Grandparents Still Have No Idea What Granddaughter Does For A Living

ETOBICOKE, ON- Sources confirmed Monday that Luis and Baba Beaz, grandparents of Fantasy In Glass stained glass instructor Lorena Beaz, still do not have the slightest idea what their granddaughter does for a living. “We are very proud of our Lorena,” said Luis, 75. “Whatever she does in that job of hers, I’m sure it’s very impressive.” Said Baba: “I think what Lorena does is make sure companies have enough computers and employees so that they can—oh, I haven’t a clue.” The couple also has no idea what their granddaughter, Louette Beaz, an Etobicoke, ON, human-resources supervisor, does for a living.

Sammy Reminds Me

Sam wishes it to be known- there is one condition on our Massive Inventory Reduction Sale- we can no longer accept any farm animals as our barnyard is now full. Thank you...

Our Largest Sale in Twenty Five Years!

Just finished inventory and wow do we have way too much stuff! So, we are having the largest sale in our history! No conditions on the sale- no minimums, pay anyway you like. On all in-stock inventory. See details here!

Sammy proudly Holds Our Newest Baby! The Titan Ringsaw!

Cut thick pattern bars, bottles (even longways down the middle!), thick glass and tile. You can even to make a perfectly straight cut up to 12" long every time! The Titan Ring Saw features a revolutionary carriage tray, which moves forward and backward, and is perfectly aligned with the blade. The included Megablade cuts quickly and leaves an extremely smooth edge, eliminating the need for grinding. The Titan exposes a full 3” of blade, making it perfect for cutting pattern bars, slab glass, bottles, vases, rods, glass tubes and even hard-to-cut 3-D blown glass shapes! Remove the blade cover and you can even do plunge cuts! Use to create intricate curves, both backwards and forwards, in glass, tile, ceramic and stone.
Measuring 12" x 18" x 10" high and weighing only 15 lbs, this saw can go with you anywhere you want to cut! Includes triangles for cutting 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° angles and a 45° edge beveler. Table size 13-3/4" x 10". Three year limited warranty (excludes blade).

New Product Spotlight- Triolyse Glue

This clear, non-yellowing UV glue is cured with an activator instead of an expensive UV light. This makes it ideal for gluing glass to glass, even opaques, which a UV light glue can't cure. It’s optically clear when it dries, which is great for glass to glass fusing, mosaics, three-dimensional stained glass and jewelry, among other applications. It’s also great for gluing metal to glass (like jewelry findings) with fast and easy cleanup. Easy to use (if Mikey can...Sam)- just brush a thin coating of the activator (which remains active for 4 hours). Apply the adhesive in the center of the mating surface, lightly press the two surfaces together for about 15-30 seconds to create a bond. Clean up excess after a couple minutes. The adhesive fully cures after six hours (or as quickly as 30 minutes if you heat the parts to 150F).

Another Sale Item

From March 31 to April 7 get this 11 1/2" Prairie Style lampbase for only $18.88 (reg- $39.99)(while supplies last)

Hands-On Lead Seminar This Saturday

Not doing anything this Saturday? Consider spending it with Teenuh in her Hands-On Lead Seminar.
This course is for those who can cut glass and have little or no experience working with lead. It's a full one-day hands-on course where you'll learn the basics of how to work with lead, cut glass to a leading pattern and continue all the way through to completion of a small panel. Note: all materials are included. Students must bring their own hand tools. Two spots left!

Candle Light Frames

Here's a new and cool item that we tripped across on the internet and brought in- Candle Light Frames. Decorate them with wire and glass, put in a candle and voila! You have a beautiful candle display! Available in two sizes- 3" wide and 3" and a bigger one (I lost my ruler while writing this)...

Mikey Dispells Another Nasty Mistruth

“In the first day of my first stained-glass course, my instructor attempted to perpetuate the common myth that stained-glass flows over time; that's why in windows, glass is thicker at the bottom than at the top. A few years ago, Edgar Dutra Zanotto, a Brazilian researcher, published an article in the American Journal of Physics (No. 66, May 98) in which he calculates the time it takes glass to flow. He estimates it will take 100000000000000000000000000000000 (1 followed by 32 zeros or 10 to the power of 32) years for the glass to show any substantial change at normal temperatures. Oh, by the way, the age of the universe is 10 to the power of 10.

Just For Reading This Blog Sale Saturday Only!

1) With over 3500 pieces of dichroic glass now on display in the store, we thought we'd show it off by putting it on sale on Saturday only.

Buy three, and take another three at half price!

2) The World's Best Permanent Marker- and it's undryupable too! Because we love you (and you read our blog)
Reg- $2.59 Sale- $.88!(limit 20)

Artist Profile

David Williamson is an aspiring Sheridan College student in hot glass and an inspiring customer of Fantasy In Glass. He uses Spectrum Glass in these castings and will be at the One of a Kind Show coming up March 28 to April 1. Check out his website at www.glass33.com, and visit him at booth #E38.

Helpful Hint Of The Month #648

Dig out that old Neil Sedaka (isn’t it Neil Dekaka?...Mike) CD (Tina’s is usually in her player… Mikey) and remove the disc, ‘cuzz we’re gonna give you a great use for that case. Take a hacksaw and cut a single notch through the middle of the top side of the top part of the CD case. Still with me? Put a roll of copper foil inside said case. Pull foil through said cut slot. Bingo! Instant foil dispenser. Relegate Neil Sedaka to burnishing tool. Can’t figure it out? Come in and see our sample (but leave Neil at home...Ed)(He prefers Tony Orlando...Mikey).

Gryphon Wet Belt Sander Just for Stained Glass

Gryphon has done it again! They've come up a belt sander/grinder designed specifically for grinding and polishing large glass surfaces. Perfect for trueing straight edges on any sized piece or for smoothing the edges on larger work, such as bowls. The belt offers 90 square inches of grinding surface, and makes quick work of your biggest projects. This new tool is indispensable for anyone working in warm glass/fusing.

A small platform helps steady your work and tilts for easy beveling. A variety of belts are available from coarse for fast grinding to ultra smooth for polishing.
This sander offers the following features:
High Speed DC Motor for fast grinding.
Simple construction with few moving parts
Direct drive - no belts or pulleys
Convenient water reservoir under the lower wheel uses a standard kitchen sponge to keep the belt wet.
90 Square inches of grinding surface.
Three Belts included
Ruggedly constructed of high-impact plastic, aluminum and stainless steel.

Limited supply- due this week coming up.

Glass Patterns Quarterly

Spring 2007 issue just in. Two oversized sheets with over 40 projects from Beginner to Advanced. Cheap at $7.50.

Huge Sale Square Sale Tomorrow Only!

All Sale Squares (and we have over 14,000 of 'em) on sale- they're all $1/pc off! And you still get one free when you buy five (2 free with 9, 3 free with 12)! Take six sale squares and save a minimum $10.00! Only tomorrow!

Wow! What A Saw and Get It Here First!

This is one heck of a saw. The table top on this model is a carriage style. That means the table top slides into and out of the blade, giving you a perfectly straight cut, up to 12 "long
The Titan Saw also has 3" of blade exposed. This will allow you to cut bottles, pattern bars or cane, glass tubes, and blown glass objects up to 3" thick.
The Megablade supplied with the saw cuts quickly and smoothly. Works not only with glass, but will neatly cut tile, ceramics, stone and more. Like Gemini's other ring saws, the Titan will cut curves both forwards and backwards. What more can we say- due next week.

Way Too New Stuff And Not Enough Time

In our quest to maintain our independance and secure our own supplies in spite of the poor current Canadian supply situation (I won't bore you with the details here- just read a little deeper into this blog) we have had a torrent of new stuff coming in. So much, so quickly, that we've put them all on a page of their own- go here and see.

Bevel Custer On Sale

Just for reading this blog, Mikey has put this $10.00 cluster on sale for $5.88. Even better, buy 3/$15.00!

IT'S NOT JUST SAND, SODA ASH, LIME AND SOME OTHER STUFF Part 3

Part 3 of Mike's story of the origins of Swiss Cheesed Glasswerks;
I forced the Great Glass Makers of Swiss Cheesed Glass to use my source of lime for their glass production. This is the world's most expensive lime and costs thousands of dollars per pound and tastes great. When you run your hands over a sheet of Swiss Cheesed made with this lime you will experience the vibe of this high powered ingredient. Because we are what we cut it is important to cut only the highest quality glass. Remember, when you cut Swiss Cheesed Glass you are affirming your direct connection to our brother and sister artists in the cave. ...to be continued

Featured Spotlight- Glass Engraver

Here's a simple diamond-tipped electric glass engraver that we just got in. Great for signing your work, doing little decorative surface effects, or for carving your name and info on your home electronics.

Sorry about the model...

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Mike's Music Pick of the Month

If you've been in the store and have seen the battle between Mikey and Sam and the volume control on the stereo you know that we have definitive proof that Sam is much much older than Mikey. Yes, music can be distracting at times, and no, that's not a bad thing. Music should affect you, and good music (which is only what we play) should rock you. My latest discovery is another album (I hate the term CD- truly good sounding music is analogue) from Little Axe called Champagne and Grits. An album mixed with acoustic and powerful electric blues, so beautifully recorded (at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios- the place that gave the Blind Boys of Alabama their breakout hit album after eighty years or so!) that if you don't have a truly good 2-channel audio set-up and have lost your way, take a trip to Alternative Audio in Dundas, Ontario and listen to what proper audio should sound like (totally unpaid endorsement- I paid list for George Harrison's All Thing Must Pass on vinyl there the other day). Yes, Alice, they still are pressing vinyl.

Spectrum Score Magazine

Spectrum Glass has put out a free little 8 page magazine for years called The Score. It is a great little paper and we know that personally because they featured us in a front page article a few years ago so it has to be! We sometimes carry it in the store and you're welcome to a free copy just for the asking. You can also download a free copy here.

Everything's $1000' Store Goes Out of Business

TORONTO, ON- Citing 'phenomenally poor sales' the retail store Everything's $1'000.00' Stained Glass Store filed for bankruptcy protection Monday. "When we started, we were really excited about the concept. It was working for the Everything For A Dollar Store, why not try it?" the store's owner Guiseppi Rengia said. "You could walk into my store, plunk down a grand and walk out with anything you saw on my shelves. We had it all- from flux brushes to copper foil, from Youghiogheny to Bullseye glass.! Unfortunately the public just never seemed to respond." When pressed for reasons for the store's failure, Mr. Rengia was unsure, "It's hard to say. I wouldn't want to speculate but maybe we didn't do good enough of a job marketing ourselves. You know, with stores like Fantasy in Glass and that Mikey and Sammy, it's a tough industry." Rengia said he would eventually like to open a 'more upscale shop, perhaps in the eight to ten thousand dollar range' to fill the space formerly housing his Everything For One Thousand Dollars Stained Glass Store located in the Acme Mall between Tom's Crystal Emporium and Canadian Tire.

So You Think You Know Everything?

Maybe you don't, but after this Saturday's seminar on Beginner Fusing, you just might (10am to 5pm)! $145.00 (with $50.00 good for a store credit), you'll learn all the basics on how to fuse and will have the whole day to make as stuff as you want, and we'll fire it for you. Four spots left.

Back To Passing The Flame- 3rd Edition!

The entry below talks a bit about the long hard road we travelled to get this book in to our store at a fair and reasonable price. Well, the first shipment arrived today. And just because you read it here first, come in and grab a copy of this fantastic book, tell anybody hovering near the cash register that you expect $20/off because you are a fantasyinglass blog reader and they might just do it (at least until March 31st).

Slightly Revised Seminar Schedule

If you couldn't take one of our seminars because it conflicted with Aunt Edna's corn removal party, we knew that. So we changed some dates for you. See a slightly revised schedule here.

The Saga of The Passing The Flame Book

And oh, what a saga it has been. Here's what's been going on with this great book-

So, now that we're all excited about our new lampworking course with Caryl (and our dedicated torchroom for rent, and all the new books and rodz, and...) we thought we'd reorder Corinna Tettinger's book- Passing the Flame- considered by many in the know to be the Bible of lampworking. So Mikey drops a note to Corinna who tells Mikey that she's passed on distribution to XXXZ. No problem Mikey says, I'll just give XXXZ a call. Well, who'd a figured, XXXZ the only distributor of Corinna's book and therefore the only source aside from our competition, says, "I can't sell to you, you're too close to YYY, a competitor of yours and I'm afraid of annoying them, so I won't sell to you". Well, Mikey points out a few things (like, while XXXZ would rather not sell to us because it would interfere with YYY, they have no problem breaking this 'rule' and they themselves selling to our customers, and that we have better chocolate here in Canada), XXXZ relents and agrees to sell us Corinna's book. After a brief little misunderstanding over what a fair (rather than punitive) shipping charge should be, we now have sixty of this book coming next week. XXXZ even sweetened the deal by covering the shipping on the second of two orders. Yes, we did send off a box of good old (once again Canadian) Laura Secord chocolates- Mikey even splurged for the big box with no soft centres. (yes, spelt correctly, we're Canadian).

Another Samism

Standing out in front of the store the other day Sam watched as a chicken crossed the road. He said it was poultry in motion...

Sorry- More Warm Glass Stuff

Yes, we are Canada's first and still only officially sanctioned stained glass supplier, but the bulk of new and exciting product seems to be coming in the warm glass field. But that's okay- don't feel bad- if you can cut and shape glass you too can be a fuser- come in and use our kilns or rent one and take it home (very cheap- $10/day). Fusing really is easy, and uncomplicated and all our staff are more than knowledgable (Mikey and Louie were testing their own glass and fusing 25 years ago) and DichroBoy (Sam) has been intensively involved in this field for over four years now.

If you've bought or glanced at Richard Lalonde's book you'll know all about Liquid Stringer- You too now can be an artist and be able to draw with glass. Liquid Stringer Medium is a unique gel that you can mix with powdered frits (on sale this month too) so they can be applied with a squeeze bottle (yup, we've got these too with precision applicator tips) or cake decorator. Anything you can draw- words, faces, geometric patterns, Dear John letters or free form lines can all made in fused glass. When mixed to the proper consistence, your lines will have the round dimensional quality of a glass stringer. This is a great addition to any glass artist's bag of tricks. You can also mold it into 3d shapes, form into decorative pattern bars or paint it into a mold. When fired in a kiln the glass particles bond together and become solid. What a great creative tool- and we have it in stock.

Here's a bit of info on Glass Patterns Quarterly- our most popular selling magazine (Mikey likes all the pretty pictures). GPQ comes complete with full size patterns and plenty of full colour illustrations of at least 16 projects in each issue. You also get to info on what's happening in stained glass with articles describing new products, books and videos that are available. Very important if you don't read Mikey's blog. But you are, oh, never mind...
Back issues are currently on sale for only $4.44. Remember, GPQ's never go stale, as the patterns are timeless (like Mikey)...

Stained Glass News is a free (to you) full-color newspaper full of all sorts of industry news such as • information on new books, tools and glass• quick tips & hints and Q&A's• columns on stained glass, mosaics, and hot glass by industry experts• photos of readers' projects • glassworking hints • other information that makes working with glass easier, more fun and more rewarding.
SGN is published four times a year. The current issue is SGN #75 (February, 2007). Subscriptions to Stained Glass News are not available as it is only available from stained glass suppliers like us. Just ask for a copy next time you're in.

Featured New Stuff Spotlight- Dichroic Shapes

As we are Canada's #1 source for dichroic glass we thought we'd go one step further and be Canada's #1 source for weird dichroic shapes too. That's right! Finally something else weird in the store besides the staff! From $5.99/each...

Yes, We Do live in Canada! Yippee, Snow!

Yup, our evening Intermediate Class has been cancelled tonight and we're closing at 5PM.
Get home safe and enjoy the evening with your family.What? No, the class really is cancelled and yes you will have to stay home with your family.

Sammy Says

Mikey won't be in to work tomorrow. He said this morning he was having a vision problem. When I asked what was wrong, he replied, "I just can't see myself at work tomorrow."

Two New Books Arrive

If a picture is worth a hundred words, we'll just shut up and let these two books speak the 20,000 words or so they are worth- Ornate Crosses (seven full size patterns + three suncatcher angels) and Patterns of Frank Lloyd Wright works adapted for mosaics.