Monday, April 2, 2012

Feature of the Day #24: Garage Glass


Greetings!
Glass Pendant Bead - Pink and Bronze Swirl
Pink and Bronze Swirl Pendant
Today's feature of the day goes to Garage Glass and their beautiful handmade glass art. There are several artsists working for Garage Glass including Wes Peth, and lead artist Justin Wester. Wester has been working with glass for the last five years, off and on. He teamed up with a few friends and started Garage glass, and has been producing glass beads, pendants, earring, and ornaments out of their garage-set studio ever since.
Garage Glass started as a local business, and began to spread through word-of-mouth and craft shows. Encouraged by fans and supporters, they made the move to online selling. Their store offers a variety of products such as beads, icicles, jars, and much more! Plus some truly unique items such as the Octopus Wine Stopper. (Below left) The mixture of colors and personality in such a little creation gives it charm and life. Instead of having a boring item with a mediocre purpose, Garage Glass created something fun that's hard to resist. From googly eyes, to beady tentacles, this little wine stopper is surely a show stopper!
Glass Wine Stopper - Octopus
Octopus Wine Stopper
Garage Glass uses the lampworking technique for their glass creations, and use borosilicate glass. We've done an article on another lampworker in the past, but here's a refresher for those who haven't read it yet. Lampworking, also known as flameworking or torchworking, is the process of making glasswork by using a gas fueled torch to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. The molten glass is then molded and formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. Lampworking manipulates glass by the use of tools, gravity, and by blowing directly into the end of a glass tube. (To learn more about lampworking, visit here) Borosilicate glass is also known as "hard glass" and is made from silica and boron oxide. It's more resistant to thermal stress to it's used in fish tank thermometers, telescope and high-quality flashlight lenses, glass cookware, and many other items.
Glass Pendant Bead - Green Implosion
Green Implosion Bead Pendant
What seperates Garage Glass from previous features however, is they have actual demonstrations of their creative process on YouTube! I highly recommend check out this video of the creation of a pendant: Here.
The works that come out of Garage Glass are fun, and lovely, colorful and vibrant, unique and creative. Each piece seems to have an inner glow, perhaps a hint of life, captured within. Spirals, such as in Pink and Bronze Swirl Pendant,(top of page) captures the eye's attention and refuses to let go. Woven glass in a delicate pendant. Contrasting the spiral creations are the pendants with explosions of color within, such as Green Implosion Bead Pendant. (Above) An eruption of movement, expertly rendered in glass, a captured moment in time. Lovely.
To see these pieces, and many many more, stop by Garage Glass on Etsy today! http://www.etsy.com/shop/GarageGlassArt
You can also become a fan on Facebook here: www.Facebook.com/GarageGlassArt
More demonstrations can be found here. http://www.youtube.com/user/GarageGlassArt

Be Creative today!
~Squirrel Creek Creations
Our Etsy store: www.squirrelcrkcreations.etsy.com
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/squirrelcreek
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/#!/SquirrelsCreek

Glass Pendant Bead - Flip the Chubby Penguin
Flip the Chubby Penguin

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