Group Activities

I have to show what I got!! Everyone brought a gift for 1 person wrapped, and it was by lotto who got what from who. I got a necklace from Glenda Long.... who is exactly who I most wanted something from!!! Is this woman amazing? I have NEVER seen ANYONE make cartoony beads like hers... she should be famous. Her spongebob squarepants beads are dead on flawless spongebobs, and I'm THRILLED because this is my only Glenda bead (there is no 'best angle', the garden of flowers wraps around the entire bead completely)!!

Then there was ANOTHER Glass Dragon Christmas Party at Barbara Svetlick's house in Ft Lauderdale (attended by Glass Dragons: Interim President Heather Ferman, Helen Starkweather (Azenglass), my friend Michelle in Boca Raton (Sundoor Beads), Jan Cosmos.

All Photos by Will Starkweather (Age 13 - told you GD were getting younger)
All Video's by Gabe (Michelle's 14 year old son) - these will take a while to show, I have to figure out how to upload video's first, but we have the COMPLETE demos by both Lewis Wilson and Pam Dugger thanks to Gabe's tenacity and patience. Thanks Gabe!! We also have video of Lewis eating fire (camera ran out of battery so no photos).

The food in Barb's gorgeous kitchen in her gorgeous home:

Some of the Attendees watching the Demos in Barb's gorgeous separate cottage studio (I think it seats 12):

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Pam Dugger Demoing - she is making a BULLSEYE HOLLOW Dragon that is NOT blown, it's mandrel wound - incredible!!

She gifted it to me, and I can show you what it looks like finished. It's hollow and so full of water atm. It's astonishing! Here is a closeup after it came out of the kiln today, it's BEAUTIFUL! I still haven't figured out how something this big made in the most brittle glass out there didn't crack (it's about 6" long) :

Lewis Wilson made 3 demos - first a Glow in the Dark Elephant - he generously gave each party attendee an autographed book he wrote, PLUS some glow in the dark powder AND 104 glow in the dark Frit!!!! The powder can be used on any glass, and the technique he showed us was showed him by Emilio Santini. To make legs on an elephant in 3 'snips'. Lewis played 'santa' for the evening (should have complete videos of all the demos)!

His 2nd demo was for the same elephant WITHOUT the glow powder (the glow powder makes the glass more brittle, so he could do it faster without it.

Lewis Wilson's 3rd demo was for an unbelievable piece, a "Nautilus Woman", here's a great view of the tail

--see the little elephant in the foreground from his first demo:

Here is the last bit of 'hair' going on:

Since this is my page and not the GD page, I am adding some more personal adventures:)!

I bought the Nautilus Woman Lewis had previously made for an incredibly generously reasonable price from him, and it's very close to the one he made in the Demo, so you can see what he Demo'd (the Demo one should look about the same, if not prettier. I think he gifted it to Barb cuz she was an awsome hostess:)).

It's breathtaking! He showed us how to make the orbs in the hands right on the merwoman too (I thought it was 2 pieces - his efficiency in glass-making is incredible - there were no 'parts'- it was one contiguous piece)!!

The one I bought is signed in gold and mounted on a piece of polished petrified wood. It's PHENOMENAL in person!!

Lewis generously gifted my son, Will, AND Gabe, Michelle's son (for videotaping) a large dragon sculpture each!!!

Here it my son's (as soon as the kids can get 3 hours of tape edited, I will put them up, so long as Lewis doesn't object to putting it up on my site as well). Gabe's is a flying dragon. The workmanship on these are astonishing!

Finally, Lewis gifted me with an incredible mask that had a tiny crack in the back that made it unsellable... which I put in my pocket and then lost somewhere (NEVER put precious things in shallow pockets!!!). My son shot a picture of a similar one that Lewis was selling (so you can see what I lost...it was much prettier than this one *cries*):

I spent the night at Barb's house (Barb is one of the sweetest, most gracious and calm person I have met... I'm semi-wired all the time, she has zen-like attributes!!), and the next day went to see Lewis's show in Ft Lauderdale.

Not only did I get to see Lewis, I also got to meet James Yaun and Shannon Hill, and ran into Jessica again!

James Yaun makes 9 POUND marbles that are 6" in diameter on a GIGANTIC torch (4 rows, the 3rd row is a Delta, 2nd Mirage, 1st Lynx). And the marbles he makes are INCREDIBLE and HUGE. Here's a display:

Look at the size of the marble he's holding!!!:

James Yaun with his assistant Todd:

And finally, here's a small pendant that James heavily, unbelievably, discounted for my son (for taking pix of his marbles and letting him download them to his computer...always travel with a kid who has a camera). You have to see this thing to believe it :

This had to be the most incredible day and a 1/2 anyone could spend if you love glass. I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Anyone in the photos is welcome to save the photos for their site, advertising or whatever they want to use it for.

Hope you enjoyed looking at the pix!!

Helen