Adventure Days

My blog has 779 page views.  Wow, that seems pretty crazy to me.

Well, yesterday was Thursday, and Thursday was an adventure.

How many times to you say "Yeah, I'll stop by sometime" knowing that you never will?
How many times have you thought, "Wow, I really want to go check that place out", and never put the energy into planning it?

For now the furnace is running and I am rooted to the shop.  It was time for a day adventure.  It was time to do!

Cody, Maddie and I left Jaffrey, NH at 8 am.

Our first stop ((well our first real stop that wasn't a pee break, for food, a pee break, for coffee, or a pee breaks)) was to Luke Adams Glass.  Now of course I didn't take any pictures for ya'll, but let go do some Googling ....

Now, you have all seen his stuff everywhere - pumpkins, starfish, etc.  They also offer classes and as well as unique high-end pieces.

Today they were making starfish, which was cool to watch.  OK, so let me back up and paint a picture of the studio.  I know that this is a very good studio and very well represented all over New England, I have no idea what to expect.  The gallery is full of beautiful stuff, but in the size department, it is slightly dinky.  Then you peak into the back room, and its huge and stocked.  Makes perfect sense right - they do production to be sold elsewhere.

The shop was nice too, from what I could tell there are two holes.  The one that was hot had the pipe warmer coming off of the size - all attached.  Very cool idea.  They also had this nice stadium seating style rack for holding all of the color trays - under the hood.  Killer idea.  I think the most impressive part of that shop was most definitely the annealers.  HUGE.  I sat there staring at them, trying to imagine the biggest realistic piece that I could make.  I could not max out that annealer *drools*

Well, like I said - today they were making starfish like you see above.  The gaffer was near the safe audience area, so we got to speak to him a little.  His name is Dylan and with his assistant (didn't get close enough to be able to talk to her), together they will make around 300 starfish a day. 

Our next stop was sandwiches, but then we were off to Fiamma Glass.  Of course Jocelyn probably told me exactly what time she was going to be around the studio yesterday, but I really just have not been on my game.  

((Any friends that know really me and are reading this are probably completely shocked.  I know, I know, I'm not perfect))

So, we creeped in the window, for a long, long time.  First of all, I am obsessed with goblets.  I really think they are the hardest things to do.  Which makes me want to do them.  If you can make a straight goblet, you are respected.  Well, there was a sweet goblet.  There was also an example of Trina's mice and a bunny.  They just really do great work.  Once more, I'm going to google you some picture examples.

Now, I think Fiamma Glass is also cool because they are young, amazing artists, making it in the world.  It is a couple that went to Mass Art and studied glass.  They opened their studio together, just got married, and seem to be living an amazing life.  My understanding is that their business model for the studio is very similar to mine - teach glass lessons.  They teach a bunch of lessons on the torch.  They also seem to do production work, and amazing custom fun pieces, like you see above.

We then had some time to kill before our next "appointment", so we drove over to Green Side Up Gallery in Alston.  Of course, parking was a nightmare, so we got a bit of a tour through the one-ways.  Eventually, we made it.  We go to a lot of festivals, as vendors or just plain old attendees, and we see Green Side Up at almost every single one.  It was time to check out one of their real locations!  There was a bunch of unique Boro glass artwork in there, we had a grand old time checking it all out.  There was also a very pretty soft glass owl sculpture, which made me want to try that again sometime soon.

I'm going to break off from this for a minute and discuss my position on glass pipes, because it is a topic that many feel strongly about (either positive or negative).

Speaking about negative, I often feel bad for pipe-makers, the lack of respect that they receive.  When I am discussing my work, I see the light in people's faces change when they realize I do art glass, rather than that 'degenerate art'.  Honestly, I work hard to make the distinction very clear.

But, in no way can I say I don't respect pipe-makers.  Even to do the most basic production spoon run - it takes a firm set of skills, a huge investment in glass, tools, and equipment, and a strong sense of business.  I most certainly like observing the efficiency in production.

My favorite work are "heady" glass pipes.  The pipes that you don't even realize are a smoking device, you're too flabbergasted at the beautiful piece of art in front of you.  That was our next adventure, to the Joy Street Studios in Somerville.  We were greeted by Cristian who was nice enough to give us a quick, but detailed tour of the place.  Super cool fun fact, Pawblo Picasso, who I vending next to at Camp Coldbrook has her studio space there ((small happy world)).  

So, this is an example of some of Cristian's high-end work.  I'm pretty sure this got stolen, maybe its a sore subject example, but LOOK AT IT!  SO SWEET.

So he did two sweet demos for us, an ice cube pendant and a cow pipe.  The pendant was cool to watch because I can imagine how frustrating it must be to try and make that perfect shape.  He even said himself, ice cubes are made in mold, they are perfect.  Cristian got a sweet graphite mold made, it was nice to be able to "talk glass" for a while.  Also funny fact about his cow spoons, he thinks about countries when he makes the spots, so they don't all look the same.  I was just cruising through his pictures to find the above to show you and laughing about what country he was thinking about when he put on certain dots. lol, I'm not sure if he does it all the time, but whatever.  It was peaceful being in the studio and watching Cristian in his groove.  It is something about the heat and the spinning.  I have a great appreciation for spinning skills needed to work on the torch (different than the spinning skills in the hot shop), and I could watch the movements forever.

Everyone was pretty tired after all of this adventuring, so we headed towards home.  Our last stop was to our friends at Masspipes.  After being so many places, it was nice to be back in a "home zone".  We took some time to hangout with Matt, Dylan and Aaron, reflecting on the adventures and getting out of the car a bit.  I have lots of respect for the guys at Masspipes - I think we will be longtime glass friends, and maybe you'll be lucky enough to hear more about them another day.

We returned to Jaffrey around 4:30 pm, and the "Boston Area" chapter of our Thursday adventures were over.  I will tell you about CT (Mark's house) and Snow Farm later. :)

Happy Life, Sad Heart

Everything at the shop is going very well, it is a peaceful bubble of happiness.  Outside of the shop, the world has been very cruel.

I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts that I bought a house.  My parents are very trusting and supportive of my ambitions.  They heard my arguments about the costs of living in an apartment alone vs with roommates.  They also saw my point about the reasonable potential mortgage costs on the amazing houses selling in our area for cheap.

I did my research, following houses for sale online for a year or two.  After a few broken hearts, I found this amazing house that just needed a little love.  My mom and Jim, being the people that they are, walked me through the buying of my first house, including cosigning with their trust in me.

So - I have two amazing roommates (Boarders), Nick & Nick.  Nick & Nick grew up together, families very much intertwined.  They are both 25 years old, long-time chefs at super local restaurants, extremely hard-working, respectful, and CLEAN.  I did it, I found CLEAN BOY ROOMMATES.  I know, I know.

I am the luckiest lady in the world - not only do I have an amazing actual family but I also have an amazing friend family.  AND they all get along, like FAMILY!

Right now, my family is hurting.  Nick's brother was killed in a car accident.  One of those terrible, terrible, wrong place at the absolute wrong time accidents.

It is not my place to give more details, or to accept any condolences.  I am simply grieving for my grieving friends.  Our warm and happy home is a place of heavy hearts.

I can hide away in my studio and forget what is happening in the world around me.  I can forget why my hurting friends are so important to me, how much I love them.  It really hurts to love people.

But when we are home and all together, we can sometimes forget about why we are sad for just a minute.  We can laugh together, we will get through this together.  We can get through anything together.

Continuing on through the History of Dom (glass related).

SOOOOO

I started high school in 2002 & was scheduled to graduate in 2006.  In 2005 I began duel enrollment at the local community college full time - I stopped attending the high school.  In 2006, I was still able to graduate and walk with my class.  I then made the decision to attend Franklin Pierce.

Being the stubborn pusher that I am, I decided that I already had a year of college under my belt, and I would graduate from FPU in 3 years.  In order to do that, because barely any of my credits transferred over, and none of my good grades were calculated into my FPU GPA, I had to work hard.  I had full class schedules every semester, I also took summer classes and did my internship over the summer.  I was on route to graduate in 2009 at 20 years old.

Then I decided it was just as important for me to go to Greece, the first semester of my senior year.  After huge headaches rearranging my schedule, and giving myself a terrible, terrible class schedule for the last semester of my senior year, I was going to Greece.

Greece was awesome.  When I came back, I realized that I had seriously missed out on having the opportunity to take a glassblowing class.  After more headaches and schedule rearranging, I was in.

If anyone knows anything about art classes in college, they can actually be pretty intense.  While most classes take outside time of reading, studying, and paper writing, art classes just take outside time.  It was a difficult semester for me, scheduling time in the library, and practice time in the glass hut.

The FPU glass studio at this time was full of utterly amazing glassblowers.  It was very intimidating, especially for someone like me who doesn't pick up things very quickly.  I can do anything I put my mind to, I know this, but even with that mindset, I learn at a slower pace than most.

I walked with my class in 2009 and received my BA in Psychology.  I applied, and was accepted, into Antioch University, where I was going to get my Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a focus on Substance Abuse & Addictions.

Now, what was I going to do with my summer???  Nothing???  Impossible.  I got a local minimum wage job, a room on campus for the summer, and signed myself up for two summer sessions of glassblowing.  Was I prepping for my career?  Nope, I just love keeping busy.

What an amazing summer I had.  Put my brain in the drawer at work and suck it up through the day, then live at the glassblowing studio for the rest of my time.  Add a little partying (every single night, I had finally just turned 21), that was the life!

Fall came, and it was time to buckle down.  I went to Antioch and kicked some butt.  Buuuut, I found that I was daydreaming about glass constantly.  I was looking up youtube videos, I was finding reasons to loiter in Rindge around the glass studio, and I was already thinking about how I could find my way back into a hot shop.

During winter break my mom and I went up to Bob Burch's studio in VT to rent some time.  Although I didn't make anything I was proud of, something had clicked.  Throughout the Spring I continued obsessing.  I knew what I was going to do, I was going to spend my summer taking glassblowing classes once more.  It just had to happen, I mean what else was I going to do anyway?  Antioch didn't offer summer classes, I obviously had to do something.

Another awesome summer filled with glass.  I knew I had to integrate this into my lifestyle somehow.  I couldn't keep taking classes at Franklin Pierce though.  Normal working individuals can't take every single summer off to spend it in college.  I began thinking about adding some sort of art focus into my Masters degree.  How would it be done?  Is it possible?  Of course it is, with some hard work.

This was a time of difficult decision making.  Is Antioch the place for me?  Do I want to work to mold the curriculum towards my new focus?  I stepped back and looked at Antioch as a whole - for me I really like the science part of psychology.  I loved the scientific journals Itwith its mathametical proof.  The stable and sturdy way that information is found and then put out in this perfect format for all to see.  Antioch's CMHC program was much more loosey goosey.  While I fretted over APA format, many in my class had never even heard about APA.  Being the control freak that I am, I was horrified.  It was also very difficult because Antioch is pass/fail.  I spent hours and hours following formats, and we all simply passed together.

Moving forward.  A simple google search told me about Lesley University, with an Art Therapy Program.

OOOOOOOO.  I applied and was basically told me I would be accepted if I had more art credits.  WHAT?? No really though, glassblowing was the only art class I had ever taken in a school setting.  In High School I was pushed into more difficult electives, such as computer courses.  "If you want to go to college, this is what you will take".

Isn't that a bit ridiculous??

SO, I came back to FPU full time for the Fall Semester of 2010.  I took 2D Design, Glassblowing, a Psychology Class, and an independent study.

I really am not good at art, having never taken any classes.  2D Design was pretty rough.  I did not want to do Art Therapy, I want to do glass therapy.

By this time, I was selling my glass.  I also began noticing how there was no studio for my customers to go and learn about glass themselves.  Well well.  How do I focus in Glass Art Therapy, if I have nowhere to make my glass?

What do you do when you are stumped?  You go to the person that you respect the most, to give you a straight up opinion.  I spoke to my mom.

What would it take to start my own glass studio?

I wrote out a budget, including all of the supplies that we would need and where to get them.  We began looking at spaces in our town, our new community of Jaffrey.  This process was about a year and 1/2.  We wanted to allow customers into the shop, and be able to teach, so we really needed a place that was safe according to the town inspectors and the Fire Marshall.  Eventually we found what we were looking for, but it was much larger than our original business plan.

We went for it.

What have I learned since we have made that leap into the deep end of owning a small business?

Where do I even begin?  I have learned how important it is to have the love and support of your community.  We have become involved in numerous community activities, coming together to build up our town and our businesses.

I have learned about give and take.  I am still learning about give and take.  A constant battle of roles and responsibilities with my parents and my employees.  How much I can handle on my own, and when I need to simply ask for help.  When to delegate responsibilities, and when to step up and just do it myself.

I have learned sacrifice.  Either the sacrifice of activities, especially weekend activities. Or the sacrifice of sleep on the weekends if the activities deem to important to miss out on.

I am not a normal 26 year old.  I run a business, I own a house, and I am helping to raise my niece.  I volunteer way too much of my time (or maybe not enough?).  I love being involved, and I love being busy.

Do you ever tire Dom?  HA.  Everyone who knows me, knows that sometimes I crack.  My route is mostly just through honesty, and I try very hard to keep it that way.  Most of the time it comes out with a "hint of bitch".

Dom - "I am upset because of ------.  I need you to back off so I can chill out and ------- (usually go home and sleep). I will be better by ------ (time frame), and will fix this problem by -------."



Well, that's all for now folks, <3

"I'm a pusher"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9H12xTl_98

That's all for now folks :)

DomHistory 101

I will blog more, I will blog more, I will blog more

What will I blog about?  I'm going to talk about myself.  BORING, but I figure I should just get an introduction out of the way.

The Dom-version of Dom's life (on fast-forward)

I was born on July 21st, 1988.  I was a terrible, terrible baby.

As I started growing up, I fell into the comfort of my tiny little Catholic school.  This school allowed a bubble of happiness where I was able to be a weird, tall, skelator-skinny, book worm in absolute peace.  

I'm that odd person that isn't sure if they are more introverted or extroverted.  Online tests can never tell.  I'm somewhere in the middle, I suppose that's not a bad place to be.  I had friends and I did my own thing, life was good.

Being the daughter of a Canadian hockey player, I was on skates before I could really even walk.  I automatically became a figure skater.  I also did girl scouts, the recorder and eventually the flute and piccolo.  

I quit all of those activities because I decided I wanted to be a swimmer.  Not just any old swimmer, one of the best swimmers in the world.  Starting at 6 years old, I dedicated my life to swimming.  I practiced in the pool before and after school, my training also included running, biking, weight lifting, yoga, kickboxing, and whatever my coach said that I needed to do to make it big.  One would think that school work would fall behind with this much activity, no way.  My coach checked report cards.  Basically, I had no life.

To back up a little more, I will tell you about my family.  I had a mom, a dad, and a baby sister.  I said "had", because my dad died of Melanoma in 1999, after struggling with it for almost my whole childhood.  

We had a lot of time to discuss what was going to happen after he passed, basically it all came down to the same thing - "Dom, I'm so proud of you.  You are strong and grownup, way beyond your years."

Now, my dad wasn't quite so articulate as that, but that was his underlying meaning.

My mom is the strongest person in the whole world.  She carried us through everything.  Financially and emotionally.  We had everything we needed and more.  

So, we were left with three very strong, dominant women in one house.  Do I need to say more?  Teenage years were ROUGH.

In High School I fell down the stairs at a swim meet and fractured both of my elbows.  I landed on my hands, and being double jointed, I bent them both inside out.  

I lost everything.  Nobody thought that I could come back from that, and I did.  I came back Junior year of High School and won Massachusetts State Championships in the 500 freestyle.  I pushed myself too hard, too fast, came back, and lost it all over again.  WOW.

Now, being a teenager, that was super, duper fun emotionally.  I discovered I had all of this free time on my hands, and I started making friends that weren't on the swim team.  Being at a public school in a city at that time, I learned a lot of new things.  Do I need to say anymore?  

Regret?  None.  I would not be the person I am today without any of the above listed events.  Although I am certainly not always stable, I wouldn't change a thing about myself.

I found myself in not such a good place, and got into a program where I could start attending college in High School.  I was then left with the decision on what I was going to do about college.  My whole life I was banking on a free boat because of my swimming.  I had two easy options left - attend Franklin Pierce College for free because my mom worked there, or go to a Massachusetts State school with great scholarships because of my advanced MCAS scores.  

I chose Franklin Pierce, and I am so glad.

I had a blast in college, partying very hard, and schooling hard too.  With my strict background from swimming, it was very easy for me to wake up for early morning classes, get my homework done, and still manage to party every night.  Super important life skills. 

My first semester senior year of college I finally got into the glassblowing class.  I gave it up to study abroad in Greece.  The next semester (Fall of 2009), I managed to squeeze it into my ridiculous schedule once more.

Was I super awesome at it in every way?  HA HA HA HA HA

My arms were so weak, from my injuries and lack of serious exercise (besides lifting backpacks and beer bottles).  I thought I would never get it, I was wondering if my glassblowing class was going to bring down my GPA.  Eventually, it started to make sense, and everything started to change.  

TO BE CONTINUED! mwwuahahaha <3

Frustrated

Did you ever get so frustrated that you are ready to just give up?

Of course we all have.  That is how I am feeling now.

The studio?  The studio is going great.  We are completely booked most weekends, I have amazing people coming in to take lessons, I have a wonderful employee, and life is good.

I definitely understand protocol.  I am the queen of protocol.  Organization, order, control - those are happy words in my book.

The problem is that when you go to the ends of the earth to follow someones protocol, that isn't made 100% clear to you.  You are being set up to fail.  Failure is not a happy word, honestly it is a word unknown to me.  I don't ever "fail".  I don't succeed at that point in time, I get back up, and I do it even better the next time.

How many times do you work to get back up, before you switch your focus to a slightly less appealing goal? A new goal, with an equal end profit.

These are the questions of my day.

I have moved to this town, and I have fallen in love with it.  It is heartbreaking to find out that your new home, that you care about so much, don't really care about its effect on you.  All of our hard work, all of the wonderful things that we have done.  We are just one on a list, to be pushed aside until next time.  I'm not asking for special treatment, I am simply asking for time and understanding.  Look at what we have planned.
Please, physically come and look.  Ask us questions, while you can actually see the space. Think about what we have brought to this town, and think of how much more we could bring. Pushing us aside is only hurting us, and making us weak.

Can't you see that?  Don't you care?

Who am I talking to?  You of course, because you're the only one reading this.

I will leave you with one question:

Can Tina wear Sue's red shirt?

December spirits!

HELLOOOO there everyone!

How is the RUSH of December going?  Parties, food, parties, presents, parties, food.  Basically we are all tired, fat, and broke.  Do I have this right?

Over here at the studio we are doing amazing, as always.  NH Chronicle surprised us and replayed our video, wow could life get any better?

http://www.wmur.com/new-hampshire-chronicle/Tuesday-January-8th-Terrapin-Glass-Blowing/-/13383450/18068770/-/r24j59/-/index.html

Certainly can't argue with free publicity!  Helps pay our massive propane bill!  Thanks NH Chronicle!

So pumpkin season was a huge success.  Now that its time for holiday related glass - wait, there is no time.
OK Dom.  Now you know.  I know its hot in the summer, but you just have to suck it up and make those damn snowmen.  THERE IS NO TIME NOW!

No seriously, the summer is so hot and slow that it is hard to stay focused.  If I were to spend the summer making anything and everything to fill up the shelves, I would be in good shape right now.  Remind me of this this upcoming summer.  Dom, the winter is busy.  Do it now while you have time!!!

My status now?  Working 6 days a week, 8-12 hours a day, and still sneaking in on Tuesdays to catch up.  Tuesday you say?  Yes!  Tuesday!  That is my day, my "Sunday" per say.

Sunday?  Yes, Sunday.  I can stay up late on Monday and sleep late on Tuesday.  I cannot stay up late on Tuesday though, because here comes Wednesday!

Do you get it?  Friday and Saturday all of you regular Monday-Friday 9-5 boring folks go out.
"Wooo TGIF"
The "Friday" thing isn't happening to me, I simply just get a "Sunday".

Wah, poor, poor Dom.  Working her butt off and living the dream.  Ya'll can keep your boring Monday-Friday 9-5, I'm sticking with this.

By the way, small rant off a positive topic.  If the complainers of the fact that we are closed to the public Monday and Tuesday are reading this, WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM - A ROBOT!?
No really, the weekends are our busiest time, so we are open on the weekends.  Why on earth do you feel the need to go to our neighbors in the building and complain about the fact that I need a bit of a life!?! No - I cannot afford to pay someone to sit around on our two slowest days of the week, just because you wish to browse.  At this time, I refuse to squish that into our new small-business budget.


OK, OK.  No more negativity Dom.  Back to a positive note.  As you may know, or may not know, I am on the Board for Team Jaffrey.  I have taken over the responsibility for running the Facebook page.  Overall, I am finding it to be a wonderful experience!  It is forcing me to become aware of all that is happening within downtown Jaffrey!

I had no idea Jaffrey had such amazing traditions such as lighting the Christmas Tree on the Common as an event.  Wonderful!  The Jaffrey Public Library read a book to all of the children.  Santa flew into the Jaffrey Airport and the Jaffrey Fire Department zoomed him in for the lighting and photo opp's.  The more I learn and become involved in, the more I want to do.

Did I mention that through this whole event, it was pouring rain and freezing cold?  That didn't bring anybody's spirits down!