Glassblowing @ Luke Adams

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Nature Connects, Art with Lego Bricks at the Naples Botanical Garden

The Naples Botanical Garden was started in 1993 by 8 Naples residents. Comprised of over 170 acres in Old Naples it was transformed in 2008 into 6 cultivated gardens with 2.5 miles of walking trails and 90 acres of restored native preserve. Those 6 cultivated gardens represent unique environments.

"Nature Connects, Art with Lego Bricks" is a traveling exhibit of larger than life sculptures inspired by nature and built using over 500,000 Lego bricks that represents the complex and amazing network that interconnects all things that currently calls the Garden its home.
The exhibit features 27 award winning sculptures designed and created by the world’s first Lego certified professional Sean Kenney. From his studios in New York City with the help of several creative assistants Sean created this impressive
collection for us all to enjoy.


These 27 creations are spread throughout the parks 6 Gardens as a compliment to those environments. After leaving the visitor’s center and enter the gardens via the Palm Walk the first example is a mural wall where you can have your picture taken.

Named after the major benefactor of the Botanical Gardens the Kapnick Brazilian Garden includes flora from Brazil’s seven terrestrial ecosystems. The major attraction of the Brazilian Garden is the impressive waterfall. Atop the Water fall is a pool covered by 5 giant lily pads with a lotus bloom and a frog.


Next is the Caribbean Garden also named for the Kapkick family was designed to make you feel like you are on one of the Caribbean Islands. It includes a diverse landscape of lush tropical forests and exotic plants to dry forests and savannah’s of cactus and scrub. Along the Caribbean Lawn another of Sean Kenney’s creations can be found it is a lawnmower.

The Children’s garden is a carefree example of colorful flowers, vegetables, and butterflies with a tree house and babbling streams. Kids and adults alike can enjoy the jets of water or orient themselves with the huge in-ground compass. Here can be found the majority of the Lego creations.

In Judy’s Herb Garden you can find a garden worker tilling the soil, Golden Finches enjoying a birdfeeder. In the Butterfly gardens a Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly can be found. The most impressive display is the American Bumblebee flying majestically through the Tree house. Even farther in to the Children’s garden you can find a Fox stealthy hunting a Rabbit as he munches on some of the vegetation.

The Water Garden is at the heart of the Botanical Gardens. It is a river of grass and is filled with water lilies, lotuses and papyrus. A boardwalk transects the water garden and often serves as a stage as it did on the day of our visit. We were treated to the sound of music from the performing Jazz in the Garden Trio. It is surrounded by the Great Lawn and is a popular spot for visitors to lay out a blanket and have a picnic. Along the boardwalk flying over the water is the Common Green Darner Dragonfly.

The Asian Garden is a collection of tropical and subtropical plants including rice paddies, coconut groves and rubber plants. It includes a Balinese Shrine, the Candi Suka Ruin and a Thai Riverside Pavilion.  The Jumping Koi can be found in the serene Japanese tea Garden here.

The Florida Garden’s major element is the Great Circle which is reminiscent of the numerous pot lakes that can be seen all over southwest Florida. It is planted with many of the indigenous plants including bougainvillea and silver palmetto. It is also home to four impressive exhibits. As you walk in you can’t help but see the Hummingbird and Flower floating effortlessly as it drinks the nectar. Behind him are a Bison and Calf grazing in the grass. As you approach the more forested section you find a fallen acorn now germinating hoping to one day grow big and strong. Along the way out you find a oversized Rose so beautiful it’s hard to not want to lean in and see it if smells as sweet as it is large.

 

After a long day enjoying Nature Connects with Lego’s along the 2.5 miles of paths meandering through the impressive Botanical Garden we decided to head back to the Welcome Center before leaving. It is here that the final example can be found. A Delicate Moth Orchid stands proudly for everyone to appreciate the intricate detail up close.

Task 63 & 65 - Buy 1 Antique / Piece fof Art

Store: Boston Consignment
            238 Highland Ave
           Needham, MA 02494
           (781) 449-0900

Rating: 4-Stars

This past weekend I stopped by Boston Consignment. It is a pretty non-descript building but something in one of the windows made me decide to stop in and see what they had. Almost immediately when I entered a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus poster caught my eye.

The colors were bright and vivid and the growling leopard head really captured my attention. I noticed that there were two other circus posters as well. The posters were all in excellent condition. I asked the owner of the shop Sheila the story behind the poster’s and she told me that they came from the estate of a printer and that these posters were printed for the circus in his shop and he had retained a few copies for his personal collection.

Dan also saw a huge mirror he was interested in but it wasn’t cheap at $695. He decided to think about it and the poster priced at $450 required that do a little research before pulling the trigger. While driving away I called my father to get his opinion and sent him a picture of the poster. I also began looking online from my phone and discovered several of these poster’s for sale ranging from $650 - $795 unframed. 

After some conversation Dan decided he wanted the mirror and I decided I wanted the poster. We returned to the store and Sheila and I negotiated a price of $1000 for both items. The way her shop and most consignment shops work is that these items are owned not by here but the original owners and she is tasked with the job of selling the items on their behalf. She is allowed some flexibility on each item’s price but it varies from item to item. 

Net cost of the poster with tax for me was $413.00 and I was pleased with my purchase. Anyone that has ever had anything framed knows that a poster this size would cost $200 - $300 to frame alone.

I was torn which one of my 101 things tasks to put this one as. Antique or piece of art. I decided since it was old and not something that they still make today and that there was a limited number of them printed I would count it as an antique. 

Task 56 - Origami Crane

(56) Make 10 Origami Figures. (2/10) Today is the birthday of Akira Yoshizawa (吉澤 章 Yoshizawa Akira; 14 March 1911 – 14 March 2005) who is considered the grandmaster of origami. To honor him I thought today I would complete another lesson in the art of origami. This lesson was to learn to make an origami crane. It took a few runs to learn it and memorize the folds but I think it came out nicely. I know this is the first one most people learn but for whatever reason I picked the dinosaur first.

Task 34 – Take an Art Class: New Street GlassWorks (Worcester, MA)

Studio: New Street GlassWorks
Location: 35B New Street
                  Worcester, MA 01605
Website: www.worcester.edu/WCC/
Rating: 5-stars

Last night several friends and I participated in Friday Night Fun with Glass Blowing: Saint Paddy’s Beer Glass with the Worcester Center for Crafts/New Street GlassWorks. Both the Center for Crafts and New Street GlassWorks are affiliated with Worcester State University. The New Street GlassWorks is equipped with a glass furnace that keeps 400 pounds of clear glass melted and ready for instant red-hot use. Three "glory holes" are cranked up as needed for glassblowers making use of the hot shop. There’s also a cold shop, a mold shop, a flat shop, six rental studios and a flame working studio.

The cost for our class was very reasonable (about 80$) and it was a fun way to spend a Friday night with friends. Our instructors were Caitlin V, Emory and Ian. After a quick safety lesson, description of the tools and equipment, Caitlin got to work demonstrating what we would soon be doing ourselves. They regularly reminded us about safety because of how easy it is to get burned. If you are not careful with molten glass heated to about 2000˚ it isn’t hard to see how you could get burned given how closely you are while were working with the materials.

We had two options; we could make a colored beer stein with a handle or we could make a clear beer stein with a green shamrock.  I decided on the clear beer stein since I didn’t want a handle and I thought it would be cooler to have a clear glass to see my beer in.

I went first and I was paired with Emory as my instructor and assistant. Emory had a great personality and immediately put me at ease. The first step of glass blowing is to use the blowpipe to gather molten glass from the furnace.  Then we rolled the glass on the marver to create a cooler skin on the exterior of the glass allowing us to be able to mold it easier.  As the glass cools we reheat it using a glory hole until it was glowing red between each step. Next we lightly blew air through the blowpipe to create a bubble in the glass. I learned from Ian that it isn’t the air but rather the moisture in the air that expands and causes the glass to balloon.  We then start by scoring the glass just past the blowpipe using the jacks. This will allow us to separate the glass from the blowpipe later. After scoring we continue to inflate the bubble and mold the shape using  blocks which are ladle like tools made from fruitwood that have been soaking in water. We begin to create a cylindrical shaped bubble by using the jacks to smooth the bubble as we shape it with the blocks.

With the bubble now large enough it is time to add the shamrock. We do so by simply sticking our bubble in the garage where the pre-heated glass shamrocks have been baking and pressing the bubble down and picking up one of the shamrocks.  We continue to use the blocks, jacks, and glory hole  to merge the shamrock and our bubble together. Once we are satisfied that the shamrock and glass are combined we add more air to our bubble and inflate it further.  To lengthen the height of the cup we then swing out bubble like a pendulum causing the bubble to stretch.

Now we must separate the glass from the blowpipe. But first we must create a flat bottom of the glass where we attach it temporarily to another rod called the punty. We use a paddle to create this flat spot by further inflating the bubble while we gently push against the bubble with paddle to create a flat spot. Again we use the glory hole to keep the glass hot. To attach the punty we must first user it to gather a small amount of glass which we then roll on the marver. Once we have created a small cylindrical nub we use the tweezers to position it directly in the middle of our flat bottom. Once attached we cannot break the  glass off the blowpipe.

This process one of the most difficult according to both Emory and Ian. This is where many novice glass blowers break their glass.  They will assist me through this process. Using the tweezers I collect water from the bucket and where I had previously scored the glass using the jacks I quickly put the water. This cold water instantly caused a reaction in the glass and created our break point. Using the handle of the tweezers we lightly tap the blow pipe and the glass should and did pop right off leaving an open end to my glass.

Now we re-heated the glass in the glory hole again and using the jacks begin to stretch the opening out until it make s a glass shape.  Once we smooth the edges out and we are satisfied with the glass a simple but deliberate tap to the punty causes the glass to drop off into the oven mitted hands of Ian.

Now begins the waiting game. Sadly there is no instant gratification. The glass is put immediately into the annealer where is must cool the glass slowly over a 24 hour period. This will keep the grass from cracking due to thermal stress. Hopefully tonight I can get over to the studio to pick up my glass.

Our instructors

Emory                                 Ian                             Caitlin