Want to skip that mess?  Want something that can bring joy all year AND help out 26 artists?

The 2012 AGLF calendar

Give some consideration to the Artisan Glassworker Legal Fund calendar.   It’s 12 months of beautiful artwork and a useful calendar to boot.   All of the proceeds go straight to the legal fund currently being used to defend 26 artists (including yours truly) who are trying to protect free speech.

To order a calendar, visit the site directly at:  http://aglf.info/calendar.html . For information about the group in general, back on up to http://aglf.info.

And thank you!

Would you like to help create one that’ll make YOUR life easier?

I know, you’re probably saying, “Pish Posh, not going to happen.”

Well not with that attitude it won’t, but read on!

Let me to introduce you to the Artisan Craft Page, a page being set up to allow oodles of people to advertise while simultaneously raising some money for the AGLF.

Feel free to consider this wonder page your cork board to the handmade world.   “How so?” you wisely ask?

Consider this, this page doesn’t have to be just glass workers.   In fact, we’d love nothing more if it wasn’t just glass folks.  We’d love to see basket weavers, metal smiths, jewelers, candle makers, scrap bookers, sign makers, wood workers, printers, and a host of other artisans on this page.   There’s a massive benefit of such a mix, particularly when you need a service of one of these craftspeople.    Need stands? Find a wood or metal worker.  Banners and business cards?  Printer.  How about a scarf to keep warm at that October art festival?  Look for a crocheter or knitter.

Google’s good for searches.  But you get everybody in the entire world.   On our page, each ad has keywords associated with it, and we encourage folks to use them.  This means that if you were to search for:

welder site:artisancraftpage..com

You would find only the welders on that page.  Since every ad needs to be approved (at the moment…) we’re making sure that MegaConglomerate Welder Inc* isn’t getting an ad on the page.  But Bill Jones Welding most certainly would be welcome.    I’m sure the folks that work for MegaCon are nice and all, but we’re looking for the smaller workers of the world.   Folks who take the time to put an individual attention to detail into their work.

And right now, you can get into the site at a fantastic price.   We’re running and introductory sale on ads.    Through 6/7 you can get your ad (good through 2014!) for 75% off, or just $25.00.

Next week you can get it for 50% off, or $50.
The following week?  25% off, not bad, not bad.
After that we’re back up to $100.00, which is still a deal for an ad that’ll be up and searchable until April 2014.

So spread the word, sing songs in the mountains, invite your artisan friends and sign up for an ad.  It’s quick, fairly painless, and helps support a group of artists that were just looking out for their own rights.

*If this is a real company, and it’s yours, feel free to get in touch and I can change it.  I was attempting to make up a company name.

The man in the black coat.

Now for most folks, the man in black has bad connotations, but not this time.  This is the guy that got me 4 years worth of online advertising for $100.00.

He sidled up next to me, “Hey, does your friend need to advertise his web business?”

“Well sure,” I replied.  ”We all do.   But they just cut back his hours, I don’t know if he can swing the cost.”

“Well, Tom’s friend,” he said with a smile, “today’s your lucky day.”

“The fine folks who are maintain the Artisan Craft Page site are running a sale during the month of June.    Like a lively barn dance, it’s a stepped affair.

Act during the first week, and you can get that same 4 years of advertising for $25.
Put it off, and during the second week you can still get it, but for $50.
Slack a bit more, and during the third week you’ll be paying $75.

After that..and you’ve missed the opportunity for the great price and it’s back to the still phenomenal deal at $100.”

Bob was grinning like an idiot at this point and reaching for his checkbook.

I on the other hand was reaching for the man in black’s neck, “You charged me $100 last week!”

In between undulating motions of his head he squeaked out, “I’ll adjust it for you!” so I stopped.

Don’t throttle the man in black, act now and get the bargain basement introductory price now.  But act fast.   Get your ad in place, complete with it’s SEO goodness until April 2014 for just $25.

Starting June 1, head over to artisancraftpage.com to sign up at the special pricing.   It’s quick and easy and the money raised benefits the AGLF.

About to lose my marbles

Knock knock

….

Not one for jokes, hmm?   Ok, well all business, I can get behind that.

Can I perhaps…tempt you with a little value?

Today is the Artisan & Glassworkers Legal Fund Random Bag of Glass fundraiser.  Of course we have a special on acronyms like AGLF and RBOG, but you want the good stuff.

The bags.

For $10, you can get a mystery grab bag containing some bit of glassy goodness.   Select the designer bag if you don’t work with glass, select a supply bag if you do.

Interested?  Starting at 12 PM EST on April 1, 2011, you can get your hands on one of these fun items.   Just click over to the AGLF special events page.

Can’t wait?  Have a look at the Etsy site for a great deal on a handmade somethin’ somethin’.

Do you hate injustice?

What if I told you there was a way for glass artisans to get their name out there and help fight the good fight at the same time?

Interested?

Consider donating a piece or two to be sold in the AGLF store.  In return for your generosity, you get your piece placed in a store run by a plucky rag-tag group of folks who are trying to raise money to defend themselves against a law suit, and in doing so, set a valuable legal precedent that may help other artists later.

For a brief bit of information on the group, to donate money, or get in contact about having your work featured in the AGLF Etsy shop, click on over to www.aglf.info.

If you want to donate a piece and remain anonymous that’s ok too, but why not take advantage of the extra eyeballs?  We’re happy to give you credit for making the piece and include a mention of your shop as well.  Plus, all of the proceeds go to helping defray monthly legal costs being incurred by the suit.

And thanks.

*Note, the AGLF is not a non-profit organization.  Donations are not tax deductible.

This round is more of an interest to the other glassy types out there, but have a look at the AGLF Random Bag of Glass sales event going on.

For a 5 dollar purchase, you’ll receive a thank you mystery bag as a token of our thanks.  Some random buyers, however will receive a little something extra in their packages.   See the link below for more details, and thank you!

http://www.aglf.info/special.html

As we’re so often visibly appearing hat in hand, we wanted to give everyone an update on how the current legal battle is progressing.

We start with some good news, of the original 30 people named as defendants in the lawsuit, 3 have been released from the suit on jurisdictional grounds. One other person has elected to separate from the group and go it on her own.

This leaves 26 people still locked in a legal battle this holiday season. Rather than concentrating on family and craft, they instead are spending time in the defense of their names and reputations.

For the remainder, there are still jurisdictional challenges pending for several other members of the group, and once we clear that, those who are left in the suit will face whatever charges the plaintiff is bringing to light. As of this writing, we’re still waiting for clarification from the plaintiff as to what she’s actually accusing the individual group members of.

To date, the legal defense has cost the group over $30,000 and we still face legal bills in the thousands each month this case continues. This co-op of AGLF, using membership fees helps to fund this fight, but as you can imagine, this is impossible to continue without the community support.

So, this holiday season we wish you and yours happiness and health. We’d also like to ask for your continued support in this case.

We are sensitive to the fact that we’re continuing to ask for monetary donations, donations of products to the AGLF Etsy store, and we thank you for your patience and continued support. We’d like to remind you that the plaintiff in this case has stated publicly that she was using this initial group as a first round, so truly no one is safe from persecution, warranted or otherwise.

As you reflect on friends and family this season, please consider helping your fellow artisans in their fight. Will a little luck, old fashioned perseverance, and unfortunately large legal bills, we hope that we can win in this fight, and set a precedent that can help other artisans should they need it.

Finally, as always, thank you for your past and continued support for our group. None of the members of the AGLF co-op receive any compensation from the group, so money from donations and purchases goes straight into the defense fund.

For information on the group or to make a donation, please visit us at our official web site.
To purchase a piece of one of a kind, artisan made goodness, have a look at our Etsy site.

From myself and EVERYONE in this fight, Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

So how did I pack these up?  Given this is the second time I had to make these, I want to be extra sure there’s no problems.  If you’ve read the other 3 installments, you know there’s a lot of work that go into these, and this set didn’t even include having to make a case (the first version came with one, so I didn’t have to remake one).

Well, I didn’t take a lot of pictures on the packing because..it’s boring.   But quickly, I bought a Sterlite plastic shoe box and some quilting batting.

The batting got cut up into strips and each piece was individually rolled into a strip.  Inside the box there was a layer of batting at the bottom, then the pieces all snug in the box, and more batting on top and tucked around the sides.   The box then went into a USPS Priority Mail shoe box sized box, and that, my friends, is what’s going out.

Packed to go

If they break on this journey, it certainly won’t be from a lack of effort on my part.    I’ve also insured this shipment.

For those of you thinking I’m quite mad, perhaps you’re right.  I’ve effectively meted out $200.00 worth of customer service for a customer that purchased an item for less than $50.00.   In this economic climate, the only things that sets apart a dedicated artisan from the mass produced junk you can buy at the gas station is the quality of the work and the level of customer service.    In this case, for whatever reason the quality level fell and the pieces broke in transit, so I’ve gone above and beyond to make that right.

It’s how I’d hope another artisan would treat me if the situation were reversed, and that’s how I treat my customers.

***************************************************

Had your fill of stores?  Done with generic, soulless goods that have no character?  Consider shopping for handmade pieces this season from the AGLF Etsy shop.   Proceeds go directly to the AGLF and benefit a group of artists embroiled in a law suit this season rather than focusing on their craft.

If you’ll recall, we made the 32 posts that the beads will rest on and put them in for an annealing cycle.

Posts ready to go

For those of you keeping score, now we have about 40 posts (extras “just in case”) and around 80 beads comprising the two sides of the chess set.   Now we just need to put them together.

Posts and beads

As a reminder, these pieces are made so that the number of beads denotes the piece.  Pawns have 1 bead, rooks 2, etc., all the way up to 6 beads on the king.   Further, the beads remain free to move on the posts themselves.   This gives a nice tactile experience to the pieces, and I thought it was kind of cool to boot.   You need to have fun in what you make, right?

To achieve this, the parts need to be made in steps and prepped as you go along.   Here is the first side prepped before going back into the flame.

Prepped posts - white side

I was a bit busy with the glass, and the flame, and the hey and the ho and the burRRRNNing so I didn’t take pictures of the next steps, but here’s what happened.  If you’re not a glass worker, consider leaving this glossary page open as you read along.

For each of the pieces, I cold sealed a punty (rod of glass for the non-glass folk) to the little bulb at the end of that post, trying to hit the center best I can.    Have I mentioned I’m center challenged?

Next, angling the post so the beads don’t slip off, I flame cut the open end of the post off, then carefully ball up the end to make a barbell shape which traps the beads onto the glass.  This gets set aside in a rack for a moment while I work on the next step.

Using a rod of 12mm glass, I ball up the end to make a small marble that will serve as the base of the piece.   Once that’s formed, but still on the rod it was made on, I can move onto the next step.

At this point, I heat the tip of the beaded barbell I made and the tip of the base marble in the flame, and carefully bring them together, hopefully keeping them aligned and straight.    It doesn’t always go well, mostly depending on my coffee consumption that day.

At this point, I have a chess piece on a stick.

As you might have guessed, next I flame cut the marble off of the rod it was made on, shape it back to round, then heat the lower half and press on the marver to flatten it slightly.

Finally, I heat my tweezers, grasp the piece near the base and, hopefully, tap off the cold sealed punty, melt in the scar, and the place the piece into the kiln.

Just a little warning from experience, that cold seal connection to the top of the piece is fairly precarious, so be careful moving around your workstation that you don’t knock a piece onto your bench.

After cooling, the pieces look a little something like this

White side finished

Here’s another shot of the pieces.   I had to chuckle because with the sparkle it’s got that 70′s “adult movie” look.

Bead chicka

That’s it for making the pieces.   There’ll be one more installment to show off the other side and how they’ll be packed, but in a nutshell, that’s how they’re made.   I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learned a little something in the process.

********************************************

Feeling a need for a little retail therapy but hate crowds?  Click on over to the AGLF Etsy shop and have a look at the handmade goodies there.   There’s items across the price range including jewelry, sculpture, beads, and mini-ornaments, and all of the proceeds go towards the AGLF, which in part benefits yours truly.

Thanks!

Sorry to disappoint you, but tonight was a ho hum tedious session.   I’m still working on the replacement chess pieces, so if you’re interested stick with me.   But like Superman washing his tights in Woolite on his day off, sometimes things are dull.

I’ve gotten the beads made and cleaned, now it’s time for the next step, making the pieces.  Want to see how they start out?

Funny, those don't look like chess pieces

It’s exciting, I know.   But try to calm down, you’re embarrassing yourself.

These are the raw materials, 5 mm rod and 12 mm rod.  It’s fun to say rod.  Rod rod rod, rod Nicole Kidman rod.   But, back to work.

One quick plug for an absolutely awesome tool.   That nifty looking pair of pliers is actually one of the best glass cutters I’ve ever used, because you know I’ve used so very many of them.   But really, this thing’s awesome.   It has a cutting wheel built into it, so you grip the rod, give it a turn to score a line, then just snap it off.  It’s SO much cleaner than just using a scoring knife.

The JAWS cutter. This is the small one, I have a larger one as well

Cheap unsolicited plug over (it really is a good tool, check them out if you get a chance), it’s time to make some posts.    These are the pieces that the beads will sit on.   This particular type of chess set has pieces that are identified by the number of beads on them.  It goes like this:

Pawns: 1 bead
Rooks: 2 beads
Knights: 3 beads

You get the idea.   I’ll need 32 posts to act as a basis for the chess set.    In actuality I’ll wind up making a few extra because inevitably a couple of pieces go bad in their creation.

A post fresh from the flame

You’ll notice I’ve balled up the end of the post slightly.    Eventually I’ll make a barbell shape with the beads trapped onto it.   As luck would have it, a 5 mm rod is just about the perfect size to fit inside a bead made on a 1/4″ diameter rod.   So if you ball up the end slightly, the bead can’t slip off.

Here are some of the prepped posts waiting to go into the kiln.

Waiting to go into the kiln

Some of the more observant folks might be recoiling in horror from that picture.

• Tom, isn’t that paper towel a fire hazard?
• Tom isn’t that fiber blanket a respiratory hazard?
• Do these pants make me look fat?

Well you’re on your own for the fashion advice, but the other two are valid points.

The fiber blanket can be a respiratory hazard if you disturb it.   In this case I move it as little as possible, and it’s there just to cushion the pieces as I cut them off the rod with the wheeled nippers.  Also, where it’s located is still within the air flow from the hood above the torch.

And the paper towel?  Yes, it’s a fire hazard.    Off camera there’s a fire extinguisher though just in case, there’s a container of water within reach as well, and no, it’s not normally there.   But it does help me move the fiber blanket without it getting shaken up.   Thanks for caring.

And I think you look lovely in those pants.

Tune in tomorrow for the next step, placing the beads, trapping them on there, and finishing the pieces.  Thanks for reading!

*****************************************************************

Hey, are you looking for a fantastic stocking stuffer?  Maybe a little bright eye candy for your otherwise dreary wall?  Consider picking up one of the 2011 AGLF wall calendars.   You’d be getting an awesome calendar (I bought 2 for myself) and helping out a rag tag bunch of 29 lampworkers stuck in a lawsuit this holiday.

Hot beads in the cool winter time