FOCI - First Visit

Monday came around and I thought I would drive in to visit the folks at FOCI, Minnesota Center For Glass Art. I had the truck mostly emptied, still dealing with the weight issue, as well as the fact that I couldn't really get to anything with out totally unpacking. I would deal with that whole conundrum later on.

FOCI has a great combination of things going on. First of all, the space is amazing. Four stories, open in the middle all the way up with balconies all the way around on each floor. Industrial. Apparently where Alvin the submersible was built. The complex of buildings was originally a research facility for one of the big cereal manufacturers, and now houses the glass studio, a research laboratory, coffee roaster, chocolatier, metal and stone sculptors and a great creative vibe.

A really cool center of creativity. I had a chance to help out a little bit & chat with Sofia Lorraine and Michael Boyd. Sofia has been the office administrator of the glass studio, teaches Yoga and is one of the “Minnesota Glass Girls”. Michael is the visionary founder of FOCI as well as being a very talented glass artist. We hit it off and had some very productive brainstorming. Everyone at the studio was very welcoming and genuinely into what I am up to. I left there very excited about the possibility of future collaboration.

At lunchtime I visited a place called Ambles Machinery Hardware &Steel which was hilariously difficult to find, not knowing my way around town. But oh my was it worth it. Ambles is full of all kinds of hardware and odd ball industrial left overs, a candy store for someone like me. Of course, my battery on my camera was dead, so check out the link for pics. While visiting Ambles, I realized that I no longer need to carry around certain raw materials with me. I think places like this exist in every major city, not to mention that tapping into ore local resources along the way is more suited to my Adventure.