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, October 18-20, 2019

Cobalt Blue Artist-made Sea Glass and Copper Wind Chime
by Coast Chimes

How exciting! Just over a week until the 2019 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl! I'm almost ready, with nearly 250 gorgeous wind chimes and suncatchers. Most of these are available for preview on the website: Coast Chimes

There are a few more special works to assemble, and then the BIG transformation: changing my workshop into gallery space. This involves moving and storing all the tools and glass, cleaning up, hanging fixtures and lights, and arranging the works of art. I allow four days for that.

If you live on the Sunshine Coast, or if you are visiting for the Crawl, be sure to drop by Coast Chimes. I look forward to seeing you! Here are directions: Coast Chimes Location

Frosty White Artist-made Sea Glass Chime by Coast Chimes

Coast Chimes Gallery: Almost Always Open

Coast Chimes Gallery
Gibsons, BC, Canada

Since moving to our new home six years ago, I have been fortunate to have a nice space to use as a gallery. Coast Chimes is open whenever I am home, which is most of the time. A fair number of people drop by, which is great: I love showing off my work, and talking with people about my inspiration and methods. Sometimes they just want a quick look, or they already know Coast Chimes and grab a gift for someone's birthday. Other times, they are visiting for the first time, sometimes from far, far away, and are very curious about all aspects of my work. I enjoy all this a lot. I always have plenty of time to talk with visitors.

I am usually home, because I work long hours to make all these things, to photograph them, to do the website work, to communicate with online customers, to do social media, to pack and ship. Already, I am preparing for the annual Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, which seems to be approaching very fast! If at all possible for you to visit the Coast for the Art Crawl, you will enjoy it immensely. It is huge, and extremely well organized. But book accommodation early, as I believe it gets sold out. Ferry reservations would be a good idea, too. It is always possible to come across from Vancouver as a foot passenger. The Art Crawl itself is a free event.

If you can't visit in person, everything in the gallery is on my website: Coast Chimes

Now it's time to pack some orders, cut some brass.

2017 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl Starts Tomorrow, October 20

The Sunshine Coast Art Crawl 2017 Starts Tomorrow
October 20- 22 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

The 2017 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl consist of 144 locations: the Sunshine Coast rich in talent! Although I've been making my creations for about 25 years, this will be just my 3rd year participating in the art crawl, as I did not have suitable studio space before moving to our new home.

The Art Crawl is a wonderfully exciting event to participate in, with an estimated 500 people visitings my studio last year. Despite a rather gloomy weather forecast, I hope for another fun weekend this year. I have improved lighting in my studio, so cloudy skies do not concern me as much as  they would have.

Hope to see you at Coast Chimes, 535 Woodland Avenue, Gibsons, BC (map below). 604-229-5560. Be sure to pick up the Art Crawl brochure-- there are no shortage of great places to visit!

Update, Sunshine Coast Art Crawl 2017, Coast Chimes

A busy weekend preparing for the
2017 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl
Oct. 20-22
535 Woodland Avenue
Gibsons BC
Gallery no. 9

A very busy, but rewarding, weekend preparing for the 2017 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl. I finally had some success solving my long time lighting issues. Number 1 was making quite cool perforated  sheet metal shades for the bare light bulbs. Those bare bulbs have annoyed me enormously, and I am very pleased to have resolved that issue. No. 2 is the fairy lights, a few of which you see in the image above. Previously I had used strip LED lighting, but was not at all satisfied with the look. These fairly lights are a lot more interesting. The only issue with them is that they are not quite bright enough to illuminate my glass from behind, but at least they give some idea of what the glass might look like in the sunlight, and they do not throw the colors as badly as the strip LED.

There are just 4 more days to finish preparations, and I have a lengthy list. It is going to all get done, but, as usual, just barely!

Looking enormously forward to the big weekend!

Gibsons, BC, Sunshine Coast, Canada

Looking Back at My
Summer Afternoon Swimming Beach
Gibsons, BC, Canada

As a self-employed artist, one thing I learned very early is that discipline is important. It is all too easy to get sloppy, start later, finish earlier, read one more chapter. Then you end up not getting things done that need to be done, and it all slides downhill from there.

Before going to sleep at night, I typically make a little list in my head of what I will start with the following morning, what I will accomplish during the day. It helps a lot for getting going in the morning, and for sticking to it during the day. If I fall short of accomplishing all that is on that list, it's not the end of the world, but I feel a bit bad and resolve to work harder the next day. This works really well for me.

During the summer, Gibsons / the Sunshine Coast is the place to be. Not too hot, but hot enough to have a swim that feels great. Blue skies. It is very tempting to take a lot of time off. And I do take some time-- everyone deserves some holiday! But the summer is also the time where I do a lot of my main work, because the wood I work with is dry, the glass can be handled more easily, and there is a long list of things needing to be finished before the October Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, and Christmas rush.

The way I handle the urge to toss everything and spend the day at the ocean reading and swimming is to make that list in my head, and finish it before taking off. But almost every nice day, I do walk down to the local sandy beach (10 minutes stroll, and just happens to be one of the nicest ones on the Coast). It is a wonderful incentive to work hard and finish up: a treat, and it doesn't cost a dime.

If visiting Vancouver, or Vancouver Island, I highly recommend you take a side trip to the Sunshine Coast. Enjoy the slower life style, pick up a Purple Banner Guide of artists' studios and galleries (available on the ferries and in the tourists' bureaus). Make sure to drop by Coast Chimes (directions)-- I'm here everyday working (except for when I am down having a swim!) and would love to show you what I do.

What to Do, Gibsons, British Columbia

Natural Pacific Driftwood Wind Chime
5 Large Copper Chimes
Handcrafted by Coast Chimes

I love natural driftwood, and the huge piece forming the wind chime pictured above is gorgeous. It is naturally silver-colored, from the salt water and from the sun bleaching. It goes perfectly with the 5 antiqued copper chimes, with their beach stone clapper / striker.

I do ship large works like this, although it is the sort of chime I honestly hope someone will stop by and buy locally. Coast Chimes is open 7 days a week, and if you are able to drop by I am sure you will enjoy seeing the workshop and touring the gallery. You will also enjoy a considerable discount from the website prices! Gibsons, BC, is an awesome town, and the Sunshine Coast, BC, is an amazing place to visit.

All the works in my gallery are also viewable on my website. So why not visit my site, and if you can drop by, I'll be happy to see you, and otherwise ordering from my website is easy. Visit the website Coast Chime, or the Gallery Coast Chimes.

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.