A Taste of Something Pending

February Sales Now Posted

... but we really didn't have to tell you, did we, once you've seen this month's totally unflattering picture of Zenia...

Another Deep Thought From Mikey

If you want to make a stained glass window from scratch, you must first create the universe...

An Interesting Thing is Knowledge

Bullseye Glass Co. has been making Aventurine glass in several colours for a long time now, and ever since Spectrum entered the market with theirs (Green, Blue and just recently Black) the popularity and profile of this glass has risen substantially. So what is Aventurine glass? It's a type of coloured glass produced by the deliberate addition of an excess amount of a metal oxide during founding. The quantity of the metal oxide is such that it cannot remain in solution and forms crystals large enough to reflect light. These glasses, while challenging to make, are so fresh and new looking that they seem to have fostered some misinformation. Below is a clipped posting from a few months ago by Lani of Bullseye, trying to rectify the misinformation:

Yikes - Toxic teaching…
The other day one of our salespeople took a call from a user concerned about the toxicity of Bullseye’s Aventurine glass. HUH?

Aventurine takes its name from the Italian “avventura” which translates as “adventure” - a good description for a glass that, due to its supersaturation of metal, has historically been challenging to melt and - at least in its copper form - was often a different color from batch to batch. Bullseye has made Aventurine glasses for over 20 years. Currently we offer them in three styles (a green 1112, a lighter green 1412 and a blue 1140)….none of them poisonous.

But back to the story:
The caller had been told that after firing, an Aventurine glass should only be handled with gloves until it was first washed.
Whaaaaa?
Yes, supposedly, according to the caller’s teacher – who claimed to have this information direct from the glass manufacturer – “chromium comes out of the Aventurine and should not be handled directly until washed with soap and water.”
Kilnforming is fascinating territory and there are lots of knowledgeable teachers out there who can guide you through it with accurate and useful information.
There are also a number of nutcases who ought to be ticketed for teaching without a clue.
If you need accurate information on the behavior of our glass, a good place to find it is here.
If, instead, you’re looking for the latest urban legend, you might like to answer the phones in our sales office.

Just In Case You Forgot, We Are Canadian

The internet has a tendency to erase borders, doesn't it?
Tired of visiting a site and being unable to figure out where they're from. Probably Americans masquerading as Canadians because we have Neil Young (and not David Crosby), better beer, verandas and chesterfields, Smarties, hockey and we invented basketball, zippers and velcro (wouldn't want all you Americans 'hanging out, eh?!), and Superman (stop me if I'm getting carried away here- oh, you can't 'cuzz I'm Ed the Editor, eh?!) and beer cases with handles big enough to pick up with snow mitts. I know, it's not easy not being Canadian. But that's what we are. Here's a picture of the view out the back of Mikey's house tonight.

Just Off Tina's Table

Just finished rebuilding and modifying...

There really are more worthwhile things than seeing babies make fools of themselves on You Tube.

Here's one showing a fused piece being assembled in the kiln and fired.

Much more interesting...

Classes start the week of Jan. 15- Beginner classes on Tues. nights and and Wed. days if you're afraid of the dark, Intermediate on Wed. and Thurs. nights and Friday days. To use our free studio space, please check ahead as it is only available when not in use (but then it'd be in use so it wouldn't be available? Right? Never mind).
Our complete schedule is here...

Wow!

Just went on Google and tried out their 'Street View' function as they just did Toronto a couple of months ago. Very, very impressive, if not a little creepy. Come on fella standing at the front of our store- put on some long pants will ya?!

I'm now off to check and see if my neighbour is parking in my driveway while I'm at work...