Click the link to view the Christmas Ball selection for 2016: Christmas Balls - November 2016

After a few years with the shop cold due to maintenance, power outages and then a major renovation to add a backup power generator and 500lb propane system, the tinshack studio again became a hot shop on December 26, 2011 and remained hot 24/7 until mid-June 2012.

With the shop hot, I began blowing glass again in earnest - first with small pieces including paperweights, ornamental balls, starfish and then back to vases and bowls, which I've always loved making

This year the color emphasis has been on trailed gathers using colors that reduce to metalic elements in the flame. The new propane system allowed my glory hole to become truely 'white hot' for the first time this year, and the added gas pressure allowed me to acheive reducion effects never before acheived in the tin shack. The result is some rather stunning pieces.

Vases come in many sizes and shapes. I like making vases that are solid and substantial. Most of the vases this year employ solid color centers with gathered trails in metalic oxide colors that reduce to spectacular combinations of metalic color.

Creating a bowl, the critical emphasis is control. Attaining the final shape of the bowl without deforming the base requires specific application of heat toghether with patience and control. I'm particularly pleaseed with the bowl shapes created so far this year. As with most of my work this year, the bowls also exhibit reduction trails and solid color interiors.