SLLS Meeting Minutes

Lampworkers Society Minutes: 2/13/2022

Host: Zoom

Are you ready for the pun-ishment friends?!

That’s right you all chose this… I held up my end of the bargain and now you must feast your eyes on the monstrosity that is the minutes from our last meeting. Bead-hold and brace yourselves! It’s about to get punny. *finger guns* :

Ch. 1 of the secre-tori saga~

LOTS of pre meeting banter was had from work stresses/pay to ballroom dancing and how Laura “has the coordination of a drunken moose”.

Laura our “shiny new president” called our meeting to order with her brand new TINY presidential hat!

Then we lost our marbles again discussing if two Fred’s could happily coexist or if they’d have a fight to the death, (I think having two Fred’s would be… marbelous) heheh. This was followed by how Laura’s stem cells gave her sister both her freckles AND her sass. (Laura can I get some of those?? I could really use some of those witty writing skills).

Anywho, Laura successfully called the meeting to order for the second time. She would normally call on the secretary to read the minutes but… The new secre-tori was MIA (probs got hyper focused on something) so Laura read the minutes for the last time. Thus ending one legacy and bringing forth a new one, and my god it’s looking bright friends!

About 13 minutes in a wild Tori appeared. (Let’s face it I’m punny but not always pun-ctual) Laura continued to rattle off the minutes from our last meeting with her famous gusto and we all were endlessly amused.

Our treasurer Lester was MIA (we got monies)

We moved onto membership with Fred who reported we have 13 paid members! If you haven’t paid here is your friendly reminder to do so!

Gloria our Vice President informs us she has everything ready to go for our clay-date and we all agreed to meet up on March 6th.

Joan our Librarian was also MIA

(we got books)

Lendy our historian was missing as well. She had lots going on Laura reports.

(We got history)

Our new web master Alana informed use she did some poking around on the website but hasn’t done much. She promised to get the most recent minutes up on the website asap! Laura said she will send Alana a list she was going to send Kathleen but forgot. Kathleen reminded us that we need to update the officers on the website as well.

Lastly, we talked to Tori our social media guru. Tori reports that we have 114 followers and counting! We discussed cross posting and all agreed it was okay to do so as long as it ties into lamp working. Tori will also start sharing classes that any of our members are teaching. The idea of doing another giveaway was brought up. Laura suggested a strand of flower beads made by all our members, or that Gloria could make a lil spring gnome. Although we never came to a conclusion, any suggestions can be sent to Tori or Laura.

We moved onto old business-

Laura updated us on her friend that owns the church over on Leona Street. He is finally ready to start renting the space out! Woot! Laura informed us it would cost $1600 for a two day rental. It sounds steep but when compared to our other options it may be our best choice. We considered Craft Alliance and MADE as other options and are putting feelers out to them in hopes of striking a deal.

Old business drifted into new business

Tori had new business to discuss and asked the group if anybody was interested in teaching glass classes at Craft Alliance.

We got a little off the rails discussing the condition of the studio space but our president reeled us back in!

Kathleen inquired if there was a way for our group to do a demo or in person meeting at Craft Alliance so everyone can have a better understanding of the space. Tori said she’d inquire with Grant about it.

We moved onto glass Craft (still up in the air) and ISGB announcements. The gathering will be 100% online this year (yay less expensive!!) June 9-12. We talked about the ISGB auction that’s happening and Laura sent out info on it. Lastly for ISGB is there’s a new challenge for the “chapter showcase”. The challenge is beads inspired by song titles and those are due by March 31st! So send them to Laura if you decide to make something!

We wrapped up new business and moved onto q-tips.

Erin’s kitty gave us her wise wisdom and we gushed over the old sweet bean.

We got distracted by cat’s and what mysterious creations Alana has been stitching away at this whole meeting but Laura yet again reeled us back in.

Kathleen’s q-tip was “if you’re gonna do a tech. job know the tech. and be willing to learn the tech.”

Laura dropped knowledge on boro wizardry. We were all dazzled as per usual.

We then moved onto show and tell

Gloria showed us a gloria-ous wire weave she had been working on and a finished cuff she had made earlier.

Alana showed us some fun tiny beadwork she’d been sewing during our meeting. She’s drowning in tiny beaded triangles and more will bead revealed in the slide show.

Laura showed us the accoutrement she was working on from her tiny hat, a book and even a box. Everyone geeked out over them as expected cause let’s face it we all love tiny things here.

Laura shared her screen for our show and tell slide show and we were all razzle dazzled.

Alana finally revealed more tiny woven triangles to share. We obsessed over them and many requests were made for a custom Alana fidget spinner. We are so glad you bought WAY too many beads Heheh

Gloria was BUSY! She made some stunning vitrograph cane fused pieces. There were also two VERY precious gnomes! Gloria got extra creative and made a lil president and treasurer gnome! Along with some gorgeous hearts and floral beads! She made a few other accoutrement pieces that were also excellent. Lastly SHE MADE A HECKING GINGERBREAD HOUSE YOU GUYS! Like… *high five* you killed it lady!

Next although Lester was missing. He did send in some beautiful wood turned vessels for show and tell! Thankfully our other wood turning savvy members enlighten us on some of the lingo Lester used from what “carbonized” really means to the meaning of “spalted wood”.

Laura was also busy! She showed off her enameled stringer beads from an online class she took from JC Herrell and they are bonkers! She attempted a poppy bead that was absolutely stunning. She then BLEW OUR MINDS as she showed off her boro creations from her class with Janis Miltenberger. Lastly Laura had some murrini’s from her class with Matthieu Grodet. Unfortunately her flower she made had some fit issues and apparently completely split in two. But she has a lovely name cane that she’s going to pull down to be even smaller so she can mark her beads and her micro mosaics with it! We are all so proud of you for nailing that S Laura ;3 hehehe

Tori showed some last minute heart beads from her torch working class that she made as examples.

As we wrapped up Laura reminded us of the chapter showcase challenge, which was to make beads inspired by song titles. With that we got off topic on an array of things (guys we talked about math and math word problems for over 5 minutes….) finally… We officially called the meeting to a close.

Lampworkers Society Minutes: 12/12/2021

Host: Zoom

In the beginning moments, with only a few members in attendance, there was talk of Laura’s recent in person art show experience and – more importantly – the HUGE and adorable dogs she met at Mad Art Gallery, which led to talk of other sweet doggos. Linda called Kathleen, having trouble finding the meeting link, so Laura sent it out to everyone again. More members piled in and Kathleen called the meeting officially to order.

Secretary: Laura apologized for haphazard and not-quite-finished minutes… the month had been busy. What existed of the minutes was performed to the group with grand passion. Katleen kindly filled in the last bits that Laura hadn’t documented yet.

Treasurer: Les was in absentia, but the guess of the group is “We still have money”

Membership: Fred reports no change to membership, but reminds folks that member dues should be turned in by the end of the year.

Vice President: Laura told the group that Cindy didn’t feel comfortable hosting the In-Person Holiday party this year. Jaquie and Joan offered up their houses for the Holiday party, and after a bit of debate and discussion, it was set for December 5th at Joans, from 2 pm till whenever she tired of us! The group planned for a white

elephant gift exchange – setting the expense limit at $20 – and a potluck. (Laura had a looming concern about something else happening on December 5th, but couldn’t remember what… she later realized it was the quarterly GBE editorial meeting.)

Librarian: “We have books” reports Joan. Kathleen recommended requesting a book before the meeting so it could just be picked up in person at Joan’s house on the 5th.

Historian: Lendy was out but our group still has a shady past and continues to create waves in the timeline. (sorry guys – been catching up on my Dr. Who…)

Web: Kathleen has been swamped and hasn’t updated the site. Sooooon.

Old Business:

Katleen has in her notes “Lendy not Makes.” A mysterious shorthand sure to confound generations…

Laura offered to divvy up the bucket of Mold Mix 7 if members want (and then would be reimbursed by Lester for the cost) She got all the members up to speed on exactly what Mold Mix 7 is and how it could be used. (breakdown and Mold Mix PDF were in last months minutes and attached to the last group email) There was discussion of blending a bunch and giving folks the already correct consistently goo to paint on objects in their own spaces and on their own timelines.

Gloria informed the group that the clay pieces made at the last in-person clay play day at her house were nearly dry enough to bisque fire! She offered to smooth sharp edges and get them in the kiln. There was general agreement that another day was needed in Gloria’s studio for a “Glaze day”

New Business:

Laura reported having a marvelous time (and sales!) at the Pop up in-person art show held at Mad Art Gallery, and promised to let the group know about any other pop-up art shows so they can participate. She also promised to reach out again to Brendan Kirby about renting the church in Holly Hills for a potential show (maybe in the spring?)

Laura also told the group about the upcoming ISGB bead challenges and the society as a whole bemoaned the lack of Demos (live or recorded). Jaquie offered her space for an in-person Sandblasting lesson. Laura talked about her efforts to write up a Glass Painting class proposal for GlassCraft and everyone in the group magnanimously offered to be testers for the class (guinea pig painters!)

Kathleen warned everyone that December would be the time of the choosening (this is a real word – I swear) of new officers for SLLS. The fancy sash of Presidency falls on Laura as current Vice Pres, (who cackled, demanded a fancy hat for her appointment, and apologized in advance for how weird the next two years were likely to be…) and others were warned that if there were no offers, they may be volun-told. While there was planned discussion of offices at the holiday party, actual officer appointments, voting and/or coercion, would happen at the next virtual meeting.

A wild Lester appeared! He had been at lunch with friends that ran over and reported no change to the money situation of SLLS. (Treasurer)

June 9-12th is the next Virtual ISGB Gathering and Laura promoted it to the group: No travel costs, super cheap conference fees, insanely cheap virtual classes on the ISGB’s new education platform. GlassCraft is in-person in Las Vegas April 12-16 of 2022 and Laura plans to go (and maaaaaaybe to teach) Kathleen asked to be reminded when registration started so she wouldn’t miss it. Laura also reminded everyone that submissions for the ISGB Gathering commemorative bead, virtual class proposals and virtual speaker proposals are due by January 15th

Joan talked about the ISGB Second Sunday Makers Series, (attended just before this SLLS meeting) which this month featured Milon Townsend and his new book of lampworked scenes and figures from classic Aesop’s fables. He currently has a kickstarter to fund it and Joan wanted to secure a copy for the SLLS Library. She also suggested that if others in the group wanted the book we could do a bulk buy and get a discount on the books and shipping. Katleen asked for a vote on buying the book for the group and it was all agreed that if it is under $50 it would be an automatic purchase, if it is more, the group would re-discuss at the December meeting. (According to the Kickstarter campaign page HERE, an individual copy should only cost $30 – campaign ends December 24th)

Q-tips:

Laura explained how to make Bret Garbers precious glow-in-the-dark glass go further. She told the group about a glowing Jellyfish she made where there was a core of white, wrapped in transparent silver dichro, with a thin smear of glow-in-the-dark glass on the bottom of the jellyfish body. Because of the white and the reflective dichroic coating, the whole jelly glows like a small green sun! Another good way to make it go far is to use it as an inclusion in Murrine and micro mosaic tesserae cane. A little glow goes a long way.
Kathleen warned the group about having plenty of ventilation when working with Glow-in-the-dark glass due to dangerous chemicals released when heating radioactive phosphorus. Treat it like fuming with silver. (good advice!)

Show & Tell:

Kathleen held a couple of gorgeous hand made fabric choker necklaces with her double helix floral cabochons set in the center. (I have photos in the December show & tell)
Gloria showed the group the most adorable wee copper clothes hangers that she has been adding to her fused Christmas sweaters!
Lester shared a new turned wooden fountain pen in Birds Eye maple and a beautiful toothpick holder (he had hurt his shoulder – tear of the rotator cuff – but is recovering now and able to play on the laythe again!)
Fred held up a few new soft glass marbles with swirls of Aventurine green and blue. He also showed off a marble hack he had created for finishing fire polish on the marbles without marring the surface – a piece of copper pipe inside a kevlar “sock” set on a block of wood. (photos in December show & tell)
Linda added a new resin cast egg to the show & tell mix, Cast and turned with a wooden base. (Joan requested a tiny dragon in an egg, and 3D printing it was suggested. Lester commented that they are now 3D printing houses – fantastic madness.)

Here is the Show & Tell from the November meeting: https://youtu.be/rjzfegS6vYc

Laura reminded the group that they didn’t need to email her images if it’s a hassle, they can send pics via messenger or text and she’d get them in the right place.

Tori mentioned that if she was “voluntold” to be secretary in the new year that the group had better brace for a ton-o-puns. (and by doing so – sealed her fate!) The group immediately declared that she would be secretary (not official yet, just for the torment of the Tori at the moment…) The group jokingly voted unanimously to make her secretary and Joan said “see what happens when you open your mouth?!?!” Much flailing ensued.

With Tori still trying to desperately backpedal on her declaration, Kathleen officially ended the meeting and we all drifted away excited for our in-person Holiday party at Joans!

Lampworkers Society Minutes: 2/14/2021

Host: Zoom

Our pre-meeting conversation began with a handy life-hack courtesy of Joan Cross… “When life gets serious, smack Clay.” A wild Erin appeared in our Zoom group and there was much rejoicing! The link I had sent out ended up being a dud and there was some scramble to get a shiny new properly functioning link to everyone on super short notice… Joan requested that instead of the new link, she be sent a piece of the homemade Tiramisu Laura had posted online earlier. (A wise choice really…) There was some grumbling about how google slides won’t allow videos to play in the slideshow by Laura. (who has since solved the problem!) A long lost Fred Vogt appeared to join this round and we lost a Lester to power outage.

Despite ongoing technology annoyances for Laura, Kathleen called the meeting officially to order!

Secretary: The group dealt with Laura’s standard overly enthusiastic reading of the minutes most admirably.

Treasurer: Les was MIA due to a power outage in his neighborhood, so no treasurer’s report this time. (Kathleen assured us we still have money)

Membership: Fred told us that 19 more folks had now paid their member dues. He relayed a question he had received via the membership email regarding where a beginner could take lampworking classes. Laura reported that while Third Degree is not currently running flameworking classes or experiences there is discussion of having longer bead experiences or single day classes. She also mentioned that Craft Alliance has a Flame studio and a plan for upcoming classes (and they have, since this meeting, completed set up of the flame studio and are taking students)

Librarian: Joan has taken possession of the full SLLS Library and is ready to be contacted for rentals! Reach out to her at jcross1492@gmail.com

Historian: Lendy offered Tori access to the historians photography archives for building the instagram brand. Laura offered to send all the images from the show & tell sessions to both Lendy and Tori for documentation and PR. Kathleen wants to put the Show & Tell Slide shows up on the site.

Web: Kathleen has added all of the recorded Minutes from the last years meetings to the website so that all members can access them. (Older ones can be downloaded, the newest minutes can be viewed.) Apparently wordpress (while seriously annoying to wrangle) is slowly becoming more “block based” which should make it easier to add things like calendars and events.

She plans to update the website monthly to keep members up to date on when meetings will happen and if/when we revert back to in person. Lendy asked if there was a link she could add for potential new members to join a zoom meeting and check the group out, and Kathleen recommended a link to membership for a zoom link request instead of just posting the zoom link for anyone to access.

Kathleen asked for general suggestions on info or advertising on the website, hoping to help folks promote shows or projects.

Lester appeared in the meeting!

Treasurer (ROUND 2!): Lester reports no new change in our bank balance, some change in Paypal with new memberships rolling in, making our total assets $4218.43. There was discussion about corporate matching for membership with SLLS being a non-profit. …Lester was lost to another power outage!

Old Business:

Joan asked about changing the names for the new officers (Kathleen sheepishly admitted she SHOULD change those names…) and asked what email or contact info members should use to reach her to request things from the library. Katleen promised to update the library contact info to Joans member email.

Katleen asked about the spreadsheet of Marilyn’s stuff and we established that if folks are mobile, Bill is comfortable with people coming out and doing a curbside pickup of items and a drop off of checks. No paypal. Check, cash or Money Order. Call him ahead of time to set up a dropoff/pick up. (I put his number in the title of the spreadsheet if anyone needs it. – Nadine, Joan and I should be going back over soon now that the weather is better to go through the craft room and do a second inventory.)

Joan asked if we were an official ISGB chapter – consensus is YES! … but we are supposed to be sending them info and being more interactive in general.

Treasurer (ROUND 3!): Lester had popped back into Zoom so we started where he left off… continuing the discussion of corporate matching and trying to locate a membership fee – paid via credit card – that appears to be floating free in the ether. Fred suggested that it might have gone to an old paypal address for SLLS. There is a cult of mysteries surrounding Paypal…

New Business:

The group congratulated Laura on being chosen to make the 2021 ISGB Commemorative Bead! She has committed to making 30-50 of them with fancy laser cut custom boxes by June for the Virtual Gathering.

Lendy told the group she has been cleaning the “room of no return” at home and offered members some fantastic containers for storage. There was much squealing. (as artists we are unable to contain squeals when confronted with free art supply containment options!)

Laura shared her awesome discovery of DidyClips! (I had ordered one and have since received it and I LOVE it!) With much oooooing and aaaaahing the group agreed that it would be a very useful tool and quickly decided by vote to have Lester buy one to be added to the library.

Joan wanted to know what camera and editing software Laura had been using up until now for her lampworking demo videos: A Go-Pro 8, with her custom build diddy lens and Adobe Premier.

Q-tips:

Lendy says: When trapped at home with a covid scare – clean! Having been home this long, she has become a professional cleaner/purger.
Laura recommended not going 0 to 100 on a new art form (hilarious because she ALWAYS does) I like my learning curves to resemble the top 100 ft of mount Everest!
If it is below 25 degrees propane stored outside (with a regulator outside as well) will not work well – if at all.
DO NOT use a torch to remove bubbles from a polyurethane coating… The result will be FIRE. (and not in a good way.) Sleepy Laura mixed up resin and poly in her mind and nearly charbroiled a micromosaic wooden bezel. Joan added not to do it near your water heater because… “BOOM”
Tori advised that a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol could be used to remove bubbles from a slip casting project.

Show and Tell: We had some fun technical issues attempting to get the videos to play… finally, across multiple computers, we managed to get all the amazing work members had sent shown!

Instead of a list this time, I can share the slideshow!! (Huzzah for Canva!) You still miss out on the fun running commentary that comes with attending the meetings, but it’s better than a boring old list!

Follow this link to see the fancy Valentines day Show & Tell

Demo: Tori shared a fantastic Ceramic wheel throwing and hand texturing demo on how to make her signature “Squish Cup”. Here’s the “Squish Cup” Demo

After the wonderful demo, the group turned their collective minds to trying to figure out a mystery glass rod that Lester was wanting more of… Laura ID’d it as Terra Nova 2 by double helix!

Kathleen brought the meeting to it’s official close, and Laura desperately tried to rope someone into the demo for next month… no takers. Sigh. Before signing off, Katleen issued the President’s challenge for next month

Lampworkers Society Minutes: 1/10/2021

Host: Zoom

Our pre-meeting banter this round concluded that Kathleen’s computer was on the verge of collapse and it was decided that photo’s should be sent to Laura instead to keep Kathleen’s computer from being bogged down. Members trickled in and the meeting was officially called to order.

Secretary: Minutes were read and received with much fanfare.

Treasurer: Les reports $175.00 in membership dues received so far via Paypal, bringing our total assets to $4000.64. There was some confusion as to who had paid and how they had paid, paypal being a cryptic beast at the best of time.

Membership: Fred informed us that only 7 members have paid so far. (although as of 2/11/21 the list appears to have been updated to 14 members paid out of 27 listed previous members.)

Historian: Lendy was still reeling from her recent loss (her sister passed) and thanked everyone for their love. She was at a bit of a loss for what to share, stating that the majority of the historians tasks in this virtual world were being managed by the Secretary. (recording meetings, taking photos of work…) We still have history. The Flicker account was asked after, and Lendy said that she had lost track of it due to recent life, but that we should have access and that we should archive all of the photos for documentation purposes.

Librarian: Joan is still trying to connect with Erin for the hopeful library handoff.

Web: Kathleen opened the floor to suggestions for change on the website and Joan asked for a calendar. It’s apparently an annoyance to fight the widgets and add calendar functions to a wordpress site. She promised to add a list of future meeting dates and hopefully a list of future demos if Laura can manage to get them lined up more than a month in advance. In a fun web related side note: Tori has started our official STL Lampworkers Society Instagram account! She implored members to send her images or videos so we can start building our brand.

Sloooooow Transition in to Old Business:

Conversation turned to who had admin power over the Lampworkers facebook page with Marilyn gone. Joan said she did and Kathleen suggested making a few others admin so we don’t have all our eggs in one basket. Lendy agreed that every site needed at least 2 admins. Joan asked the easiest way to respond to folks who view the page, in an effort to encourage more membership. The general consensus was to have new content and to engage those visitors with stories and projects. Tori suggested linking the instagram to the facebook and asked to be made admin so she can post to the facebook page as well. Laura asked if we needed to make a new officer position for Social Media… Fred reminded everyone that to create a new office, we need to amend the bi-laws and have a vote. Lendy chipped in that if we are amending the bi-laws, we should assess and re-evaluate several others. The group discussed the finer points of instagram tagging and hashtags.

Kathleen once again brought up the need for a contact sheet for all members and their various social platforms for promotion and connection. Name, Phone, email, website, instagram, facebook, twitter, tumbler, all that goodness. I told her I had the beginnings of that list from my attempt to organize the virtual show and she asked that it be made into a shareable google sheet so everyone can contribute their info. It is DONE: — follow this link and fill in what you’ve got and how we can show you off! SLLS Contact/Info Sheet

After further discussion of social sites, interwebs and their access issues, we discussed starting a shared “One Password” account so that there would be a way to access all of the various logins and media accounts for the society.

New Business:

Laura Showed the group the spreadsheet of Marilyn’s tools and equipment so that people would know how to use it and invited people to add their names if they were interested in buying any of them.

Q-tips: No Q-tips this round! Our wellspring of wisdom runneth dry in these trying times.

Show and Tell:

Fred showed us his newest beautiful Marble, Turbo amethyst encased red crayon petals (He recommends India green as a cooperative green for encasing in boro.)
Laura shared her successful attempt at a geometric bead and informed the group she had the “how it was made” video in her virtual back pocket for a later date when we were lacking in demos… She also showed the group her submission for the ISGB Commemorative bead – a hand painted Furbonacci Spiral!
Lester contributed some gorgeous sets of Double Helix beads encased in clear and textured for depth.
Lendy gave us a sneak peek of her soon-to-be stud earrings for the gallery. Showed tiny dogwoods, peppermints, and mini murrini of ladybugs, lips and sunflower cores.

Demo: Lendy demoed the making of Candy Canes in Boro using a hand-built jig for consistency: Here’s the link to watch if you missed it! https://youtu.be/XwHTtZza2Sg

Upon a demand from VP/Secretary Laura, Tori kindly offered to demo a ceramics technique of one kind or another for next month!

The meeting officially ended and everyone went their separate ways. Tori, Laura and Joan stayed on to sort the admin permissions for the facebook page.

Bits for next email/new business:

https://www.didyclips.com/ – Clip on Didymium Lens for $65, made by Travis Weber (I have one on order currently)