Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, 2019, Coast Chimes

Sunshine Coast Art Crawl
October 18-20, 10 AM - 5 PM
Coast Chimes

The 10th Annual Sunshine Coast Art Crawl starts tomorrow, October 18 and runs through Sunday. I hope you can visit Coast Chimes, 535 Woodland Avenue, Gibsons!

This year, I started preparing earlier than ever, and it shows! More wind chimes! More suncatchers! Using artist-made sea glass, copper, brass, cedar, beach stones, driftwood, I've made beautiful art for your home and garden.

Despite a rather grim weather forecast, rest assured the Coast Chimes studio gallery will be warm, inviting, bright.

Enjoy the 2019 Art Crawl!

Tree / Christmas Ornaments, Earrings, Suncatchers, Wind Chimes

Sunshine Coast Art Crawl

A Little Corner of My Gallery: Coast Chimes

 

 

This past weekend was the annual 3 day Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, and if the crowd swooping down on Coast Chimes (one of the 165 venues) was any indication, what a success! So many people from so many different places (the Crawl is becoming really famous and popular even off the Coast). The gorgeous blue skies meant even wider smiles.

Each year I try to do better. This year I had another 800 feet of ferry lights, and those received a lot of compliments and interest. I'll aim for another 1000 feet next year, to really sparkle!

Each year I wish to have every single chime with a bottom section, i.e., complete. Since the top parts are more interesting for me to make than the chimes, over the winter I tend to fall behind on chime sections. Well, I was far short of achieving my goal-- about 50 small chimes short, and 30 large copper chimes short. Too bad, as it is fun to see all the works displayed, and I had to put many out of sight. Next year will be even better!

If you missed Coast Chimes during the Art Crawl, I am part of the Purple Banner group, so Coast Chimes is open all year round. Maybe phone ahead (604-229-5560) just to make sure I am home and not out on a beach combing mission.

Lighting for Glass Studio

Lighting Challenges for Art Glass Studioe
Coast Chimes

Since moving into our new home almost 4 years ago, I have had the pleasure of space for a small gallery, so I can be open to the public and participate in our local Sunshine Coast Art Crawl.

A major challenge has been lighting. Many of my works fall into the suncatcher category, and really come alive when bright sunlight is shining through from behind the glass. We have a lot of rain, cloudy dark days, so it is really tough to explain to people dropping by how the glass is not showing at its best.

Lighting from behind with strong lights tends to blind people, as the light leaks out from behind right into their eyes. A lot of lighting also throughs the colors of the glass-- not natural, and not as pretty as sunlight.

I got the idea of using fairy lights, and ordered one sample string from Amazon. I thought they worked pretty well, and could work really well with a few more strings. Those on Amazon were expensive, and so I ordered five sets from eBay, for much less money. Sadly, those from eBay are okay, but just a bit less bright and a bit more yellow than my Amazon string. They do not shine through the glass very well. Sigh. Solution still not found.

You can visit my website to see all my wind chimes and suncatchers, photographed with natural sunlight behind the glass, of course. Visit Coast Chimes.

New Workshop ~ Yippee!

Before and...

After~

My renovated workshop. A treat!

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) you can not see much in the picture at the top of how this shack looked before my renovation. But you can see the roof broken and rotting off. Imagine just two small windows, and you can see why we always referred to this shack as the haunted house.

It was full of cobwebs, bats (two jumped out at me as I was ripping out the inside walls), mice, dirt and just plain ugly and unpleasant.

My old greenhouse workshop was an eyesore too, though, with a failing plastic roof. Dripping water, and the wind blowing through. Suddenly it made sense during this particularly cold and wet winter to renovate the shack (with plenty of insulation included, of course!).

Four large salvaged windows and a sliding glass door, a major clean up, built in tables and shelves and, presto, a wonderful workshop. One of the biggest pleasures was recycling materials~ all free, and all saved from the landfill. Good stuff.

There is still some tidying up and table building to do, and I believe my wife is thinking of staining the exterior, and maybe painting the trim some bright color.

Yesterday, I did my first chime work in the new shop, and it was really nice!