We Might Be Back

Yesterday, someone approached me and told me that enough is enough and that this blog thing has to continue onward, unabated and with the same velocity and veracity as it has for many years.
I was touched that mom actually noticed (but sadly, not Gary Brown...).
What excuses can I offer?
After returning from a three week shutdown of the store, we’ve been a little preoccupied with restocking for the upcoming season, Several shipments have just arrived from the U.S. as well as whatever little supplies we’re able to secure from our OOCSGS (our One and Only Canadian Stained Glass Supplier)(although they have made some promises and we’re hopeful- they’ve offered to supply us with over 100 Rat Packs from Spectrum and Kokomo to fulfill part of your demand for good quality glass at great prices).
Is this a valid excuse for not writing for well over six weeks?

Maybe.
I've got opinions. I’ve even got some thoughts. Thoughts about the current state of our industry, but I decided not to write anything because I just wasn't in the right mood.

But I am blameless.
You see, the cool, crisp Alps mountain air and the odd occasional recreational beverage has made me complacent and soft.

I now love everyone. Even our OOCSGS, and Bullseye, and Spectrum. And Uroboros, and Youghigheny! My vigor and passion to fight has been blunted.
So I’ll wait.
And watch.
And listen.
When writing a blog, content is important, but the mood and feel is key.
How do the words flow together? Are my readers becoming involved?
Do I get them excited?
With the ability to labour over phrasing, thesaurus at hand, to literally use the best word in an entry, I sometimes strive for perfection, and perfection is always subsidiary to feel.
It’s like meeting someone beautiful who has nothing to say? You lose interest almost immediately.
I want to be that ugly person who rivets you.
And that’s why I have not written for awhile.
Until now.

Sporadic FIG Button Design

Do you do stained glass?
How about fusing?
Does anybody know you do? Your friends? Family? Parole Officer?

Then you better get one of Fantasy In Glass's official glass related buttons- new ones appearing sporadically (we're not sure)! Just check the blog.

Here's #7.
Only $2.88 each
Shipped anywhere in Canada for a lousy $5.44 (taxes included)!

Sporadic FIG Button Design

Do you do stained glass?
How about fusing?
Does anybody know you do? Your friends? Family? Parole Officer?

Then you better get one of Fantasy In Glass's official glass related buttons- new ones appearing sporadically (we're not sure)! Just check the blog.

Here's #6.
Only $2.88 each
Shipped anywhere in Canada for a lousy $5.44 (taxes included)!

End of day tomorrow marks the start of a two(+/-) week sabbatical for Ed the Editor, the wit and wisdom provider of this ongoing blog (since 2001 in one form or another- not counting the shreds of soggy cocktail napkins occasionally slipped under the door to the Ivory Tower (Mikey's office).
He might wax poetic while sipping a Weissbier from high atop the Alps surrounded by Bavarian beauties with lily white skin, or then again he might just scratch his armpit, while drinking a Bud, wearing his favourite Nascar t-shirt and pondering the length of his mullet down at the local legion. With Ed you never quite know what to expect. So maybe, possibly he might drop a pearl of wisdom here over the next two weeks, but then he may not. Depends on those beauties or how cold the beer is.
See you August 31!

Sporadic FIG Button Design

Do you do stained glass?
How about fusing?
Does anybody know you do? Your friends? Family? Parole Officer?

Then you better get one of Fantasy In Glass's official glass related buttons- new ones appearing sporadically (we're not sure)! Just check the blog.

Here's #5.
Only $2.88 each
Shipped anywhere in Canada for a lousy $5.44 (taxes included)!

The Problem With Monopolies

While the dog days of summer may have slowed down our output on this blog, our anger at being taken advantage of has not! Just back from our One and Only Canadian Glass Supplier, we were charged an extra 4.9% as a U.S. dollar surcharge on a Canadian dollar which is at 98.42 cents!

Here we go still...

So Why Does SHe Hide When the Solder Order Comes?

If you've been into Fantasy In Glass lately, you might have realized that the staff have had to do all the heavy lifting without the aid of Zenia- seems she's traipsed off to Italy in search of things heavier than a solder order...

Sporadic FIG Button Design

Do you do stained glass?
How about fusing?
Does anybody know you do? Your friends? Family? Parole Officer?

Then you better get one of Fantasy In Glass's official glass related buttons- new ones appearing sporadically (we're not sure)! Just check the blog.

Here's #4.
Only $2.88 each
Shipped anywhere in Canada for a lousy $5.44 (taxes included)!

Sorry, They Can't Always Be About Glass

Aside from being the mother of Brittania, one of our recently departed staff, Anka writes an interesting blog about her travails while taking art classes in Florence, Italy. This is a picture she sent of a pretty incredible sculpture by the artist Gambologna at Parc Demidroff, just outside Florence.

Sorry, They All Can't Be Witty and Entertaining

I just know that Gary Darquamber will want to make some comment about this blog entry being humourless (CDN spelling) and boring, but as fusers and slumpers will find it extremely helpful I post it devoid of any added cleverness (sort of like Gary?...)-

starting July 20, Princess Auto has a table saw suitable for cutting glass, on sale for sixty bucks, and that includes 4 blades!

That is all...

Sporadic FIG Button Design

Do you do stained glass?
How about fusing?
Does anybody know you do? Your friends? Family? Parole Officer?

Then you better get one of Fantasy In Glass's official glass related buttons- new ones appearing sporadically (we're not sure)! Just check the blog.

Here's #3.
Only $2.88 each
Shipped anywhere in Canada for a lousy $5.44 (taxes included)!

Two Pounds for $15.99

Not to be outdone by our great (and very fast selling) Spectrum Scrap Tubs, the staff have put together some Bullseye Scrap Tubs. Buy one, and the tub is a discount coupon when you bring it back!

Sporadic FIG Button Design, Happy Canada Day!

Do you do stained glass?

How about fusing?

Are you Canadian?
Does anybody know you do/are? Your friends? Family? Parole Officer?

Then you better get one of Fantasy In Glass's official glass related buttons- new ones appearing sporadically (we're not sure)!

Just check the blog.

Here's #2. And proudly Canadian. Original design by Tinah.
Only $2.88 each
Shipped anywhere in Canada for a lousy $5.44 (taxes included)!

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Took an unplanned trip to this quaint little town on the weekend, sometimes known as the town that put Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw on the map. It's also a town where you can hardly find a place that serves Shaw's preferred beverage- Guinness. In any case I did see a couple of stained glass windows I thought I'd share with you.

Here at the Prince of Wales Hotel, a nice series of windows ...

Here's a detail shot of the figure...

... and below is a stunning ceiling skylight from The Queen's Landing, shamefully partially obscured by a tacky chandelier, apparently built by some firm called Fantasy In Glass...

Damn Steve Jobs!

(not a professional model- no promotional fee paid)

Just made a beautiful fused and slumped holder for the iPhone 3G last month and now the iPhone 4 is coming out.

Good thing we've got a lot of molds. In anticipation of the iPhone 4 release in Canada next month (?) here's our latest in-house project- made with Spectrum Black overlaid with one of their very cool Spirits with the clear base up, so that the Apple logo in ghost white SP209 looks as if it's floating on top...

Do the Craft, Got the Button?

Do you do stained glass?
How about fusing?
Does anybody know you do? Your friends? Family? Parole Officer?

Then you better get one of Fantasy In Glass's official glass related buttons- a different one each week!
Only $2.88 each
Shipped anywhere in Canada for a lousy $5.44 (taxes included)!

Everything You Should Know About the G20 Summit

(click on pic to enlarge)

Baby Steps

We've rebuilt our website over the past ten months or so (oh, so many pretty pictures) including a Supply Catalogue and Fusing Supplies Catalogue, but due to the volatility of the American/Canadian dollar and the U.S. surcharge policies of our OOCSGS it's been hard to commit to a pricelist to accompany this catalogue.

And we've heard about it.

A lot.

While we're not quite there yet, we do offer alternatives for you to get any pricing you may want from us- we have an on-line 'ask me' form for you to use (see it here), regular email (listed on almost every page of our website- fig@fantasyinglass.com) and a toll-free Canada wide telephone# (1-800-841-5758).

But we are slowly starting to add pricing, and new products pages.

Go here to check out over half a dozen pages on molds- ceramic, stainless steel, drop throughs, pod castings, even blanket or felt in several thicknesses (even rigidized too!) and here for our Coneart Kiln pricelist.

If you're having trouble with any of these links, all you need to do is refresh the page...

Fusers Club All Finished

We had the last class of our latest Fusers' Club last week. While the class was 5 weeks, we stretched it out to seven only because everyone just kept showing up.

And boy do we have pictures to prove it.

Next session is scheduled for October and is suitable to anyone who has at least a rudimentary knowledge of fusing (such as our Intro Course).

Pics of the class, students and projects can be found here...

Coneart Kilns

I really don't know what else we can say about this kiln manufacturer, except I wish we could sell more of their kilns for them.

Frank, Ian and all the rest of the staff are simply too easy to get along with, are all very knowledgeable, and extremely accommodating and supportive whenever we call. They make a great kiln (six models specific to glass fusing- five of which we now carry in inventory)

This is a Canadian kiln manufacturer, which means CSA Approval comes on each kiln they sell. It also means that as they are local, you're paying only for the kiln and not also for shipping it from the U.S. (they'll even deliver direct to your door too!). This gives them more than a 25% price advantage over its American competitors. And if you need service, we can help you there too- no packing it up and shipping it off somewhere at great expense and risk!

All Coneart kiln pricing includes The Whole Works- that means our pricing includes a stand, shelf, kiln posts, lid prop, kilnwash, an extensive Fusing Technical Kit with handouts and disc and even Mikey's private telephone number in case you forget how to program your kiln when we're closed.

While our web page on kilns is woefully pathetic at this moment, we can stand proudly over our pricelist page as found here...

The Spitzer Space Telescope crew have stitched together 800,000 frames of data into an enormous mosaic of our galaxy. This is just a tiny glimpse of the whole shebang, showing the Milky Way's violent stellar coming of age.
Of particular value is that it shows the location of Fantasy In Glass (in the centre)(of the universe)

'They should have called it The Mikey Way', says the very astute Gary Brown.
Of course ...

Just Thought You Should Know...

NB:

Annual Summer Closing:

Closed from

Tue. August 16

Reopening

Tue. August 31

Also Closed

Tue. Sept. 7

and

Wed. Sept. 8

Two Pounds for $12.99

... or less

And Yet Some More

A few More From Kokomo

Kokomo Glass

Priced a little higher than Spectrum but just unbeatable in quality of colour and cutability so it's therefore going to most likely be cheaper in the long run!

Actually it should be even less expensive.

Why?

Well, our one and only Canadian stained glass supplier (OOCSGS) has added a 4.9 % U.S. dollar surcharge. But... they got their Kokomo order in April when our Canadian Dollar was actually higher. Go figure.

North America's oldest glass manufacturer with documented sales to Louis Tiffany!

The only crappy thing about kokomo is their website. Don't believe me, take a look...

We just restocked so selection is amazing- here's some examples-

We Revisit An Old Post

A couple of months ago Mikey wrote the following:

"Just doing a final check on some emails, while almost walking out the door for a quick vacation (store will still be ably run of course), and I got some news- one disturbing, the other almost as disturbing. Firstly, to Gary Brown, someone that gets picked on and teased mercilessly in this blog- not out of meanness, but out of my affection for him and Dot (how she puts up with him, I'll never understand)(do a quick search on Gary Brown, or any derivative of that name and see the onslaught of entries referencing him and you'll see what we mean). Over the weekend, his family were the victims of an unfortunate and devastating household mishap, that will affect them for months to come. We all sympathize".

Mr. Brown also happens to be a reasonably adequate blogger and is authoring one on his misfortune.

While it is obviously but a mere shadow of what Mikey achieves here, we do wish to encourage him to strive for something better.

For that reason we invite you to partake in Mr. Brown's musings here.

Fusing Overrated?

As just a lowly stained glass store owner who has tried to keep his finger on the pulse of this industry, we have seen a great change in the focus of our business over the past few years.

And that change has been towards fusing.

Again as a shopkeeper, we realize that promoting fusing so strongly can result in alienating our stained glass customers and this is crucial to avoid as while fusing is getting bigger, it will always remain a small percentage of sales.

So why this blog entry you ask?

Perhaps it's to apologize for the recent trend here on this blog, which was heavy on matters related to fusing and slumping rather than stained glass. Or perhaps to remind people that glass for fusing is also great glass you can use for stained glass. Or perhaps if we talk less about fusing we'll also hear less from Rev. Gary Brownburp.

But if you have any questions about fusing don't be afraid to ask.

Mikey was there before the beginning (not like in Egyptian times, but like in modern glass industry times- like before you could even buy fusible glass and we tested our own).

Yes, it does seem that Mikey somehow fluked his way into a trend that finally happened thirty years later.

Cleaning up the other day, Mikey tripped across one of his first fusing experiments- GNA strips laid on edge with a clear top and bottom cap done over thirty years ago. Pic above...

Keep Your Thoughts Pure and Your Glass Clean

Some helpful advice for fusers from Bullseye found here.

And yes, we do carry this product.

As a matter of fact we have it on sale until the end of June...

Fusers' Club Going Gangbusters!

Tomorrow and next week mark a two week extension on this ever increasingly popular course.

It's a fuser's workshop where more advanced techniques are discussed and attempted. The class has done fibre relief (see Zenia's above- she's into bones), pattern bars, powder wafers and freezes, plates and over the next two classes they'll be working deep (up to 8 glass layers) and who knows what else.

One of the participants, Kim S. has even done some great pot melts as seen below...

Interested?

We still have space if you'd like to jump in for one or two weeks. Thursdays from 7pm to 10 pm. Two weeks is only $45.00 and covers all firings too!