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December 4, 2016

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New Ideas and Improvements

I’ve been working hard this fall to make ornaments to fill up my Etsy shop. I’m happy to have sold a good amount and to have rented more and more shop time. Now that Christmas is approaching I’ve been trying to develop new products for my shop that I can sell once ornaments season ends. One of my biggest challenges when it comes to making and selling is continuing to do so once the holiday rush is over. Last year I developed a line of vases but got caught up in moving and never got a chance to make more.

This year I’m working on a series of small and simple bud vases. I’m still drawn to bright solid colors but and am aiming for a more simple look. I’m also hoping to design some tumblers and experiment more with using cane.

hand blown glass vases purple blue ridges bud vase

These bud vases measure only about 4 inches tall and will hold a small flower (or sprig of holly if that’s what you have).

blown glass bud vase

When is started making ornaments last year I realized I was out of practice and hadn’t quite gotten the hang of making ornaments that didn’t weigh a lot. I didn’t practice ornaments much in college so I spent a lot of time getting better at making them last fall. I dug out one of the first ornaments I made when I started a year ago and weighed it to see it was a beefy 4.5 ounces. I was really proud last year when I was able to get my ornaments down to around 3 ounces consistently, which is pretty nice and light. I got my most recent batch of ornaments out of the annealer yesterday and found that this year they’re even lighter, most weighing only a bit over an ounce! On the bottom is a picture of one of my first ornaments from last year and one of my most recent ones this year. What a difference a year and some practice makes!

It’s not too hard to see why the one on the left weighs so much more. Luckily I’ve gotten much better at making lighter hooks.

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Madeline

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November 18, 2016

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Art, Uncategorized

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Merry Making

Since I last posted I’ve moved, spent months growing my vintage business and am back into blowing glass regularly. The recent finds section of this blog has made a move to my new blog all about collecting vintage: Ambassador of Grooviness.

This fall I helped my old college glass group with their annual pumpkin sale and made some pumpkins to sell. I made several with this beautiful amber color that I have. When blown out on the pumpkin body it becomes this light amber color but stays a rich brown color on the stems.

But of course it wouldn’t be fall without making lots of simple orange and green pumpkins.

I’m planning on starting earlier next year and making pumpkins in the spring or summer. I’ve always done well with seasonal items and am planning on filling my Etsy shop up with pumpkins before next fall.

blown glass pumpkin orange green crackle glass

blown glass pumpkins amber pair two curly stems brown glass

When I started making ornaments again I was excited to find a box of glass color I’d completely forgotten about! Sometime before I moved last year I ordered some beautiful colors, boxed them up and completely lost track of them. I had a great time mixing colors (mostly transparent colors under white) to see how they’d look made into ornaments. I have a variety of ornaments available in my Etsy shop.

blown glass ornament blue with ridges Christmas holiday

blown glass ornament gold red spots ridges christmas

blown glass ornament purple glass ridges christmas holiday

red and whtie spotted christmas blown glass ornament

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Madeline

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January 8, 2016

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Art, Glassblowing

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Inspired Vases

After making ornaments and selling enough to pay for my shop time, I was really keen on designing more things to make and sell. Lately I’ve been interested in vintage, 50s and 60s style glassware (think Blenko, Pilgrim, Viking). I’ve been buying some to resell and just love the simple designs and bold colors most designs have. I checked out a few books from the library and have been researching some to find inspiration.

Pilgrim topaz crackle high balls

Pilgrim miniature jugs

Blenko dented vases

I had some ideas in mind for small vases I’d like to make but wanted to add some elements that would make them more unique. I decided to try crackling and pinching to add some flair to these designs. I ordered glass color a few weeks ago to use for this project. The colors I chose were mostly jewel tones. Some of them turned out better than others the first time I used them, so I have some ideas for what to change next time I go into the hot shop.

Blue crackle vase

Crackle vase detail

Pinched vases

These pieces and more are available on Madeline Steimle Art on Etsy

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December 1, 2015

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Glassblowing

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Making More Ornaments

A few days ago I rented some more shop time. Now that I’m paying to blow glass I’m being much more careful about making things I know I can finish quickly and sell. I’ve sold a few ornaments that I made last time, so I’m hoping I can keep selling enough to buy more shop time. A few weeks ago I made my first batch of ornaments for the season. I made about 10 in two hours. This time I was able to make 20 things in the same amount of time. What’s even better though is that the ornaments I made weighed less overall. Making ornaments thin is tough! It’s something I’ve never done all that well. But with practice lately mine have been getting thinner and thinner.

I don’t have much color at the moment. I’ve been making mixes with some of the leftover frit I had from other projects and even crushing up some of the bar I had to make frit. I’ve learned a few good lessons so far about which colors interact well with each other. So far I’ve gotten a few ornaments out of the annealer that were just hideous because I didn’t know the colors would look so bad together. Once I order some more color I want to start making some vases, tumblers and other projects for after the Christmas season is over.

Here’s some photos of the ornaments I made. All are available for sale on Etsy:

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Madeline

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November 6, 2015

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Glassblowing

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Ornament Making Madness

Ever since my pumpkin making retreat I’ve been obsessed with doing production work. Selling things I’d taken a lot of time to make was rewarding in ways I haven’t felt in a long time. I’ve been selling vintage on Ebay full time for about 2 years now and am starting to get burnt out. Since the holiday shopping rush is already going strong I’m trying to get some holiday items made while I can. A few days ago I rented shop time at the studio by my house and started making ornaments. I was able to crank out about 10 ornaments that I’ll best listing in my Etsy shop in the coming days.

Ornament Process

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November 5, 2015

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3D Printing, Art, Glassblowing

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WORK IN PROGRESS: PUTZ HOUSE ORNAMENTS UPDATE

So tonight I got to try out the mold I made to blow my glass putz houses. I didn’t expect it to work out on the first try but was pleasantly surprised that my plan worked! I’ve still got some tweaking to do to the design but am very excited with how the first few turned out.

After pouring a wax of the original model I made a two part plaster mold that I could blow into.

This pretty little piece of plaster coated inside with graphite is one half of the two part mold I blew into to make the house.

Two part plaster mold

Shape of glass going into the mold

I tried the design in clear a few times. When my first attempts come out the annealer I can start to plan what to do differently to the finished pieces. As is the nature of glass the house ended up a bit more rounded than the original model. I like the effect but might try and find ways to make the angles of the roof show up better. I also need to decide what colors I plan to make the finished pieces in.

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October 26, 2015

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Art, Glassblowing

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Pumpkin Season

Every fall for the last 5 years or so I’ve made glass pumpkins. In college I made them as part of the glass department’s pumpkin sale/fundraiser and since then I’ve made them at another glass studio that runs a pumpkin sale. This fall I got invited back to my old college to help with their pumpkin sale in exchange for making some of my own to sell. It was a very rewarding experience. Not only did I get to make a lot of pumpkins and have fun in the process but I was able to talk to and share ideas with a lot of other creative minded people. Making pumpkins 6 hours+ a day for 2 weeks really made me think seriously about doing more production. I’ve been selling online but haven’t done much in the way of selling my own work since college. Since I’ve moved I’m only a few blocks from a public glass studio where I can rent time and I’m already thinking of things I can make and sell. I’ve sold out of all the pumpkins I’d made, so unfortunately I won’t likely have any for sale on Etsy this year. Though I am designing some Christmas ornaments that I’d like to start making and listing soon. Keep an eye on MadelineSteimleArt on Etsy and see how they turn out.

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Madeline

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October 26, 2015

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Art

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Converging Media Art Show

This fall after moving to Indianapolis I got the opportunity to organize an art show. I’ve shown a few times since I got out of college, but never more than a few pieces and certainly not at a show I put together. To make the show better I invited 3 other artists who also work in glass or metal. From the show statement:

“Converging Media is about mixing media and techniques in unique ways to discover new ways of making. In this show steel meets glass, glass meets plastic, and metal meets paper. 3D printing is used alongside casting, and glassblowing is
integrated with metalworking.”

Since the show came together in about 2 months time, we were each able make a few new pieces to show alongside older work. In all there were about 15 pieces. Before the show we made pedestals, wrote a statement for the show, made postcards and advertised. Installing a show in a gallery downtown in a big city was a much different experience than any art show I’ve done in the past. All in all it was well worth it and it’s something I look forward to doing again.