Maybe, Possibly

Tomorrow is the start of a three 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 occassionally slipped under the door to the Ivory Tower (Mikey's office).
He might wax poetic while sipping a Weissbier from high atop the Swiss 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 three weeks, but then he may not. Depends on those beauties or how cold the beer is.

Friday the Thirteenth- Very Bad News Day For Conrad Black!

Chicago: After almost two weeks of deliberation, Lord Conrad Black received the bad news he was not looking forward to hearing. His Lordship has discovered that the stained glass beginner course being taught at the facility where he might be spending the next thirty five years or so is no where near as good as the one being taught at Fantasy In Glass Glassworks.

It was announced today that Lord Black (or BU0100F as he’s known to the staff at FIG) has enrolled in the Beginner Course at FIG as taught by Louie or Treece, this September. Special arrangements have been made to accelerate the curriculum to accommodate his anticipated trip to a more secure environment in November.

Requests from His Lordship for gold-plated Supercutters lubricated with Truffle Oil and grinders filled only with sparkling Evian Rose Water are being considered by the management. It has also been suggested by Ms. Black that a complete duplicate set of studio tools be provided for his Lordship in England as ‘you can never count on being on the right continent at the time when you need your tools’.

Rumours that the razor strop from Lord Black’s purchase of Napoleon Bonaparte’s shaving stand is now being used to sharpen his newly purchased Don Carlos Solingen Steel Lead Knife (available exclusively at Fantasy In Glass) has not yet been verified.

If It Wasn't For Our Customers...

... we'd have a worse website.

One of our newer students -Al, I'll venture a guess, had a few hours free time the other day, and after finishing his 'human form art pictures' viewing, popped over to the Fantasy In Glass Pictures Page to waste a few minutes. Well, if it wasn't for that diversion Mikey wouldn't have known that there were some broken links on that page, denying FIG customers access to the more than 2000 pictures available from there. Oh, the horror!

Never mind, Mikey stayed home and when he had some free time from his 'human form art pictures' he fixed the page- go directly there from here.

Hot Flash!

The arrival of a steadily increasing stream of products has begun. Just in the door today for the fusing and torchworking fan (get it? Hot flash? Nobody said Mikey spent alot on fresh jokes...Sam He Is) we've got rigidized 1" fibre board, 4" kiln shelves, all manner of fine stainless steel shaping tools, kiln glasses at under $30.00!, mouth atomizers and Z-Tex hot gloves.
Coming Monday is our big order of Aanraku bails, and Two-fer-One grinder bits (yup, real cheap and really great quality).
Within the next two weeks we'll see the arrival of our next Bullseye order- a very big one too, with lots of glass (absolutely- all their new colours are coming), stringers, frits, powders, molds and Rodz for torchworking (including all their new colours as well as some Special Production Rodz), chemicals, 40 lb pails of frit for the really sloppy artist, a couple of crates of their Clear Tekta and even Bullseye Water Bottles (probably free when Mikey figures out a way to determine worthiness...)

Mom Said Nothing Is Free- Mom Was Wrong!

For twenty five years we've offered free studio space (yup, that also includes use of our grinders, lightboxes, soldering irons and access to all our charm). We also have a dedicated self-contained lampworking studio that you, the customer, who we love dearly, can use for your own personal (but keep it legal) pleasure!
This space includes Nortel torches, oxygen concentrators, bead annealing kiln and hand tools. Heck, even a stereo!

We've now succumbed to that incessant whining from the hoards of lampworkers (ok- at least Zenia), and are now extending our Free Studio Policy to include our Torch Room. That’s right folks! Our Lampworking Studio is now free to use.
Ah yeah, you say. That Magnificent Mikey must have some hidden ulterior motive, right? Nah, he's just trying to encourage a bit more growth in this new field of glass and get more people to use Bullseye. How, you ask? Like this:

Cost is absolutely FREE (up to 3 hours/day) if you work with Bullseye!
Cost is $11.99/hour if you work with any other glass.
(that’s right- we can discriminate)
Simple, eh?! Yup...

Included for free is torch time, dipped mandrels, use of a basic tool set, designer shades (that’s right, you too can look pretentious and wear these shades inside) and kiln annealing time…
We’ll even rent you a locker for a lousy $5/month which we then will donate to Sick Kids Hospital.
Available from 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturdays.
Call us at 416-252-6868 before to reserve and to allow us time to prep the space (dip mandrels, wash doilies, etc).
You're welcome Zenia...

Teenuh Does It Again!

Continuing in that particularily bent fashion typical of Fantasy In Glass, we add another page of free and unique stained glass patterns. Now numbering close to 200. And should you drop by the store and notice a girl with a #2 yellow pencil in her hand, tongue sticking out sideways in some physically impossibe contortion, deep in thought, that would be Teenuh, at it again...

Bullseye Order Or Mikey Might Have Too Big a Mouth?

One of the advantages of a blog is that the two or three people that read it get news on Fantasy In Glass as it occurs. You get an 'insider's' view on the happenings at the store (like didn't the story about Mikey's fuzzy pyjamas and his Space View watch just bring a tear to your eye?). A disadvantage is that it also might bring a tear to the eye of our competitors, giving them advance knowledge of when, why and what we order. But hey, it's you we love, not them. So, coming in July-
Aanraku jewelry findings and grinder bits, including their really cool, studio quality wall mounting system for panels, Bullseye fusible sheet glass including all their new colours and Tekta 3mm clear fusible in 72" lengths, more Bullseye frits and powders including cullet in 40 lb buckets, torch working rodz (yup, all the new colours too- after all, we are still the only supplier in Canada carrying this entire line) including some Special Production Rods such as Forest Mist, Glacier and Marvelous Mikey (not really, just checking to see if the three of you are paying attention...Ed).
In August-
Jen-Ken kilns (and yes, we will again be offering special pre-order pricing so keep your eyes on this space for pending details), a series of clear textured glass in crate lots at incredibly low pricing, some new and amazing ra... (hey, we have to keep some stuff for a future blog entry, besides, being the Editor, we like to entertain and tease everyone at our own pace (even the competition)...

Yippee- Dollar breaks 95 cents!

A strong Canadian Dollar definately has a downside on the economy, but I'm the Editor, so I get to control the slant of the news. That's right- position does have it's priviledges! I will therefore dwell only on the positives- in particular, for our stained glass industry.
A recent Aanraku order now means that jewelry bails that sold in the twenty five dollar range will now arrive at our store next week and sell for around nineteen bucks! Or, how about a 3/4" grinder head for under fifteen bucks!
Prices will continue to drop as we continue to pursue alternate suppliers to take advantage of a stronger Canadian market- something we've yet to see with our Canadian suppliers or competitors (Mikey might even buy some new jokes with the money he saves)...

Stunning Glass Means More Pictures

Not relishing the thought of a long weekend at home with the Missus, Mikey endeavours to amuse himself (and most likely torment The Missus) by hopping in the car, in search of Pork Rinds, gas station beef jerky, micro brewery beer and maybe some interesting glass (so he can write off the whole trip- Porkies alone might raise some suspicion). Well, it was a perfect trip (although tormenting the Missus has resulted in some rather unpleasant payback...Mikey)- had the pork rinds, jerky and beer, and have now posted 350 pictures of some stunning glass from the glass museum in Corning, New York, as well as a walking tour of the town and a pictorial of the most stunning windows we've ever seen by Tiffany and Lamb Studios in a little Episcopal church in Corning that we have yet to find much reference on. If you look at anything on Mikey's Pictures Page make sure to check this out in particular!

The picture at the top of this posting is from the museum's current exhibition on glass oddities...