On the Road: First Stop, Toledo

   The first gig on the Adventure is Visiting Artist at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls, where my good friend Eoin Breadon is the glass department head.  The interesting part of this is that it is where my Professor, Jon Clark went for undergrad.  It was a brief conversation with him last year that prompted me to set out on this adventure.  I asked for some advice regarding a particular blow mold that I kept getting stuck in.  He pointed out that I was hanging around too long in the mold - the glass was setting up & getting stuck.  He then pointed out "That's your problem, Phil. You hang around too long!".  Hmmm...
   So, now I am trying on the Nomadic Life for a while.

On the way to River Falls, I decided to stop off in Toledo to visit the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art .

As you will find out on there website, Toledo is essentially the birthplace of the studio glass movement.  Rather fitting for my first stop. I met a few folks, watched some demonstrations and checked out the collection.  They have some great examples of ancient glass that I was pretty thrilled to see - some of the stuff that really inspires me - I was pretty excited.