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DECEMBER 2013/JANUARY2014 Newsletter
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Letter from the President
Dear Fellow Glassies,
Wow! The past 3 years have flown by. I am very proud to say we did what we set out to do in January 2011 through intense (and fun!) committee volunteerism, commitment, and teamwork. I have always said that your success is our success, and this has held true as I leave my role with nearly double the membership, DEFINITELY double the figure in our bank account, and an overall sense of accomplishment, camaraderie, and professionalism.
Our Education Committee has provided consistent enrichment opportunities through workshops, field trips, and lectures. All of these have been at incredibly reasonable costs to our members. We have already started planning the 2014 schedule!
Our Technology/PR Committee really brought the AGASC into the 21st century with our new website, newsletter, Paypal access, logo design, and all-around contemporary image! These all resulted in, not only an increase in General Membership, but MANY new Corporate Sponsors that benefit from exposure to our organization through advertising links on our website and in our fantastic newsletter.
And what can I say about the Show(s) Committee? The past three annual AGASC Member Shows have raised the bar... from quality of work, to gallery presentation, to fantastic receptions, to thoughtful judge participation. Due to the perseverance of a couple of members, in 2013 we had two additional exhibition opportunities; an Invitational at the Point Loma Library and a Juried show at the Front Porch Gallery in Carlsbad.
I thank each and every one of you! Here's to the continued success and growth of a fine organization started by an intrepid few 33 years ago.
Cheers my friends!!!
Kathleen Mitchell
President, AGASC
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UPCOMING EVENTS
New Board Members for 2014-2015
There were only a few nominations
for the open board positions of President and Treasurer that included the willingness to run so it did not require a members vote. The newest board members are Susan Hirsch as President and Connie Govier as Treasurer.
Our January Members Meeting
Please join us at the Jan 19th meeting held at Pat and Carrie's Studio at 3:00 to help us plan organize new committees and plan our educational events!
Pat and Carries Studio 3:00 pm
2176 Chatsworth Blvd, San Diego, Ca 92107
If you can not attend this meeting are are willing to help on the following committees please shoot us an email!
Committees are:
Education Committee
Media, Membership and Newsletter Committee
Show Committee
Events to look forward to in 2014 Details will be planned for these all events at the
January Meeting... so come and help us make 2014
a fabulous educational year!
Heart Paperweight Workshop Make a special Valentines gift!
Kathleen Mitchell will be hosting this fun workshop in her hot-shop in Bario Logan.
"Hang your Glass" Demonstration
Meet our sponsor Polly Mussallem owner of "Hang Your Glass and learn more about her great products.
Trip to the Palm Springs Museum of Art
We visited this museums amazing permanent glass collection two years ago and it was so inspiring we want to return. Patrick Blythe, an AGASC member and Museum docent as offered again to give our group a private tour.
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October Patio Sale in Balboa Park
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SPONSORS
 PACIFIC ART GLASS
Art Glass, Supplies
and Classes
125 West 157th Street
Gardena, CA 90248
phone (800) 354-5277
or (310) 516-7828
 BULLSEYE GLASS FACTORY & RESOURCE CENTER 3610 SE 21st Ave Portland OR 97202 (503) 232-8887 RESOURCE CENTER SANTA FE 805 Early Street, Bldg E Santa Fe, NM 87505 (505) 467-8951 RESOURCE CENTER 4514 Hollis Street Emeryville CA 94608 (510) 595-1318 
UROBOROS GLASS 2139 N. Kerby Ave. Portland, OR 97227 USA Phone 503-284-4900 FAX 503-284-7584 
TOYO SUPERCUTTER A new generation of self-oiling professional glass cutters Pat's 1502 Glassworks Stain Glass & Repair www.1502glassworks.com 2176 Chatsworth Blvd San Diego, Ca 92107 619-223-1895 or 619-224-4622 
Olympic Kilns 4225 Thurmon Tanner Parkway, Flowery Branch, GA 30542 800-241-4400 
Division of Clay Art Center, Inc. 2636 Pioneer Way East Tacoma, WA 98404 United States 800-952-8030 or 253-922-5342 Fax 253 922-5349 
The finest hardware for the hanging and displaying of
glass art available!
Phone: 650-353-4642
Rayzist Photomask
955 Park Center Drive
Vista, Ca 92081
Monday-Friday, 7:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Phone: 800-729-9478
Fax: 760-727-2986
COATINGS BY SANDBERG856 N. Commerce Street Orange, CA 92867 USA PHONE: 714-538-0888 Mon. - Fri. 8am TO 5pm PST
2000 Riverside Drive, Suite 19 Asheville, NC 28804 USA Monday through Friday,
8:00am to 4:00pm EST. Phone: 8828-254-2559 or 800-914-746328-254-2559 or 800-914-7463
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Johnathon Schmuck
Lecture and Roll-up Demonstration
Esteemed artist Johnathon Schmuck spent the afternoon at Kathleen's studio entertaining us with a fantastic lecture/slideshow and demonstrating the roll up technique which transforms multi-layered fused panels into vessels.
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AGASC Annual Members Show Report!
Every year our Members Show is a highlight and this year was no exception!
This was the most profitable show yet due to great sales and a successful raffle.
We sold a record 11 pieces for $2190.00 which made this show turn a profit
that goes toward our education budget. Congratulations to these artists whose work sold: Jennifer Brennan, Carol Korfin, Sandy Levin, Bill Matulich, Devora Safran, Michelle White.
Thanks so much to the hard work of Gayle Tunney Richardson and Doug Dialard for chairing the show. The show requires months of planning and we want to thank all of you who helped Gayle make it happen by volunteering for the many jobs before and during the event. A special thank you also to the fabulous entertainment of Glen Richardson and his jazz band, a standout for the evening.
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Lava Cloth
by Jon Simpson
Several people asked me to write an article on using lava cloth when fusing, because of the piece I donated to the AGASC Members Show raffle. Lava Cloth has been around for 10 years or more. Jack Wade and I started using it about 7 years ago and now use it when we want to get a textured front or back on our glass pieces. It easily cuts with scissors into whatever shape or pattern you need. It currently comes in three patterns: 1) Harness 2) Herringbone and 3) Crows Feet. One piece of cloth lasts up to 10 firings and does not stick to glass, kiln shelves, kiln brick or fiber board. Always pre-fire the Lava Cloth to 1400 degrees with a soak of 10 minutes prior to using, because the cloth will shrink 5-10% during the first firing. You can fire it up to 1600 degrees, but the higher the temperatures, the more texture you will get in the glass. If you fire iridized glass with the iridized side down on the Lava Cloth you will get the texture plus the iridized surface will remain shiny, because the iridized surface is stiff and does not sink deep into the Lava Cloth. If you fire clear glass on Lava Cloth, you will get a prism effect from light passing through the glass.
Lava Cloth is a fiberglass product with the standard warnings for fiberglass materials. These are: 1) wear long sleeve loose fitting clothing, 2) gloves and eye protection be appropriate in certain applications, 3) wash hands after handling and 4) a disposable mask may be advisable when dust levels are high. You may want to follow these warnings when working with lava cloth, but I have found washing my hands with soap and warm water after handling is sufficient.
You can buy Lava Cloth at Alpine Glass, Pacific Art Glass and many other art glass supply companies. Here are some photos of the Lava Cloth and some art projects Jack Wade and I have created over the years using Lava Cloth.
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The Year ends with our Holiday Party
Many thanks to Carolyn Moore for opening up her beautiful home again this year for our year end party. We celebrated a gift exchange where any gift can be "stolen" twice. There were some great gifts so most did not stay with the original recipient for very long creating some interesting moments! The Holiday hat competition was won in a landslide by Joanne Pastorie with Connie Govier coming in second. Several of newst members came and were introduced. A nice way to end a great year of glass.
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"Make your own Ornament " Workshop
Hosted by Kathleen Mitchell HO HO Holiday Ornament fun was had by all who took this workshop, thanks to Kathleen offering her new studio for a workshop to all of us "hot glass newbies". It was a great educational opportunity to work outside of your glass specialty or in it if you already are experienced and make something special for the Holidays to keep (or gift!). 
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GLASS TIPS - Studio Storage and Organization
by Jolinda Marshall
One of the great challenges of a glass studio, be it ever so humble, or a space you could house a small condo complex in, is storage and organization. And being able to think ahead, anticipating growth, is always a good trick if you can pull it off.
GLASS: the first consideration is are you planning to work with COE 90 or 96 (or another variable) and keeping those well labeled and separated if you are a "comingled" studio. Learning the BE (Bullseye) codes for regular strength, 3 mm (.30) and thin, 2 mm (.50) is eternally helpful and they are always the last two numbers on the BE label, which can seem like Greek initially, but it pays to understand those in the long run. For example, 00O320-0030-F-half reads: ignore the first 00 always, and if the third digit is an O it stands for Opalescent (and not a Transparent) and the last two digits (30) tells you this is standard thickness (3mm) and half means a half sheet and the F is a price code range, I believe, but that's still an enigma to me.
STORAGE: I recommend always following an order when storing your glass and my first breakdown is size. I have a separate place for full sheets and half sheets; pieces 1'x1'; pieces about 5"x5"; and plain scrap). Next I divide out by Whites and Vanilla; Blacks, Grays and Browns; Tans and Yellows; Orange, Pink, Corals and Reds; Blues and Greens; the Aqua family; and Metallic Irids, moving left to right from Opals (light to darker to Clears (light to darker) within the color family. Clear glass is separate as it is used the most and Dichro is filed in a completely separate section so as to avoid scratching and it is arranged by color family. I ALWAYS write the Uro or BE label numbers and the color call name with a Sharpie before adding new glass into the bins. I also tore out the pages with the color samples from an old catalog and have it taped to the wall right next to the bins. Just below my bins I use the padded floor mats (even for the bins kept outside) as I find I need to rest the sheets while loading in and out of the bins, and a soft surface is a kinder and easier resting place. While things like an extra full size, indoor-outdoor carpet covered, shelf about 10" below my glass cutting table top and light box come in handy for fast storage, for me projects tend to get lost for years there. And although I will be forever indebted to my husband for those great plywood bins and doors and sides he on the full sized BE wooden crates I got from a wholesale glass supplier, it's really my beloved tool chests that make my heart flutter. I hunt garage sales and clearance sections and find them to be so very useful for my needs. Also useful are thin horizontal shelving such as those used for architectural renderings and of course those "Metro carts" (Craigslist) which are great for open storage containers. I attach several pictures here as you know how many words those save. 
WRITTEN MATERIALS:
I keep separate 3 ring binders for Project Design Ideas; Firing Schedules and Notes with Illustrations (invaluable - you can't believe what you can actually forget entirely!) and a few different ones for written information I have gathered on separate techniques like Sandblasting, or Working with Irids, etc. I also have a page at the front of each of these sections telling me which book from my library and exact page has additional material I find useful on this subject. Stencils I keep filed in sections labeled Animals, Flowers, etc in a vertical file folder.
MOLDS:
As my molds collection has grown I have separated those by shapes (round ones, rectangles, etc) marking on the bottom and side of the mold itself with a pen which does not fire off the exact dimensions, and I keep those dimensions written on the shelf the mold belongs on and also keep a pattern drawn of the exact outer dimensions which I start each project with. If I am lucky to buy a mold that comes in a box, I save it in that fashion as I have chipped more molds than I like to remember just lifting them in and out of storage. When I first begin a project, I find starting from the size of the mold, then the colors I want to use and then the details of the design to be the best formula; otherwise I find myself with something I would love to be a bowl but without the proper container to slump into, and I'm not always in the mood to add on the additional step of custom making a mold. Also, without fail, I ALWAYS keep the finished design, no matter how badly beat up from construction, rolled up with a rubber band and labeled on the outside which project it came from, colors used and results of the finished project, i.e. needed more texture - fire lower next time, or make the horizontal plane more bold, etc. Those patterns are divided into Commissions, Wall Pieces, Serving Utensils, and Standard Mold formats and fit really nicely in a box with dividers for wine bottles. It really does help not to have to recreate the wheel each time, although I've designed a few wheels in my day, begrudgingly, I must say. Also you never know when a client will call asking for an exact duplicate of that piece you hardly saved a picture of, let alone the pattern. Sigh.
PICTURES:
I have learned the very hard way to store all my pictures (of everything) in a section of the hard drive on my computer which can grow in size substantially. I remember when I used to feel about "a gig" of space the way I now feel about "a terabyte". I try to save my pictures on Adobe Photoshop in a psd. format because then it can be altered later with less problems. I don't know a lot about Photoshop but it took just a few hours to get the basics down on the best way to work with glass photography (Susan Hirsch teaches an excellent class on this subject). Otherwise I save my images as a jpg. and in the largest format that I can in order to retain the quality of the image. I keep all my glass images in a separate section of the hard drive (and backed up on a portable hard drive - yup, learned that one the hard way as well) called unimaginatively My Pictures, then Glass, then My Glasswork, then Commissions, or Serving Utensils, or Wall Art, etc. Future design ideas are in a separate file under Glass, as are Other People's Artwork and Tips and Technique images. Under My Pictures I have a complete separate file called All My Art Pictures Here (obviously I save my creativity for better concerns) which have subcategories like Animals, Flowers, Landscapes, Kids, Abstract, etc. Searching the web for images is great but better still is going to my own hand chosen collection and it never fails to jump start me when I'm looking for that next inspiring project...hum...an elephant piece you say?
So, I hope this is useful information for you and I welcome your ideas, in any format, for future articles on Tips and Techniques. My email is [email protected] and you can text or call (619) 246-3532
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Welcome New Members!
Kevin Baker
Susan Finkelstein
Mollie Glasser
Jeffery Hitch
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
JAN 19 Members meeting to plan the years events and organize committees Pat and Carries Studio 3:00 pm 2176 Chatsworth Blvd, San Diego, Ca 92107
JAN 18 Marketing Your Art Workshop by Rob Morey 9:00-1:00 (Intensive 1/2 day) $40.00 Nottingham Center for the Arts, 240 South Bent Ave, San Marcos, CA for more info click to class link FEB Make a Heart Paperweight for Valentines Day Workshop! Kathleen Mitchell's Hot Shop MAR 19-22 Glass Art Society's 43rd Annual Conference Chicago, Illinois MAR 28-30 Glass Craft and Bead Expo South Point Casino Hotel and Conference Center Las Vegas, Nevada
To submit events that may be of interest to our members contact
our AGA Newsletter Editor Carol Korfin
Share your experiences at a workshop, show or event with all of us at AGASC!
This is your newsletter... We would love to hear from you!
Deadline for Articles and Events for Feb/Mar Issue is Jan 15!!
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