An Industry Update

In the fallout of the failing of our one and only Canadian distributor, several months later we still all sit here without one. 
No one. Nadda. 
While we can only speculate as to how the competition is doing, we have been relatively unaffected. You see, we always sourced out most of our goods from elsewhere. Coming the first week of September-
- lead and zinc cames including the popular Hobby Lead (strips and rolls)
- more Spectrum artglass and fusible glass including their newest colours (such as some stunning new Fusers' Reserve) as well as some great pricing on their Crystal Clear fusible, their new economy priced Clear Ice, and tons of black and white fusible.
- more Youghiogheny including the very popular and well priced 8" x 10" sale pieces
- Uroboros reactives
- straight line bevels and hand tools
- almost 1500 Spectrum Sale Squares.
Any and all customers looking for something in particular or want us to hold something for you, drop us an email or give us a call prior to closing on August 23 and we will add/hold it for you.

Erbium Pink

This colour is no longer available- whether for fusing or stained glass. Even though it wasn't cheap, it was wildly popular- think cancer ribbon pink and you get the idea. We did buy up all the left over stock we could find and have some left in these precut hearts...

Serious Work Making Our Figgy Fusible Scrap Paks

This whole social media thingy (or thingie, Gary?) is a great venue to give our customers and friends a special insight into the running of a retail business in general and a glass store in particular- after all it's not called the Trials and Tribulations of a Demented Store Owner for nothing. 
This humble little blog of ours has been controversial and most definitely outspoken from time to time only because we saw a need to offer you an open and honest insight into this industry- warts and all. Topics we've delved into include forecasting the demise of Hollander Glass, to our love/hate relationship with some manufacturers, to the introduction of new products such as SwissCheesed GlassWerks, to threats of lawsuits, to stories like A Man Called Gus), but it also means that there is information that we post in one spot that might get missed by those who only visit another. 
We have content on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and of course our long running blog (over 1300 posts since 2000). Just search for us under Fantasyinglass (natch) or Figimodo (not so natch). And that's Mikey's excuse for not having posted as frequently as of late, now soon to be rectified.

 Go here to see the serious work we put into making up our famous Figgy Fuser's Scrap Paks...

A Retail Truism...

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

Oceana Art Glass

Figimodo just showing off some of the new Oceana we got in last week.  

July/August Sales

I don't know which gets people more excited- the posting of our Monthly Sale or the embarrassing pic of Zenia which announces the sale. Once again, we give you both. Cringe as you gaze upon this photo, and go here for our July/August Sale...

(doesn't appear, try a screen refresh...)

Rolling Along part 4

With still no full line wholesale supplier in Eastern Canada, our connections in the U.S. seem to have us in good supply. Here Figimodo shows off our Chemical Shelf...

Free Fusing Seminar

It's true. Some things in life really are free...
Saturday July 13 from 10am to 4pm. We have only 2 spots left.
But, don't panic- we have another free date on Sat. August 10th!
Come on in and bask in the glory of  knowing that you will be enjoying yourself unashamed and unencumbered by the worry of finance as you will be taking our six hour Intro to Fusing class (as taught by Louie 'I'm not from Barcelona' Deeaz, absolutely free (run-on sentences Mikey has to still work on).
That's right folks.
No casuistry or sophism, no stratagem or subterfuge (sorry, I've been reading Conrad Black's book again...Mikey), really- no tricks at all.
Just 100% absolutely free! Call the store to pre-register at 416-252-6868/1-800-841-5758. One catch- we will ask for a $50 goodwill deposit that will be refunded when you show up for the class (if you don't then you won't be there to get your refund, eh?!)
http://www.fantasyinglass.com/fantasyinglass.com/Seminars.html.

All You Need Is Love

Sadly, still not a single wholesale source of stained glass supplies for such things as grinders, or cool glass like Kokomo, Yogi or Wissmach, etc (Bullseye you can buy direct from the manufacturer). 

We did just get in a large shipment from the U.S. that arrived relatively intact (see pic for explanation of relative... Vanna Opal).
We also got in some heart shaped bevels and have made them into this kit (pattern and all pieces)-

Killing Time, Waiting for Our Truck Shipment

With absolutely not one wholesale source of stained glass supplies in Eastern Canada for the past three months, we seem to be managing fine. Today in comes eight skids of glass and supplies fixing the majority of our out-of-stocks as well as us introducing some exciting new stuff!
So what's coming in at any minute?
Lead cames (see if you can figure this one out- we buy a Canadian product from a U.S. supplier cheaper than when we bought it from our Canadian supplier!), straight line bevels, Morton Tools, etching cremes, all foils in all sizes and colours (oops, chartreuse was backordered...), every single Sys96 glass colour including the newest ones from Spectrum and Uroboros, textured fusing/slumping molds, all Spectrum Clear textures, all regular Spectrum opals, cathedrals and streakies, vase caps (yup- including the square ones), zinc cames, metal castings (nymphs, butterflies, gargoyles, etc), tinned copper wires, Yogi Stipples including a whole bunch of sale squares at almost 50% off, all English Muffles, tube hinges, silver bails, triolyse glue in bulk size, 96 Noodles and Stringers, 96 Clear Frits and Powders, left handed Supercutters...
Of particular interest- a dozen Pink Opals from Kokomo, Wissmach, Armstrong and Uroboros. And most exciting- we now are bringing in Oceana Ring Mottles- absolutely stunning!

Bandsaws

It seems sometimes that the only ones that buy diamond bandsaws for cutting their glass are Baltic mobster girlfriends. And you know what? That's all they then end up using.Yes, there is a time and place to use one, but not for straight lines and outside curves.
Makes perfect sense for this kind of piece...

(Zenia loves her power tools...)

Insert above piece below...

... and yup, we sell them too. Baltic mobster girlfriend not necessary

Getting a Reaction

Several years ago, the geniuses at Uroboros developed two ‘red reactive’ glasses- one opal and one transparent. Kat at Uroboros explained the glass to Figimodo (when he visited the factory- see pics on our FB Page) as a ‘copper bearing glass without the copper’, so when copper is introduced to this glass you will get an interesting reaction. Copper bearing glasses are blues and greens and when these colours meet one of the reactive bases, the junction between the two pieces will turn red. The strength of the reaction varies depending on the amount of copper, and the temperature and duration of the firing process.

So, to better illustrate this Mikey and Zenia picked some SP 233.74 Turquoise Blue Opal, some red reactive opal, black (for a base) and three different Slumpys molds (SM 9125, SM 9050, SM 298) and made some samples to show this cool effect.

Zenia wanted to make sure we could show you the reaction when you use the reactive opal as a base as well as an accessory, so she had Mikey cut the plate bases (with black for the bottom layer to add volume to the piece) while she crushed some frit- both the turquoise and the reactive opal.  

The pieces were placed in the kiln and both medium and small sized frit was sprinkled on top to give a fairly full coverage. 

They were then taken to a full fuse (around 1460F, Mikey's not so good at accurate note taking I've discovered... Zenia) to smooth out the surface and encourage a good colour reaction.

Once fused, we then slumped them to get the final product!

Unflattering Pic of Zenia

... means that we've posted the next monthly Sale Page! Both equally horrifying, but one much more useful than the other...
Go here (might need a screen refresh)

Why Bother?

Ah, the good old days. 
There once was a time when we inventoried 500+ lampbases and our entire east wall was covered in Worden lamp patterns and molds, with Odyssey lamp patterns and molds on our second floor retail area. We even held 8 week classes specially devoted to just making Tiffany style lamps. 
But today? 
No more. 
It seems that the main attraction to making a Tiffany lamp is not only the self-satisfaction but also being able to make a lamp often with a final value in the thousands of dollars for a fraction of that. 
Well, it seems that the Chinese convict is better suited to making these once worthy and expensive works of art for only a fraction given the high amount of labour and thereby the cost, prestige and value is lost. Where a Tiffany lamp brought envy and jealousy for its value, today it's an item sold before the Snuggy and after the Sham-Wow on the Shopping Channel. That's why we now carry only a shadow of what we once did.
This is the second reason (as seen at Lowes yesterday)...

They Thanked the Wrong Person

This letter is really to thank all of you who have bought glass crates and scrap glass and stuffed our Donation Box with cash to help (in recent years) the (non- profit) Silvercreek Preschool, a facility that will surely bring a tear to your eye when you see the kids and the work their staff do every day.

Study of Einstein's Brain Reveals Source of Genius

Neurologists studying samples of Albert Einstein’s brain discovered a pocket containing a high concentration of FIG GrasFlux, a flux with a high concentration of hydrofluoric acid, commonly used in the stained glass industry.
“Now we finally know how he came up with such brilliant concepts such as relativity. For all these years we thought the root of his genius may have been caused by some unique psychological characteristic of his brain and now it turns out all those years he was just goofing around making teddy bear nightlights", said researcher Mikey Figgy. 
The discovery that the challenging, original and profound thoughts of one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century may have emanated as a result of the recreational pursuit of stained glass is being met with considerable controversy amongst Einstein scholars. Most notably is biographer Gary Beige who strongly disputes the findings. 
“First we had to disprove the claim that he was a customer of The Acme Stained Glass Supply Co. Now we have to admit that he bought all his supplies exclusively, including FIG GrasFlux, at Fantasy In Glass, not only the biggest and best stained glass supplier in the world, but the smartest as well. "Acid shmacid, Albert was a helluva thinker, period,” he said. “And a heck of a solderer, too” added Mikey.

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy...

The Other Mike...

... is Mike Colero, Jeweller Extraordinary (sic), our resident glass jewelry expert. 
Here is is loading up our Upstairs kiln...

and here's the contents unloaded and looking forlorn... 

Radio Paradise

While a bit of single malt scotch has been known to occasionally find its way into our studio to aid in getting the creative juices flowing and aid the glass cutter to truly sing across the glass, there often is a missing component- good music.
We don't all have the means to access music easily in our studios so we have usually make due with an old clock radio, or boombox, giving us AM or FM radio along with all their associated ills- incessant chat, bad news and commercials.
Well leave it to Mikey to give you the ideal solution!
Radio Paradise!
A commercial free (really) internet radio station which is easily accessible on your computer, smartphone or tablet (apps available for iphone and android too). The music mix is simply stunning in variety. The signal is excellent, as is the sound quality. Here's a snippet from Wikipedia-

Radio Paradise is a listener-sponsored Internet radio station that identifies itself as an "eclectic online rock radio" station. The channel differs from most FM channels and other Internet stations in that the music played is not limited to a specific genre, instead representing great variety. Radio Paradise plays different styles of pop and rock music, but occasionally other genres from jazz to classical to electronic music and world music. All of the styles are DJ-mixed, often with passages of several tracks played back-to-back (and faded between each other), chosen for their suitability or thematic relevance as opposed purely to random playlisting. Whilst Radio Paradise is a for-profit business, it does not broadcast commercials but is financially supported through donations from listeners. It is known familiarly as "RP".

You deserve to work with good music. Give Radio Paradise a shot!

Over Ninety and Still Going Strong

Mikey taught Florian before he even started Fantasy In Glass. 
And FIG has been around for thirty years. She still comes every Friday- unbelievable, and in need of recognition! (in case it's not that obvious, she's the one on the right... probably Dead Mike after that comment... Zenia)

New Social Trend of the Picholas Happy Dance Goes Viral

Recently, there has been an influx of dance movements, social media takeovers and stunts, including the Harlem Shake, planking and the Cinnamon Challenge becoming more prominent in the publics' consciousness.
These ideas spread like wildfire with the help of popular social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and The Diary of a Demented Store Owner (a fascinating blog written by some guy called Mikey).
The once most talked about social rage had been the Harlem Shake, a series of dance videos that begin with a masked individual dancing which evolves into an entire group dancing, each with their own special props and dance moves. 
Despite what the name suggests, these videos present a wide range of hip-hop dances, including the Bernie, twerking, and improvisations. 
In other words, the Harlem Shake has nothing remotely similar to the current newest trend- The Picholas Happy Dance. First seen here just over a week ago it has now gone totally viral as evident by this picture below-

Russian Military embrace the Picholas Happy Dance

As well as providing inspiration to all, young and old, this latest craze of the Picholas Happy Dance has even found its way into classrooms all across the country, continuing to spread the hype. At Humble College in particular, Professor T. R. Anglehead's second hour Cooking with Spam class, performed the Picholas Happy Dance for 24 hours straight Friday May 10 garnering them an honourable mention in the Guinness Book of Trifling Records.
See what everyone is talking about, here-

... and a big Happy Birthday Pich

A Distorted View

We have been getting a lot of enquiries lately (remember, Hollander Glass is bankrupt!)(really Mikey- any chance you get? Is that really necessary?... Vanna Opal) about our store and selection. 

It's uncanny. Vanna Opal waves exactly like the Queen

So, just in case you are new or haven't been in lately, feast your eyes on this somewhat distorted view (like Mikey?!) of our humble establishment know as Fantasy In Glass (in the Swiss Cheesed GlassWerks Building) on our Facebook Page. 

Use the logo here as a direct link to the album-

And while there why not let us know that you 'Like' us (why not? Gary Umber did...)

Even Us!

fused this 32 years ago! Rough edges
due to mullet hair obscuring view

Our experience in fusing goes back well over thirty years. That's right. To those long yearned for days when Mikey sported a bitchin' mullet and Louie had carnal thoughts for the Bay City Rollers. We did our own experimenting and testing because there was no fusible glass available then (like today, eh?!) (Bullseye started early production in 'the early '80's' with none really entering the Canadian market until years later). Testing for 'fusibleness'? We went to such extremes as fusing 12" strips of two glasses together and using spark plug gap setters to determine compatibility! Any hard knowledge we got from books were old and shamefully inaccurate. We made a lot of mistakes along the way, but also had a lot of success, and hopefully imparted that knowledge onto others during those three decades. 

We've been fusing a lot lately. 
We've been writing about it a lot lately.
Even shamelessly shared our mistakes (Blue Meanie broke into two- so sad... Ringo) in the hope that fellow fusers would learn from them.
This morning Mikey got up extra early, shed his puppy imprinted flannel pj's, jumped on his banana bike and peddled madly down to the store (work with me here will ya'- I'm trying to paint a picture... Mikey) in eager anticipation of opening the kiln from a firing yesterday. These two pieces worked out perfectly-

This one not so much.

Severely devitrified after being rigorously scrubbed and cleaned by Zenia the day before. 
So what happened? Should Zenia have her Mac'n'Cheese without wieners for the next week as punishment for a poor cleaning job? No, she did an exemplary job as usual- it was closely inspected prior to firing.
We suspect two possibilities-
1. this was the first time we used a glass cleaner endorsed by Bullseye to prep the piece. Was it this cleaner perhaps? Should we have just stuck with our old standby- Oban Scotch? Oops, wrong alcohol, we meant to say isopropyl alcohol.
2. was it the base glass (black with no clear cap) SP1009SF?  Perhaps that was the fault? Glass formulated for fusing is formulated to minimize devit, but that is no guarantee that it won't.
Wow, a possible flaw that could be attributed to two different and competing suppliers- BU and SP- what is a litigious lawyer to do?

In any case, this gives us a chance to teach you on how to fix devitrification on an existing piece.
Stay tuned...

Some of Our Customers Showing Off

from Bernie L-

from Sabine S-

and from Judy S.-

Spectrum 6" x 6" Squares

Shipping Department of our 6" x 6" glass

That's right. This is the more than 250 colours/styles of glass that we will ship to your front door, for a lousy 5 bucks! 
Buy 1, buy 200, it's still $5! And while they may be all fusible, they are also perfect for your stained glass projects. 
And if you have an earlier model iPad, we've rebuilt the 6" x 6" page to make sure everything is clearer for you. Go here and see for yourself.
All with pricing.
Oops, almost forgot- Hollander Glass still bankrupt... (really Mike? Again?... Vanna Opal)

Rolling Along Part 3

Hollander Glass is bankrupt. 
Really Mikey, again?... Vanna Opal

But enough of that, our latest delivery just landed the other day with grinder heads (the very popular and incredibly priced Twofers, in several sizes), and for fusers- Frit Makers, Frit Sifters and Silver Bails in medium size. 
Of special note is the new 3/8" Twofer from Bob and the Boys at Aanraku. Zenia is creepily displaying the 3/4" version.

Excuse us while we continue to do the Happy Dance...

Stunning Tiffany Window

A giant in our art form, today many doing stained glass don't know who he is. I suggest you go here to see...
Moving on, while we are on most the social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (both Fantasy In Glass as well as Figimodo), we do our main work here on the blog Mikey calls the Diary of a Demented Store Owner, and sometimes we forget that. Hence this blog entry today of one we posted on Facebook but were negligent in adding it here-

Found at the Field Museum in Chicago on a recent trip Mikey took with Mrs. Vanna Opal, this is a stunningly breathtaking window- so much so, that Louis kept it for himself and displayed in prominently in his office.
Go ahead, you can gaze at it longingly. I won't tell...

Silver Inclusions

We've been playing with inclusions for awhile now, and will write more on it later on, but just wanted to share something here. If exposed to the air in the kiln environment the silver will 'fume' and 'stain' any pieces adjacent to it (check out the large white panel in the centre of the above pic)- an effect you may or may not like...

Supplies Just Keep on Coming

While we just got in a large truck shipment with over 3000' of glass earlier this week we already need to order once again.
If you are interested in anything in particular let us know by May 9 when we close off the next order. 
Go here for our temporarily pathetic on-line order sheet...
Oh yeah, while we're at it,  Hollander Glass is still out of business...