Happy New Year 2019!
Every year I do a review of my glass activities I accomplished during the previous year.
2018 was a great year for me — family, professionally, and in glass. As far as my family life; my daughter is still doing great in college, my granddaughter is growing so beautifully I look forward to seeing pictures of her. It was such an honor meeting her on her birthday. I’m going to see her soon and I can’t wait to hold her and to see her smile in person. Additionally, my family took a trip to see family on the western slope of Colorado and another trip to Breckenridge. We also went on a cruise to Alaska!
Mountains near Breckenridge Colorado 
As far as work I was able to travel to the UK and Germany. I so enjoy my day job – I love our military and it’s such an honor to still work with the military.
As far as my glass activities — I took glass classes from some amazing instructors (Craig, Laurie, and Cathy). Below is a picture of me and my friends with Craig, one of the pieces I made in Cathy’s class, and our class with Laurie.
I was able to see glass while I was in London and an amazing trip to Murano Italy. I so love to travel and when I can combine work travel with personal I just love it. Below are the pictures from Germany, Italy, and one of the gallery pieces in London.
I also participated in 5 shows where I got to show off my fused glass art with old and new friends. I also got to make some cool custom pieces including the biggest fused glass piece I’ve ever made and flower wall art. I also bought a vitrigraph kiln, set it up and made several canes and vitrigraph colors.
I created several new production pieces that really challenge my glass making skills. I also branched out from fused glass and took classes in mosaic, alcohol ink with glass, and copper overlay. I so love working with glass, taking classes, and talking about glass. As I say to people who come to my booth – I’m addicted to glass.
I like to take this time to look over my goals for 2018 to see how I did on completing them.
- 1. Update my Fused Elegance Glass, Elegant Fused Glass by Karen, ArtFire, and Etsy with new Fused Glass artwork. Nope – Never touched them. I’m going to make this a priority for 2019 but considering I’ve said this for the last 3 years I don’t know.
- 2. Create more fused glass pieces with metal clay. Nope – didn’t even touch it. I did watch a webinar on combining metal clay and fused glass so we’ll see.
- 3. Create new fused glass using new molds. Yep – I did good job on using my molds, which is a good thing because I love molds and bought quite a few. I’m also going to use other products that I purchased including mica, paints, glo powder, modeling glass, etc. This year I’m going to do a mold and product a month.
- 4. Share my book / video reviews and create the new fused glass techniques I learned through the many fused magazines, eBooks, and books I read and the new fused glass videos with new fused glass techniques. Yep – I didn’t really do reviews but I did write blogs on the techniques from ebooks, videos, etc. For this year I’m going to do a technique from various ways I learn about glass including; magazines, ebooks, webinars, videos, etc. each month.
- 5. After spending time with people during my craft shows, talking about my fused glass, I want to place some of my fused glass artwork in stores here in Colorado Springs. Nope – But I still have my fused glass artwork in Denver, I’d really love to have some in Colorado Springs. The problem is I am so busy with work and glass I just don’t have time to try to get into stores. That being said, if given the opportunity I would love it.
- 6. Continue creating my blogs, and Newsletters. I look forward to researching more interesting topics. Yes – I did great on my blogs (twice a week) and my newsletters. I can’t tell you the joy I get when someone tells me I’m here because of your newsletter. That just makes me so happy. This year one of my customers that bought one of my first big fused glass pieces came by and told me where it still is in her house. I just can’t tell you how much that means to me – I love talking with people about glass.
- 7. Dedicate time on some of the great classes over the years, webinars, and e-books. Ok – I didn’t to as many techniques from past classes as I should have. This year I combining # 7 with # 4 and do a technique every month from my classes, webinars, e-books, etc.
Overall I did pretty good on my list albeit I still need to update my fused glass sites and do techniques from my my classes, webinars, ebooks, etc.
For 2019:
Based on my progress from last year goals I’m going to combine #2, 4, 7 (they are all about techniques); I want to do a new fused glass technique from a magazine, webinar, and e-book each month.
#1 – must update my sites – I need to do this!
#3 – continue to use my molds each month. I’m also adding products – I have so many products that I’ve purchased but haven’t really used so I want to do a product a month.
#6 – I love my blogs and newsletters. I want to continue writing them.
I’m removing #5 – I do want to be in more stores and do production work but I’m just not good at aggressively searching these opportunities out. That being said, if I the opportunity comes up I will act on them but I just don’t have the time to search them out.
New – I want to focus on using glass I have — include broken glass pieces and finishing pieces I started.
Also I want to take 2-3 in person classes this year – I’m not sure which classes but I just love taking in person classes. I learn so much during in-person classes not just from the instructor but the other participants. It’s a bit difficult with my work schedule but it’s important to me.
Wow that’s a lot to accomplish especially since I have a vacation planned and of course work trips.
I look forward to your comments and any areas you are interested in for my blogs or fused glass e.g., jewelry, artwork, techniques, or items you would like me to create.
If you would like to see more of my fused glass work please refer to my website Elegant Fused Glass by Karen. If you get a chance, check out all my sites, Fused Glass by Karen, My Etsy store, my Art fire Store, my Pinterest, and Elegant Fused Glass by Karen youtube. If you would like to stay abreast of what I’m up-to and learn a little more about jewelry, check out our newsletter. It is published the last day of each month.
I wish you all a very Happy and Productive New Year!
Karen
Keeping my Kiln warm,
