The Liberty Arts Workshop

     My next gig would be in Durham, NC, at Liberty Arts.  This is a terrific group of artists of various disciplines including metal forging, fabrication, casting, woodworking, ceramics and glass - all housed in a massive warehouse space.  Their space is in the same building complex as several rehabbed manufacturing buildings called the Golden Belt.  There are "quiet" & "clean" studio spaces (mostly painters) as well as apartments, a coffee shop, galleries, and other creative businesses in the complex.  I have seen this type of development in various places around the country, in many occasions, the developers spike the prices once the places become popular, often forcing out the tenants that make these destinations popular to begin with!  I have never quite understood this mentality, hopefully that will not be the case here.  It seems to be very well done.
     The glass studio is just getting started, and I was invited out to do a workshop & inject a little fresh energy into the mix.  The folks here I have a bit of history with.  Paul Vernon is the owner, and George-ann Greth is developing the teaching/community outreach program. I have worked off and on with George-ann most of my glass career - she was my first teacher - and we worked together for over a decade on a variety of projects.  Paul has had a small "weekend warrior" shop in Durham for many years in various locations.  He was also one of the students in the first workshop at East Falls Glass in October 2011.  I have always enjoyed this part of the world, and have worked in Paul's former studio on several occasions.  I was thrilled to be invited to participate!

    The workshop structure would be somewhat loose, a couple of folks could only come by for some of the time.  Charles & George-ann and Paul would ultimately remain the only constants.  We made a trip to the local scrap yard on Friday, where I found a cool bronze drain to use as a blow mold.  "Readymades".  The next day we went to the Scrap Exchange next door, to look for more readymades.  There were a few plaster molds I couldn't resist, that were originally created for ceramic slip casting.  Hard to pass up a mold that has the title "Stuffy Sleeping Bunny Feet" written on it in marker!

    Though I was only in town for a few days, we made the most of it.  Charles concentrated on a wet clay & bamboo mold - the bamboo was quite gnarly & made a beautiful pattern.  I went with the Readymades & found objects.  I have had this idea for removable inserts for the "Tripentahedron Vase" mold for about 10 years now and have never arrived at a design that I like - until now.  There was a pallet of funky stuff that we could pick from.  I found these three scraps of steel with an identical cut out on each.  Charles instinctively placed them in the mold - perfect fit & pattern for the idea!  I love it when that happens!
    George-ann had the most twisted idea - she had been freezing a package of uncooked "chicken paws", which she wired to the inside of a perforated cage.  The concept was pretty great, and the imagined object even better.  For some reason I was expecting this to smell like grilled chicken, you know, like a barbecue.  NOT THE CASE!  Seared flesh. One of the nastiest smells & I got a hefty whiff of it, since I was blowing out the mold!  We only blew that one once.

    There was quite a bit of local buzz, and many visitors came to watch.  One of the visitors was Caperton Andersson, a friend of Liberty Arts, who took a wonderful series of photographs. Here is a link to some of the photos she took.  And here is a link to some of the photos I took.  It was a really terrific visit, with much support & enthusiasm from all.