Sunday, April 7, 2019

April 4-7, 2019 Las Vegas

We are in Las Vegas at the Glass Expo. Today I  attended glass classes  from 8 am to 9 pm and John is entertaining himself in Vegas.

The first class I took was Cold  worked faceted curved dichroic glass pendants taught by Kent Lauer. The two pendants I made are in on the left before they were cold worked and on the bottom when they are done. The one on the right top is one someone else made in another class. The photos don't do them justice but they are beautiful. They are lots and lots of grinding and polishing on some really fun, really expensive pieces of equipment.   Kent teaching a great class. 

Here we are grinding and polishing. The second class I took was Peyote with a twist- a bead weaving class. It was very hard for me to grasp the technique, but finally I did. The top left are pieces the instructor, Kim Fox made as examples, Below is the class working. On the right are my piece. It is not finished, but it will be.  
At 930 after 12 hours of classes I stopped by the Glass Querade Ball. celebrating 25 years of the glass expo. I was too tired to stay long. And of course the casino which I really was too tired for tonight. Although last night I won 24 cents.

Today I took a class called Verre Eglomise which included sandblasting, adding color and fine metal overlay. This is my piece first cutting the stencil, below after it was sandblasted, then painted and last with the gold leaf overlay. The class cutting stencils, then sandblasting and the instructor Peggy Pettigrew-Stewart. Lots of fun and I learned new techniques. 

Today I took stained glass design/Tricks and Techniques w/bonus intro to glass painting from Peter McGrain. Excellent class, wish I had taken this when I first started stained glass. here is Peter demonstrating  shading techniques. He made a face with just a few brush strokes. Here is my demo piece. This has been fired 3 times. You can tell I am still learning. 

I purchased this Peter McGrain piece. I love his work. I finally got to go to the actual show- the room with all the vendors anything glass, plus the gallery of excellence glass show and today there was the International Society of glass bead makers bazaar. Bead artists from all over the world displaying and selling beads. Really cool beads. I bought a grab bag bead that benefits a scholarship fund and got this nice bead that I can use as a basket center.  

Then I shopped. I got a really good deal on this dichroic glass- like I need more, but I couldn't pass up the bargain. Sunset tonight- I finally got a chance to go outside after 3 intense days of classes.  


John took me to dinner at the Outback Steak house. I have been eating mostly sandwiches, yogurt and oatmeal since I have had so little time between classes. It was nice to see him! Sunday the last day of the show the vendor area was not as crowded, I got a chance to speak to many of the vendors and got some last day deals, many of them did not want to pack it all up and haul it home. Here are a couple shots of part of the show. 

These are some of the award winning pieces in the Gallery of Excellence. The top three photos are done by assistants in one of the classes where I learned this technique-Verre Eglomise. Below one of the jewels was made with another technique I learned too. There is hope, with practice mine may be this good too. Lots of exception art work. Peter McGrain painted this piece years ago. I took his glass painting class ( Vitri  Fusaille  time I was here and this time his design class and intro to painting. I have learned how the technique is done, with practice I may be able to paint, but I think it will be a long time before I learn to draw well. . .
After the show we went to Costco, REI, hardware store, grocery store,  etc to resupply. Then back to Shoshone. Lovely to be out of the hubbub of the big city. Sunset tonight.




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