Gals of Glazz - Megan Stelljes

I met this lady when I was taking Karen Willenbrink-Johnsens class at Pilchuck and Megan was one of the TA's. Megan is a super fun and super talented lady. She was such a good TA, totally all over it and full of energy. She was also super lovely to give me a list of all the rad things to do in Seattle if I had the chance. I love her spirit and she seems like such a dedicated glass maker. I hope she makes it out to Australia so we can hang out and I can show her some of the good stuffs that we got! (she also has an excellent talent for dress ups, her costumes are off the hook!)

Here we go, meet Megan!

Gals of Glazz

Tune in for 10

Megan Stelljes

Who are you and what do you do?

I am a Tacoma, Washington, based glass artist.  I graduated with a BFA in glass forming from Emporia State University in 2009. After graduation I moved to the Pacific North West to pursue glass, working with and for friends making sculptural glass.  I love being a part of the Seattle area glass community.  I also own and operate my own small business making drink ware called Gray Sky Glassware.  (grayskyglassware.com)

What do you make?

I make sculptures based on my experiences in society.  As I evolve, the themes in my work follow.  My current body of work uses familiar objects to convey moods and feelings.  I have also been working with photographic decals.  Using old photos rolled up in the hot shop on bell jars. The bell jars are mostly empty with a cane drawing on the opposite side of the photo.  The drawing illuminates the dissonance between real life and expectations in the photo.  I love simple forms.  Often times my work has an almost child like or cartoon aesthetic.  I love the playfulness and the familiarity this aesthetic highlights. 

What’s your color palette?

Vintage Tupperware (pastels not 70’s) meets bright candy colors

Proudest Achievement?

I am most proud of being invited to be a Gaffer at Pilchuck Glass School.  Pilchuck has been such a special place for me.   I feel like it's the place where I grew up in the glass community.  I have worked there in many capacities and always dreamt of being a gaffer.  It is such a special and fun position. 

Hot or Cold?

HOT!

Dream Project?

My dream project is having the freedom to create a dream project.  As amazing as glass is, it is so financially limiting.  I hope to one day be able to support myself entirely through my own artwork.  That is my ultimate dream project.

Influences

Most of my influences in glass come from people I work with, or have learned from directly.  My first teacher outside of college was Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen.  She taught me so much of what I know today and am so thankful for my time with her.  She is such a pioneer.  Two of my favorite lessons from her are “It’s not done until it’s over done!” and “All that glitters is… we need more GLITTER!” Kelly O’Dell and Amanda Patenaude are sort of my spirit animals of glass influences.  These ladies are such treasures and have really showed the most important part of being an artist is sharing love and saying Yes Please!  They are both amazing artists as well as amazing women.  I have also recently been able to be a student of Amy Rueffert, Jen Elek and Netty Blair.  These ladies taught me so very much about working glass, art and life.  I feel like that is an interview in and of itself.  I guess the most important thing that draws me to these people is an overwhelming kindness and appreciation for those around them. My work is so reactive to my surroundings that my influences are from daily life as well as their artwork. 

What’s coming up for you?

In the spring I am fortunate enough to be a teaching assistant for Jen Elek and Jeremy Bert for a Penland School of Crafts concentration class.  I can’t wait.  I am also working on new products for the Gray Sky Glassware line.  Maybe even a new studio…

Three foods?

Cucumbers

Pizza

Beer? Does beer count as a food?

Thank you Megan! (And beer totally counts) If you want to check out more of Megan's work check her site here.

Gals of Glazz - Tegan Hamilton

Hey there friends, I have had a lot of stuff (thats putting it politely) going on recently, and it's making me think long and hard about a lot of it. But in the midst of it all I remember Gals of Glazz! Gals of Glazz makes me ridiculously happy to write about. It reconnects me with my joy. LAdies and glass! What's not to like about that? I also like it because it's not work for me. It's like a nice kind of distraction. An extra curriculum activity. (Makes me think of Rushmore and Max Fishers love of extra curriculum activities, beekeeping, fencing, theatre productions...I fucking love that movie, the scene with Bill Murray on the diving board, scotch in hand, ciggie dangling from his mouth...gold)

So today (night), I bring you Tegan Hamilton. Tegan went to the same Uni as me but was a couple of years above (I think?). Tegan is now living her dream, blowing glass in Seattle. You little ripper. This lady has ballz! I really admire that she went, you know what?, I want to blow glass and where better to do it than Seattle. I'm moving there. Amazing. I think it takes a courageous person to chase their dreams. So here you go, get to know her a little better:

Gals of Glazz

Tune in for 10

1.             Who are you and what do you do?

           

My name is Tegan Hamilton and I am an Australian glass artist living in Seattle, Washington, USA. I help other wonderful people make their work and make as much of my own work as I can!

2.             What do you make?

I make unique functional work which includes octopus inspired vessels and screen printed tumblers. I also make less functional work which is inspired by natural history and anatomy. My Masters work explored the relationship between medicine and art, and my more recent work looks at natural history in a broad manner. I love sculpting, blowing, printing and painting among other things.

3.             Why do you make?

I make because it warms my soul. I would be incomplete and not as happy in life if I weren't creating.

4.             What’s you colour palette?

I have a pretty subtle colour palette generally. I prefer one colour at a time and love transparent colours. The transparency of glass still fascinates me after 12 years.

5.             What’s your proudest achievement?

My proudest achievement is packing up two suitcases with no planned job or place to live and flying to Seattle to follow my dreams. It was so scary and in hindsight very brave!

6.             Hot or Cold?

Love the hot. There is nothing like the warmth of the furnace on your skin when gathering glass. However, warm and cold are integral to my processes.

7.             What’s your dream project?

My dream project is a mountain of time developing my own work.

8.             What’s your influences?

There are so many influences on my work. I take inspiration from the brilliant scientific illustrators like Vesalius, Henry Carter and Da Vinci. I'm inspired by natural history museums which capture the human fascination of collecting categorising and preserving the world around us. I'm also influenced by my glass peers and the glassblowers who came before me. I would not be where I am today without the 

9.             What’s coming up for you? Or what are you looking forward to?

I am currently involved in a glass holiday show at the Pilchuck Glass exhibition space in Seattle until the end of December (there will be a fun opening on the first Thursday of December) I also have a glass exhibition coming up in Melbourne in February, so I get to come home for that.

10.         If you could only eat 3 foods for the rest of your life what would they be?

Steak, green beans and dark chocolate!

Thanks for sharing with us Teges! 

You can check out more of her stuff here.

Gals of Glazz - 4 - Arlie Trowbridge

I am so lovin the gals of glazz. I love hearing about what everyone is up to and I LOVE hearing all the similarities we have in our practices. Kinda makes you feel like you are in in it together you know, not some strange bird all out there alone.

Today i got a suer lady to introduce you to that I met while I was at Penland this year taking Ambers Cowan's class. Her name is Arlie Trowbridge and she is a flame worker. I kinda met Arlie first through instagram! Amber kind of put us in touch when she found out we were both taking her class. So it was kinda like I already had a pal before I even started! (God bless the internet.) Arlie is a super rad maker and I had THE best time with her at Penland. She is just one of those people that is super fun to hang out with and she is one super talented lady on the torch who taught be a whole bunch of rad tricks.

We also got to have a day off together where she showed me and Amber around her home town of Ashville. (I actually was so hung over I could barely function but somehow a Corey special (iced coconut coffee) and half a ginger cookie seemed to help me pull it together) She also took us to this amazing lake where I got to see a weiner dog swimmin laps while we ate pizza and had beers!! What more could you want? Arlie is killing it and makes beautiful jewellery. ( I also love that she is absolutely bananas about crystals and gems!!)  Like me, she is self employed and I just think that is THE best. She will be going into her Christmas madness making period as we speak, on that torch 24/7. She def has the skillz to pay the billz. I hope you enjoy getting to know her, I sure did and I reckon she will be one of those friends for life. Glass is so awesome like that. (And I really hope she gets her butt over to visit me sometime...!!)

Gals of Glazz

Tune in for 10

1.             Who are you and what do you do?

Hi! My name is Arlie Trowbridge.  I live in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. I spend a good part of my day dreaming about places I want to visit and things I want to make. I also spend a good amount of time exploring the mountains I live in. I love to run, hike with my pup, float down the river, go to yoga class, make fresh pressed juices and eat delicious foods. I like to drink lots and lots of beer too. Oh, and I flamework! I spend lots and lots of time flameworking.

2.             What do you make?

I make jewelry probably 80% of the time and other sculptural and home items as well. When orders are low and time is on my side, I have been getting into thinking about larger works. I’ve been getting into the cold shop, faceting crystal forms and making little hand held sculptures and table top pieces on light boxes lit from below.

3.             Why do you make?

To stay sane! J There has never been a time in my life where I wasn’t making something. I tried every medium growing up and bounced around with different techniques in college too. It wasn’t till I was about to graduate that I discovered glass. Even when I don’t feel inspired to melt glass, I’m sewing clothes, painting, arranging flowers, etc etc. I just love looking at things, re-arranging and changing things. If I couldn’t use my hands to make beautiful things, I would feel no purpose.

4.             What’s you colour palette?

Since I started working with glass, I tell people my favourite color is translucent. Doesn’t matter what color it is – if it’s translucent, that’s just so yummy to look at!

I love experimenting with the whole borosilicate glass palette though. And finding what colors work well with  others because a lot of boro color combinations can look gross real fast.

Oh, and purple. I freaking love the color purple.

5.             What’s your proudest achievement?

Being a self supporting maker straight out of college. The only other “real” job I’ve had was lifeguarding in my early twenties. It’s been really hard and it will continue to be really hard but it is undoubtedly the most fulfilling way to live my life.

6.             Hot or Cold?

Hot all day! I hate the cold shop. Hate. It. !!! But I love the results so I’m gonna keep pushing myself to get in there and grind. Hot all day goes for the weather too. Man, I hate winter.

7.             What’s your dream project?

Move to Hawaii and create island inspired works. It’s really that simple. Gonna make it happen!  

8.             What’s your influences?

Lot of influences during my day to day. Running! I can’t stop talking about. Before this summer I had never run a mile and now I run 3 to 8 every other day. It has had a huge impact on my life as a whole and an amazing one on my flameworking studio practice.

The Appalachian mountains are amazing and Asheville in general has an incredibly positive influence on me. I feel really lucky to live here with such a supportive community and lots of glass blowers too!

I first learned how to flamework with Emilio Santini at Virginia Commonwealth University and I will forever cherish that time in my life. I have also been able to take classes with Jennifer Umphress and Amber Cowan – two huge gals of glazz girl crushes right there!

9.             What’s coming up for you? Or what are you looking forward to?

Right now I am in the thick of production jewelry due to the holidays approaching. It seems that this time of year my hands are so busy making repetitive designs that my mind is able to drift and come up with a lot of new ideas at the same time. Instead of getting frustrated that I don’t have time to make them, I’ve been jotting them down and come January 2016 I’m hoping to crush out some big sculptures. We’ll see what happens.

10.         If you could only eat 3 foods for the rest of your life what would they be?

Mangos

Avocados

Beer

Thanks mate! And look at her adorable puppy! You should go check out her website here. Also she has a great instagram you can follow her on too, check her out here.