Okay so I’m an artist now and I’m allowed to be a space case occaisonally. I forgot to tell you, I have a website, muffinspencerdevlin.com. I’m going after trophy commissions for golf tournaments. Maybe my forgetfulness is just an excuse to send you more pictures. These little "Rhyslings", in honor of my teacher at Santa Ana College, are an inch or two tall, just one gather on the pipe. I’m learning to use all sorts of new tools: crimps, tweezers, a MAP Gas torch, combo shears, different sized paddles and even a butter knife. I tried a bigger "Rhysling" yesterday. We’ll see how it turns out. Thanks again for your support.
Love and light,
Muffin

Good Evening all, we’re having a picture postcard sunset this evening. The clear, liquid light of the setting sun bounces off the Pacific, brightening the houses on my hill in the reflected light. Lucky for me, Mozart is playing in the background, Horn Concerto #1 or #3, I think. Marni quite happily had her PaceMaker removed in July 08. Hooray!! And so you will see the last of my PaceMaker Series, 6 1/2" x 10" x 8 1/2", a three gather with flattened sides and a fluted top. Ding, Dong, the Wicked Thing is Out! But wait, picture #1, 6 1/2" x 6" x 6", began in my head as a three gather candle holder for outdoors, well protected from the wind. It worked nicely, but the candle wax was difficult to remove from the inside. So I have re-imagined it as a Fish Bowl for a Beta, perhaps. These two pieces are the beginning of my attempt to go bigger, to shape with three gathers of glass instead of two. It’s time consuming, heavy and hot, unwieldy at times, but this is where I’ve been headed since I began working with Megs in the late summer of ‘06. There seems to be a lot more drama with three gathers, and more choices after transfer. I had a half dozen choices for the final PaceMaker shape before I settled on the one you see. That’s one of my favorite properties of glass, it’s fluidity. Marni made a request last week. The last two pictures are Business Card holders disguised as PaperWeights. I used the Leaf Green in her cards and swirled it with White, then shaped it to hold some business cards. Thank you for your support. Love & Light, Muffin

The furnace is up!! John turned it on early last week and the glass was hot and ready when I arrived on Saturday morning. I had a four tumbler commission to finish from last month and I was determined to get it right. My first attempt went well except for knocking my water bottle off the shelf when the hankie in my back pocket caught on the arm of the work bench as I was trying to sit down. No harm, no foul, but the best of the best make it look like the most graceful of dances and my first day back felt like the funky chicken! You can see the results: four respectable tumblers and a sippy cup for their six year old. I used Kaiser Red in the bottom and Reddish Opal Orange on the sides. The next picture is a chunk from a defunked furnace. I am planning a foray into new areas of cold work; engraving, etching, sculpting and sand blasting. This is my cadaver, in the words of a first year medical student. Don’t worry, you’ll get to see it in all it’s incarnations. It’s good to be back. Thank you for your support. Love and Light, Muffin

Hello my friends. No new glass because the furnace is down, so I’m going to take you on an adventure, a guided tour into a place which is normally, impossibly inaccessable. I’m going to show you what the Glass Furnace at John’s looks like on the inside, when it is cold. Right off the bat, I do not know why the glass looks blue, but I will get gack to you on that. The hole in the left hand wall is where the flame enters, screaming gas and oxygen hot enough to keep it a steady 2200 degrees. The cracks in the lake are the result of the fast cooling when the gas is turned off and remind me of a stormy sea. The melting wax effect on the walls is caused by the constant corrosive effect of the heat and the unavoidable degradation of the brick. The little flecks are debris from that war. It was strange to put my head in there. And it seemed smaller than I’d perceived it when working. The final picture is my girl, stripping the bark from some tree stumps to make stools for our new Africa Room. I hope you all are well. We should have that lake melted again and ready to blow by June. Love and Light,
Muffin

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a month. I have excellent news. John Barber has asked me to assist him with his own glass blowing at the Sawdust Festival this season. We’ll be in the Glass Palace Demo Booth every Friday from two in the afternoon until 10 at night. It’s been so exciting to watch him work. And assisting him has created greater confidence in my own work. John’s coaching stlye suits me perfectly. When I’ve made a mistake, he tells me how to fix it and with a twinkle, says, "Don’t worry. We’ll make it into something." These are my June tumblers. I’ve been tinkering with how I can use the reduction colors, the ones that turn silvery or shimmery gold at the end of the process in a reduction flame. You’ll remember a color I called "Spleen Green"? Officially, it’s know as Silver Yellow and as you can see in the first picture, there are silvery spots on the outside and yes, I will agree with you that it looks more green than yellow. Go figure. The next four tumblers are my answer to a commission for a birthday gift. The recipient was described as high powered, A list, living in L.A. Seemed a perfect moment to explore my further musings on Silver Yellow. I blew the glass in four colors; Carribean Blue, Jade Green, Pink and Fuscia and then rolled the bottoms in , you guessed it, Silver Yellow. I kept it raw, for the bumpy feel of it. In my head, I was imagining a glass that Guinevere or Lancelot might yearn to hold. And then I reduced the Silver Yellow to get the royal effect. Marni worked her magic and made a terrific Presentation Box. Happy Birthday!! Thank you all for your patience, your love and support. Love and Light,
Muffin

Good morning Glass friends, we had a heat wave over the weekend but it looks about to storm right now. Snow maybe? Not in Southern California! I went into the Studio to make Shot Glasses, Rocks Glasses and Scent Bottles. Hah! The first two pieces were meant to be a Rocks Glass, but the walls got too thin so I made them into bowls. #3 is a Scent Bottle in a color combo I used for my Uncle a few months ago. What do you think Dr. Lane? #4 is a color test for a commission and #5 is also a color test: Lime Yellow Transparent. We have two choices in color, opaque and transparent. I haven’t worked much with transparents and am wanting to learn more. The last picture shows a Ming Green shot glass and a Ming Green Scent Bottle. John showed me how to make the "stopper", and though I got it for this piece, I was unable to make the correct size for the Bottle in picture #3. Great news! My Bio and pictures of my work are available from the Studio Arts Gallery here in Laguna Beach at Studioartslaguna.com. Please visit and tell me what you think! Love and Light,
Muffin

I kicked ass in the Studio this day. I grew the stones to try a new application, solo lip wraps and I went into the Bubble mold for the first time. Check out the first picture. That’s Silver Dark Green in the bottom and on the lip. The bubbles give it the look of a star system or cosmic cloud straight from the Main Viewer on the Bridge of the Starship Enterprise. It’s as if I blew my own self right out of this world. Number two is the same color combination in a different shape. Pictures #3 and #4 are my Christmas "Holly and Berry" motif in a small bowl and a votive, both sportin’ a Chili Red lip wrap! For pictures five and six, I offer a bit of backstory: November 20th was Marni’s Birthday and our First Wedding Anniversary, so I blew her a tumbler and a votive. I’d made surprise reservations at the Stuio at the Montage and took the glass and a few more votives down to the restaurant in the afternoon. When we arrived the candles were lit in the votives and her glass was filled with ice and fizzy water. Our table was on the window overlooking the pool and the ocean. And she was surprised! Thank you all for your support.
Love and Light,
Muffin

Good evening. Remember I told you about color R-76? Spleen Green? Well, I discovered it is a reduction color, so in picture #1, you can see silvery patches near the bottom, where the Spleen Green frit reduced. I also gave it a Silver Blue lip wrap. The second picture is another rendition of the Rose Bowl. That’s Diablo Red on the inside and Aventurine Green on the outside, with an Aventurine Green lip wrap. #3 is a sweet little bowl with Opal Violet in the bootom, Aventurine Green sides and a Fuscia lip wrap. Marni gave me two new molds for Christmas and I’m just gettint the hang of them. Picture #4 is Opal Violet #3 on the inside, Fuscia on the outside and after a good reheat, I plunked the whole thing into an Steinart aluminium mold. I blew out the top but you can still see the effect of the mold on the bottom of the piece. Though this next picture looks like a blob, it’s actually a flowingly shaped little bowl with an off-set balance I enjoy. The last photo is my first attempt at the Swedish Flag. I used stringers to make the yellow cross in the field, but I chose the wrong blue and put the cross on the side of the paperweight instead of the top.