Busy Doesn't Even Cut It

Self-employment can be rough. The freedom is exhilarating, the long hours seven days a week exhausting.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I know that I have it much better than many folks in this "great nation."

Anyway, since last we met, I have been down the coast as far as Monterey, which is a few hours south of San Francisco and currently the southernmost I have been since living here. I loved it there, in Monterey. We hope to go back with the kids and check out the famous aquarium there. We set up two new gallery accounts while we were out driving around, and I do in fact have high hopes for many more to come.

Next week is the marble show up in Tacoma, Washington, already. Where has the year gone? It's so weird how slow time used to go back when I was 10, now it just goes faster and faster and faster, and suddenly half of the "new year" is come and gone.

There's a lot to be said for paying attention.

I hope everyone is well in Wisconsin. I don't wish I was there - I've gotten quite accustomed to this moderate weather and never feeling too hot - though I do wish you were here! But then again, I probably wouldn't have time to have coffee anyway, so probably it's better this way.

Hugs and kisses, hope to chat again soon.

Josh and I (okay and Mike) made a video - and we really like it

I went in to Mike's studio a week ago and shot some footage of him blowing glass. Over the weekend Josh edited it and put it together into a video that we can use to promote Mike's work. We think it's pretty awesome, and wanted to share it with you.

It'll also be up on our work website: warrenartglass.com

ENJOY, hope you like it for a first effort; let me know what you think! (Even if you think it needs some work.)

And can you see what he is making???

50 Seashells, One Dog

(DISCLAIMER: These photos were taken with a Canon point-and-shoot digital camera. They are by no means professional-quality.)

"Roasted Baloni"

“I think you have some mail,” she announced happily to me one Saturday afternoon.

“Oh, yeah. I already got the mail. Thanks, Kaya,” I replied, semi-absentmindedly.

“Oh, cool. Well. There might be some more, then. Maybe. You might want to check. Just in case,” she replied brightly, with a mischievous glint in her eye.

So I checked the mailbox.

Inside was a plain sheet of printing paper, folded in half. On the outside were the words:

TO: NAOMI

FROM: ?

So, I said, “Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder who this is from.” In an exaggerated tone. I made a face, to back up the tone, one that I hoped looked like I was pondering it, dramatically.

“Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm,” she said, “it IS a mystery.” And then she grinned.

I walked back inside from the front porch, Kaya following on my heels. I closed the door.

“Well, open it!” she yelped.

“Of course, of course,” I replied, quickly.

I opened it. On the left half of the folded paper there was a drawing of a piece-of-bread person. That is to say, a piece of bread with arms, legs, and a face. Behind him stood the rest of the loaf, in the plastic bread bag. (I actually had to ask Mike what it was, for this story, and he was like, “duh, it’s a loaf of bread.” Obviously.) In a thought bubble over the bread person's head were the words “Wow, he’s roasted.”

Now, okay. You may think this must be the best part of the story, because it’s pretty great. But you would be wrong, dear readers! We are not to the best part yet, though we are getting closer to it.

On the right side of the sheet of paper stood a slice-of-bologna person, in that it was a slice of bologna with arms, feet – or at least shoes – and a face. He’s waving, at the piece-of-bread man. His conversation bubble says, “Hi!” Next to the piece-of-bologna man is a container that says “roasted baloni.”

Now I know what you must be thinking. This surely must be the best part of the story, because, wow, it is great.

But no, because it gets better. Right now:

“Turn it over,” Kaya encouraged, once I had looked at the bread and bologna people for a while.

I turned it over.

On the back of the homemade card it said, in big letters down the page that took up the entire back of the card:

HA
HA
HA
HA

And there it is. Kaya just beamed at me, then, very content with herself and this card she drew for me. (Well, we can only assume it was from her, since she never did admit it.)

This story is why I love Kaya so much.

Josh didn’t get why it was so funny, but I love him anyway. Maybe even because of it. After all, you know what they say: Variety is the spice of life!

TODAY

Today marks the 35th year that my parents have been married. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be who I am, and I am grateful. I am so proud of them for having stuck out the hard years, when their kids were snotty teenagers. Now when I talk to them, and when I see them, I think they seem truly happy with one another. And it is wonderful. (And now that I am co-parenting with Mike I understand so much more about all that they did for me. Thank you, Mom and Dad. Thank you for all of your sacrifices.)

Today marks the day my baby sister became a first-time homeowner. She is the youngest of the four of us, and the first to own her home. I am so proud of you, Sis, so proud it makes my heart swell.

Today also marks the day of my mom's birth; I think she's 35ish. She's as beautiful as she ever was. When she married my dad she was 21 and he was 19. We used to tell her she was a cradle robber. The other night the kids didn't believe that there are hippies in the Midwest, and I showed them my picture of Mom and Dad on their wedding day, as proof that there are.

I am grateful for the people in my life. I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for today. And there are few feelings better than to feel truly grateful for what you have.

Kinetic Sculpture Weekend was last weekend - one of my most favorite local traditions

Hobart Brown invented the Kinetic Sculpture Race in something like 1974, I believe, because he wanted 'kids to see adults having fun so that they would want to grow up too.'

Anyone who knows me knows this right up my alley (I have an email that is iheartrandomsilliness, after all).

Anyway, it was last weekend and too much fun to remember to take tons of photos, but I took a few; here they are:

Hahahahahahahahaha. See, I Told You Guys.

Overheard in my house last night:

"Honey, have you checked if Bird needs water lately?" said Mike, casually.

"Uh, not for a few days." I responded. Just as casually. (In my head I'm doing the Champion Dance, but I don't dare crack a smile or let on that I noticed he just called our plant by name.)

* * *

We had friends over for dinner last Friday night, and the menu was fabulous: Mike made steamed calamari and prawns, baked Tilapia fillets; I made steamed asparagus, jasmine rice and fruit pizza for dessert; and one of our guests TJ (who is Mike's new shopmate) brought over "Lion's Mane" mushrooms that he just grew. And then we served it all with local organic red wines. It was a feast! And an absolute success!

Our friend Ted took this photo of us, which he then gave us a copy of:



It was a wonderful night that reminded us of the important things in life: family, and the moments you have where you get to enjoy one another's company (as well as eat delicious food, let's be honest here, who doesn't love that).

* * *

I had wanted to make this recipe, but got kicked out of the oven (when I was recipe planning I heard Mike say he was frying the Tilapia but he was baking it, so fine, I'm nothing if not flexible), so I steamed my asparagus instead. I had leftover uncooked asparagus, so I made the roasted sesame asparagus for part of our dinner last night; and it was really easy and really delicious. So here's the recipe, try it and love it:

Roasted Sesame Asparagus

Ingredients

•1 lb asparagus, washed and trimmed
•1 teaspoon sesame oil
•1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Rinse asparagus and pat dry.
Place on jelly roll pan or a pan with sides.
Drizzle sesame oil onto asparagus, tossing to coat, then sprinkle with salt.
Roast for 10 - 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus. I like the ends to be a little crispy.

Note: I drizzled about 2 teaspoons worth of sesame oil and did not measure the salt at all, just eyeballed it. Super easy, and tastes awesome. Enjoy! (Oh and I bet it also works well with broccoli.)

The other part of dinner last night was something Mike and I made up together that we are sort of calling "gumbalaya" and/or "mush," though mush is deceiving as it tastes awesome and is super easy, so here it is:

Ingredients:
Rice of your choice (we used jasmine rice)
Black-eyed peas (the canned kind is just as delicious but you can also do the dry kind)
Sausage of your choice (we used sun-dried tomato chicken sausage)
Rita's Hot Salsa (okay, Rita's is a local thing so for you Wisconsin folks, just try to find a red-pepper based salsa that is blended and saucy)

Directions:
Cook rice in pot
Cook beans in a different pot - spice beans with cumin and garlic if desired
Slice and fry sausage in skillet (use oil if necessary and/or desired)
When everything is cooked add the rice and beans to the hot skillet where the sausage is, toss it to get the flavors all mixed together
Mix in salsa to taste

Eat and enjoy! It's yummy.

She's on Fire!

Wow wow wow wow, our second Etsy sale and guess what it was... (drumroll please):

KAYA'S BANANA SLUG!

Watch out, she's unstoppable! This girl never ceases to amaze me.

Meet Bird, and Other Household Adventures

We went to the local "home improvement" store together and got a house plant yesterday. It was so domestic of us. And such a Sunday thing to do, I think.

It's a White Bird of Paradise:


I told Mike we needed to name the plant. He said, "Okay, you go ahead and name the plant, and talk to it, and whatever else you want to do."

Which basically translates into, "Don't expect me to participate in this weird behavior with you." (We'll see.)

So, I decided to call her Bird, and I also decided that the name "Bird" sounds feminine, so that's why she's a she.

So, with a plant named Bird and an adult dog named Baby, it's obvious we are a little confused around here.

In other, basically related news, we have a kitchen table, a real one, for the first time since I moved out here. Yay, us. Best part about it: it was $75 for the whole works. Thanks, craigslist.



Pretty soon, Kaya and I are going to embark on a painting project with the chairs, out on the back deck, of course. The table is made of oak and is pretty nice, so I'm vetoing painting the table.

And since I'm in a sharing mood, here's a photo of Mike's rug. It's been in storage until we moved here. It's a lion and lioness, and I like it.



And here's the new shower curtain Kaya and I picked out at Target.



(Okay I know that's weird, but it's pretty and I like it, and I would have you all come over to see all this stuff if you lived closer, but you don't, so I improvise. Plus, it's the little things in life that should give us joy, right? Well, I'm joyful about my new shower curtain.)

Two Milestones All at Once: Our First Etsy Sale, and Kaya's First Online Sale

Kaya's slug sold on Saturday! It's been a very exciting moment here for us.



UPDATED TO ADD: Don't worry, though, if you wanted Kaya's banana slug glass art sculpture, we put another one up today!

HELP US HELP KMUD, AND GET GORGEOUS GLASS ART JEWELRY!

So you all know by now (if you are a regular reader) that KMUD is my favorite radio station. They are getting to the end of their bi-annual fund drive, and now that we got the moving out of the way we have some time to support them. We thought it would be fun to support them in a way that also drove traffic to what we are doing.

Learn the details at our new and improved website:

warrenartglass.com

And of course, Friends and Family, I don't really expect you to participate in this unless you want to; I mostly just wanted to share with you what I am up to.

Here's the post on our home page at warrenartglass.com:

DONATE TO KMUD AND WIN THESE BEAUTIFUL GLASS PENDANTS:




Here's how it works:

1. Go to kmud.org

2. Donate either $35, $40, or $75.

3. Make sure you specify that it is for the Mike Warren Glass Pendants.

4. And then we will ship you one or both of these pendants.


$35 gets you the jellyfish pendant.

$40 gets you the fish aquarium pendant.

$75 gets you both!

This is a great cause. KMUD is an indispensable community resource, and needs all the support we can give it to keep it going!

Thanks for your support!

Woman's Best Friend Too

Here's my new best friend basking in the sun on her new deck:

We Have a Winner!

The lovely Tall Penguin from Facebook and elsewhere is our Grand Prize Winner.

Tall Penguin contributed mikewarren.com, artbymikewarren.com, and mikewarrenart.com.

I used random.org to determine the winner (thank you, Your Ill-Fitting Overcoat, for letting me know about it - it did the trick). There were 21 total entries. I assigned each entry a number. Tall Penguin's entries were represented by numbers 3-5. The sequence picker selected 3 as the first number in the sequence! And there you have it.*

Tall Penguin will receive the paperweight for which she is excited. (I believe her exact words were "Wahoo! Yay! So excited!")

Tall Penguin, I hope you will let your friends up in Canada know how cool Mike's art is!

Thanks to all who participated!


*As a point of possible interest, Russell had the most entries at 6. His entries were represented by numbers 16-21. Hayley's were numbers 9-10, as she provided two entries. Etc. The random sequence picker picked Russell as the second runner-up, and Hayley as the third runner-up.

Since we did not use anyone's suggestion, but ended up coming up with our own that we felt suited our needs better, there wasn't a winner for that part of it.

The Prize

I have not forgotten about my contest, and picking out and awarding a winner.

Here is The Prize (click on the picture if you want to make it bigger):



I included some helpful captions, so you would realize what to focus on and how to make sense of what you see. You're welcome.

No, but seriously, this photograph is really awful; the problem is not shoddy workmanship, however. It is a free form paperweight, with curved edges, and no uniform shape. It's fabulous in person (or is that "in paperweight"); it is nearly impossible to correctly photograph its beauty.

So, you are just going to have to take my word for it. And whoever wins will hopefully back me up when they get this beautiful paperweight. It is personally an item I really love.

So, this Mike Warren piece of art was created in 2006. It is a handcrafted, lampworked, sodalime (that's soft glass) glass piece. Included within is a man-made gemstone that is just phenomenal (that's a trick that not all glass artists know - how to make a gemstone compatible with glass so that the glass does not crack). There are also a few of Mike's signature millis and a fair amount of sparkle. Beautifully contrasting and complementary colors, the paperweight measures 2 1/16 inches tall by 1 1/2 wide by 1 1/2 deep. It is valued at $100.

I will announce the lucky winner shortly, so stay tuned...

Naomi's Glass Art Start

I promised pictures of my art a long time ago, and you have all been so patient. In fact, probably by this time you have forgotten and/or lost interest. Totally understandable.

So, without further ado, here is my fish tile that I made (well a close-up of the eyes and mouth, anyway):


I feel a bit like a little kid bringing my construction paper art project home to show my mommy by posting this, but I am very proud of this tile. It's a six inch by six inch piece of "soft" glass - the kind used in glass fusing - which is the glass techniques I have been learning as a way to introduce myself into this endless world of working with glass.

For those who may not know, glass fusing is often referred to as working with "warm glass," in that you are working the glass in solid form, cutting and fitting together, arranging and gluing, and then placing the project into a hot kiln and melting it all together. It's different from lampworking in that you are working with the glass in a solid state, whereas with lampworking you are forming and shaping molten glass.

So, I started with a clear tile, cut a yellow piece of glass into my best version of a fish-face shape, and then glued that onto the clear tile. Next, I took various colors of glass that were in the form of tiny shards, also known as "frit," and mixed those tiny shards of glass with special glass glue and a little bit of water, to form a paste-like glass "paint." One glass color in each paper cup. The main color was a red orange topped with a lighter orange. The spots on the fish are a light blue color, etcetera.

And then I proceeded to use paint brushes to paint the pattern I wanted onto the glass.

When I was all done with this - the painting took about five hours in one session, I believe - the whole thing was carefully placed into a firing kiln, where it was melted together.

I wish I would have taken a "before" photo so you could see how unlike a fish it looked, and how much of my imagination I had to use when I put this together.

My art instructor was so impressed by my fish that she called me up to tell me how good it was when she first took it out of the kiln. "I think we found your medium!" she said.

I think so too.



Circumstances revolving around my number one focus, our business (which is what pays the bills), has not allowed me to further explore this medium. Yet. But pretty soon I will be taking another class from my instructor and will be learning how to paint landscapes using glass. This is all very exciting to me, as I never before considered myself an artist, never took art classes in school (besides the required ones and a terrible time attempting ceramics my senior year in high school), and was never really encouraged by anyone to explore this side of myself. Until Mike.

Wish me luck, or better yet lots of time, energy and inspiration, which is most likely more useful than luck!

I do have other glass pieces I am excited to share with you, but photographing glass in a way that actually shows what it looks like is an acquired skill in itself. Photographing this fish tile took me at least half an hour last night, and it still isn't as good as the real thing. The point is I will get the pictures done as I am able.

My House

We are basically settled, though there is more to do and more to get and more to organize, and of course more to get rid of - but that's hardly different than it usually is.

The bottom line, though, is I love our house. Very much.

I keep hearing "Send me pictures" from a few of my relatives, so I will post a pic of the outside of our cute little house, just to help you get by until I get my home set up and can take some pictures.



And just because I want to, here is the pretty little tree I get to look at right outside my office window:

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!