Corning and Glass Art Conference - Not quite what I planned

I got a late start yesterday. Frankly, when I got the email from GAS conference organizers that they were starting the line-up to watch Thursday's demos at 7am, I knew I was in trouble. Money being tight, I planned to drive down in the morning, very early and get there by 8am. With line up starting at 7 am, I knew I'd end up in the overflow and watching any demo on the big screen in the auditorium.

But the whole day was not what I planned. It started when I left late and hit a detour on the way down - taking much longer to get there. Ugh, but I tried to be relaxed about it - nothing I could do about it, right? Ooohhmmmmm.



I finally got into town. Corning is all about glass - if you're a glassy, how can you not love Corning Glassworks, a company that has a large white chimney with a glassblower on it?

I went straight to the museum because Mickelson was half way through his demonstration. Sure enough, the Magic of Glass Theater was full and I was directed to the auditorium. I couldn't ask any questions or hear the questions asked but it the videocam was tight on him so I got a good look at what he was doing. One of the reasons I wanted to watch Mickelson is he does goblets - I soooooo want to do goblets! After watching him, I want to do photo resist AND goblets! I twittered about the demo but not sure my tweets got out.

When the demo was over, I went out to an info table only to find that I had to walk downtown to visit the registration table. The representative I asked didn't give me very good directions on how to walk downtown quickly because I ended up walking the farthest distance possible!

Arghhhh.....OOOHHHmmmm, right?



Got to see downtown Corning but missed the bus for the PAID tour to the Stueben Glass Factory. Since the tours were all sold out, I wasn't able to hop onto another tour.

#%$#!#%&*!! (Insert your favorite curse words here)

I made the best of it by walking back to the vendors tent. I wanted to buy a new torch - I had settled on a GTT Phantom.

After a little bit of shuffling to get the attention of the GTT people, I found that my generator probably doesn't have enough oxygen purity or PSI to run the phantom - although it's supposed to. Annoys me, I put alot of $$$ into the generator.

Ugh, argh - but I saved $1200 because I didn't buy one.

The Glassline people were really nice - very helpful and no shuffling to get attention. I bought a set of Glassline pens I'll talk about tomorrow. Gotta play with them a bit today.

I walked through the museum and snapped a shot of the Chihuly in the front foyer.



Sighhh...I love glass - don't you?

Day Trip to Corning - Go Blogging and Twittering all the way

I'm up and getting ready to drive to Corning to go the GAS conference. I'll be twittering my trip and sending pictures from my blog today. So stop by a couple times today or check out my twitters at http://twittter.com/CindyNG

Gotta get going if I'm going to catch the demo by master flamework glass artist Robert Mickelson!

What's Ahead....

I'm hoping to settle into a schedule this summer that will give me more creative time. My backyard is still dug up and it's a few days before I'll be enjoying the Glass Art Society's Conference in Corning. I've been looking at the program for Thursday, June 11 - I want to watch the flameworking demos by some of the Italian masters - like Cesare Toffolo. Take a look - it's amazing work!

In need of a little break but....

Ok, so I've been less than bloggiful lately. My backyard has been dug up for 3 weeks, not a little dug up but completely dug up with a backhoe sitting there and everything.



All right, so maybe it's not as big as THIS backhoe but after three weeks it FEELS like it! Every morning when I open the curtains in the dining room, there it is, looming larger and larger. I think it had designs on the house!

I'm feeling burned out. Time for a little mental refreshment. So even though the economy is bad, I'm going to spend a little of that money I've been saving for the past year and go to the Glass Art Society Conference in Corning, NY.

Originally, I wanted to go for the full conference but cut it down to one day to save on cash. I've got the day packed full though. I'll watch some demonstrations in the morning, go on a tour of Steuben Glass then to the vendors section to take a look at a new torch. Corning is about a 2.5 hour drive from my home so the day will be packed in between a longer than normal drive - but I've been planning to go since 2007 - can't miss it!