Karen Azinger, Portland OR
Wendy Campbell, Sumner WA
Barbara Dorf, Vancouver WA
Rick Holmes, Portland OR
Margaret Keckler, Kent WA

Cynthia Koza, Springfield OR
Shannon Lynch, Green Valley AZ
Heidi Otten, Eastsound WA
Heather Weiermann, Bend OR
Melodee Williams, Tulalip WA

Narcissus Quagliata at the Forest Lawn Museum by Carlyne Lynch and Andrew Jagels

Narcissus Quagliata is a painter, a glass artist, a teacher, and a poet. His paintings can be seen in museums and private collections worldwide. He defined new pathways for glass art and is considered one of the most significant artists in this medium. He is best known for his spectacular artworks in public spaces, which have drawn worldwide attention.

Five Guild members took and are taking his online master classes and four traveled to Glendale, CA, to attend this show: Archetypes and Visions in Light and Glass. One of his major life achievements has been the development of techniques to create fused glass imagery, a process that is akin to painting. He is sharing this new-found language through a series of on-line masterclasses. Many of his students gathered for the opening of an exhibit of Narcissus’ work at the Forest Lawn Museum.

Carlyne Lynch and Narcissus Quagliata

Forest Lawn Director, James Fishburne, and Narcissus

We had a wonderful time in Glendale, California. We met people in person who had been classmates over the last 3 years and many of the Narcissus team and family. The show was a retrospective of his work in glass over the last 50 years. Our group spent two days at the Forest Lawn Museum complex before moving to two private events.

On the opening Night, we had talks by Narcissus, and the director of the museum, great food, a small band, and an open bar. Thursday, we had a private tour of the Forest Lawn Mausoleum by the Museum Director of Forest Lawn.

Stained Glass window, a recreation of DaVinci’s Last Supper. 30-foot wired and created in Italy and shipped and installed in 1931. Another fantastic tour of stained glass exists in the Mausoleum.

David, the first in the homeless series

The Bench, the next in the Homeless series. Carlyne helped a lot on this one in Portland

Classmate Carmen held a reception at her home on Friday. This was a private event for students who took or are in the process of taking his 6-part Master Classes in Glass. It was catered and allowed our classes four hours of mingling.

Saturday, Narcissus’ students were treated to a private tour of Judson Studios. We started at the original studio and transitioned to the new studio and food and more mingling.

It was a magical weekend, and a once in a lifetime opportunity for students of art glass.

Original Judson Studio

Judson’s Staff Work in class by Narcissus

An experiment with glass powder

One of the best pieces of advice I could give new glass artists (and it also applies to the rest of us) is to make some small samples AND TAKE REALLY GOOD NOTES whenever you do a glass project and especially if you make any changes to an existing process or firing schedule! Also, it doesn’t help to take good notes if next year when you want to try something again, you can’t find them! I know this too well!

When we first start out in glass most of it seems somewhat simple and logical and sometimes changes in processes or firing seem minor when going off in a different direction. THAT is the problem! After a while, especially if you like experimenting and trying all kinds of ways to use glass, you can’t remember those specific minor changes in the process that sometimes create rather large differences in your outcomes.

Classes are wonderful in that they make you try something new. And they get you started in the right direction. But think about it, most of what you learn is just taking basic glass principles and trying different ways of doing things. In other words, you can play, experiment, fire higher, lower, faster, slower, with opal AND/OR transparents, different thicknesses and types of applications, and you can’t help but learn A LOT! Taking what you already know and expanding on it is so much fun. But you will want a way to remember what you did that turned out well (and hopefully also remember some things to NOT do again).

What you do will change over time (for most of us). Even for things you did a lot of at one time, it can be hard to remember those little details later that can make a difference in how well something turns out. Like how striking colors or reactive colors really work. What temps make that striker strike? Does it have pretty “in-between” tones you’d like get on purpose? What reactions do you like, or don’t like, so you can avoid those? How many different ways of applying powders or frits and using sheet glass can you try to see a huge number of design and texture possibilities in just in one color alone, or with reactivity? Experiment, experiment, experiment! Also remember that tack fuse and full fuse create two rather specific results, but what about all the possibilities in between those two? Different results can come from even small variances in temperature and/or time in the kiln! Remember to use extra left over space in your kiln to do those little experiments.

Have you tried playing with the 6mm rule? Stacking and making things sink and spread, having thin things shrink up on purpose (like how you make nice little balls). Intermix colored opals or transparents with clear, then stack and spread, or fire with support to get a thicker shape you can saw into slices. Once you start playing, the processes are almost limitless, but take good notes on the things you enjoy because each new process opens doors to learning even more and you will not only want to be able to repeat things but mix up the way you do things and still maintain control. Find some things you really enjoy and then you will also get more out of classes as a way to really understand what you are doing and expand your capabilities.

another experiment with powder

A test of progressively more firings on strikers

I highly recommend doing quick tests! Make them small enough you can store them easily but mark what you did on them plus the colors and be sure to take readable notes. It is really good to see the actual colors you get when you fire things, and also how they intermix. You don’t want any bad surprises in the middle of a beautiful piece, so know what colors do together. Try using both opals and transparents on some projects too, especially if you tend to usually go all one way or the other. Try comparing how different size frits melt at different temperatures.

I’ve taken a photo of several tests I have done. They don’t have to be perfect, sometimes a mistake will tell you a lot too! The red and yellow photo is of simple powder tests: comparing opal and transparents plus the red striker so it changes color at different stages of firing.

You may also put some colors together that you would not normally think to use and see how you like the results. Try some transparents over some opals and get some new colors and tones! The next two photos were samples I did some time ago just testing actual colors and I was thinking about sunrises or sunsets and seeing what might go together well. I also wanted to test if they might have a reaction I would not want.

The last test is one where I wasn’t paying attention and grabbed some opals when I was meaning to just do transparents, but even so I got some interesting results that would be perfectly fine in the right project! We all have scrap glass, especially clear, so save some squares and rectangles and make some quick easy samples to check actual colors or combos. Use other scrap to play with textures or stencils and see what happens. Small tests are both very affordable and fun. Most things can be used somewhere in a landscape or floral to add color and interest! Anyway, take time to play, be brave and experiment! You will enjoy it and you will LEARN more about glass and firing. And always remember to take good notes. It takes a few minutes but will pay off well in the long run! –Greta Schneider

Meetings are usually on the 4th Sunday of the month from 3:30 to 5:00 PM Pacific Time BUT November will be a week early because of Thanksgiving.

The October meeting video on Shipping, packing etc. is now available to members on the Glass>Education menu on page 2 under Shipping… Logged in Members can find links to the businesses the presenters mentioned at the meeting listed both with the video and on the new Resources page under the Glass menu. Some of the recent videos are unedited in order to make them available sooner. If someone wants to help their fellow members by editing them we’d really appreciate it, please contact our VPs to volunteer.

The election of new officers also happened at the meeting. The only new officer for 2025 will be Rose McBride as Secretary taking over from Becky Meinhart. We thank Becky for her work this year and we thank all the others for volunteering another year.

Sunday November 17 General Meeting via Zoom: Holiday Items and Shows

3:30 to 5:00 PM. Join us as we learn how different artists make holiday ornaments, cards and other holiday items. We would also like to hear what holiday shows you are participating in and why you picked those.

• Did you miss a recent meeting but wish you hadn’t? General meetings are open to everyone but to view the recordings under Glass>Education you have to join the Guild. Then you can log in to see them.

Rae Williamson makes about 150 ornaments for her caroling group each year. Here’s this year’s first batch.

December is for Holiday Parties

instead of General meetings. Mark your calendars now:

Dec. 7 at 5 pm Linda Gerrard will host a dinner in Beaverton OR (near Portland).

Dec. 15 at 11 am Karen Seymour will host a potluck brunch by the Zoo in Seattle WA

The holiday Party at Linda Gerrard’s in 2023

There is a new Resources page under the Glass menu. We wanted a single place to pool the sources and services suggested at meetings etc. We decided to make it a member benefit* like the meeting videos so you need to log-in to see the list. It is for members to share sources of supplies and services so other members don’t have to search as hard.

Experienced glass folks: please give the newbies in your area a helping hand by adding to the list. Log-in and fill out the form at the bottom of the Resources page.

* (Your annual dues pay to maintain this website among other things. Come to the next board meeting or contact the president if you have ideas for other benefits we can offer our members).

We had lots of events in the past two months:

Portland Open Studios in September (photos thanks to Stephanie Johnston)

Margie Reiff with host Lyn Kennison (Lesley Kelly‘s art on left).

Lyn Kennison’s display with helper

Linda Gerrard and Diane Muhly shared Linda’s display space

Carlyne Lynch hosted Greta Schneider and Daryle Ryder at her studio. She also had tents outside where she was helping attendees make some quick fusing projects.

Just a bit of Roz Cooper’s varied display

Barb Kienle demonstrated some tools

Shawna Hovey was also at Barb’s house

Suzanne Tyler had a nice demo of glass working materials and tools in addition to her art display.

Indoors at Karen Seymour’s with guests Andi Ficker, Lael Bennett, Lorina Shaufler and Michael Dupille. The 2 minute video tour of the whole display is here

Lael Bennett’s work at Karen Seymour’s site (her “table” is 35 boxes of books from Karen’s damaged room: glad Lael is adaptable)

Sandy Spear at her host blacksmith Dave Fasolt’s studio

A small part Angie Heinrich’s display.
Click the above image for the very short video tour of her Zetamari studio and guests.

David Smith demoed blowing into odd things again. His Blowing Sands studio is having a holiday show Dec. 7th.

Stephanie Johnston drove up from The Dalles to display her work at host Dave Fasoldt’s blacksmith studio. She had large bright flowers all over the yard.

Debbie Marchione’s borrowed tent blew over the wall behind on Sunday. Only 1 piece was broken. Host potter Jo Reid and other artists made room for her to re-set up her work inside the garage.
Here’s a video of the whole site.

Cheryl Chapman’s booth

Yes those are torches.

Winter 2024:

(Guild sponsored events are in bold)

November
8-10 Best of the NW show, Seattle
9 Terri Johanson candle-holder class, Hamilton MT
11 Board Meeting, via Zoom
15-16 NACC Christmas Bazaar, Albany OR
16-17 Washougal WA Studio Artists Tour (across the Columbia from Portland)
17 General Meeting via Zoom
22-23 COMAG Annual Show, Bend OR

December
6-7 OSU Holiday Marketplace, Corvalis OR
7 NW Garden Bling Holiday Open House in Concrete WA (east of Burlington)
7 Guild Holiday Party Beaverton OR (near Portland)
7-8 Holiday Sale: David Smith’s Blowing Sands Studio in Seattle
14 Locovore Holiday Gift Faire, Bend OR
15 Guild Holiday Brunch in Seattle WA

January
26 General Meeting topic TBA: Send suggestions to VP Barb Kienle

Sponsor NW Art Glass in Redmond WA (East of Seattle) isn’t having a holiday event as such but they will be open on Saturdays 10 am to 2:30 pm from now till at least December 21st in addition to their usual Tues. through Fri. 10 am to 3:30 pm. Phone for appointment 425-861-9600
They are in the process of expanding and have already increased the number of pre-cut glass bins (see photo).