Parker Stafford

Art and Design, glassblowing, Uncategorized

Your Input Is Welcome

June 28, 2019By Parker Stafford 7 Comments

I am currently working on a redesign of my website. It has been a bit of an effort making new designs, then figuring out how to photograph and present them on the site. Today I am coming to you to see what you think about one aspect of my web design, which is for the large sun catchers I have been making and which many have gotten to see for the first time on Facebook.

My impulse has been to give these pieces names that are fun and inspiring. In that same vein, I have tried to be creative with the descriptions that will accompany the pieces. While I feel good about them, I’m not always the best judge. What I am wondering is what you think? Is it beside the point? Does it help, set a tone, or is that not even necessary? Would you prefer just the image of the work, and do you find it the text silly? What do you think? I really want to make this to be fun and inspiring.

I have put all of the descriptions so far for those large sun catchers called Orbitals below. I have a few of the images that have been shot of them in the studio so you can have a few visual reference to see what it is that I am describing. I would love to hear your feedback, pro or con before we set this one in internet concrete. 🙂

Brava

An Orbital is a world of sun-catcher color, done up large. Peaches, oranges, and gold’s vibrate like an early-stage sunset with highlight splashes of blues and greens. A few carefully placed murine elements in bright red dot its landscape. We lay on the color in patches, thread the highlights on, resulting in pieces that look related but are each unique. Feel the warmth and bravery. Blown with sturdiness in mind, our pieces are not eggshell thin. Made for the ages. Made just for you, with our love.

· Hand-blown in the U.S.A. at our Virginia Studio

· 9 Inches in diameter

· Orbital hanger eye is sturdily built

· Signed and dated

· Sturdy Hook & Instructions For Hanging Included

Blue Sky Riot

Sometimes you just want to make a statement and aren’t in the mood for the urbane path. You are ready for a riot. We feel you. Solid fields of cobalt blue make their entrance with windows of gold, green, red and orange thrown in between gasps of deep blue bliss and a rumor of pink gold ruby. Someone claims a fleck of purple makes an appearance, but you will have to hunt for it. Remember, these are not punched out of a mold, my friend. We roll each one by hand and they bear the mark of uniqueness common to handmade glass. Each one is a solid riot of color!

· Hand-blown in the U.S.A. at our Virginia Studio

· 9 Inches in diameter

· Orbital hanger eye is sturdily built

· Signed and dated

· Sturdy Hook & Instructions For Hanging Included

Caliope

Calliope

You have been all across our site and can’t make up your mind. Calliope comes to the rescue in her broad reach of colors that will look great in just about any kind of décor (even if your décor changes-how cool is that!). Includes blues, gold’s, greens, oranges and a flirtation with some pink ruby.

· Hand-blown in the U.S.A. at our Virginia Studio

· 9 Inches in diameter

· Orbital hanger eye is sturdily built

· Signed and dated

· Sturdy Hook & Instructions For Hanging Included

Earth Wind & Fire

Where else can you be confronted with all elements together in one place than here on earth? Out on the ocean, split by sky, grounded in earth, and enlivened by fire, this Orbital bears banded blends of lively color ready to set your soul on fire as it cools your mind and helps your heart learn how to stand in the center of wonder. Hand blown, each spot of color lays in its own way and melts, as it will, making each piece unique. The revolution begins here.

· Hand-blown in the U.S.A. at our Virginia Studio

· 9 Inches in diameter

· Orbital hanger eye is sturdily built

· Signed and dated

· Sturdy Hook & Instructions For Hanging Included

Mango Multiverse

This Orbital will take your through an upward spinning journey from peachy oranges up into a multiverse of green, blue, and light sky blue. Is there anywhere you can’t go? Hand-blown, each piece is unique, like a sibling all bound by the same design DNA.

· Hand-blown in the U.S.A. at our Virginia Studio

· 9 Inches in diameter

· Orbital hanger eye is sturdily built

· Signed and dated

· Sturdy Hook & Instructions For Hanging Included

Milette’s Garden

Somewhere in the south of France, she tends her garden, humming a tune as birds fly overhead. This Orbital has a beautiful emerald green with highlights of gold’s, peaches, splashes of sky, reds and blues. Like grasses woven one into the other, you could swear you feel the wind as it whispers to you from a faraway time and place. Handmade with love, each piece is unique but made from the same landscape where Milette dreams.

· Hand-blown in the U.S.A. at our Virginia Studio

· 9 Inches in diameter

· Orbital hanger eye is sturdily built

· Signed and dated

· Sturdy Hook & Instructions For Hanging Included

Oceanic Borealis

A deep ocean of blue rises up through its watery depths with streams of green and splashes of yellow/gold. Changing in the light, colors interact and blend with each other in fields of watery wonder. Turn it this way and that, you get to choose exactly which view works best to remind you of aquatic dreams. Made entirely by hand, slight differences exist that give each piece its stamp of uniqueness. We make it just for you, with love.

· Hand-blown in the U.S.A. at our Virginia Studio

· 9 Inches in diameter

· Orbital hanger eye is sturdily built

· Signed and dated

· Sturdy Hook & Instructions For Hanging Included

Purple Sunset Bliss

Here is how this vision unfolds: streams of purple and pink ruby twist around the body of this Orbital, a sun catcher like no other. It is punctuated with streams of orange/gold lit with flecks of red. Like a sunset, the view changes as you turn these in the light. Hand blown, each one has its own unique story to tell.

· Hand-blown in the U.S.A. at our Virginia Studio

· 9 Inches in diameter

· Orbital hanger eye is sturdily built

· Signed and dated

· Sturdy Hook & Instructions For Hanging Included

Sky Dream

Sometimes you have to stay in while it rains and let the sound surround you as you wait for a dreamy patch of sky to open up, teasing you into the light. Ladders of gold sun dance through the clouds as you dream in poetry. Let the muses take you in this woven work of emerald and cobalt. Gold shimmers in highlights along the top. Ribbed, colors fold over and blend dreamily. You are getting sleepy…Made with love and born from fire, because ours are hand-rolled and blown, each piece is unique but bears the same patch of sky each time with a little more wind here, a little less downpour there.

· Hand-blown in the U.S.A. at our Virginia Studio

· 9 Inches in diameter

· Orbital hanger eye is sturdily built

· Signed and dated

· Sturdy Hook & Instructions For Hanging Included

Wavy Purple Plum

Purple, pink ruby and splashes of orange are woven like the tresses of a transcendental mermaid who catches you in her otherworldly dream. Only love makes things like this. Hand-blown, each piece has its own song to sing you. Let us start the music for you.

Uncategorized

Watch Ornament Making on YouTube

February 5, 2019By Parker Stafford No Comments

A quick video I shot to show many of the steps involved in making ornaments and suncatchers. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/4STYjFoYiIY

Education, glassblowing

Holiday Schedule

December 27, 2018December 27, 2018By Parker Stafford No Comments

Recently I had an element failure very near the end of the Christmas season. When I ordered new elements, I was told to expect them by a given date. I made some promises to folks whose bookings were impacted by the unexpected outage and the elements didn’t show. As of today (12/26) I am still without elements. I won’t get them, UPS says, until the 27th. Once bitten, I will wait and see if I get the elements on the 27th or not. Frustrating all the way around!

I will be going out of town the first of the month and will return the second week of January. I won’t be running the furnace up for a couple of days only to turn it off once I go out of town. It takes about two to three days to get the furnace up to temperature, and about the same to get it to room temperature. As a result, the furnace will be turned on again on the 11th and should be up by the 13th IF NOTHING GOES WRONG. People might wonder what could go wrong, and I explain the elements should have lasted about ten months, not just two, so that is an example of the unexpected things that can happen.

For now, the booking calendar is down. It will go back up once everything is running smoothly again. Expect that to happen somewhere around the 13th to 14th of January. Then those of you who were impacted by the recent gyrations at the studio, to get your sessions in again, should you wish…again, with my apologies.

The blog post right after this one serves as a really good primer for how to use the calendar. I hope everyone has had a great time visiting family and friends this holiday and I hope to see you at the studio soon!

Happy New Year!

~Parker

Education, glassblowing

Using The Booking Calendar

November 20, 2018November 23, 2018By Parker Stafford No Comments

I recently set up a booking calendar to make signing up for classes and events easier for folks. In this post, I am going to provide you a primer on using this calendar.

First, the calendar is situated at differently places when you are on a computer versus a mobile device such as your phone. If you are on a computer, the calendar is near the top of the page along the right sidebar near this post. One a mobile device, you have to scroll past a series of older posts and some social media widgets to get down to the calendar.

When I am looking at the calendar from my phone, I will just scroll fast to the very bottom and then come back up a little way to get to the calendar. You know you have reached the booking calendar because you will see the same as what is in the following image:

This view will show you the days of the week that the calendar allows for classes. Currently we take classes Wednesday through Sunday, and those days have a gray highlight to them. Next, you will notice that there are clocks on some of the days. This indicates that there are some bookings for that day. When you find a day that you are interested in, click on that day right on the calendar and it will darken, just like in the image below:

So in the above example I just selected Saturday December 1st. It already has some appointments booked on that day and next I am going to show you how to know the booked days from the unbooked days by showing you how the times for the day will show up in a drop-down menu just below the calendar a little ways down. That image is next. In the image below you first see the first available time for the day show up (this is a default for the calendar) :

If you look further down, you then see ALL of the available times with a “radio button” (round) that you click to select that time slot.

You will notice that the calendar screen shot above has selected the first time available for that day already because it is highlighted with a blue button.

The thing to know is that the unavailable times are slightly greyed out while the available days are darker black. The calendar will not allow you to book a time that has already been selected previously by someone else.

You will notice that the time slots are divided into 30-minute intervals. This was set up to allow enough time for people making a pumpkin but also for an ornament. The thing to realize is that if you want to come with a couple of other people to blow glass, you will need to fill out this form for each item being made. If you select just one thirty-minute slot and you are bringing five people who all want to make something, we will only have time for one item to be made, so make sure that you fill out the form for each person who is coming.

The forms is fairly short but besides selecting the times for your booking, there are fields for your contact information that look like this:

You will notice near the bottom there is a text field where you let us know which class you are signing up for, and right now it is either pumpkins or ornaments. This helps us to know how to prepare before you come.

After you have entered your information and chosen your time, you will notice a series of oddly placed letters, which you will need to type into the form. This is called a “Capcha” and it helps to foil “bots” that might try to enter information in order to spam out site or my email. Fill this out and you are set.

No money is required when you register. You will only pay once you have your glass safely in your hands. We accept cash, check, and credit card.

Currently we are making both pumpkins and ornaments at a special price, The pumpkins, which are normally $52.00 are available through the season for $42.00. Ornaments, which are normally $31.00 are $24.00 per piece made.

Now that you have found out how the calendar works, you can go to the pages that have been set aside for ornaments and pumpkins to learn more. If you have questions about the calendar, please let me know in the comments section or you can email me at info(at)staffordartglass.com or you can call or text me on my mobile at (540) 605-0034. We look forward to making cool (hot) stuff with you and your family!

Stafford Art Glass

Hotglass News

Author: Parker Stafford

Your Input Is Welcome

Watch Ornament Making on YouTube

Holiday Schedule