New Art Glass, Recycled Art, Pottery and Handcrafted Jewelry in 2009!

The kids are FINALLY back to school (oh I remember the days when I thought a two-week vacation proceeded by a snow day was a good idea! ) and I've had a few days to reflect on the 2008 holiday season and think about the gallery in 2009. This is always a fun time of year. It’s buying season! Of course we have already done some of our inventory picks for the year but I always like to wait and see what sold and was requested during the holidays to make room for some last minute changes.

In keeping with our commitment to sustainability we continue to keep and add more recycled/green products. John Cook’s recycled fish were a hit over the holidays so we will be looking at more of his recycled glass creations as well as adding works from our old favorites Fire and Light, and Smart Glass.

Also on our list for this year is to expand our line of art glass perfume bottles (we are currently out!) and garden art. On the technology side, we are planning to tweak the website a bit to make it easier to shop by category rather than just by artist.

And along with the rest of the world, we’ve just added a new specials / sale section. Most of these pieces are from artists from whom we have limited inventory remaining. Every year we “retire a few artists” to make room to feature a few more. It is always sad to do this because we become friends over the years but we realize it has to be done.

So keep checking back to see what is new as we'll be adding new artists and new creations from our existing artists over the next month. Our goal is to make the Red Elephant Gallery the first place you look for unique, usable, hand crafted gifts for your friends and family, and of course, yourself.

Our little Art Glass Adventure

School holiday vacation was two weeks long this year. Two WEEKS! We love our kids as much as anyone but with dad taking time off from work and the kids around all day, the house got mighty small in a hurry. One of the great things we did to get out together was to take the kids to see the glass exhibit at Rhode Island School of Design’s new Chace Center. Our youngest is the little glass hound in the family. He is always the first to unpack the boxes when they arrive at the studio, always poking around asking questions when things are being photographed. He’s been like that ever since I can remember. He was 2 when we opened the Red Elephant Gallery. Today he’s the one that unpacks, counts and sorts the Christmas ornaments when they arrive during the summer. He does pretty well for a 6-year-old and has yet to break a piece (more than I can say for his mother). Anyway, I thought it would be fun for them to see the large scale glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly and there is one other piece in particular I thought the little guy should see. We have a book by glass artist Dan Dailey called the Glassigator. It is a children’s book that describes the glass blowing process through the blowing a glass alligator head. There is a glass alligator head by Dan Dailey (not sure if it is really titled “the glassigator”) in this Glass exhibit at the Chace Center. Anyway it was really fun for him to see his story book come to life and we had a good time picking out the differences between the glassigator in the book and the one in the exhibit.

Visiting the many, varied, and wonderful museums in the Northeast and down to Washington, D.C. has become one of the best ways to spend some time with our kids. Any size or subject but we're passionate for the more artsy! And If you have a little one who likes glass or understanding how things are made I highly recommend "The Glassigator" published by the Toledo Museum of Art.

Unique Gift ideas for this holiday season

We headed out to a show in Connecticut just as the sun was coming up over the river near our house. I put the mini-van in drive and pulled forward out of the driveway for three feet then stopped. I couldn’t see a thing. What I thought was dew on the windshield was in fact frost. The scraping windshield wipers’ telltale winter’s sound burrowed into my psyche that we are heading for winter here in the Northeast and it’s time to get prepared both physically and mentally.

The frost was gone in a few minutes time under pressure from the de-froster (clever name that) and we were on our way. But the frost started me thinking about Christmas and the timing of gift-buying. I am a practicing procrastinator so for me to be thinking about Christmas gifts before Halloween, is unheard of. The fact remains, however, that I was thinking about Christmas gifts as we unloaded our wares in New London. We bring a pretty good sample of what we have to offer to shows such as these and yes, the selection included great Christmas gifts.

Ornaments: We’ve got amazing ornaments from blown glass to ceramic. From see-through to opaque. From small to large. Click here and take a look!

Banks: These aren’t just any banks, these are the coolest, cutest, ceramic banks ever. Hippos, sheep, dinosaurs, aardvarks, and yes, of course, piggies.

Sushi sets: We have ceramic and glass versions of this popular gift item. They are cool and quite unique being individually handmade.

These are just a small sample of what’s available at the Red Elephant Gallery for you to buy for your family and friends this holiday season. We hope to see you on the site.

Art Glass Pumpkins – Art and agriculture on my mind

In my other life I go to a lot of boat shows. Every fall the classic United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, calls it’s swan song to those of us in the marine biz and we all trek to the shores of Chesapeake Bay and one of the cutest little towns anywhere. Problem is, almost every year this show happens the week the fall leaves are at their best color in the mountains of northern New England. Never fails.

When I get home after Columbus Day my only consolation is that I can usually make the local pumpkin weigh-in at Frerich’s Farm in Swansea, MA. There are some BIG pumpkins, in the field when I get there, trucked in from all over. Seriously big--hundreds of pounds. Huge. To grow one of these behemoths requires creativity, patience, skill, and innate pumpkin knowledge. To win, well, that’s just way too much pumpkin know-how to even consider with a big dash of luck thrown in for good measure.

But what in the heck does this have to do with the Red Elephant Gallery other than our family makes up part of the weigh-in audience? Not a lot, but something important. Artists, whether they grow pumpkins or blow art glass, are in constant evolution from where they began through where they are in their craft, to where they’ll end up. When we check in with them at a particular time and place, they are somewhere along that evolutionary trail and the fact is we don’t know where. That’s the fascination. How does one person gain so much knowledge that they can grow a thousand-pounder or caress molten silica into something as glorious as Luke Adams’ under-a-pound art glass pumpkins,. What life events brought them to this point? How will they evolve?

As much thought as I’ve put into the behemoths in Massachusetts I’ve put into the fine detail of the delicate specimen on our windowsill. I stare at Luke’s work and wonder how he came to be in the place that he is and how lucky we are to be in the right place and time to enjoy it. How does he do what he does? I don’t know. It’s magic for all I care. Fascinating, beautiful magic.

So do hit the link above and check out his work. And if pumpkins aren’t your thing, they’re not all he does. But take some time with the pumpkins this fall. They’re very cool.

--Michael

Red Elephant Gallery finds new Ceramics, Art Glass and Handmade Jewelry at BMAC

Philadelphia Buyer’s Market of American Craft (BMAC), next year we’re actually going to wear the running shoes, not just talk about it!

There is nothing quite like the Buyer’s Market we attended last weekend organized by the creators of Niche and American Style magazines. We walked for two days straight and still didn’t get to see every artist’s work. But we did see some amazing work and slowly but surely some of it will be coming “home” to the Red Elephant Gallery for you to see and, if you like, buy for you, your home, or as a gift.

We attack the market each year with a plan that nearly immediately is tossed aside as we wander wide-eyed down the aisles. We know what we need to fill in our inventory and the rest just cannot be programmed. This is a heartfelt personal industry. The pieces we saw each represents an artist’s passion and talent so picking them based on some pre-thought list of needs borders on the ridiculous. We buy what speaks to us and we hope will speak to you. We buy from artists we like both personally and through their work. We are relationship buyers at the Red Elephant Gallery and it’s these relationships we will be sharing with you.

One of the stronger themes of this year’s buyer’s market was environmental art of all types. This isn’t the traditional meaning of environment in art, as in of a certain environment, but honest to goodness, don’t harm the planet, let’s hug a tree environmentalism. From recycled glass formed into pieces to pieces made from bottles before they hit the recycling plant. From recycled stainless and aluminum pieces to once again, pieces of stainless and aluminum captured pre-recycling plant post consumer usage, formed into truly amazing art. It was phenomenal to see the variety of work in this fast growing genre and you’ll be seeing a good selection coming to the gallery soon to augment what we already have in Willyware and Sea Stones.

So it was a fantastic weekend of strengthening existing friendships, making new friends, and perusing what must be the most amazing buyer’s show in the country. There’s passion, talent, desire, and patience evident in all the artists’ work and we can’t wait to bring the best to you in the coming months.

Fused Glass tableware by Sarah Hirneisen of Mediums to Masses added to Red Elephant Gallery

Mediums to Masses glass tableware is designed and handcrafted by Sarah Hirneisen in her California Studio. Sarah received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Rhode Island School of Design with a concentration in glass. She also studied at the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass and the Rochester Institute of Technology. She has worked with glass for over 10 years for a variety of glass studios in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and California before opening her own glass studio in 2005.

Sarah combines her love of glass with that of textiles to create her unique line of tableware. Vintage fabric patterns are hand silk-screened onto each glass piece using ground up glass enamel in a multi-step process Sarah developed. The resulting works give the fabric patterns a second life while creating a juxtaposition of vintage with modern.

When we saw Sarah's work we knew we had to carry it at the Red Elephant Gallery. The Sushi set was what first caught my eye. It is such a fabulous shade of mint green it reminded me of the old (now considered retro) serving pieces my mother used to have.