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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

2013 Glass Expo beats the heat!

Crowds at the 2013 Festival of Glass
Thousands of people braved 38 degree conditions to visit the Glass expo in Drysdale, Victoria on Sunday 17 February.

The Expo was the focus of the 2013 Festival of Glass, a DCSCA initiative now in its third year. Visitors strolled around the 70-plus sites, looking at glass of all shapes, sizes, colours and forms. With so much diversity, there was something for everyone to see - from leadlight to lampwork, from splashbacks to platters and from beads to bottles.

A warm welcome
The Expo's official opening started with a 'Welcome To Country' from Uncle David Tournier, of the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-op in Geelong. This was followed by greetings from Doug Carson, Chair of the 2013 Festival of Glass committee, local councillor Rod Macdonald and state MP Lisa Neville. Finally, Geelong Mayor Keith Fagg declared the Expo officially open!

On Twitter, Cr. Fagg wrote, '@ festival of Glass Opening. Stunning array of glass in all forms. All day Sunday at Bellarine College, Drysdale.' Thanks, Mr. Mayor!

After the opening ceremony, our guests talked with exhibitors as they walked around the Expo. They remarked on the diversity of the exhibits, the high quality of the entries in the glass-art competition and the attractiveness of the prizes in the raffle, each one donated by an exhibitor at this year's Festival.

Kind words
Since the Expo, many exhibitors have posted messages of thanks and appreciation on the Festival's Facebook page. Several exhibitors were kind enough to remark on the Festival's high degree of organisation. E.g. 'we exhibitors don't have to worry about anything other than our own tables during setup, take down and the day itself.'

The Festival Committee is basking in those kind words .... before addressing the list of suggested improvements for 2014!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

We're getting talked about!

Festival of Glass exhibitor Katrina Newman has just published an article about the Festival on her blog. (http://katrinanewman.com/2013/02/07/festival-of-glass/)

The article has a great photo (reproduced here) of some of Katrina's hand-made flamework beads annealing (cooling and hardening) in her kiln.

As Katrina says, 'It's going to be a colourful day, do drop by and say hello'.