Well our world just got flipped upside down and shaken up a whole lot in the past month due to COVID-19! This global pandemic has changed everyone's perspective on damn near everything now, and I am thankful and grateful for my friends and family members, who are all currently safe and sound - social distancing, but staying connected as best we can in these uncertain times.
"Art helps us identify with one another and expands our notion of we - from the local to the global"
- Olafur Eliasson
The glassblowing community has been hit especially hard as you may imagine, because even the most basic and fundamental techniques require blowing into a steel pipe and constantly switching back and forth between the different team members involved in making any piece. That doesn't make for ideal operations in the midst of an infectious global respiratory pandemic! The way that we blow glass will inevitably never be the same. What will it look like moving forward? I'm not sure because the future is most uncertain. But I DO know that making glass by oneself is going to become a lot more widespread, perhaps even the "new norm" for glassblowers when feasible. If the proper precautions are taken, solo glassblowing adheres to social distancing guidelines, while presenting new challenges to glassmakers everywhere.
As I begin to navigate my own glassblowing career moving forward, I WAS able to get back into the studio for one last session last week in order to make some glass flowers to sell for Mother's Day! I make the flowers by myself, each one is individually crafted and we sell them in single, 2-pack, 5-pack and 10-pack quantities. We have limited product availability, so PLEASE place an order sooner rather than later to guarantee your color choices and to allow ample time for processing and shipping to your loved ones in time for Mother's Day delivery.
So we encourage everyone, don't let social distancing keep you from celebrating Mother's Day this year! BUT SKIP THE ONLINE FLORIST BOUQUET ORDER! God only knows those big flower delivery companies don't need nearly as much support as your local artists do in these uncertain times. Fresh flowers go bad after a week, but OUR HANDCRAFTED GLASS FLOWERS ALWAYS STAY IN BLOOM YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT! Mothers everywhere deserve something extra special and thoughtful this year for Mother's Day. Not only will she remember your gifts for years to come - but you will be helping out our local small business in the best way possible! Thanks to everyone for the continued support ... we'll all get through this and we'll come out better on the other side.
*Here is a short edit of me working solo to create a flower from a blob of molten hot glass ... ENJOY!
"Do good, feel good, be safe." - JT