art therapy last weekend. Teaching your own child can be very emotional at times, but actually she needed very little help from me.

Lynne and Barbara


Patrick and Amber

It has been a very long time (1986?) since I taught stained glass classes. Having owned Off the Wall Craft Gallery, with all the fun of bookkeeping, merchandising and other business tasks took a huge amount of time, not to mention parenting and squeezing in time to do my own stained glass work. I forgot how rewarding it is to see others learn and create. Above are pictures from the last class of the recent Beginning Stained Glass series. The next series of 5 classes, Wed. nights, will begin on October 28th. Go to http://www.karendeets.com/ for information and registration forms or when in Allentown stop in at Bloomers 'N Things To Do, 24 S. Main St.

These are a few of the pieces made by my students. Amber's work was exceptionally impressive, having inherited a large collection of glass from her father and having grown up with glass crafting around her. "I think I have it in my blood", she said. I think she does. Patrick is quite comfortable with very tiny pieces, accurately fitted. Barbara did some really good lead work. Lynne's work is now blossoming. John came from New Gretna to take the class, and did a lovely traditional style panel.

At left is a very small panel with incredible detail by Patrick Merritt. This piece would challenge an experienced glass artist.

The Great Botanical Commission

My client has patiently waited. In 2007 we started talking about this work, to be installed along the end wall along the roof line of his cathedral ceiling salt box addition. It is 87" high, above eye level, with actual vines that grow on the outside of the clear stationary windows. We agreed on a design with vivid colors to depict a garden feeling. The challenge for me was the fact that my customer, Dan, has degrees in Botany so details had to be artistic and accurate as well. I learned, for instance, that a morning glory and most of nature grows in a clock wise direction. So I actually re-fired fused buds on the flip side that were already done, just to correct that detail.

Significant delays were caused by the activities of my former business, Off the Wall Craft Gallery, at the old mill in Allentown, NJ, which closed about a year ago. But all the while a vision was starting in my head. Last December I started using a stained glass CAD program called Glass Eye 2000 http://www.dfly.com/ with which I can create designs and email them to customers. I also purchased a kiln and started learning fired glass painting, mentored by Stephen Byrne http://www.williamsandbyrne.com/ of the UK. In the spring I embarked on learning glass fusing with very specific results in mind for this work.

This winter the carpentry work was completed and the design was approved. Although Dan approved a very nice design, Shasta, my daughter and design mentor, sort of ripped it apart, so I made time consuming but very good changes to the approved draft. Dan was delighted with the improvements, but missed the irises that got cut, so I promised to include them in future sidelight panels. You can see the computer design in color on my blog on http://www.karendeets.com/.

I started cutting glass in late June, and it is getting closer to completion. Interruptions included a major cleaning out of my attic and Carriage House, with a big "Barn Sale". Last week we visited Vermont, and tomorrow we head south to the lovely beaches of Emerald Isle, NC.

Note:
A reminder to all who are mesmerized by stained glass and want to learn - classes begin on Aug. 19th. See details at http://www.karendeets.com/. I have room for a few more students.

Empty Nest Drama

One of the advantages to my chosen lifestyle involving working at home is to be involved with backyard nature. For several years now we have hosted families of barn swallows under the carriage house roof, just a few feet from my studio. They are interesting birds to observe in that there nesting is under our scrutiny, and they constantly fly around us in gliding circles, eating insects, and occasionally bombing cats and blue jays.

A few nights ago my husband Bill came out to visit me in the studio. He found a live baby bird had fallen 10 feet below the nest, so we set up a ladder and I put him back with his 2 siblings. We have observed many nestlings, and thought it unusual that these particular parents were not around. They were not on the nearby pipes, but the next morning they were flying around in eternal circles and feeding bugs to the babies.

Now the story gets more exciting. Yesterday morning was beautiful. Shasta was off from her job at Grounds for Sculpture, http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/ , so after our walk, we were having family breakfast and coffee on the patio, a rare pleasant moment, when Bill once again noticed the swallow parents extremely upset and circling very close to the nest. We all rushed over to the nest, and to my shock, there was a black snake draping across the nest!! I started screaming to Bill to get the ladder. Shasta just screamed hysterically. I grabbed my heavy kiln gloves and a garden shovel, flew up the ladder, and flipped the shy and embarrassed snake onto my husband's Honda where it landed with a thud and then disappeared under the fence and into my neighbor's yard. Then I surveyed the damages. I removed one tiny dead baby, then another larger one, and then found a squirming live and apparent healthy one that did not want to go back into that nest. He squirmed out and landed on the ground twice. Twice Shasta handed him up to me and I pushed him back into the nest, and gently stroked his tiny head and attempted to calm him down. He finally stayed put and the frantic parents came back.

Now we have a theory about this particular family. We think that they are an equivalent to irresponsible teen parents. About 10 years ago, when the swallows first came, they struggled with Bill to get permission to build a mud nest and keep it. If it was too close to one of our cars he removed it. He stapled old garden gloves over my parking space to discourage nesting and bird poop over my car. Eventually they came to an agreement, and the same nest has been reused for many years, seasons, and births. The previous parents hung out at night and daytime resting on the nearby ceiling pipes. They were always close by and parented satisfactorily. We loved looking at the babies as their eager heads and wide beaks awaited the constant feeding followed by the exciting day of flight school as they lined up on the pipes for take off. About 3 years ago their behavior changed, so we assumed that it was a new set of parents, and most likely the original parents had gotten old and died. But babies were born with no issues. We have observed a larger group of adults flying together occasionally. We think this year's parents have been hanging and partying with their friends at night.

All day yesterday junior stood up on the edge of the nest as though he did not want to be there, and could you blame him? His siblings were murdered on top of him earlier that day! The parents circled him closely and anxiously as they tried to get him to fly. It was very hard to concentrate on my glass with all the excitement. At 3 pm he was missing from the nest. Then around 4pm, Shasta and Bill observed from the house that he was on the ground. Unlike other birds, swallows NEVER have flight school from the ground!! By evening he was flying in low circles, and eventually found the cable wire to the studio to be a good perch for his frequently needed rest.

This morning he is circling around the back door. Hopefully he has learned to catch bugs on the fly! He just perched outside the kitchen window where Bill took his picture (above).

Exhale. Tomorrow Shasta moves into an apartment in Montclair. More "empty nest drama" is expected.

Margaritaville at "Art All Night"

Today I finished "Margaritaville", accidental art inspired by a precious broken margarita glass. I included 13 more fused pieces and some painted, fired details. Notice the slice of lime? I decided not to give the hermit crab a cigarette (joint?). I am sooo boring and timid sometimes. I am planning to show the piece this weekend at "Art All Night".

"Art All Night", sponsored by Trenton's Artworks Gallery is a GREAT concept! Anyone (any age) can submit one piece of art work to be viewed for 24 hours in a festival atmosphere of music, food and entertainment. Go to www.artworkstrenton.org/artallnight/index.html for more details.

Accidental Art in Margaritaville

Recycling and being green are the big buzz words these days.

I drive my family crazy with my obsession with saving things, reuse, and generally keeping as much as possible out of the land fills. I compost my garbage, recycle every speck of paper and junk mail, and occasionally check the waste baskets and garbage at the curb.

Friday afternoon I was really tired from a late night at the studio, the heat, and playing in the dirt aka gardening. I was brewing some espresso for some iced coffee and forgot that it does not have an automatic shut off and stood there while it steamed and steamed some more, and then exploded. There was brown goo and glass bits everywhere. The reason I mention it is not because I saved any of the exploded carafe, but just to explain my frame of mind. Shortly after an hour of cleaning up, I opened the cabinet with the stemware and knocked over one of my pretty margarita glasses. It detached from the base. Oops.

So now I get to the good part of the story. With my kiln, I have the ability to melt any kind of glass, so I melted the margarita glass. Thanks to some on-line help from Brad Walker, the author of "Warm Glass", http://www.warmglass.com/. His web site had a firing program for melting bottles. In the days to come I will document my progress. Below is how it looks today.

It is now Sunday evening. After a visit to Grounds for Sculpture and some gardening projects, I have resumed work on a design for this transformed glass. I might paint and fire the spirals.

The Artist's Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love

I attended a workshop at Artworks in Trenton yesterday: http://www.artworkstrenton.org/ . The morning speaker was NYC artist Jackie Battenfield http://www.jackiebattenfield.com/, a painter and the creator of the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn. Her new book, still warm from the printer's press, was available, entitled "The Artist's Guide...". Her story was one of perseverance, determination and goal setting. There is magic in directed energy. Read her book and find out!

Above is Jackie's work, "Dark Water 1", 1997.

Stained Glass Classes!!

After years of requests, I have now scheduled Beginning Stained Glass Classes!
I will be using the studio space at Bloomers 'N Things To Do, at 24 S. Main St. in Allentown. Owner, Debbie Personette, has recently created wonderful studio space in half of the lovely old "Messenger Press Building". It is the only commercial building in the business district with a front lawn. Debbie, who can do anything, has recently learned enough to teach painted pottery, mosaics, and glass fusion. It is a walk in type of place or a great place for a party with an activity.
However, my classes will be Wed. evenings, the Late Spring Session starting May 27th, if I can get at least 6 students.
Go to http://www.karendeets.com/ and then click "Classes". Although I did not link it, you could pay by Paypal, or mail a check. You could cut and paste the Registration into e-mail or put it into a Word document and attach it and send to deets.nj@juno.com. So many options. I'm sorry I'm not "techy" enough to make it more streamlined. I am merely a Glass Artist, so please forgive me.