Fall brings out the best in the Japanese Maple close to the Studio

Thanksgiving week was a time to relax and renew friendships with our family and friends.  Wednesday before Thanksgiving, two families with their adult children who returned home for the holdidays visited the studio: Ryan and Ava Page and their mom Karen McCall, and Casey Privalle with her mom, Laura. Uncle Peter, a pilot, flew in for Wednesday afternoon and left at 6:30 am Thursday morning.   Our son, Tyler, is in Copenhagen for the semester, so having other young adults in the studio was bittersweet...wonderful to see our children grow up, and sad that they have their own lives to live.

I had two days of eating more than believable and visiting with sister-in-law Hilary and husband Skeetz. On Sunday, my birthday (29 and holding), 17 (SEVENTEEN) people came to the studio.  Everyone was great about sharing table space and making do with seating.  Each table had it's own character, though Christmas was a common theme.  

 

Laura P brought her entire lab out for a Sunday workshop on November 14.  Two of the families had older boys who had played with glass before, so their younger brothers were excited to be invited to play.         
We did glass weaving, powders, and jewelry in addition to the collage techniques.  Youngest: 5, Oldest...well, a lady never tells. 

Liberty Arts was aglow with fire and good cheer Friday night.  In the big room, Dogs of a Feather kept us dancing and Yellow Bird Bakery and a potluck table of snacks from the Liberty Artists Advisory Board kept us well fed.   
Around the foundry, those involved    in the pour made the final changes to their molds and leveled them to get ready for the pour. 
When the metal reached temp (around 2300 degrees F?), the pour team suited up.    Mike Waller supervised but the pour team was all women: Cassandra, Robin, Rennee and Leah.
The first step was to move the crowd outside the gates Lifting the crucible out of the furnace and pouring is exciting.       

After the pour, the party resumed until the molds could be opened.  
Everyone was curious to see what was in each mold as it was opened about 30 - 40  mins after the pour.   

 More pictures will be available on the Liberty Arts facebook account soon. Thanks, y'all, for a great evening!

There will be live music by the Dogs of a Feather at Liberty Arts tonight, and a bronze pour at 8 pm.  Address 538 Foster St, Durham (across from the Durham Farmer's Market.)  If you have never seen molten metal poured into sand/resin molds, this is your opportunity.  Very exciting.  Music starts at around 6 pm and will continure after the pour.  For more pix, find Liberty Arts on facebook.  For the real thing, come on down tonight, have a glass of wine, a bite of cheese, and some fun conversation with your friends, old and new.  Oh, there will be art for sale, too.  Come do some holiday shopping!!! 

Another Wonderful OLLI session (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University) is winding down.  Several first-timers completed ambitious projects, such as Hitzie's side light for her front door, and Marion's wall hanging .  We worked with glass "collage", used glass powders and frit to create details, embedded photographs into glass, and "wove" glass into bowls.   Folks went into "production" mode the last weeks to get ready for the holidays, and many are coming back for Open Studio Time .  Thanks, everyone.  I loved it (as always) and hope to see you again soon.

Turning a teaching studio into an art gallery is always a challenge.  But, with the help of Mary Kay and Jan of Ruffled Grouch, the transformation from Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning was pretty spectacular. After a rainy start on Saturday morning, the weekend of Lockridge Artists turned glorious.  Shirley McConahay's Heron greeted everyone, and Tom Johnson's paintings looked great on the wall.  Lucartha Kohler brought some of her cast glass  and Sallye's big bowlshung out in the back room.  New to the group were the pole people and puzzles of Ruffled Grouch Mary Kay and Jan, plus the pottery of Andi Sobbe.  Frances Carther's bags and Marni Goldshlag's fabric art and scarves brightened the studio.   

It's always great to see everyone, thanks for coming out.  (And, if you missed it, the contact information for all of the artists is on the Lockridge Artist's page.)