The Road Past The Horizon - The Glass House Rolls Northward

We trek to Northern Alberta to perform a 2 day show with the town of Fox Creek, and will be collaborating with the school, library and community!

Mixing Up The Media

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Kai's journey in fine art is returning to an old favorite process of finding pre made objects and re-making them into something else, with some blown glass elements. Stay tuned for some cultural procreation as Kai's ideas of history and actual history have art babies.
 

Jen Hall Made A Short Video Of Our Debut

Our friend, Jen Hall created a short teaser of our first show at the Millarville Christmas market. She came in, shot some footage, and peeled out and sent this to us like a day later. She is fast, and we are always happy to be subjects of her experiments and practice as a photographer.

Thanks, Jen!
 

Our Continuing Mission....

Captains's Log: Our first real trek in our new craft, and we are travelling from the icy rocky mountains of Alberta into the warm interior valleys of British Columbia. Our transformed truck, now dubbed Optimus Prime, is equipped with all the shielding and tools to protect it and us heroes from the treacherous trails and obstacles that may befall us on this 5 day mission.
 

Our destination is the lovely township of Abbotsford where one of the largest art markets around is taking place, and we are invited to entertain guests with our theatre and glass blowing skills.

Will Mandy and Kai voyage safely through the terrifying natural barrier dividing these two Canadian provinces, and reach their destination safely?

Will Optimus Prime's new nick name win out over 'Little Bessy'?

Stay tuned to find out!!!

Making Winter Mountain Themed Cups, In the Mountains During Winter

We are asked a lot about blowing glass in the winter time and if it get too cold for glass blowing. In our 200 square foot truck, we actually have a melt furnace that is on 24 hours a day and keeps glass inside of it molten at 1200C. Our unique space is quite nice all the time on the inside, and when we lower the stage, we get the best of two worlds. Cold from the outside keeping the sweat away, and warmth from the inside keeping our buns warm.

The Art of Making Art As An Enterprise

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The origin of this collective is based on our two founder's need to create conceptual work, and develop a mastery of glass blowing.  The world of art is very nuanced when it comes to making money through art, where ideas are cultivated independent of market viability.  Some concepts need to be expressed to create dialogue with an audience, and the result might not be[ financial security.

The Glass House is taking the same steps as many artists and crafts people before us where we are sharing the whole experience of the artist's process of glass blowing. This endeavor is a challenge because we are making ourselves and some types of work we make a 'product' in order to make a living, the trade up is when we make work based on concepts that look for a dialogue with an audience - that audience might ignore us.

This is the age old dilemma in art, does one make what they believe is important and risk many years living an unstable life, or make market ready products and gain some financial stability, risking lost credibility when we make conceptual work.

All things come to those who order them...

Our equipment arrived and has been tested and now is ready to be put on the truck for final tweaking.

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We ordered 3 major pieces of equipment for this touring hot glass studio:

1) The glass melt furnace - heats up the glass to 1200C where it stays molten!

2) Reheating station - after getting the glass out of the furnace to shape, it cools quickly and becomes hard to shape. This bad boy heats it up again.

3)Annealer - glass cools down slowly in this oven like device after you are done shaping a piece, otherwise it will crack if you left it out in the open!

The Only Way To Paint A Glass Studio on Wheels....

Our logo and truck paint design are compliments of the talented Kelly Kuhl, graphic designer & fashion designer, and will bling out our exterior.

Next step, meet with some friends at Protospace makers community in Calgary and see about building some interesting lights, and equipment.

Designing a Glass Studio... In a Truck!

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We bought a truck!! A huge 26 foot moving truck that very soon will house our hot glass blowing equipment and be the stage for our live glass blowing shows. It is going to be retro fitted with a sliding wall that will become a stage, where we will make glass art from molten glass that 1000+ degree Celsius.

The Glass House Collective is coming, stay tuned for more updates.

The Beginning...

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With a passion for blowing glass and making fine art, Mandy Patchin and Kai Georg Scholefield have founded the Glass House Fine Art Collective. A company of rogues bent on bringing the drama and intensity of hot glass work to world.

Today, we are born... (and a little melodramatic).