We had our wine walk last night here in the Carson Valley. Six of us artists cleaned and decorated the store with bright lights, grape vines and luminaries. We just took plain paper bags and cut designs on the sides, filled with sand and put a candle in the middle. We only set one bag on fire so that was good.
We had the white wines chilling, the red wines breathing and the chocolate hidden all over the store. Melissa was at the desk handling sales, Renee was taking care of the raffle tickets and answering questions, Andy was pouring the wine, I was at the door marking off tickets (and flattering the ladies by asking if they were really 21 years of age even though they had to show ID to get a wine glass), Mary Ann was glazing some ceramics,
and Danielle was
playing with fire.
Danielle Reich is "A Self Representing Glass Artist" in the Lake Tahoe area. From her web site "I love working with glass in anyway that I can but enjoy sculpting it most!!! I teach basic and intermediate Lampworking, fusing and slumping, small glass sculpture techniques and glass blowing. My work has been featured in The Flow magazine and The Country Register." It was great fun having her demo, it really makes people stop and smell the roses. She makes the most wonderful glass beads for any occasion. Her web site is. http://www.upsydaisyfarm.com/
Lampworking is an ancient form of glass art that has been around since the 1st Century in Syria. It uses a gas flame to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. It was widely practiced in Italy in the 14th Century. Lampworking manipulates glass either by the use of tools, gravity, or by blowing directly into the end of a glass tube. Early lampworking was done by the flame of an oil lamp, with the artist blowing air into the flame through a pipe. Modern artists no longer use oil-fueled lamps, most artists today use torches that burn either propane or natural gas and air (which can be produced by an oxygen concentrator) as the oxidizer. Lamp working is used to create artwork, including figurines of animals and botanicals, trinkets, curios, Christmas tree ornaments, beads and scientific instruments. Lampwork techniques were extended to the production of paperweights, primarily in France, where it became a popular art form, still collected today.
So thank you everyone for stopping by last night and visiting the shop. We love the wine walks held every "Third Thirsty Thursday" during the months of May-September so this was just an added bonus to chase away the Winter Blahs.
I love to watch glass blowing, it's just such a beautiful art.
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