Henry and I are back from Las Vegas where we attended AGE and Champs.  We had a great trip and I got the chance to meet many of you in person and put a lot of faces to names.  A couple of you also very graciously pointed out that we had not posted a blog in a long time. Thanks for the gentle nudge...we are getting back on track.

For those of you who did not make it to Vegas, there was a lot going on - from the demos at AGE, the flame-off at Champs and the second annual Functional Glass Industry Awards (FGIA), which were hosted by Henry and Merc.  In order to be up for a FGIA, an artist had to be nominated 5 times, so it is safe to say that there were no losers.  42 Degrees Ann Arbor took home the prize for Glass Gallery of the Year, JP from Toro won for Most Innovative, Brandon Martin won for Breakout Artist and Freeek took home Artist of the Year.

Henry and I spent a lot of time at AGE and we were more than impressed with the talent on display.  From the zombie chillums at Rated R, the insane sandblasting at Liberty Glass to the top notch designs at Sheldon Black, AGE definitely set a new standard for American made glass.

Three years ago today I joined GA full time. I can't believe it has been three years.  Thanks to everyone in the industry for your support.  I have met some amazing people, have learned a lot and look forward to many more years here at Glass Alchemy.

Happy new decade to everyone! 

Now, I gotta get back to work...

Thomas flew out to Wisconsin yesterday to represent GA at the Great Lakes Art Show, whick kicks off today.  

Glass Alchemy is a color sponsor for this event and we are really excited to see the results of the two day flame off. There are going to be six teams competing in the flame off and there will be on-line voting on Toke City this Friday and Saturday.  Be sure to check out the finished pieces and vote for your favorite!  All the teams will be using Glass Alchemy glass in their pieces and we are excited to see the teams put the glass to use.

We are having cold weather here in Portland, but Thomas has some very low temperatures to look forward to in the next few days - there is a high of 7 tomorrow in Madison!

Over the years we have had a few people ask what our logo represents.  Well, when we started the business, first we needed a name that represented what we wanted our company to be about - an unlimited source of creativity that captures both art and science.  Once we decided on Glass Alchemy, Ltd., the adventure began to create a logo.  We worked with Gary Houston at Voodoocatbox and we decided to play on the word "Alchemy" by basing our logo on an alchemist symbol for glass with the V and inverted V interlocked.

The V is the symbol for silica sand which is the starting point for glass making and the inverted V is for quartz crystal which represents the transparent quality of glass. By weaving the G for glass into the symbol, Gary achieved our initials GA combined with the symbol for glass. Pretty cool!  Check out Gary's site at voodoocatbox.com - he is having a holiday sale on some great rock and roll posters.