What Do You Heart About February 14? 

A quote from Kahlil Gibran says “Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving”. 

I love how the trees look in winter

Rain

Drops of morning dew

Family and friends

I am grateful for those who have shown support of my work and workshops 

Jester’s Gallery, Nashville Tennessee opening February 4 

Remember the song “Day Tripper”?

It may be time for a day trip to Nashville Tennessee to check out Jester’s Gallery, making its’ debut on Thursday, February 4, 2010.  Stop by whenever you are in Nashville and introduce yourself to AL Sherick, the gallery’s owner.  

Jester’s will carry all of my work including small gift items from the studio such as crystal dew drops, other Lampworked itmes, and cast leaves which make great paperweights (and Heart gifts). 

The leaves that I love are white oak leaves from The Serenbe Project and make perfect gifts for (Heart Day) February 14. 

Refreshments will be served during the evening from 6-9 on Thursday, February 4. 

The gallery is located at 5133 Harding Pike, Suite C1, Nashville, Tennessee  37205   A grand opening is planned for later this spring.  We will keep you posted.  

If you are not in Nashville, you can call the studio 205.612.3317 and we will be glad to help you with gifts for February 14.  Sustainable artful gift wrap is available.  

We would love for you to tell us what YOU heart about February 14  your gratitude, Nashville, or anything else. 

About Tara Glass Art Studio

Visit the new web site

This is the latest post on the studio processes regarding The Serenbe Project. I talked with Robert Rausch this morning and we have decided that we will be installing on October 30-31. I can’t wait to see the leaves in the natural light. It will be beautiful!

Go here for my lastest post about the studio

http://donnabranchglassstudio.blogspot.com/2008/08/cast-glass-serenbe-project-installation.html

These moulds pictured are still for The Serenbe Project. Take a minute and visit the Serenbe Community, it is a delightful place. After the clay model is removed from the glass mould, the moulds have to be checked to make sure there are no undercuts (places where the glass can become lodged). This pictures on the blog tonight show how I finish the moulds.

This is how I finish the edges and remove the remaining clay.

I then brush out the mould to make sure that it is clean before taking a warm damp rag to go over it one more time.

After the mould is cleaned like this, it is ready to be placed in the kiln to be force-dried.

I found these cool little paintbrushes at Harbor Freight Tools. They are good for a lot of things in the studio and they are so inexpensive, I just throw them away!

At this point, the mould is still very wet. The plaster material with which I invest the mould has a very short working time (under 10 minutes on a cooler day). This means that most days in the South, you better have your plan together when you begin to mix, because on a 95 degree day with high humidity, the working time is more like 5-6 minutes. I still like this material very much.

These glass leaves will be installed at Serenbe in late October.

If you will look to the right of this post, I have listed the workshops that I will be teaching this summer, as of this date. I’m really looking forward to teaching and love doing it. I’m also working on the news release for Serenbe http://www.serenbe.com/ and will post as soon as it is completed. I’ve been looking for someone to work with me on my web site and I have found a couple of people that I believe will do a good job. My friend Debra also has been looking for someone and we shared the name of the guy that will help me. We often share resources. It is great to have a good friend with whom you can talk. Sometimes just by talking with someone else the solution becomes crystal clear. The link to the Alabama Folk School is: http://www.campmcdowell.com/FolkSchool/ Check it out!!