Aquila Glass School

Pendant Night TONIGHT!!

2010-02-18T10:33:00.001-08:00

The third Thursday of the month is pendant night at Aquila Glass School. Tonight, we're making pendants for kids with cancer.

All are welcome -- NO experience necessary!

6-8pm at Aquila. Hope to see you there!

Back in the day...

2009-11-29T19:14:00.000-08:00

The very first studio we started in. One half of a single car garage. We had to move the kids bikes out to be able to get in and work.

Helen's Art Plate

2009-10-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

Leah On TV

2009-10-16T19:41:00.001-07:00

click the image above to view the video

New Mural Out Front

2009-10-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you Scott!!!

mural painted by Brian Buchanan

little things I love around the studio

2009-07-12T19:34:00.001-07:00

Scott's crazy ties on the bulletin board!

Big Brothers Big Sisters at AGS

2009-06-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

A party of ladies and their young friends, all part of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, came to Aquila to make glass pendants. They all had fun times designing and creating little works of art. Big sisters and little sisters alike caught on quickly and had no trouble piecing together their pendants, choosing colors and deciding what kind of texture they would like in the end. Everyone made about 6 pendants!
Scott even got some of them to make little droplets of hot glass (with his help!) and it was brilliant to see their little faces light up in front of the flame as the glass became molten and turned into a little dot.

If you would like to schedule a party like this, give us a call - and if you are inspired to become part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization - please do - click on the link to find more information about volunteering or donating funds for this amazing group of mentors! I like this slogan found on their website:

"Expanding horizons through the power of one-on-one friendships"

excited! about! decor!

2009-06-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

It seems to me like Aquila is a work in progress. The guys are always moving things around, rearranging and reorganizing in order to make more space for cool stuff.

One thing that never got finished (or so it seemed to me) was the bathroom. Oh sure -- it has the important parts (toilet, sink, mirror, towels). But someone had picked up some wood panels and molding for wainscoting the wall in the potty. And there the wood sat for the longest time. There was at least one occasion I offered to grab a hammer and put the paneling up myself, but let's be honest -- nobody wants that. Nobody. Aimee + Hammer = Bad Idea. (I'm much better at DEconstruction than construction.)

But I digress.

The last time I was at the studio, I noticed that the wood paneling was finally in place! The bathroom was nearly done -- all that was left was the crown molding. It looks great! I get so excited about bathroom decor!! Let's use more exclamation points!!!

And as I come out of the bathroom praising the wonders of wainscoting, Scott gives me a look. "You know... we did that like two months ago. It was like that the last time you were here."

So much for my powers of observation...

Tom Magruder's Marble Run

2009-04-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

How I Fell in Love with Glass

2009-03-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

You can blame Leah for my love affair with glass. There's probably a lot of people out there who blame her, now that I think about it. Maybe she taught your torchworking class... maybe you spotted her mobiles at the Portland Saturday Market.

In my case, she lured me in with wire.

Leah was looking to hire an extra pair of hands to help with mobile production, and first on her list of things to hand off was cutting wire. By lucky coincidence, I was looking for a part time job... so we each had something the other needed. Before long, Leah had me playing with glass. I made not-very-loopy loops on the torch. (They were more triangles than loops.) I cut my way through buckets of scrap for use in mobiles. I took an Intro to Fusing class with Scott. I took a bunch of torchworking classes with Leah. (My favorite so far is making ornaments!) I invited friends to the studio and got them to fall in love with glass, too.

I've yet to get tired of all the possibilities. I love pawing through a tub of scrap and finding colorful treasures. I love mixing and matching bits and pieces until they become something new. There's always some new project to admire, some friendly glass artist to chat with. The company at Aquila is just as appealing as the glass! I've never felt anything but welcome there.

So what's your story? How did you fall in love with glass? What brought you to Aquila?

The Journey Bead Program

2009-03-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

Aquila was in the news recently

click here for a link to the Portland Sentinel to read more about the Journey Bead Program that we donate glass pendants to at Legacy Emanuel Children's Hospital.

If you would like to make pendants for this program - please do!

Ask Scott or Don for more details, or come for "Pendant Night" which happens quarterly (check the schedule for detailed dates)

Torchworking for Fusing

2009-03-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

If you would like to learn to make these yourself (its fun!!) sign up for the
Torchworking for Fusing class at the studio. You will learn to do many other techniques with a glass torch, these curlie cues are always the final project and the most fun for me!

Call or check our website for current class availability.

Holiday Shows

2008-12-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

You can find many of the Aquila artists out and about at local holiday art shows.
Here we are at Handmade NW - a show at the World Trade Center in Downtown Portland.

YWEP Pendant making at Aquila Glass School

2008-11-13T15:16:00.000-08:00

Hi guys, Grumpy-old-fusing-guy here. I was told by our blog Mistress that I'd better sit down and get this done.

From time to time different groups come in and make pendants. Sometimes just for themselves and other times we are lucky enough to have some of their pendants for the "Journey Bead Program" which we support. Last night we were lucky enough to have a group of young ladies donate some of their creations.

I received the following letter from the the group:

Scott,

Thanks so much for all your help! The class was wonderful and the girls were really happy.

The Young Women’s Equity Project (YWEP), one of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization’s (IRCO) youth programs, provides services to high school-aged African and Slavic girls who show an interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). We work to remove barriers to higher education and to support our clients to pursue careers that are traditionally male-dominated. For many of our clients this is a significant challenge. They have little to no experience in a formal educational setting, they do not speak English and are regularly challenged to adapt to living in a new culture. YWEP clients, however, are dedicated individuals and with help will excel, flourishing in internship programs or in volunteer work.

The majority of YWEP’s African clients come from Somalia, via a refugee camp. Some of these clients have been in the

United States

for only a few months while others have lived in different areas of the United States, as far away as Connecticut. Our Slavic clients come from a number of countries, from

Kyrgyzstan

to Ukraine, Russian to Moldova.

Recently YWEP implemented a series of classes entitled the Science Behind The Art and have focused on glass making. In our two visits to the Aquila Glass School we have learned about the temperature required to melt glass, the process of turning it into a work of art and the fact that glass is a liquid. Months after our trip the girls still remind me that it is a liquid that holds their water in the cup and that their windshields, which block the rain, is also a liquid. Soon we will be traveling to the Tacoma Museum of Glass to learn more about the fine art and science of glass, but we owe our initial interest and knowledge to Aquila where our appetites were whet. To visit Aquila, many of our clients took two buses from school, left their cooking or homework undone and hopped on a van so that they could join us to make pendants, many of which they donated to the children with cancer that Aquila serves. In all, from people originating from all over the world, thanks, we have had a great time!

Lua Masumi

IRCO Skills Center

Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization

Academic Support Instructor

631 NE 102nd Ave

Portland, OR 97220

503.253.4042 x 306

www.irco.org

That's all for now. If you have a small group that might want to come in and make pendants give us a call.

Be well,

Scott

Do You Love Mac n' Cheese?

2008-11-05T14:37:00.000-08:00

Moving Kilns is Hard Work

2008-10-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

Wednesday the guys moved around the kilns in the studio... making room for 3 more in the kiln room and then moving them into place.
These glass kilns weigh hundreds of pounds each. They are not easy to move!
Scott did a lot of pointing.
And then he did some more pointing....
and then some more...

Thanks Jan for taking pictures!

Weren't we doing this last year? (moving that is) Here's evidence! I blogged about it last year too!

Once all this moving and shaking is done, there will be a new cold-working room and 30% more kilns space. WhooPee!

Glass Galor Lincoln City

2008-10-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

Hello All - I put up a couple of pictures from the Glass Galore. It was a beautiful weekend and there was a lot of people who came through. See the good lookin guy in the first picture? :)

One of my neighbors

and another neighbor

and another neighbor

And our favorite weekend torch teacher Andi.

Don

Virtual Studio Tour

2008-10-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

We are about to start moving things around again (more kilns to fit in the back... a cold working room to empty and re-fill with equipment... the upstairs is being completely wiggled around as well... funny - wasn't it last year at this time that we were remodeling as well!)

Anyhow - it seemed like an appropriate time to take a walk-thru of the studio. It will be different soon. I will do it again once "the wiggle" is done.

My apologies for my funny voice narrating the video :)

-Leah

Good Day Oregon at Aquila

2008-10-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

The TV crew from Good Day Oregon spent the morning with the guys at the Aquila Glass School.

Heres a little video clip!

Busy Tuesday

2008-10-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

The studio was abuzz with activity, glass creations and classes.Torchworking Tuesdays!

Poe-tastic-Tuesdays has become a regular event here at Aquila. Every Tuesday Jonathan Poe mans the torchworking table all day, helping people out and answering questions. Its a pot-luck affair, so there was plenty of food (and lots of sugar!) for all. Poe kept busting out into song, I tried to take a video... no luck.

Classes

Three classes happened: an Introductory Fusing class in the morning, a one-on-one Beadmaking class in the afternoon and a Borosilicate Hollow Forms class in the evening. I can genuinely say everyone had a good time today.

And then we had to clean the studio, because Good Morning Oregon (with their TV cameras and crew) arrive at 5am the next morning!

Fun Torchworking Class!

2008-10-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

Last night was a fun class where glass artists learned to make fused glass embellishments using a torch.

We played with fire!

Projects included: Dots, Swooshes + Swirls, Petals + Leaves, Latticino, Encased Dots and Curlie Cues

Here is a video of me making the "curlie-q's" - Enjoy!

Third Thursdays: Pictures from Oct 16th

2008-10-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

This last Thursday was pendant night at the studio - its an open studio night where anyone can come (no experience necessary) and make pendants which they get to keep for just $1/each.Its fun to see people bring their families, children, friends and loved ones.
There were a couple of groups from the Big Brother Big Sister organization - two women brought in their "little sisters" to enjoy making glass jewelry with them. How fun is that!
The pendants all are made with little pieces of scrap from the studio, and they get fired in a kiln over the weekend.
The Third Thursday of every month is Pendant Night. This upcoming November Third Thursday will be a night of making pendants for children that have been diagnosed with cancer, all the pendants made that night (Nov 20th) are donated to Legacy Emanuel here in Portland.