The glint of light on broken glass....

"Don't tell me the moon is shining: show me the glint of light on broken glass"

Anton Chekhov

Well it wont be broken but cut glass glinting in the light. I have finally upgraded from my tile saw to the Gemini Apollo Ring Saw and picked it up from Gordon and Sally at Divine Glass, Canberra. It is long overdue as I have lost (wasted) about a third of my pattern bar blocks because the tile saw blade is almost thicker than the bars I am cutting. It was also great to finally meet G & S - a really delightful couple and I would recommend their store unreservedly.

So, now I need to get cutting, re-fusing and slumping. The piece below is from the Spectrum website and is a really beautiful inspiration. I may not make a patterned fish for a while but the Apollo is flexible enough to free-form cut so no reason why I shouldn't have a fish on a plate!!

The Markets buyers will certainly go for pattern bar pieces -  they are actually a very discerning lot. 

I am hoping by end June to have pattern bars, pot melts, reactives, glass 'etchings' and "Australiana" making up over 75% of the pieces for sale. I'll explain Australiana in a future post....not as kitsch a it sounds!! I think that offering out of the ordinary functional and aesthetic pieces will keep the sales ticking over. So far it has been a good start to the year.

Cheers!!

L'Oreal launch at Chiswick, styled by Margaret Zhang

What an opportunity and challenge to start off 2013's commission work!
L'Oreal launching Kerastase Cristal Liste at Matt Moran's Chiswick restaurant in Woollahra (http://www.chiswickrestaurant.com.au/) and styled by the amazing and multi-talented Margaret Zhang (http://shinebythree.com/).

Margaret commissioned 40 small (75 mm square) plates to 'dress' the place setting and hold a flower and the name card. The plates had to be just the 'right' pink to match the product and luckily Bullseye glass makes Burnt Scarlet which worked really well. The 'stripe' is an irridescent silver on clear with either grey (thanks, Lance from ASG), burnt scarlet or clear underneath. Very happy with the delicate shimmer and so much better than the more metallic 'bling' glass that is often used.

Margaret really did a fabulous job of styling the tables and I am thrilled that my plates were a small part of it. What about the flowers!! (http://www.mrcook.com.au/flowers/index.shtml) .....and apparently dessert was to die for.

Savitrine Glass now on Instagram

Check it out - on your  iPhone or using the link at bottom of page.

Instagram is a sort of Visual Twitter - quite addictive and there is some truly amazing 'stuff' out there with over 90 million users worldwide.
You post your photos and almost instantaneously get feedback, likes, followers and gratification if that's what you need. It's hard to know whether developing my social media skills will lead to increased sales but it certainly wont hurt. It just means more of my evenings will be spent flexing my thumbs.......

http://instagram.com/savitrineglass

Bill Bryson and Red Desert

"Among the many thousands of things that I have never been able to understand one in particular stands out. That is the question of who was the first person who stood by a pile of sand and said "You know, I bet if we took some of this sand and mixed it with a little potash and heated it, we could make a material that would be solid and yet transparent. We could call it glass." Call me obtuse but you could stand me on a beach until the end of time and never would it occur to me to try and make it into windows"     Bill Bryson

 Well Bill has a valid point but let's be grateful that the Egyptians and Phoenicians did! Early glass pieces are quite stunning and it is amazing that so many have survived. Now this "Red Desert" plate is not at all ancient - it was only made ten days ago and it sold last week, its first on the stall.

I have a theory - the buyers know which pieces are new or were difficult to make and hone in on them. Maybe I am 'projecting' and the customers pick up on it. Whatever the reason it is a good problem to have and the more buyers the better!!

Cheers!