Greece

No glass news this past week or so due to duties of my "day job". I was in Athens, Greece for eight days. I attended a conference and presented a case study for one of the projects I led. One of the by-products of the economic downturn is the reduced number of flights available. This is especially true flying from Detroit, where I live. I have a bunch of upgrade certificates and I wanted to be able to fly business class due to the lengths of the flights. Using these certificates turns out to a lot more difficult in practice than it should. I finally found some flights with long layovers that left on a Thursday and got back the next Saturday.

That meant almost eight full days in Athens. I got there around 11 am local time on Friday, after a long layover in New York's wonderful JFK airport. I had part of Friday and all day Saturday for sightseeing. I did a ton of it, all walking. I'm not in shape and my calves certainly ached after probably eight miles of walking up and down hills, and climbing the Acropolis. Sunday mid-day thru Thursday were taken up by the conference itself - more on that some other time. Thursday night and Friday were taken up with more sightseeing. I had to get up at O'Dark Early (3:30am local time) to get to the airport for the flight to Amsterdam. I'm writing this post from the airline club lounge as I have about five hours of layover here as well. Seems like the number of flights is limited to one or two per day from almost anywhere making connections easier as you aren't OJ'ing it through the airport. If you don't know what OJ'ing it means, you are too young - Google it.

I took a bunch of pictures with my little Nikon camera - they turned out pretty well. I am quite pleased with how they turned out, although each and every one of them will need some Photoshopping touch ups. I did a quick tweak on the attached image of the Parthenon from the base of the Acropolis. I tweaked the contrast, saturation, and removed a crane that was partially visible which was distracting. This was a 5 minute job in Photoshop just to see how things look. I like it.

Exciting Workshop at Corning this Winter

I'm pleased to be attending this week long workshop at The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York. I'm really excited as this course combines both the warm glass aspects of fusing with the hot glass blowing world. The only challenge is that the last time I drove from Michigan to Corning in the dead of winter there was a major blizzard. The way conditions were, I wasn't really sure if I'd get there at all - visions of being stranded on the highway with over a foot of snow really were dancing in my head.

Looking at Patterns and Murrine

Giles Bettison | Glassblowing

The class will focus on building patterns using sheet glass to make into murrine canes that can then be used to make vessels, panels, and other objects. Students will observe objects in nature, urban and rural landscapes, and other media, such as textiles and graphics, as sources for color and as composition elements. They will explore the relationship among form, pattern, and color, and will use these elements to arrive at a finished piece. At least one year of glassblowing experience is required.

Giles Bettison is a glassblower living in Maylands, Australia. He earned his B.A. in visual arts from Canberra School of Art in Australia. He has taught and demonstrated his glassblowing and murrine techniques in Europe and the United States, and his work is in galleries and collections around the world, including the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA; the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, Australia; Sabbia Gallery in Sydney, Australia; and Bullseye Connection Gallery in Portland, OR.