Open Fire Glass Art has a new Web Address: WarrenArtGlass.com

Hey Folks,

Thank you to everyone who contributed to my contest and raffle. We have decided on a web address.

We are: warrenartglass.com

(You do not have to use any capital letters when typing in the web address.)

We decided this name covers the basic concepts that we need and want to cover, is properly pithy (mikewarrenglassart.com, etc. was feeling too cumbersome), and also leaves room for growth (when other members of The Warren Family want to be featured on the site, for instance).

As for the contest results, we are moving to a new house TODAY AND TOMORROW (YAY!) and setting up a new studio space as well as all kinds of other things going on. I have your beautiful prize(s) put in a safe place so I can find them as soon as the Big Move is over. If I have time to do photos today I will so you can all drool over the prospects.

And then as soon as we are moved I will pick the prize winner(s), post the pictures, contact the winner(s) for mailing addresses, and announce it all. And then I will send you your beautiful glass art.

In the meantime, thank you for your understanding! Poor timing on my part, but I really wanted to get a new domain name taken care of, and get rid of all the icky ads at the top of our web page. So now they are gone, we are so official and what-not, and we are happy!

Peace and Love!

We Are Live on Etsy! Check it Out!

We are (finally!) live with glass art for sale on Etsy.com! And it is not marbles.

Check it out here:
OpenFireGlass.etsy.com

Click around, check it out, enjoy yourselves. And check back often, because there can only be more to come for sale very soon!

The listings here are not auction-style, just straight-forward sales, so there's a price, and an item, and if you like it, you buy it, and then I send it to you!

Here are a few items currently up for sale:

Banana Slug lampworked by Kaya Warren:


A lampworked redwood tree landscape bead by Mike Warren:


A fused flower millefiori glass pendant by Naomi:

(flower millis by Mike, of course)


In other semi-related news, we need a new banner graphic for our Etsy store. Anyone interested in making us one? There would be compensation involved...!

(Oh, and the contest has been extended, sorry to those who were on the ball, thanks to everyone for your understanding, I love you, and good night.)

WE ARE RED STARS!

I'm talking about eBay: We have earned our Red Star! This means we have over 1,000 positive feedback points.

When I started doing we had under 500. We reached our Purple Star (500 or more) a month in to the eBay thing. That was a year ago.

So, for me, getting to 1,000 is a rewarding milestone.

YAY For 1,000 Happy Customer Reports! And counting...

We are still having a contest for our new domain name. You stand to receive a very cool piece of handmade glass art, and it only takes a minute of your time to enter!

House Update

We signed the lease today, got the keys, took a tour of our newly refurbished home, and I am elated! It is gorgeous; it is fabulous! I have a real home! I am thrilled to be able to extend invitations to friends and family and have a home in which to entertain and provide hospitality. THRILLED! It's been a long time coming, which only makes it feel all the more rewarding.

Next week early in the week we are taking a road trip down the coast for business, which we had planned before we even answered the ad for this house. Everything is in order, so we are still going. When we get back we are moving! So May for us is about all kinds of new beginnings, and it is a very exciting time out here!

I can't wait to show you pictures of my new home! It's fabulous!

If I can get through my to-do list today, I will have an etsy store ready for you! Gotta keep the pace: back to it!

Don't forget about the contest: there will be cool prizes for the winners, and it only takes a minute of your time to enter!

I'm Having a Contest, with Prizes!

Hey Y'all,

Okay, so I am having a contest to pick out our domain name for our website.

To see details go to:

http://openfireglass.webs.com/apps/blog/

And VOTE!

If you vote, you will be entered into the raffle. If you come up with your own name, and we end up using it, you will win an amazing piece of glass art FOR FREE!

I will let this run through the end of the week, I do believe. I will keep you posted.

UPDATE:

The raffle/contest will go until Friday 4/24 at midnight, and the results will be announced Saturday morning!

ANOTHER UPDATE (Saturday, April 25 at 6:30PM):

Okay, this is probably unfair or something, but the contest is being extended, because we are moving, and we are taking a road trip in two days and we are busy busy busy. Plus I am not 100% on any of the entries so far. And so, I think I need to get moved (which is happening Friday the 1st of May!), and then I can re-visit this whole thing.

The prizes are cool though, so it'll be worth it. And everyone who first entered will get special consideration, though you CAN still enter, and you can still win!

How is that for an incredibly informal contest?

Maybe I should post some pics of what you stand to win to motivate those of you who have not yet entered... We'll see. Maybe it'll be a surprise...

ZITS.

ZITS.

People don’t talk about them. They are taboo. They are mortifyingly embarrassing, and they are a real thing that millions of people deal with. So I think talking about them is necessary to helping to get rid of them, to being our healthiest selves.

I have had zits since I moved here. It’s been embarrassing, a nuisance, something I hoped would calm down once I had my life more together. Moving is, after all, a strain. Moving across the country doubly so.

Only, they did not get better. In fact, over time they got worse and worse, until last December, I became a true shut-in. I refused to go to the grocery store unless it was an “off time” when I knew there would be little traffic. I stopped making eye contact and conversation with the cashiers. I became very unpleasant, probably coming off as snobbish, due to my complete and utter mortification at being in public with such a nasty complexion. I already worked at home, so I just refused to leave the house unless absolutely necessary.

Make-up did nothing to cover them, if anything it made them appear worse. I was paranoid that people would think I was not taking care of myself, not hygienic or healthy, or worse, on drugs. There is quite a problem with speed around here, and the open sores on speed-addicted people’s faces are heartbreakingly awful. I am not on drugs, but I did have a face full of open sores too, deep, painful, cystic acne that took weeks to resolve itself just as a new crop was emerging.

I researched and tried things in an attempt to heal my acne. I had not personally had any success with a dermatologist in the past, and without health insurance was skeptical of shelling out money to someone who was only going to tell me to “not scrub so much” (I wasn’t), to use benzoyl peroxide (tried it) or salicylic acid. (Don’t you think I would try everything in my power to heal this horrible painful rashy disease growing on my face?) I left my skin alone. I tried to wash with olive oil. I changed what I ate to only very healthy items. I started a food diary (which I am still keeping to this day because it’s very helpful in general when figuring out what is going on with my body and trying to be in tune to it), I went for long walks every day, I got my 10-minutes of sun, I ate a piece of citrus fruit every day, I stopped eating gluten, I minimized my dairy intake… I. TRIED. EVERYTHING I could find to do in my personal research. And as the days went by and my skin only got worse, I became more and more anxious about it.

How can I, after all, be a successful artist rep when I cannot get myself out there to actually represent?

This was a problem.

Mike was wonderful about it, telling me I was beautiful everyday, but it didn’t matter. I still felt hideously ugly in front of my beloved, the one who I want to look the most beautiful for (after myself of course)! And weekends with the kids were brutal too; every time one of them would look at me and say something to me I just wanted to scream, “LOOK AWAY! DON’T STARE AT ME. YOUR EYES WILL BLEED!”

I’m sure some of you might think I’m being melodramatic, but I actually am not. I started to take photographs of my face to gauge if it was getting better or worse, and I am here to tell you those photos are very telling. My skin was truly awful, uglier than any of you can probably imagine. I am never going to share those photos with anyone. I hope to destroy most of them in the very near future.

A turning point was when my next door neighbor, being the wonderfully outspoken man that he is, knocked on my door in the middle of January to ask me a question. I contemplated not answering. But I knew that he knew that I was there, and that he knew I knew that he knew. (Did ya get that?) I had no excuse.

I answered it.

“Naomi! What has happened to your beautiful face?” he exclaimed.

The tears started streaming down my face. I didn’t know what to say. I just shook my head.

He said, “Have you gone to the doctor?”

I shook my head again.

“Go! Do you go to the Clinic?”

I nodded.

“Call them. Today. They can help you… I’m going to check up on you tomorrow, okay? This is a spiritual test for you. You have to project your inner beauty out to people. You are still in there. But you can do it. And you need to go to the doctor so they can help you.”*

So I did.

And I was very fortunate. The person who was available to see me was not only a very nice person, but she was someone who had personally struggled with adult acne, so she was empathetic. She understood why it was hard for me to come in and see her, why I felt foolish for not being able to heal my own acne issues. She understood.

And so three months ago we started a regimen. Some medication, some yoga, a combination of things, and then I had monthly appointments with her to check back in, and tweak the plan if necessary. She gave me hope most of all, because she has such beautiful skin I could not believe that she ever had the terrible problems I have been having.

And now my skin, for the first time since I have lived here, is getting clear, and truly healing. I have no cysts on my face! NONE! It’s been this way for weeks! The skin is pink as it heals, and for the first time in months, I can actually wear make-up! I feel beautiful again. I feel like a whole person again. I feel like I have my life back.

And yesterday when I was working the crowd, talking to people about something I love, Mike’s glass, the beauty of it was not lost on me. I am back! And better than ever! (So, watch out, World!)

I have read more on acne than anyone probably ever wants to, and some of the things I have learned include that medical professionals still don’t fully understand why this happens to some people. It’s almost never due to poor hygiene; it’s usually due to genetics, and hormones. Stress is not a cause of acne, but it can definitely exacerbate it, which can then lead to more stress, and so on, and you can see how the vicious cycle gets started. Food is not thought to cause acne, though it might have a small part. The most frustrating thing is that it is almost always a combination of many different things, and for each person it is a totally and completely different combination of factors. The challenge is to find your own personal combination of contributing factors, and work with an excellent medical professional, like I did, to solve it. There is no miracle cure, no "magic potion." But with time, serious attention, and lots of patience, it can be solved.

I thought long and hard before posting this – such personal information – on my public blog. Ultimately I decided that I needed to speak out on it, how it affected every aspect of my life for a long while, how people would politely pretend they didn’t see it right down to the nurse checking me in for the first time saying nervously, “So you are here for a … rash…?” and when I said “acne” she quickly shut my file, got very flustered, and tripped over her own shoes on the way out the door, muttering that the doctor would be with me shortly. We as a society are just too embarrassed to acknowledge it. The nurse was trying to be polite, and I understand and appreciate it. It would have been a lot harder to deal with if people pointed and laughed at me, I am sure of that. But I don’t want to be silent about a very real experience for me, because if it really is genetics, then I would like to know who in my family had a struggle similar to this, if anyone.

No, I do not expect anyone to post it on my blog (but you are welcome to). But maybe the next time we talk on the phone you could let me know. Or maybe you could send me an email, or a letter. Because, you are not alone in your struggle, there is help for you, and there is a support network for you, starting with little old me. I promise that I would keep your information confidential, it would be only between you and me (unless you posted it in the comment section here, of course).

*Have you noticed yet what an absolutely wonderful person my next door neighbor is? I am truly going to miss being his neighbor when we move, and fully intend on keeping in touch with him. He is wonderful.

A Home Office Pro and Con Minute (Plus, Support Your Favorite Entrepreneur at No Cost to You!)

One of the really good things about being self-employed, and having a home office, is that when I wake up at 5:30 in the morning and I can't sleep, I can get right down to business, in my pajamas even!

The con is I can start my workday at 5:30 in the morning, and I can often work until 9 at night, if I don't cut myself off and use some discipline. And while there is nothing wrong with getting a lot of important work done (the kind that pays the bills and enriches my existence and what-not), it's also important To Me that I work to live, not live to work. Even if I do find my work incredibly enjoyable. (Which I do! Yay!)

The pro is though, that I have the freedom to do what I did yesterday: hang out at Redwood Park all day. There was a festival going on there, and we sold some glass, but we also just hung out and had ourselves a picnic in the sun. It was an all-around glorious success of a day. And we worked solidly through the weekend in anticipation of it. So, that flexibility is a really nice thing that I never experienced as a nine-to-fiver.



You know when the weather is nice and you are stuck in the office and all you want to do is go to the beach?

Well, I can do that.

But I also am playing all the roles: I'm the office manager, the HR person, the boss, the peon, the supply orderer (or would that position more aptly be called the inventory manager), the accountant, the tax preparer, the web designer, the photographer, the photoshopper (why does Blogger keep saying these aren't real words, whatever, Blogger, I'm the boss!), the (eBay and Etsy) store manager, the appointment coordinator, the ... well, you get the idea, and I could literally go on like this, but what would that accomplish? I have so much work to do!

Check out my latest blog post at http://openfireglass.webs.com/apps/blog/, featuring a discount offer to all members! If you are not a member, why not join?

And tell your friends: The Goal (one of the many) is to get Mike's art into every gallery across the nation. We want his name to be a household name. We want people to see his art in a store or on the neck of a passerby and say "That's a Mike Warren piece." And you, my lovely, lovely loved ones, can help us with that goal, without any cost to you! Just pass our website on to your email address books, to your next-door neighbors, your cube mates, your coworker down the hall, the stranger on the street, and tell them about your hardworking entrepreneurial family out here!

Oh, and if you do manage to find the time to do this for us, THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! I love you all!

Published! Plus other stuff about my artist.

Hey Family,

Here's some super fantastic news I want to tell you:

Mike Warren is in the Spring 2009 issue of The Flow.



I don't own a copy of the magazine yet, so I snagged the front cover from their website at theflowmagazine.com. You can see Mike's name in the bottom right corner (fourth name from the bottom).

The Flow is a magazine for the lampworking community (I believe I borrowed that wording right off their front cover). The article featuring Mike is about his seashells, and how he makes them.

Here's a photo of the featured shell (and one of the photos from the article):


The photography and text for the article are by Yours Truly, which technically means I'm published too. It's exciting, y'all. And we have even received a few emails from people who saw the article and want their very own seashell!

(The photos throughout this post are all in the article, but there are many more pictures that you will have to see the article for yourself to be able to view.)


Much more exciting times ahead. More to tell you about, but it's late and I gotta get to bed. Tomorrow we will be at a festival selling our wares.



Oh, and in other, slightly related news, I am working hard to get our Etsy store going. For those who don't know, etsy.com is an artsy eBay-esque website where artists sell their handmade art. We are planning a jewelry line to begin with to be available ASAHP (that's As Soon as Humanly Possible).



Our seller name there is openfireglass as well. I'll post another note here when items are available, but you can feel free to pop over and check it out anytime you'd like at OpenFireGlass.etsy.com.

So, if you'd like to know Mike's secrets about how to make a glass seashell, some of them are available in the spring issue of The Flow magazine.

Happy Trails,

xxoo

We got a house!

It's official. After months and months of saving every penny, scouring the classifieds for rentals, contacting potential landlords, doing drive-by's of houses (that's how they do here in Humboldt, it's weird), call back for showings of the houses we were interested in seeing the insides of, drooling over the lovely kitchen spaces, and two-car garages, and fenced-in back yards, and multiple bathrooms, filling out applications, only to have it all be for naught in the end.

Only it wasn't for naught. Because we have a house. A house that allows dogs, a house with three bedrooms, and a big deck in our own private fenced backyard where there is room for a garden. We have a garage, and we have a full-size kitchen, and we have a space large enough for a real table that more than two people at at time can dine at, and there is actual wall space to hang pictures, not just a multitude of doors. I have a home to decorate. We will have room for guests!

We got a house!