Houston Glass

	Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen's demo was on when I arrived "early" and this is a shot near the end of the completed eagle. The wings, folded on the back, were made first and garaged, then a textured rock was made and puntied and the eagle built up on the rock, with the head shaped at the end with details added with a torch and stringer. The torch shown in the picture got a lot of use, it is an oxy-propane torch, being hand held instead of bench mount. lots of heat.
The second demo was done by Jason Willenbrink- Johnsen, making this cutlass style sword. The handle was built first then the blade and the two were merged by heating locally with a torch. The blade was then further shaped. Because the color of the blade comes from powder on the outside of the gather, when the tip was sheared, it showed the clear glass and had to be pulled and shaped as here, to get the color back to the tip.
	This sun flower was Karen's second demo. It was built with a seed pod made by picking up frit. The petals and green outer leaves were applied as hot bits, each one being cut off at an angle, then cut in half lengthwise and shaped. In this picture, more green glass is being added to form the bud base of the flower (and later the stem.) Of course, the green glass glows red in the picture although the greenish colder leaves can be seen below it.

	I need to learn to take really good establishing shots when I visit. I certainly missed on this one. The top picture left shows the panel covering the furnace and the glory hole. Dick Moiel, co-owner is in the blue shirt. The pipe heater is just below his chin and the glory hole behind the head of man in red shirt. The exhaust fans pull air from the entrance behind the camera, the silver AC ducts blow down on the usual placement of benches. The middle picture shows the edge of the dusting/fuming hood, the gas heated garage and the large marver.

	The inside corner (lower left in the drawing) of the Gallery space, showing Houston Studio Glass incalmo (two bowls brought edge to edge) technique, one bowl being made of clear murrini with a colored edge. In the drawing above, the words Houston Studio Glass are actually in an open, covered loading/parking area inside the fence. Houston has interesting (non existent) zoning laws, so I have pictures of the surroundings - there is a new condo complex next door. Strange to my eyes.