Every year the same Bullseye people who build the furnaces, ladle the glass, pack the crates, teach the classes, stock the shelves, and answer the phones put together my favorite exhibition: Working Glass.

“Untitled” got my vote: a pair of over-sized pink nuts. From a young woman in the maintenance department.

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I was warned.

They told me that that I’d run out of babble; that I’d get bored with my own writing; that no one would comment (unless I picked a fight); that some ITiot would switch me over to different blog software and I’d have to learn a New Trick (just kidding, Chris)…etc etc.

My own special gray soup. A bit like Dunbeath harbor when the haar rolls in…

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Just before I left Portland for North Lands, our Research & Education team embarked on the much-anticipated 6-week working session with Klaus Moje to assist him in producing an unprecedented series of glass panels for his summer 2008 exhibition at the Portland Art Museum.

Moments before getting on the plane at Heathrow to return to Portland I received this emailed souvenir of Klaus’s most recent time at Bullseye.
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Third, and last, on my list of “Unbeautiful Things” is the manner in which kilnforming is being marketed today. I have some pretty strong opinions on this, so if you’re not ready for another rant, you may not want to keep reading.

This is what STRESS looks like. It happens when glasses that are not “compatible” are fused together. Understanding it is the foundation of glassforming.

IMO reducing a rich and fascinating field to a litany of assurances that success will come from buying a glass with a “wider margin of error” and a kiln that a dog can program does a disservice to the many exceptional artists who have worked to advance the reputation of the medium and to the beginners who deserve to be educated, not harvested.
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BEFORE: Ray Ahlgren & Dan Schwoerer, 1973.

After 33 years in business, Bullseye looks a lot different from the outside. But the soul is the same. So now, finally, I get around to the point of this first week of blogs: who we are, who Bullseye is.

Who we are is who we’ve always been: a slightly eccentric little factory driven by people with a lot of energy, passion about glass, some oddball ideas and a commitment to learning. In a serious, relatively professional way.
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