Wall Hangings and Glass-scapes
Fun Blowing Ornaments Pictures
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Photos by Larry Book
R Visions in Glass
is a company of Northwest artists committed to a mission of creating glass art that warms the heart and stirs the imagination. Our vision is based in the shared belief that art can have a transforming effect on our lives. A portion of all proceeds is given to charity, with the hope that each artistic expression will enrich our community and those in need.
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Blog #1 How It All Began
Blog #2 Learning As We Go
Blog #3 You Know You Are In Trouble When
Blog #4 No Don Quixote or Jiminy Cricket
Blog #5 The Impossible Dream Unfolds
R Blog #6
How Do You Eat A Whale?
One bite at a time.
Well, building a 1000 square foot building when you have never built a full sized building before (can’t count the 6 foot scale Western town in your backyard…a different story) can be like eating a whale. It has to be taken a task at a time. The biggest task for Andrew was the electrical wiring for the shop. He had no experience wiring a building and just a bit of experience fixing wiring in his home. The whale was sitting there in the form of about ½ a mile of wiring.
Ron, Andrew’s dad, was not an electrician, but did have more knowledge on the subject than Andrew. He volunteered (or did Andrew beg him???) to help. This was no easy wiring job either. There needed to be some heavy duty wiring for the planned furnaces, annealer, and fan. Ron and Andrew began to eat the whale-bite by bite-until it was finished and passed the electrical inspection on the first try. What a shout went up that day!!!! Another huge blessing!
You can believe you are following God’s leading, but even then you are often surprised when He uses your talents and skills in ways you never expected. The shop was coming along; the wiring was done, the enormous task of dry-walling a fourteen foot ceiling, when you are afraid of heights, was done, the mudding was finished, and the painting would be done soon. However, there were other things the shop needed that had to be purchased. The budget was dwindling and some of the needed items were costly-especially the cabinets and the gallery flooring.
Between the three of us, Robbin is THE bargain shopper. Craig’s list and garage sales were created for her. She can find whatever you need for prices you can’t believe. Knowing her skills, we were not surprised that she was able to find what we needed, but the prices she paid for them were incredible-even for Robbin. She walked into a building supply store and bought, for $20, the very $200 cabinet/sink she went in to buy. She bought flooring for cents on the dollar. She bought all the cabinets we needed for a tiny fraction of their value. Using Robbin, God filled the shop with the things we needed and left us with almost the same amount of money we had started with to buy them.
To blow glass, you need a bench to sit at and a pipe warmer for your blow pipes. If you can weld, you can make both of these items. Andrew took welding in high school (let’s just say it was a FEW years ago). He had not really done any welding per sec since. He decided to take on both items. He succeeded in doing a great job on both.
We were nearing the finish line. Finally, we had our Grand Opening and Blessing in August 2008! Amazing things happened, and continue to happen!! Many blessings!!!