New Year

Now that the holidays are behind us, we hope everyone is doing well. The stories I've heard from my customers range from heart-warming to sad. With all the emotions normally tied to these days at the end of the year and the added stress of an uncertain economy, I am forever gladdened by the optimism shown by so many of my acquaintances.
On that note, I hope this year proves to be a much better one for all of us. We continue to have our problems with not only the County, but also with the management of the complex. I keep expecting to get back to "normal" operations, but everything is still incomplete. As an old fan of disco, "we will survive". I've decided to devote even more time to teaching classes. So, we're going to stay closed in the mornings, including Saturdays, to accommodate more - right now there's a beginning stained glass, and two intermediate classes going on, and the first week of February kicks off a Tiffany-style lampshade class. Evenings are booked up too, with torchwork on Tuesdays, beginning stained glass on Wednesdays, and mosaics on Thursdays. Sundays are reserved for the full-day seminars - right now it's painting & firing, the last two Sundays are for fusing & slumping. I want to take time off in February, and then in March I'll set up some more fusing classes for jewelry projects. We're even setting up a 2-day sandblasting class in March that will be taught in Spanish. There may not be as much commissioned artwork scheduled, but we're certainly keeping busy!
In order to make more room in the Studio, we've also started selling all the hand-rolled and mouth-blown glass at a 40% discount. My ultimate goal is to reduce inventory enough to eliminate 8 to 12 feet of glass bins...that's a lot of glass!
We may even eliminate one of the work tables, but for now they're all in use.
Ultimately, I'd like to make one whole section of the Studio into a hot glass shop for both torchwork and fusing. With the proper ventilation and equipment, things can be set up so that customers can rent studio time. For that to happen, we need both space and money ... ergo the sale on glass. Since we lost the lofts, all the glass that was stored for private studio work has now been put out for sale...and that includes glass originally from Tiffany Studios in New York that Brian acquired over 30 years ago. So, please come in and take a look!