Women Pampering Women and Artists Connects Talk with Oatka School of Glass

My morning started off at 2:30am....since I couldn't sleep...when I proceeded to write our new brochure material that highlights our 2-3 hour workshops that so many people are starting to request recently.  I did manage to get another hours worth of sleep...after my school duty was completed.  The next job of the morning was getting pieces of our work together to take to a afternoon fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity called "Women Pampering Women" in Farmington, NY and our evening presentation at the Arts Council of Wyoming County in Perry, NY.  Hmmm....do you think your life is a whirlwind....step into ours.

A friend of ours, and recent student of my Painting with Light class, Laurel Davern, was going to come with me to be "pampered" for the afternoon.  When she arrived at around 10:30am she was whisked off by Lance and our intern, Maddie, to check out our resident rock specialist, Larry, collection of sliced and polished rocks.  Laurel and her husband, Michael do absolutely wonderful jewelry pieces that utilize different types of rocks and etched dichroic glass.  She found a new supplier.  Once they came back from their little tour we headed out to Farmington for our pampering experience.

We arrived at the event in a timely manner, setup up our table with school and class information and glass examples, and then went to signup for our pampering times.  We had lots of interest in our table, our glass, and our classes that we are offering from all the people that came through for the fundraiser.  BUT when it came time for our pampering....we found out that the one session we signed up for had been cancelled due to that person not showing up to pamper us.  Man....I have never used the word "pamper" so many times as in this one posting...or in my life.  SO...no pampering but we did generate alot of interest in the school and Laurel was great about helping me.

After dropping Laurel off and picking Lance up at the studio we headed off for our next event. In celebration of their 35th anniversary, the Arts Council of Wyoming County are premiering “Artists Connects,” which is an open invitation to our region’s artists, poets and writers to connect, network, share ideas and also learn about each individual’s creative process. “Artists Connects” will take place three times each year with a format that features a guest speaker, question and answers and then a time for informal performance, fun, food and networking.

The Arts Council is housed in a beautiful old building that highlights the local communities huge array of artists both young and old.  Every time we walk into the space, the exhibits are impressively laid out and we love the variety of venues that they organize throughout the year.  We are hoping to do an exhibit there in 2011.

The evening started out with a potluck dinner....and it was absolutely delicious.  We even had a pear pie for dessert.  We all sat around and enjoyed the meal together as a group and then headed into their media room to do our little show and tell talk.  Lance and I both talked separately about where we started with our creative process....for Lance that was way back :), and then we proceeded into a question and answer session.  We brought several pieces of our work that demonstrated a wide range of the type of kiln formed glass work that we both produce and teach at Oatka School of Glass.

We had a very nice evening and met some local artists whom we hope to continue connecting with in the future.  We will definitely be back for these "Artists Connects" events in the future.  Thank-you to all the organizers of this wonderful opportunity.  We hope it continues on for many years to come.