Bizay Pete

Woah. Just Woah.

So much is going on its just nuts! So many balls in the air its hard to see whats what! maybe thats why i  havent blogged since the ice ages?

alright, lets just spew it out, always easier that way...

. got a new studio, woo! have taken on a warehouse in brunswick with 7 others from all different backgrounds looking to make something amazing from an abandoned warehouse just off sydney road. she needs some work, ie partitioning, ripping up floors, busting down walls and building new ones (or in my shonky carpenter ways, just ripping down one and transporting it to another place. i call it franken wall! don't see any chippies knockin on my door anytime soon...)

. had a couple of orders come my way, always nice

. did a mini stint in radelaide to make some work, always a blur but always super productive. love that rockabee kid, she is the bomb.

. workin a bit more on the bottles, new work say "ooooooooohhhhh"....

. got a group show "artisans in the garden" coming up in Sydney, gotta freight the work next week

. got a show opening this week!! its at Fort Delta, shop 59 Capitol Arcade, 113 Swanston St, Melbourne. Its a group show put together by the pozzible peeps. you should come along if you are in melbourne town (i hear theres talk of a mobile creme brulee truck being there....that alone should be enough to get anyone there.)

. BIG NEWS: i'm apart of the design files open house again!! this time the extravaganza will span over sydney and melbs!! super pumped lucy has asked me to design something especially for the houses and together we have collaborated to come up with something awesome! i'm pretty excited to launch these bad boys, can't wait to take my work to sydney, hopefully make some new pals (stockists, buyers, $$!!)

check out the link here

. in a couple of weeks I will be off to adelaide again to make the work for the design files with my dream team AND get to assist the most awesome lady in glass KAren Willenbrink Johnsen!! Can you believe it? My persistant weaseling looks like it paid off, together with the JAm we have managed to get Karen and her equally talented husband Jasen to come a teach a work shop in Adelaide, alllll the way from the states. so excited. so terrified (what if i wreck something or stuff something up??)

so yeah, its biz-zay around these parts!!

SUPER. SWEET. NEW. SHOTS.

If there is one thing I am really REALLY good at, its procrastination. Even as I write this I know full well there are much more pressing things I should be doing. I am so good at procrastination I can even spot other like minded individuals and call them out when I see them red handed. Just yesterday I saw a friend post up a pic on instagram, something like a stack of dull looking papers, real dry stuff, a smiley face made out of lollies and the caption something like; "Staying positive about studying corporate law this semester". The majority of the comments went along the lines of "you can do it!" or "best of luck!". Not me, BAM! "I know procrastination when I see it." And I do, it's true. I too would probably make smiley faces out of candies if I had to read some dull law documentation.

This current procrastinating revolves around a group show I am apart of this October. It is in Sydney and I just don't know why I can't seal the deal. I even have the work made god damn it! The thing that seems to be stopping me with the paper work (and oh, the relentless paperwork) is I'm not really certain how to display the little buggers. And I'm not sure which ones to send. And I'm not sure how much to price them. And I'm not sure what to eat for lunch.... And, wait, there I go again. So what is the dealio yo? How do I fix this?

I really don't know where to get a little stand welded up for me, but yet I don't know if that is right for them. I kind of just planned displaying them in a cute little basket. What to do, what to do?!!! Halp, halp!!

This brings me to the most exciting thing......

THE PRETTY PICTURES.

Behold, in all their glory:

I had the absolute pleasure of working with  the extremely lovely and talented stylist Bec Vitartas and the super skills (more striking than lovely..) of photographer Haydn Cattach. These two are the dream team and I feel so lucky to have gotten to wrangle their collective skills for the shoot. I was really interested to photograph glass differently not the usual white or grey background with reflections (snore zzzz). I would never have chosen these colours and I think they look fantastic. I'm so excited with them I might just pop. Now to get them out there. Let the people see them. Let them lead me to the next big thing...restaurant fit out, lobby installation,  trophies for masterchef?, residency in New York?..... 

Come on! Come at me world, I'm ready.

Etsy Ahoy!

So I decided to put some pieces on my poor neglected etsy site. I thought I would trial a cute little set and see what response I get. Sometimes I want so hard to cut out the middle man, but I guess I might need that middle man more than I know? So lets see what happens! These are the guys up for grabs:

They are available for individual sale but it would be super sweet if they were purchased in a family. What I would like to do is put up a different family up for grabs each month. Maybe I could just run it off my blog? Hmmm, what think?

If you are interested in these guys you can check them out here. Tell your friends!

Or if you are interested in anything you can always contact me directly, but you knew that right? Right?  I'm here, I'm all ears! I love a chat, I'll put the kettle on, lets talk why not?

Well, let the great etsy experiment of 2013 begin! 

Huzzah.

(If it were a ship I would be smashing a bottle of champagne on its nose right now. Really, A nose? Is that the best you can do Amanda? For shame. And in all honesty I'm cheap so it probably would not be champagne but probably just some soda steam I had made myself and funnelled into an old champagne bottle. No use wasting the good stuff on some imaginary boats beak.)

Welcome back Cotter

Hello.

It's me! Me, the writer of this blog. Me, the little bird with he big chip. Me, the absentee.

So whats new? Stuff and stuff? Yeah, me too. Turns out there is quite a bit of stuff going on lately. Like my window show at Craft Vic! Surprise! (i really was behind the 8 ball on announcing this one I know but the good news is its on for a whole month.) On show is an installation of my Ikebana works for all to see. Had some help from my little pal Green Trick (better known as the little puff, or my sister). LP (little puff) really pulled out the big guns and did some super fantastic flower arranging for me and crammed in the tiniest of window spaces all for me. Thanks kid, you did good, Real good. I was interested to see how two wookies would fit in a tiny window space...

Look at all that mess we made. Fabulous.

Look there she is! Little Puff. Little puff while Big Puff is on the other side of the glass hollering orders. "No this way. A little to the left. Yep. Nup. Yep." We are a solid team thats fo sure.

The show is up till the end of the month and you should totally go check it out if you are in Melbs. The address is:

Craft Vic

31 Flinders Lane

Melbourne

Going to go back and take some snaps at night. Which reminds me, there was no official opening so I'm rallying some goons to come down and have a peek, loiter around and generally get up to no good (maybe I'll smuggle in a box of wine complete with plastic cups?) this Friday nite, so if you are in the big smoke come say hi and we can have our own shmancy viewing.

Today I did some rad stuff. I mean really rad stuff. I can't wait to share the fruits of our day with you....til next time yo'....

Home

I made it. I made it home in one piece. One crumpled, sleep deprived piece, safe and sound. And do you know what else made it? My crate! My beloved crate of six weeks of work. Thank the big glass god in the sky!! God that was stressful. Everything about that was stressful. Building the crate, packing the work, organising the freight, them not scanning the crate when they picked it up so essentially it was "lost" for 4 days (how can you lose a 60kg fucking wooded crate?! I screamed down the phone, wailing in tears.) then to arrive like an old friend looking a little worse for wear like myself ("thas a lot of boot prints on your crate" "yeah it is, what the flip?") right on my door stop. Sigh of relief breathed. (I think i was so freaked out because they would not insure "glass art". I was thinking for breakages, I had not even considered for loss. Again, who loses a 60kg fucking crate??)

So now I'm home, battling jet lag and trying to get my life in order. I'm trying to be a little easy on myself this time. I have got two back to back sessions booked in the studio for next week that I am super pumped about. It's real nice to have bonsai orders to come back to make. And I get to work with my dear friend Andy. We havent worked together since uni! Gonna be so much fun. I just wanna say, I know there must be people out there reading, not many comments but while I was away I received the most lovely emails from people commenting on the work and wanting to place orders. Every time I got one it just made my little heart soar! Thank you so much. I really appreciate it and I am always super pumped when someone contacts me with a custom order. I am always stoked to hear from someone who likes my work.

This trip, the emails and stuff in general has just got me thinking. I am just so pumped to be living the life that I got dealt. I have done some fucking rad stuff so far and I'm not even half way!! Just imagine what else is in store for me!! I got to go to the Jam, I have travelled the world, some for glass, some for kicks, been to Japan 3 times, Turkey, London, New York and Scotland, got married to the most awesome person I know, just completed the residency of a life time, been to Pilchuck, got a super rad family behind me and this is only scratching the surface. I feel lucky thats fo sure. I also feel excited to keep this feeling and momentum going. It's easy to fall under the black clouds, start to doubt yourself and feel that green monster of envy on your back so I want to make a conscious decision to focus on the good. I want to remember that feeling that I make work that makes others smile. That I have the ability to bring joy to others. I fucking love that. Who doesnt love a glass beet??

First night away from the fam

So just like a lil baby bird, tonight is my first night out of the nest. My first night away from my family. The rest of the crew have one more night then they too will fly the coop. You know what? I'm really going to miss those goons. For six weeks we were a tight knit crew. We worked together, learnt together, cooked and ate together, drank cocktails together, lived together and laughed together (some more than others...thats me, until now I had not really recognised the impact of my laugh. I mean I knew it was loud but apparently it is often. Jeff told the girls they had to laugh more on their last day to fill the gaps). 

It's really just like a big experiment, throwing these four totally different individuals together and see what happens. Will they get along? Will they be at each others throats? Will they burn the hot shop down? Will they make work? In such an isolated situation I think you have no option but to form close relationships. It's funny when you start working with someone so closely and for so long, I kind of feel as though you start to take on a bit of each others traits. Or sometimes you switch who is who. For example one week I would be totally organised with a list of what I wanted to make each day and Jeff would just fly off the cuff. Then the next week it would be Jeff that was super organised and me that was all scrambly. I felt like George and Elaine switching places.

It feels strange to be apart from them. I know last week I was ready to come home but now that it is happening I am starting to miss them already. I feel pretty lucky to have met such fantastic people. My last night in Lybster was killer. We closed down the bar, drank whiskey, rocked the juke box then stayed up till dawn to watch the sun rise through Jeffs piece on the cliffs. It looked spectacular!

I feel like I want to blurt out a whole lot of things before I forget them! My memory is terrible I have numerous people to vouch for this...

I will always remember:

- our mascot, smashcot, a poor little squished mouse who you saw everyday on the way to the studio. somedays i look at him, sometimes i don't..

- the constant clicking of the millions of kilns Anna seemed to be firing at once

- sunday night bingo

- the beautiful and mesmerising sounds of trish's installation

- friday night fish and chips

- the amazing light of lybster

- patting foxy for the first time

- apple bombs

- unihorn

- watching the world of lybster roll past the studio doors like clockwork everyday

- charlton heston, the cat

- sinclair, the tescos cat

- our kitchen table being covered in a fine layer of salt at all times

- dragon mondays

- jeffs love of 'the power of love'

- our trip to the awe inspiring dunbeath castle gardens

- the first time i made a golden beet

- a lot of double parking

- my very first lucid dream

- blowing glass in the snow

- communication breakdowns with jeff; whats a pushie?

- seeing criss cross rain

- seeing snow form on the mountain tops from the bathroom window

- carving it up in wick

- shrinking all my clothes in the dryer

- subbing in for grace's pool team

- winning the bowls raffle

-having the fucking time of my life all thanks to blowing glass.

Almost there

Holy shitballs, where did the time go?? I leave on Tuesday (lucky i actually checked my ticket, i thought it was wednesday...ahem.) I just can't believe it. It really feels like I just got here yesterday. I just can't believe it. The last two days have been both ridiculously stressful and hilarious. Packing is always such a nightmare, throw some glass beetroots in and you have no idea. I decided the best way to go would be to build a crate and ship the works home. I am not a carpenter. She is one dodgy, burly looking crate but as long as she gets my wares home in one piece thats all I care about. I just couldnt get my head around building this thing, sizes, lengths, blah, blah, blah. It probably took me a good three days of worrying. Then I finally bit the bullet and sawed some shit up. I think it took me like a solid 5 hours to build all while grossly hung over I might add. At one point I had worked myself into such a state, hadnt eaten all day, almost on the verge of tears and my leg wouldnt stop shaking. Alright Amanda, you are just going to have to ask for some help. In walks the tech, (who is amazing), 3 minutes later, voila. Thanks Michael, you really saved my ass.

Then comes the nightmare that is packing. Bubble wrapping, foam cutting, box mangling. (Again all done grossly hungover, although not as bad as the crate building incident.) So heavy! Maybe 60kg?? Now comes the shipping nightmare, again probably a solid 6 days of worrying. I tell you one thing I surely have more grey hairs now after this residency... but its almost the finish line. Tomorrow I will book the freight and hopefully relax a little.

These are the more ridiculous things I have done over the weekend which resulted in said hungovers...
- played a ridiculous amount of bingo (Jeff bloody cleaned up with the killer round at the end)
- played pool on the most giant table I have ever seen, it was like the size of 4 lybster tables
- ate haggis (actually kind of delicious, thanks Bunty)
- sent myself deep into a shame spiral by learning the hard way that Michael Jackson's Wanna be startin something is a HORRIBLE karaoke song... in all fairness i didnt even sign myself up, again thanks alot Ballard..
- danced like a moron in the most hilarious club in Wick
- almost got myself (well it was my laugh apparently) into my first bar fight with some chav
- saw about 5 people fall over at said club
- felt so tired that i could see through time
- realised how much money i have spent on bingo
- made terrariums at midnight

This residency has been one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I feel so lucky to have been chosen. I also feel extremely lucky to have made such great friends with the other artists. We all get along so well for four totally different individuals, we are like a little family (you know they are family when one family member eats another family members left out breakfast...without asking...and 5 hours later...thats family). 

This residency has challenged me in so many ways. I really think it is one of the bravest things I have done and has reminded me that I can be tough when I need to. It's important to have these opportunities to get you out of your comfort zone, test you out a little bit and make you appreciate the things you have. The ups and downs have been crazy. One day awesome, one day worthless. I think lack of sleep played a factor here too. I'm pretty pumped to get back home and start making some work. I feel proud of what I have achieved in my time here and am excited to hit the ground running.