Demonstrating at the Glass Shoppe Studio

CIM colour choices for Saturday's Fish & Calla Demo!

Since all our glass is carefully mummified in bubble-wrap burritos, I've decided to use some of the luscious CIM colours available at the Glass Shoppe Studio for my demo! PURE PRACTICALITY, I promise! ;)
My fish and callas are fantasy lifeforms so there's no end to colour options. I'm leaning towards translucent purples and greens, though, like Crocus and Kryptonite.

Glassworking Demo
"How To Shape Hot Glass Fantasy Fish Beads and Calla Lily Pendants"
by Heather Stewart and Andrea Steinwand of Hearts of Glass Flameworked Talismans
Saturday, June 24th
1pm to 4pm
Glass Shoppe Studio
210 Colonnade Rd, Unit 12A
It is a free event and everyone is welcome!

See you soon!

ALSO: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREA!!! We're going out for pupusas with family tonight and mojitos with friends later on. Feliz cumpleanos mi amor!

The Very First Hearts of Glass Ottawa Demo & Show!

A few weeks ago we visited Grace Edward's Glass Shoppe to watch Evelyn "Shebamakeda" Duberry's Goddess bead demonstration. It was such a cool demonstration and such a wonderful studio space that we immediately began dreaming of one day doing a demonstration of our own there!

That day has some sooner than we expected! Grace was kind enough to offer us a demonstration event next Saturday, June 24th from 1 to 4pm at the Glass Shoppe Studio, 210 Colonnade Rd, Unit 12A. It is a free event and everyone is welcome!

I'm going to demonstrate a glass fish bead and an off-mandrel calla lily pendant.




These designs are both excellent for showing a wide variety of shaping techniques that beginner lampworkers can apply to their own work. I'll cover studio safety and tools, glass colour reaction theory, pulling cane, frit application, loops, dots, trapped bubbles, and more!

Andrea will talk about some of her jewellery finishing techniques, share booth display tips and tricks and show off the current Hearts of Glass collection. We'll be having a trunk show of some of our favorite work as well, and we'll be placing some pieces on consignment at the Studio afterwards.



We're both so excited about this fun opportunity. I look forward to seeing curious "glass virgins" and experienced lampworkers who are into gathering with other glass-obsessives. Maybe my family will come by too! Any time I get to torch and nerd out on glass (especially with fellow glass nerds) is a great time in my books!

A New Home for Hearts of Glass

We did it!

Andrea and I bought a house in East Ottawa (Vanier-Beechwood) this week. It's waking distance to the Bytown Market, biking distance to my office downtown, and on three bus routes, so we should be able to continue to manage without a car. It's in good shape with just a short list of projects to work on (mostly roof ventilation and drainage, but definitely DIY stuff) and great layout, kitchen, bathroom, and yard.

Most importantly for the glass side of our life, it's got a tall, bright and spacious unfinished basement and a classy garage with a huge window overlooking the garden - so much studio potential!

We look forward to building our dream bench over the next year, step-by-step! The first steps will be gas hookup and ventilation, and some sort of basic bench surface. Eventually as we can afford it we'll upgrade to something in stainless steel or slate (my Dad has offered us a large salvaged slab - he's the king of "good junk"!). We also want to build a silversmithing bench with a dedicated line for our soldering torch.

Of course, we don't get possession until September 10. But now we can enjoy the summer and know that we have something very special to look forward to!

Demonstration by Evelyn "Shebamakeda" Duberry last Saturday

Last weekend was so much fun! We went househunting and canoeing with my Dad and sister, which was awesome, but our more glass-related adventure was our first in-person encounter with the OGBA folk and with the Glass Shoppe Studio.

Evelyn Duberry of Shebamakeda was at the torch demoing her curvy goddess sculpted beads. She was using Cirrus, an milky opal-like glass from CiM. For us, it has always gone regular opaque white in the kiln, but Evelyn explained that it needs to be re-struck to translucent *and* the annealing should be done closer to 980, instead of 968 as we'd always been doing it. Good to know! I look forward to trying that.

Evelyn was on one of about 10 Nortel torches (hers was a red Mega Minor which looks really slick!). They were all individually piped with propane from a huge tank outside (I assume - I just saw the black pipe marked "Propane") and an oxygen concentrator for each that looked just like our Devilbiss Solarises. Each station had front exhuast grilles and ducts leading down and out to a central exterior blower. It was all beautiful stainless steel and I want our new studio to be like that.

It was really cool to watch Evelyn work and speak with Grace about her supplies, her new shop and the OGBA. We were able to compare the CiM and Moretti colours side by side which was so much more revealing than online shopping! I really wanted to stock up on new tools (mama needs a new masher) but since all our gear is still in boxes it would be a bit premature. The bead store right next door was a huge temptation also but we resisted. Must save money for buying an actual house!

We've got our eyes on one that would be perfect (two, actually: Choice A and Choice B) so we'll let you know...

Ottawa Glass Bead Artists

Last week I contacted the Ottawa Glass Bead Artists to see about getting involved in upcoming events. I got an immediate reply from Grace Edwards of Laucha Lady fame. Apparently she has just opened a new teaching studio on Colonnade (near my old high school!) which hosts special events, meetings and demonstrations!

Sounds very interesting. I look forward to attending an event in the near future!

...on the other side: Ottawa

Ottawa!
















Andrea and I are halfway through the process of moving here from Winnipeg. I've been here for nearly two weeks now, starting my new job, and our stuff arrived safely last Wednesday in a shared truck. But Andrea's still in Winnipeg tying up loose ends, and we don't have a place of our own set up yet. I've been staying with some very generous friends downtown and helping them with some projects in return. It's a weird time! All the hard work of moving away from Winnipeg is dealt with but there are still emotions of loss and displacement. Even though this was my choice and it's my long-lost hometown, it is disorienting to be the "new kid" in town! Ottawa has nearly twice the population and a much higher average family income than Winnipeg, so everything here seems bustling and shiny.

For example, a pillar at the corner of the block where I work has a base of shiny black rock. But not just any rock! It's beautiful Larvikite, a semi-precious stone with lots of dramatic blue flash:

I've made lovely jewellery using this very same stone!

Some would call it "flashy", and some would call it "fabulous". I don't know what to think of the downtown streetscaping so far, but I do know that I'm being very well taken care of by my friends and family. And I know that there is an amazing arts and cultural scene that belies Ottawa's rather buttoned-down reputation. And I know that there's an active and creative glass beadmaking scene that I'm very excited to join!

For now, we're still working on settling in. The rest will come in time.