GAS!
We just finished a huge glass weekend in Portland. The Glass Art Society's annual conference was here. GAS is an international group that counts among its members most of the "celebrities" of the glass world. This conference was attended by perhaps 1,800 people from all over the world, including a large contingent from Australia, and it was held 10 minutes from my home! It was a real treat to spend two days surrounded by people who share my fascination with glass. To top the weekend off we did the tour of Bullseye's factory Sunday afternoon. WOW! Here are a some of my observations from GAS:
- While it was great that it was so close to home there are drawbacks to this as well. Since I cold do my normal life and still participate I was distracted by things like grocery shopping--geez, where were my priorities?
- Portland really is a great city, it took comments from the out-of-towners to remind me of this
- A surprising number of my glass working compatriots won't try something that they haven't learned in a class.
- There is just not enough time in a day, days in a week... to try all of the new ideas I have
- The sessions were, for the most part quite good, but the programs put on locally by the Oregon Glass Guild and Bullseye are equally good but in smaller doses rather than two days of multiple simultaneous sessions
Next year's conference is in Corning NY, I just might go.
