Wednesday, December 22, 2010

'Visit Victoria' promotes the Festival of Glass

Visit Victoria - the state's peak tourism body - is promoting the Festival of Glass, inviting local, national and international visitors to visit us.

The site tells potential visitors to the Festival that they can be assured of a full day out in Drysdale. Local musicians will entertain visitors as they sample the region's food, wines and olive oils; the monthly Drysdale Craft Market is happening nearby on the same day; and the fully-restored, historic Bellarine Peninsula Railway runs all day between nearby Drysdale rail station and Queenscliff.

To see Visit Victoria's article about the Festival of Glass, go to www.visitvictoria.com/
then type-in Festival of Glass in the 'Search' box.

Artists, craftspeople can rent CBD shops cheaply for Xmas

DCSCA encourages all local arts and crafts businesses - especially those participating in the Festival of Glass - to consider opening a shop through the Made in Geelong scheme.

Made in Geelong enables creative people to test their wares in the peak Christmas/New Year shopping period without having to commit themselves to a costly, long-term lease. Artists, craftspeople and community groups can lease empty shops in Geelong’s CBD at low rent on a 30-day rolling licence, which either the owner or the tenant can end with 14 days notice. The scheme is open to individuals, groups and organizations; a few people could decide to lease a shop together and share the costs and the profits. Anyone wishing to participate in Made in Geelong must have an Australian Business Number (ABN) - available (free) from the Australian Tax Office web site.

The owner of the shop takes no commission on sales, but the tenant pays the utility bills (electricity, gas, water, etc.). The tenant decides who will staff the shop. Tenants can decorate the shop with the written permission of the owner and must return the shop to its original condition before the end of the lease. The Made in Geelong Selection Committee will match potential tenants with the most suitable space available.

Made in Geelong is an innovative initiative by the City of Greater Geelong's Dept. of Arts and Culture. It's modeled on a scheme developed to help regenerate Newcastle CBD and has already seen some artists turn their short-term leases into long-term ones.

For more Information: madeingeelong@gmail.com

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Accommodation on the Bellarine


As you plan your visit to the Festival of Glass, you may wish to stay overnight on the Bellarine Peninsula. You may even decide to have a short break of a few days.

To find accommodation on the Bellarine online, here are a couple of options:
The Geelong-Otway Tourism site: www.visitbellarine.org
The Trip Advisor site for Geelong: http://www.tripadvisor.com/HACSearch-g255350-Geelong_Victoria.html

The Festival of Glass doesn't endorse or support either site, so we can't make any recommendations; but we hope that you find somewhere that you like.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

A reminder: 'Totally Shattered' Open weekend

Festival of Glass participants Totally Shattered Glass Studio in Point Lonsdale is holding an 'open weekend' this weekend - November 27 and 28.

See hand-made glass plates, platters, bowls and jewellery, plus demonstrations of glass-working techniques.

When? Saturday 27 November and Sunday 28 November, 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.
Where? 1480 Portarlington-Queenscliff Road, Point Lonsdale (Melway: 485 K8)

Festival workshops taking shape

The Festival of Glass includes a program of workshops to meet its aim of bringing together artists, craftspeople and businesses in the region who are making or working with glass. The program is starting to take shape and if you would like to be involved, please contact us.

We're planning five workshops:
  • Glass in Industry
  • Glass in the Home
  • Glass in Architecture
  • Glass in Geelong's Economy
  • Local Glass History
Each workshop will feature up-to-date reports about what people are doing with glass, new glass products and new ways to use glass.

On the Monday (21 February) after the Festival of Glass, there will be a forum where artists, craftspeople and businesses can explore possible collaboration in new commercial projects. Each participant in the Festival will receive an invitation to the Forum closer to the date.
(Photo: 'Dancers'. Mosaic by Betty O'Driscoll)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Glass Valuations

At the Festival (20th Feb. 2011) members of the Geelong Bottle and Collectables Club will be in attendance with a magnificent display of old bottles, some with a direct link to Geelong and the local bottling plants. Their members are passionate about old bottles and glassware, and have offered to do an appraisal on old glass objects. If you have something of value which is in your cabinet or getting dusty in some faraway place in your house, get it out, give it a bit of a clean up and bring it along. You might be surprised at the value.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Council invests in the Festival of Glass

The City of Greater Geelong has shown its confidence in the Festival of Glass by investing $6,000 in it. The money will help to pay for the costs of infrastructure, marketing and promotion associated with this unique event.

The $6,000 is the result of an independent assessment of the Festival of Glass by the council's local experts in conference organisation. Their support reaffirms the vision behind the Festival and recognises the Committee's hard work to bring that vision to life. It also gives a tremendous boost to the artists, craftspeople and business who have expressed their confidence in the Festival by agreeing to participate in it.

This 'tick of approval' by experts in conference organisation will increase the Festival's attraction to other potential participants. It shows that although the 2011 Festival of Glass will be the first of its kind in the region, it is being run in a professional manner by a Committee in whom participants can be confident. The experts' 'tick of approval' also shows potential sponsors that this innovative event is already gaining a positive reputation from which they can benefit.

The Festival Committee had asked the council for its support via its Community Festival grant scheme, which is run by the council's Arts & Culture department. In September this year, the Committee submitted to the council a detailed description of the Festival's aims, of its planned outcomes for participants and of its planned benefits for local people and visitors, together with a detailed budget and marketing proposal. In early November, the Committee heard that its application had been successful. Imagine the celebration!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Janet Jenkin interview

Janet Jenkin taught English as a second language to adults for many years, but always found that she needed a creative activity to balance the more theoretically based work. Moving to part-time educational writing a few years ago has given her more time to concentrate on developing her practical skills in lampwork and jewellery making, to the extent that she has been able to start a small business that she hopes will grow in the future.



She says she always loved jewellery making and glass objects in any form, so her attendance at a workshop run by Peter Minson as an introduction to lampwork seemed like the perfect blending of the 2 passions, and it's been a continuing love affair ever since. Janet has made jewellery with glass beads for more years than she would like to admit to, but has only been lamp-working and making her own beads since 2007. Serious exlploration of beading and bead-weaving using Japanese glass seed beads is another continuing journey that started only recently.



Janet is inspired by combinations. She loves combining different colours, techniques and materials in her lampwork. Her colours of choice are black and/or ivory, and/or silver as a foundation then builds on that with other colours. Her colour palettes vary and to avoid the trap of limiting her work to the colours she prefers, she will often challenge herslf to try working with particular combinations that she may not initially be comfortable with.



Lamp work with soft glass is her preferred technique at the moment, although she is starting to experiment with boroscilicate (hard) glass and her seed beading favourite is working with different sorts of ropes such as spiral, netted and Russian.



At the moment Janet is mainly selling her jewellery through word of mouth and her beads at the Bead Society of Victoria meetings, where she is teaching some basic classes for the Society members. She is excited about being part of the Festival of Glass, and being able to show her finished work to a whole new audience. She jopes that in the future she attains many more skills in a variety of lampwork and beading, and to be selling her creations online as well as face to face.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Artist interview with Glenda MacNaughton

Glenda Mac Naughton, who in her own words is a self taught artist and designer who handcrafts all of her own designs. In 1996 her mother gave her some glass beads, and a book about beading, however it was a couple of years later that she came across some fantastic woven glass beadwork in a shop in Austin, Texas (USA). She liked what she saw, bought another book, some needles and beads and on the long haul back to Australia, she set about getting seriously involved in beading.
She lives near the seaside in Drysdale, which is on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria's south east where she is enjoying the quiet life of beading. In her day job, she was an academic who "created" with ideas and words, now she enjoys the mysteries of creating with meaning, and with colour, shape and form. She tries to bead with social responsibilty in mind and she publishes about beadwork and beyond, in beading magazines and on her daxdesigns blog. She has a growing list of awards for her art beadwork and sells her work at local markets and on her online shop.
Her business name 'Dax Designs' came from Dax, who was a much loved dog rescued from a local dogs home, but who sadly became the victim of a snake bite. Dax the dog was named after a character on Star Trek; Jadzia Dax.
Glenda is inspired by women in diverse cultures that have long used shape, pattern and colour in beadwork as a language, to talk about things of significance to them and to their culture. She draws on this practice to design and handcraft wearable beadart that can talk about things such as social justice, respect for diversity and also to create a more eco-friendly world. Her messages of hope, possibilities and desire are all crafted by her in her use of shape, pattern and colour to create designs that escape the ordinary and embrace difference.
She hopes to create beadwork that is so pleasing and striking that those who wear it and those that see it, will talk about it, and so the messages of diversity, the environment and social justice will also get talked about.
Glenda says she tends to gravitate towards lime, purple and orange colours, which are fresh, edgy and vibrant. She loves weaving with tiny glass beads using the traditional Peyote stitch.
She is an active member of the Victorian Bead Society, where she teaches, however she is planning to teach locally at the Springdale Neighgourhood Centre in Drysdale, where classes can be customised to individuals and group needs.
For further information on Glenda's beading life go to: http://www.daxdesigns.com.au/

Monday, October 18, 2010

Glass Studio holds 'open weekend'


Festival participants Totally Shattered Glass Studio in Point Lonsdale will hold an 'open weekend' on November 27 and 28.

The event will feature:
  • Hand-made plates, platters and bowls
  • Jewellery
  • Paintings and handicrafts
  • Christmas decorations
  • Demonstrations.

When? Saturday 27 November and Sunday 28 November, 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.
Where? 1480 Portarlington-Queenscliff Road, Point Lonsdale (Melways: 485 K8)

Friday, October 15, 2010

Festival logo launched

The Festival of Glass has a logo! Designed by Festival committee member Lyn Ingles, the logo is a tasty combination of text and colour (see photo).

Expect to see a lot of this logo. It will feature on all the Festival's advertising, publicity and marketing material, as well as on roadside signage for the Festival.

The logo's launch is a significant step towards creating the Festival's identity. Thanks Lyn!

Festival's entertainment lining up

Entertainment at the Festival of Glass is starting to take shape. The Festival committee is lining-up local entertainers to complement the local glass people who will present its exhibitions, demonstrations and workshops.

The first act to be signed-up is Steer - a new local accoustic band consisting of Sharn Redman, Jamie Pye and Stacey Thomsett (see photo). Steer is planning to release its first CD - also called Steer - in 2011. The CD will aim to steer youth - and adults - in positive directions. 'It will be full of songs about people and life that encourage everyone to follow their dreams', said Sharn Redman. 'We don't think that negativity or peer pressure should stop anyone having a go!'

Steer was a highlight of the Annual General Meeting of the Drysdale & Clifton Springs Community Association and their next appearance locally will be on 24th October at the Family Fun Day at Drysdale's 'Potato Shed'. Catch them if you can!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Team Promotion

On Tuesday 10th of August, the organising committee will be meeting at the Totally Shattered Glass Studio in Point Lonsdale along with a local journalist and photographer, to do some promotional work for the Festival next February. Studio owner, Vicci Crowley-Clough is an advisor for the Festival of Glass team and the studio backdrop will help promote the Festival in the print media.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

History of the Festival

Once it had been decided to establish a Festival of Glass, the sub-committee looked for a venue to hold such an event. Church and school halls were considered, however the Potato Shed was clearly the best venue because of it lending itself to a large range of possible configurations to cater for a diverse range of glass products and services.

The other issue was "ownership or naming" of the event. The Drysdale & Clifton Springs Community Association Inc. are establishing the Festival and right from the beginning, the committee felt that calling it the Drysdale and Clifton Springs Festival of Glass was going to be too much of a mouthful, despite the fact that the Association is based in both towns.

It was decided to keep it simple and just call it the Drysdale Festival of Glass, primarily because the event will be held in Drysdale. If there had been a suitable location in Clifton Springs, no doubt it could have been labelled the Clifton Springs Glass Show or something similar.

Clifton Springs does have some historical connection with glass, due to the fact that in the late 1800's there was a mineral springs bathhouse and bottling plant on the foreshore at Clifton Springs. A lovely hotel was built on the clifftop, near the golf clubhouse and the mineral springs complex was a huge vacation spot not just for people who came out from Geelong and districts with their horse drawn buggies, but from Melbourne and beyond, who arrived here via ships. It was indeed unfortunate that the hotel was burnt to the ground in about 1925 and was never rebuilt. Motor cars and other holiday destinations took over and the mineral springs plant went into decline and was literally abandoned. Very little of what was a thriving industry remains.

There are not many of the original bottles that remain in their entirety, however we will endeavour to have some at the Festival for viewing
The Festival has been the brainchild of the Drysdale & Clifton Springs Comunity Association Inc. who had been exploring the possibility of creating a Festival for both townships. It did not take long for the idea of the Festival of Glass to gather some momentum and sub-committee was formed to investigate the viability of such a project.
The sub-committee is headed by the Association President, Doug Carson, along with 2 local glass artists in Betty O'Driscoll and Michelle Payne. Anne Brackley, Lyn Ingles, Mercedes Drummond and Roger Lavingdale make up the rest of the team who are bringing the Festival to the Potato Shed in Drysdale in February 2011.
The Potato Shed is a vibrant arts centre situated 2 km's from the centre of Drysdale and has a large theatre, plus several rooms available for display purposes. An ideal location for a Festival as there is plenty of parking, a lovely rural outlook and plenty of outside display areas if we need them.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Learning Issues

Today we are starting a blog for the Drysdale Festival of Glass. The Festival will be held at the Potato Shed in Drysdale on the 20th February 2011 from 10 am - 5 pm. The blog is being "driven" by people who have never or hardly ever blogged before, so please excuse any laughable entries as we try to work our way through the mindfield. Oh to be young and reckless with a computer.

Getting back to the Festival: our intention to to invite glass artists of every description to the Festival. Bead makers, people who make mosaics, jewellry, casting, moulding, etc. In the industrial and domestic side of things, we want builders and architects to show their glass designs, we want solar panels to be on show, double glazed windows, automotive glass etc. Historically we would like to see some artifacts from the Clifton Springs bottling plant from the late 1800's, and the list goes on to include medical, optical, recycled and beverage glass.

There is an enormous amount of work to be done to bring all this together, and we trust that the community and the glass movement in general get behind this event, to encourage it to become an annual event, showcasing glass through art, craft & industry

Test

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