Holiday Art Show

As the last show of the year comes up life has gotten pretty busy. Cleaning and improving the studio before this weekend has become as much part of the job as making glass. Since the show is at David's studio it is important that we get everything ready on time. David will have a large selection of his work on display and I will have a small display corner for my own glass. I will also be showing off my cut paper pictures for the first time! Besides us, David's girlfriend, Andrea, will be there selling hand-made soap, a painter, Linnea Doyle, will be selling her paintings of robots, and a jewler, Scott Verson, will be selling his work! All together it will make  a great range of items perfect for holiday presents! Christmas is only in two more weeks!

Show dates are: December 14th - 16th (Fri. 5-9, Sat. 10-8pm, Sun. 12-5pm).
And is located at: 2885 Country Drive #180 Little Canada, MN 55117

Hope to see you there!

Plymouth Art Fair

Hey everybody! Don't forget that this weekend is the Plymouth Art Fair. This is my last show I'm in by myself for the year! Come on by to get some awesome holiday gifts, or just to say hi.

There are one or two more shows before the new year. These shows will only display a handful of my pieces, if you want to see the range of my work, come out this weekend! The next show is David Royce Glass's Holiday Show on December 7th- 9th.

Here at SOFA

I'm now in Chicago enjoying my second day at SOFA. So far it has been an absolutely amazing experience. Being able to see the work of the giants of the glass world up close has been so inspiring that I cant wait to get back into my own work and to see where it takes me. Getting to talk to the artists around SOFA has also been great. Getting to hear their takes on the art world and market, talking about their up coming work, and critiquing whats around them has offered me a new perspective on what I see and what I experience as a glass artist myself.
Most of all I'm just so proud of David for getting in and giving a great display for such a top tier show. That we've had a couple sales feels pretty good too!
Check out our display:

Down time

The season for shows is almost over with SOFA having been the last big one. I have one last show in two weeks. It is out in Plymouth, MN and is a great place to come get gifts for the holidays!

With the down time we now have things that we have put off are getting done. We shut down David's furnace to change the crucible and to repair several large cracks that are appearing in it's superstructure. Unfortunately in talking it apart we realized that the furnace has been leaking for a while which is a huge mess but since we are planning on completely rebuilding the furnace this winter it is not the biggest problem as long as it can remain functional for another two months.  In the mean time we will be working out of FOCI and enjoying their new 800lb furnace. It's a beast!

I am also taking the time to work on some of my more complex cast pieces. This means building the models up out of wax, a process I dislike but that is well worth it. I'm really excited at how a couple of pieces are shaping up. They're going to be a little smaller than my "Firebird" but more intricate.

SOFA

This weekend is the SOFA Expo, that is the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art + Design Expo, in Chicago.  My boss, David Royce, got invited down as part of a gallery. He's been there all week setting up his exhibit for tonight's opening night. We decided to bring down some of his larger more complex works especially the Cranes (like the bird not the machinery).  I'll be leaving myself to join him there tomorrow. It's a great show and one I'm really lookign forward to. Hopefully I'll meet a lot of great artists, listen to some awesome lectures and see David sell some of his work. There are some lectures I'm particulairly looking forward to like  Ivana Šrámková's "What's the Future of Figure," "The Studio Glass Movement: A Driver's Manual" a pannel discussion by the heads of many glass schools around the country, "50 at 50" a review of the most influential glass artists in the past 50 years and their probably influence in the future, and a history lession in both Parts 1 and 2 in "Pioneers Of American Studio Glass," and lastly Junko Narita's Lecture on the Japanese Doll in "Human Forms." It should be a full weekend but hopefulyl quite enjoyable. If you're around Chicago and interested in coming to see the expo for yourself or are interested in looking at more infor about it check out it's web page: http://www.sofaexpo.com/


Also, I just set up a facebook page for Green Infiniti Please come befriend me and share my page with those you feel will enjoy it! You can find me at: http://www.facebook.com/greeninfinitiglass

Lastly, I have one more fair coming up this year. It's the Plymouth Art Fair November 16th and 17th! Last chance to get your hand blown Christmas presents in person. If you don't make it, you can still get things by shooting me an e-mail!

As September comes to a close, my work at the State Fair and Renaissance Festival are coming to an end. While it has been fun, it is also come time for me to start preparing for my last shows of the season. While I only have a few shows left before the end of the year I have started designing new lines of work, including some plain colored cut vases as well as ornaments for the holidays. These will be on display and for sale in October, check out my 'shows' page for details.

With the rush of summer ending I am also starting to focus more of my work on casting. While it is a slower process, the differences in form, detail, color and texture offer a fascinating juxtiposition when seen beside blown glass. I look forward to getting to work more with the process.

In other exciting news, the annual glass studio tour dates have been set. On October 13th and 14th, the public has a fantastic opportunity to travel to different glass studios around The Cities and see both different studio set ups as well as watch free demos and check out each artist's work. Personally I will be splitting my time between Foci Glass and David Royce Glass while taking time to visit many of the other artist's studios. I hope to see many of you there!

Unicorn

A demonstration piece I did at the Renaissance Festival!

Fish Cup

While it has been a while the Renaissance Festival has given me the chance to start making fish cups again. These are cups with little sculpted glass fish on the inside of them.

This one is filled with an Arnold Palmer, what a refreshing drink for a hot day at the fair.

Back in the swing of things

  I just got back from traveling the country, so I'm just getting back into the swing of things. While I was away, I got a chance to go down to Omaha, Nebraska t visit Hot Shops. Hot Shops is the place I first learned to blow glass. While I was there I was able to catch up with my first teacher, Ed Fennel, as well as several of the other glass blowers there. While I have improved immensily since leaving hot shops and while I now work out of two fantastic studio spaces, the variety of what is done in Hot Shops and the community focus on how it functions still fills me with wonder and joy every time I go down there. Even if I'm only there for an hour they always manage to teach me something new!

  I have had some recent exciting news that I got accepted into the new art fair that is being set up in Plymouth, MN in November. I will be setting up a booth there and selling some holiday wares as well as my typical work. I will also be traveling to Maine in October and will be selling work at a fair out there. If anyone has friends or family out East send them to see my work in Isleboro on October 7th.

  Inbetween travels I have been stopping back into town on the weekends to help Foci Glass man its booth at the Minnesota State Fair and more recently at the Renaissance Festival. While the days are long it is a lot of fun to give demos for all the people as well as to enjoy the atmosphere of being there. the Renaissance Festival is one of the most unique fairs we have and it is always a pleasure for me to go out there to work!

Lately I have gotten into the studio to produce some more work. I'm working on a new design set that is set to be unveiled at the Home and Garden Emporium at the Convention Center in mid-October. Just of note, it does require a paid admission fee.

Thanks for the wonderful turn out this weekend! It was great to see some new faces as well as some old ones. While th eweekend started out with some blusters, mostly my tent and booth getting knocked around by the winds friday night, the weekend proved to be sunny and a great time to be out at the fair. I hope my freinds at the Uptown Art Fair and at the Powderhorn Art Fair had as good of a time as I did.

In upcoming news, I spent friday morning helping Foci Glass paint our building at the State Fair a sage green. The location I just learned is just to the west of the Grand Stand. It's literally right next to Famous Daves and the Cookie Shop, it's also right across the street from the gondola/ Sky Ride. We will be having live demonstrations as well as an open gallery everyday. I perosnally will be there the first three days, August 22-24.

I'm also getting prepared for the Renisiance festival which I will be volunteering at Foci's shop "Ye Kings Glass" all day September 2, 3, 15, 16, 28,29,30. That shold be a good time too!

Lastely, I jsut got accepted into the Home Expo Art Emporium that is happening at the Convention Center in downtown Minneapolis. This is specifically for functional and beautiful art meant to beautify the home and is the weekend of October 21 and 21nd.

I have some unfortunate news to share. Unfortunately my car was broken into last night. The perpetrator took my business bag, which contained all cash and sales records form the past several shows as well as business cards, sketchbooks, upcoming show info, my square card readers etc., they also made off with my booth tent and several other items. This is a horrible loss for me. But for all this I still remain lucky in the fact that I was not around when this happened so I am uninjured and the fact that the thief’s left all my glass in the car. While a few items got broken in the robbery most survived. This is a huge relief since it means that while I have taken some losses I am still able to continue with my planned on summer schedule of art shows.

I'd like to thanks all those who have given me support these past few days. Really, your well wishes and offers of help have been invaluable.

Hopkins Art Fair

Hello! What a beautiful weekend for a fair. It had been great to see a bunch of old friends here as well as,to make several new ones.
While its been a slow show I got several beaitiul medium sized pitchers made for it. They're a pastel series with the colors being a solid blue, pink and purple respectively. Check out the gallery for pictures!

Art A Whirl last weekend was a sucess. Thank you to everyone who came out to see my work at Happily Street Gallery and Foci Glass! What a great opportunity to display work and meet new people.
In more recent news, I was able to spend several hours blowing glass this past week and I created 3 beautiful pitchers. One is a lovely deep, rich, transparent amber color. Then I made one that is the color o golden wheat. I finished off with a bright, spicy, fire truck red pitcher that really brings life to the trio. I think they would make lovely milk and cream pitchers. Photos will be up as soon as I finish polishing the bottoms.
Lastely, David is leaving for Columbus, OH today. I which him the best of luck at his art show over there! While he is away I'll be able to take over the studio for a little while and turn out my own work in preparation for the Stone Arch Bridge show on June 16th and 17th.

Hello Everybody!

I'm Heather Kremen, a glass blower and kiln caster located in Minneapolis, MN.

I am also the assistant to glass blower David Royce. While I work at his studio I also use th estudio space at Foci Glass. Foci's a really cool community glass center located right here in town! I teach kiln casting classes there, and am an instructor for a summer glass camp we have goign on for kids!

I began blowing glass in the summer of 2007 in Omaha, NE. It was a three day intensive class at Cyrstal Forge at Hot Shops. The first time I worked with the glass I was addicted. By the end of the first day I knew that was what I wanted to do!

Since then I have moved up to Minneapolis for college. I graduated from the University of Minnesota this spring with degrees in Art, Global Studies and a minor in Asian Languages and Literature. While I have all that I still am continuing my dream of blowing glass!  I have been blowing at Foci Glass since 2008.

In 2010 I took a year to study abroad in Japan. It was fantastic! What I loved especially was that while studying I was able to take night classes at Tokyo Glass Arts Institute, a glass blowing school in Tokyo. I began by just blowing glass, but during my second semester there I began taking day classes in casting and cutting glass.

Today I spent 5 hours in the studio helping David Royce blow peices for his art shows at he beginning of June. We got 5 peices made; 2 long necked vases and 3 tipped bottles! check out his work at:
www.davidroyceglass.com

I'm also busy preparing for Art-A-Whirl, a huge event where artists and galleries all over North East Minneapolis open up to the public for a weekend of great food, drinks and art. Sounds fantastic, right! I will be displaying my pieces in Happily Street Gallery on Jackson Ave and Broadway, as well as at Foci Glass at 2010 E. Hennapin Ave.