Its about time a picture like this was made, a friend of mine posted it on FaceBook and I had to take it and share.  This says it all.
The other night I was watching CSI New York and it was a glass blower as a suspect… and I thought to myself how cool is that! You never see glass blowers on tv… maybe the world is recognizing how amazing hot glass is.
So production is wearing me out.  After all that blowing and casting in December & January I have to cold work, and assemble.  How boring! Not really but my mind is racing on what I can do next.  Why isn’t there ever enough time, or why can’t I focus on one idea at a time.
My goal this month is to update this poor websites portfolio… and of course finish off my pieces I think about nonstop.

Change isn’t always good.  Not this change, this change took my Grandpa.  There was never a dull moment when he was around, even when he was sick and weak he was still smiling and cracking jokes.
I don’t know what is wrong with me but my creativity is lacking… never do I do any stained glass pieces using a book pattern but this time I couldn’t design a thing.  But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any meaning behind my motives.  I collected elephants for my Grandpa during my childhood.  I even made my first ceramics mug for him with an elephant carved into the clay.  At the time I must say this mug was a master piece… now… well I was young!
Why the elephant? Elephants are amazing.  Giant.  Strong.  Gentle.  That and he would sneak us onto the elephant rides first before all the other kids at the circus.
In the same day of completing the Elephant I started to reflect on the memories, and leafing through the book of patterns came across the Giraffe.  I can’t help but smile when I look at pictures of Giraffes, they are just so goofy looking.  Calm, and funny like.  So I made a  Giraffe.  
It was like I was on auto pilot, being a maker it only made sense to keep working.  This was the time I really wished I was in the hotshop making paper weights.  Something easy, something to rescue  from my thoughts.  But you work with what you have, and a glass cutter is what I had.
After finished the Giraffe I was starting to realize that doing these pieces weren’t helping.  I watched him disappear before my eyes.  Scared for what was to come without him.
The crazy in me believes in odd numbers, so I was compelled to complete my series and I thought the Lion was a great finale.  A handsome lion, with lots of pride. My dad contributed to the framing on all three.  The Lion he steam bent the frame which just really completed the piece off perfectly.
Last week I sold the Giraffe and the Lion and I found it hard to part with them both.  When you make something it marks an event in your life, or mine anyway.  And I don’t think I was quite ready to admit that I lost someone.  I didn’t know how much this loss would effect my life.  He’d call me every day at the shop.  I saw him twice a day for the last year.  He was without a doubt my favorite person.

Strife, another word for struggle.  I dream of a simple life, a little home with flower garden, and a big dog that comes to the studio with me.  I am in search of that original design.  I have settled and enjoyed making the shard balls and jelly fish tops in the hot shop.
I have buried myself deep in the cold working shop for days now, experimenting with the lathe and drill press.  I still haven’t gotten that look I’m searching for.  Something that makes a deep harsh impression in the glass.  Perhaps like a saw blade… with the saw I don’t have.  Nonetheless, pieces have been completed that have formed dust rings in the cold shop.  Pieces I thought would be recycled back into the furnace… go figure.
The markets have started, and with that means the people from this small community come out of the woodwork to see whats going on.  I’d like to say the two markets have been a great experience but I’d be telling a fib.  Perhaps its just the negative that leaves that lingering bad taste behind that sours my mood for the rest of the season.  I’m done lecturing this town, and am trying to accept the attitudes among me that to make it in this industry… you must grow thick skin.
I attended a talk with artist Kirstie Rae in Victoria, met some other glass artists of BC.  I must say, I am glad I attended.  I’m looking forward to the next.   Perhaps in the end maybe I do belong here after all.

Although I love sand casting I have come to realize I spend most of my time annealing, and I’m sure its not true but feels like I am always charging.  So when I make it big, I shall invest in a bigger furnace, and a few annealers so I don’t have to wait.  Patience is not one of my strengths.  Enough whining.
Lately I have been re-reading the secret.  Laws of attraction.  And I am  convinced (again) that it does work.  So here is me putting positive out into the universe and expecting the positive back.  No questions asked.  Will keep you updated on this thought at a later day.
So sandcasting experiments.
Cedar chips/shavings.  I feel that the act more like a resist then a texture.  They are fuel for the fire, creates a huge puff of black smoke and no texture.  And it left a weird residue on my glass.  I suppose I can say it divitrification occurred.
Rafia.  Its my new fav element to my ‘sea scapes’.
Paper mache.  Great texture, and for the most part they didnt gas when I poured the glass over.  I’m excited to explore this new relief in more depth.
Sponge/Lufah.  You read it right.  Really neat texture! Don’t know what Ill do with it now but I wont be forgetting this one.
Copper.  Embossing the copper works really well, and the copper stays the copper color.  Copper shavings are effective as well.  Really excited to incorporate this technique with some electroplating.
Final thought, I thought I liked the blue recycled glass for sandcasting with but after I had a moment of clear… well I enjoy the clear.  For what I have been up to anyway.

… for coming over to visit with me and repairing my glory hole.  After only watching a glory hole repair done once I was very much apprehensive about fixing mine up for the upcoming summer season.  But alas, I bit the bullet and decided it must be done… just as my good friend Jake arrived.  So he and my father brainstormed together and came up with the how to, where to, and whatever else goes alone with fixing up the hole.  After a day of digging out cold ugly glass, cutting kiln brick and mixing cement… my glory hole is as good as new.  

Things are feeling somewhat back to normal for me this week when it comes to the glass business, casting.
I did a few pieces last week and it was wonderful. It was good. It was great. It was everything I had been waiting for and more. But it didn’t last long. I’ve decided my annealer is too small. Perhaps a better shelving system in the one I have now…
I experimented with some different ideas I had sketched out… papers, paper mache, cedar chips, copper… lots of copper, sand cores, and sponges. Yep. Experiment #987462625 gone good.
Aware of the hydro costs, during my annealing time I turned ‘Emma’ down in temperature. Then during my charging sent her back up. I’m not sure if this is actually going to do anything, if its going to stress my elements out or not… I’m just trying to cut some energy use out of the equation.
Tomorrow I intend on casting, more testing, more pieces. I am looking forward to my casting days, getting nervous for when its time to turn the glory hole on. Its been so long since I have blown, I feel like I might have forgotten how! But I do have some ideas for there too… in due time.

At 11:45am today, Emma a.k.a. my furnace was turned on.  I am happy to report my new elements are installed and so far so good.  Plans are under way, casting next week!

It’s been confirmed within myself that I am an artist, that art is my outlet and that sandcasting is my true love.  Aside from wanting to escape somewhere warm and alone, I cannot wait to turn on my furnace and start experimenting and creating with hot glass again.
I have been thinking far too much, stressing, anxiety… I don’t know what to call it but I have this aching need to be in the hotshop, with no idea of what to make.  As like everyone else, life is being life and I am lacking control, and to say the least it scares me.  I know me, and I can feel myself thinking harder and harder.  Art.  Meaning.  Something to release this unseen feeling.
Right now I am not worried about what the tourists will want for the summer.  The color the ruffle bowls should be.  Or cold working the bottoms of the paper weights.  I have been obsessed with textures, cedar chips and bark, dried seaweed, melting snow and copper.  Electroplating.  Ice.
So forgive me for this moment while I be me.

I visited the glass kingdom in Sweden recently, recently like yesterday. I met with a master of 60 years, watched him work. Talked with him, and his assistant. Their work was beautiful. What did I learn? I have a long way to go before I am anything. Compared to these guys I haven’t even taken my first steps towards anything special concerning glass. My thinking is so infant like. My performance is certainly not first hand, nor third. The way he moved, calm doesnt begin to describe it. I always thought my teachers were smooth, but this guy… I swear he never reheated or flashed. And no, it wasn’t crystal they were working with, it was soft glass. I asked. Then felt like a moron when they told me.
I remember why I chose this medium. I miss sitting in a hot shop, learning from others by watching. This experience only makes me want to go back to school. Experiment new things in the hot shop and work even harder at being something.
I indulged and bought myself a sketch book with a postcard pic of one the Kosta pieces on the front cover. Maybe it will remind me of this when Im feeling stuck again.
Other thought. This was one of the first times I visited someone elses hot shop and introduced myself. Exchanged business cards even. Glass is a small community and they spoke to me just like so. There were a few glass cracks made… universal I guess you could say.

Its a new year.  A fresh start.  This year I plan on being open, organized and a go getter.  Go after what I want, make it or break, go big or go home… you get the gist of it.
The idea of tonijohnson.ca was to show case my glass work with a fancy website, but through my research I have come to the conclusion that people are interested in who the artist is just as much as the art itself.  How nice.
This blog or news feed will help me organize my thoughts, my work, ideas and those interested can follow and try and make sense of it all.  Perhaps you will see some writings, sketches, logs, and pictures.
I make no promises.  Or schedule.  No expectations lead to no disappointments!