The Bombay Sapphire folks are back with the finalists in this year’s international glass competition, asking designers and artists from around the world to come up with the best martini glass. Even if you’re not a martini fan, you’ve gotta see some of the designs. They make me want to head to the kitchen and throw out the Baccarat. (Yeah, [...]
Why is it that the simplest projects have the biggest potential to drive you up a tree? If you're a regular reader of this blog you might recall me mentioning talented sculptor Maria Wickwire Palensky. She approached me last spring about casting a transparent foot and ankle for one of her sculptures. Among other things, Maria interprets ancient mythologies surrounding [...]
'Nuf said. (from Shopping.com's ad on TurkishPress.com)
First of all, I’ve never really thought of myself as sentimentalist. Sure, I sometimes sob at tearjerker chickflicks. And a cracking good animation or a sublimely elegant algorithm or hardware that really IS “plug and play” or somebody just being nice for no good reason or truly amazing or content-rich art invariably results in leaky optics. And maybe I get a little misty [...]
The elevator took a very long time. I debated taking the stairs instead, but the conversation behind me was too fascinating. (And yes, I’m a shameless eavesdropper. Ex-journalist; what do you expect?) […]
(Warning: Squeamish waters ahead if you're the type who avoids intimate girl gabs) They say a skillful beater can pound and pound on an ounce of pure gold until it's so thin that it can cover an entire church dome. Obviously, they borrowed that concept for mammograms. "Are you trying to cover the whole damn cathedral?" I gasped, through gritted [...]
The old man opened the trunk, and hauled out what looked like a lawn mower chassis. He set it on the ground, reached into the trunk again, and pulled out a padded seat. He attached it to the chassis and one of those powered chair scooter things began to take shape. He was dressed in a starched white shirt and [...]
“I hope,” I said with an apologetic smile, “that I’m not hurting anything? It’s a beautiful field and I just couldn’t resist.” I’d been driving past this wheatfield since early spring, on my way to work. I’d watched pale green sprouts shoot into sturdy green stalks, frowned as weeds invaded the waving tangles of grain and settled into a kind [...]
So now some poor soul in Hillsboro thinks I'm trying to off somebody. Headed over to the Cornelius Roadhouse tonight to meet Steve-the-kilngod and kick off the Intelligent Kiln Project (more about that later). Arriving, I realized that (a) I had no idea what Steve-the-kilngod looked like and (b) Cornelius Roadhouse is a big place full of guys waiting for [...]
Spent hours at GAS (the Glass Art Society conference) last month asking glass artists how they create–not the technical part so much as the inspiration and content part–and was kind of surprised at what came out of my very unscientific survey. Most appeared rather surprised by the question, clearly hadn’t considered WHY they do what they do, and had a lot of [...]
