Best Little Glass House in Georgia
We Need Your Help
Oct 19th
Ideas. We need them. Ideas for events, classes, exhibitions, demonstrations, business, locations, etc….We need them all. Post them below in the comments section of this blog post.
September 2011 Newsletter
Sep 24th
The studio is up and running – Yippee!. Thank you everyone for all the help.
Jeremy has headed off to a new full time job and we are so grateful for the time he spent at Duckbill. We miss him.
Duckbill has several new instructors and we will now offer classes during the weekday. To see the new offerings please take a look at our class schedule.
Until next time,
Duckbill Studios
August 2011 Newsletter
Aug 20th
Its Saturday and we are at the studio repairing equipment, cleaning up and working on the web site. We typically shut down for a month in the summer to check out all the equipment. This year we are also building a smaller glory hole. Thank you to all those that came down and lent a hand. Prior to the shut down we had a great time emptying the furnace (blowing til we dropped). For some of us, while we enjoying the work, it is a far cry from sitting in front of the computer all day(Think – I didn’t know I had muscles there!). Are there any other crazy folks out there that think this is “fun” and want to help out? Come on down. Our goal is to open for business around the first of September. Au revoir, Duckbill.
July Newsletter
Jul 9th
This morning, Jeremy is working with Abby and her mom to make paperweights and ornaments. Abby is 10 and sooooo excited to have her first glassblowing experience. Cool beans. Thanks Lyn Margaret for the referral.
I’m really liking our studio lately. We have a solid core of of folks who love glassblowing and help take care of our fantastic shop.
Brian and I just came back from Seattle. We didn’t visit any studios but did see some wonderful glass at galleries.
We’ll be shutting down in August for our yearly maintenance. We will replace the crucible and crown on the furnace. If we have time, we’ll build another glory hole.
Think cool thoughts our way.
Susan
You learn by getting things wrong.
Apr 24th
Over the past 5 years, I’ve watched a lot of people learn to blow glass in our studio. What strikes me is how people are afraid to make mistakes. People who end up being pretty decent glassblowers made a lot of mistakes while learning. They didn’t get discouraged but analyzed the failures and adjusted their technique. I’ve been watching a lot of TED recently (which is a fantastic resource for lectures on the most obscure subjects) and ran across this lecture which talks about how as a society that we have been conditioned to fear failure.
April 2011 Newsletter
Apr 23rd
Storms here in Atlanta have been lively. Earlier in the month, we had a power outage that lasted about 8 hours. Luckily the pot was full and the furnace held its heat.
The name Duckbill comes from the “duckbill shears” glassblowers use. When Jeremy told me he knew how to make ducks, I couldn’t believe it! He’s made a couple and they are really cute.
The Easter Eggs went well. Thanks for participating – send in your thoughts (Contact us) and I’ll post them. We need quotes to put on the site.
Kristen has a gallery at Duckbill!!! She cleaned up the front entrance and fixed up the space. It looks fantastic. If you get a chance, come by and take a look.
The big news this month is that we are preparing for summer camp. Right now we are thinking it will be on a weekend. The pieces will take several days to anneal. Stay tuned.
March Newsletter
Mar 26th
Well – things haven’t settled down but they are moving forward.
We are planning on having summer camp this summer. I’ll try to officially post information soon. Ideas right now are – 1 week in length, 9am to 4pm, teenagers, and no more than 12 participants. We are thinking about 3-5 glass-related projects.
Brian and I have also been toying with the idea of education and glassblowing. How can we bring artists and engineers together? How can we make learning science (chemistry and physics) more fun for students?
I’d like some feedback on these thoughts. Contact us.
Glassblowing in the Early 1900′s
Feb 26th
Here is a video showing glassblowing in the Netherlands from 1918. A lot of things look the same.
February Newsletter
Feb 19th
Thank you to everyone who has been contacting us about classes/workshops/tutoring. I really appreciate the interest. A glassblower (addict and/or artist) really leads a rough life. This is an expensive craft. Once addicted, you can’t get it out of your blood. Our latest victim is Lyn Margaret. We are thinking of limiting her to a set number of hours per week – we try not to enable her. If you see her here, please don’t encourage her. (Just kidding). We haven’t seen much of Marci; however, I hear she enjoyed Corning. We miss you Marci.
This past month, we added a couple of students for Algar to tutor AND I hear Sue has been here to assist him in the morning. Welcome Sue – I hope you are having fun!
We are trying out a new guy today. If all goes well, you’ll hear about him next month.
Jeremy says there is nothing new from Plains. All is well in the world.
Until next month, take care and drop us a line to let us know how you are doing.
Susan
January newsletter
Jan 29th
Since the snow and ice melted, we’ve been cruising along.
We are slowly attracting new artists to the shop. As we bring them on board, we’ll add them to our artists page. Marci is heading up to Corning to take a class. Kristen’s shop is doing well. Algar has been ramping back up and is in high demand as our weekday morning instructor. Lyn-Margaret is definitely addicted to glassblowing – we may need to ban her every now and then just so she doesn’t start living here. LM – thanks for stopping in at exactly the right moments when we need a helping hand. Thanks also to Keith for posting our classes on Craigslist. Jeremy says that south GA is unchanged.
PS – Thanks to everyone who helped clean up the shop for the new year – it looks fantastic!