My Continuum installation is FINALLY finished!  Hooray for closure!

As I mentioned in my last post, I designed a new armature for my bubbles to be mounted on.  I drew a scale drawing of what I wanted and took it up to Owen Sound to Kreuger Custom Steel.  Basically it is 7 foot long, made out of thin steel.  The guys did such a great job of shaping, welding and coaxing the metal into the exact shape I drew, I was so impressed!

So I took it home and drilled out all the holes for the mounting screws, and only came away with minimal metal slivers lodged in my fingertips.  I was super excited to get it done and to see if it fit all my bubbles the way I intended.

I mounted the armature to the wall, using only 10 screws (instead of the 72 individual screws I would have needed without the metal framework) and fit on all the magnetic bubbles.  I am SO HAPPY with the result, it’s so fantastic!  Here are some final photos of the finished piece!

I have been on a seriously long struggle with finishing my ‘Continuum’ installation.  I started back in December 2010 making blown glass mirrored bubbles for a wall sculpture idea I had.  All was going well at that point… I was blowing the bubbles and they looked fantastic.  I had a sketchy goal of having them ready to submitted to the BMFA Juried Show at the end of January.  So my plan was to mount them all on rare earth magnets, and then they could be stuck on anything metallic and arranged any-which-way.

After attaching all the magnets, I had an epiphany that the BMFA did not, in fact, have any sort of metallic wall or structure in their gallery.  This was compounded by the idea that if the sculpture didn’t sell, it would be installed on my own wall… which just happens to be drywall… not metal.  So I formulated a VERY last minute plan.  The day before the BMFA show I got a big 6 inch x 6 foot piece of sheet metal and bunched up all my bubbles so they would cram on to the metal.  I was relatively happy with the look, so I submitted it to the show.

Fast forward to a month later… I get my piece back from the show (no, it didn’t sell) and so I put it up in a corner of my studio so I can mull it over.  After a while, I realized it was completely unresolved.  The problem was, the beauty of each individual glass piece got lost because they were all crammed so close together.  The piece needed space.  And context.  And purpose.  And to be freed from the confines of a rectangular piece of sheet metal!

By this time it is August, and I thought it would be a good idea to take the bubbles to a few unlikely spots to photograph them in different arrangements.  This got me thinking that the bubbles needed to be positioned in such a way as to suggest movement and flow.  Looking back, it was interesting to see that for my first attempt I chose to stagnate the piece by confining it to a rectangular shape, but when I wasn’t confined by a mounting plate, I had a tendancy to stretch the bubbles out, in more of a wavy pattern.  The result is an installation that had some continuity to it.

So here I am now at the end of October, and I am getting ready to submit the piece to the TTMAG Juried Show next month.  I finally feel like I have resolved the piece to my satisfaction.  All that’s left is to finish my new mounting armature and I can finally say that I am DONE!  In the next couple of days I will share the end of my process and post some images of the final piece.

Sometimes the creative process can be such a long and drawn out affair.  I often wonder if I will ever really be satisfied with the end result?

I love how my own creative endeavours can inspire creativity in others!  These beautiful photos were taken last month by Karen Alexandre, who visited Infinite Glassworks on the Autumn Leaves Studio Tour.  She captures the bright saturated colours, and the beautiful refractions of light on glass.  What I found particularly striking was how she defined texture in her photos …especially with the macros, but also with the last shot of the bottles through the condensation on the window.  Thanks Karen, they’re gorgeous!

Well… we are done our annual studio tour, and despite the wind and the rain, tons of people stopped by to ogle our beautiful handblown glass.  Luckily I had my mom as my guest artist, and we had lots of fun hanging around, talking to people and letting the cats in and out the door all day.  I had Mittens the Kitten keeping an eye on the cash register so I wouldn’t make any mistakes, and for once she didn’t knock any glass off my upper shelf.

After it was all over, I collapsed on the couch then immediately started planning next year’s tour!  I have an elaborate plan involving letting the public into our whole downstairs of the house… not just the gallery part, so that means I have a TON of work to do before next year… painting, renovating and making WAY MORE GLASSWORK!  I can only imagine how much cleaning and housework might be involved in this plan… which anyone who knows me can attest that it is my least favourite activity :).  However, it could be so incredible to have more space to show!

I am getting back into the studio in a couple of weeks hopefully, and I am bursting with new and fun ideas… especially some new lighting designs I’ve been dreaming of.  Since this was my last weekend being open, I ripped apart the gallery today, moved some furniture and sorted through lots of odds and ends… just to get myself ready to take on some new projects!  Hooray!

We are having such a superfun time at the studio tour!!  We have met people from Austria, Midland, Windsor, Hamilton, Owen Sound, Walkerton, and best of all……EUGENIA!!!  I love meeting new neighbours!  Who will we meet tomorrow and Sunday???

Just a reminder that we are taking part in the Autumn Leaves Studio Tour this upcoming weekend…

September 30th – October 2nd from 10am – 5pm daily

We will have friendship balls, wine stoppers,  tumblers, vases, bottles, bowls and goblets, and more!  Our guest artist is Wendy Bachiu, who works in acrylics, watercolours and cold wax/oils.

Hope to see you there!

I have alluded to my glass bubbles in a few different posts in the past, and now that I have actually finished the piece, I am ready to say a little bit more about it.  I originally made this piece so it could be entered into the BMFA Juried Show early this year (which it was, but that’s another story).  After getting it back from the Juried Show, it has spent the entire spring and summer gracing a dark and out-of-the-way corner of my messy little studio area.

Although I knew the final resting place of my installation would no doubt be indoors, I couldn’t help planning on taking my bubbles to the streets (and rivers) in search of interesting and exciting locations to install it.  Here are a few shots of Bubbles!

Recently my brother (and glassblowing videographer/photographer) Graeme Bachiu entered his short film ‘About Towne’ in the Hamilton Film Festival.  This is the third year that his fantastic production team  has entered H24.  They are given only 24 hours to write, shoot, edit and produce a short film, which is an incredible feat.  Each film has to contain some elements that are provided by the festival, to ensure that it is created within the 24 hour window.

About Towne from Graeme Bachiu on Vimeo.

Not long ago, one of my FANTASTIC customers made a great suggestion to me… have my customers share photos of my glass in their homes.

Lorraine was kind enough to kick off the idea by tweeting a photo of the vase and paperweight I send across the ocean to her.  My little purple vase and paperweight look beautiful with  the light coming through, and I’m sure they are enjoying their new home in England!

If anyone wants to share photos via email, facebook or twitter… I would be THRILLED to see them and post them (with your permission).  Thanks to all of my wonderful customers and I hope to see some gorgeous photos!

This is a BRAND NEW sculptural piece inspired by one of my favourite muses… the weather!  You may recall I started working on it back in January (see this post), when I was doing a lot of doodling and drawing to get me through the cold harsh CLOUDY winter here in Canada.  I am super excited about these, they are so fun to make!  They are now available for purchase in my Online Store as well as in my studio gallery in Eugenia.  Check them out and let me know what you think!

After a hot day at Infinite Gallery on Saturday, we treated ourselves to a fabulous dinner at the Flying Chestnut restaurant in Eugenia.  We tried the homemade Lemon/Rosemary Soda out of the Infinite Glassworks original handblown glass tumblers.  It is my opinion that drinking out of handblown glass makes everything taste better, but I have to say that homemade soda was so good it would taste great served in an old boot!   (Okay well not really… but you get the point!)

I am not going to let any secrets out about what exciting thing is going to be happening at Infinite Gallery this weekend……..

Oops.  I accidentally let the secret slip.  Come by Saturday or Sunday to be refreshed and check out BRAND NEW PAINTINGS by Wendy Bachiu (and meet the artist/lemonade chef!)