Sorano

Well here is the sweet town of Sorano.

These two photos were taken from our bedroom window! Check out the waterfall! It was great falling asleep each night listening to the rumble of it.

There are cats all over the place here. This is a photo of the neighbors cats one of which came in one of the windows nightly and slept with my sister!

This is the entrance to the home we stayed in! This place is truly magical.

These 2 photos were taken right in front of the house in either direction......

Whit, Christine and I decided to hike to the waterfall one morning and this was on our way.

A tunnel we had to go through on our way to the falls.....

A cross on the inside wall of one of the tunnels.....

View of some catacombs near the falls...

The waterfall......

And our reward after our long hike to the bottom! We met a very nice man named Andrea and he showed us all around his property and gave us some grapes....... they were great!

I have so many more photos to share........ will work on some more later in the week.....
hope you enjoy them.

Great Birthday!

What a great day I had! Whit surprised me with this heart and raven sculpture that I had seen in a local gallery before we left for Italy. Tomorrow we are going to work on some shelving in my studio to display it! Have to make it Towanda proof.... I have a lot of glass that I want to go on it as well!
Thanks Sweetie, I love it!!!

Kathy sent me this cool winged vase that she got from a gallery in Tucson. We were there together this last February and both bought one for ourselves and I was really thinking about getting this one as well......... so Kathy bought it and saved it for my birthday! What a great surprise...
Thanks Kathy!!!!

Don and Billie sent me this awesome dog necklace! Wayne Robbins is one of my favorite bead makers / glass artists!!!
Thanks Don and Billie

Isn't this mug just the coolest! Kinda scary but true! The Moore's gave it to me filled with chocolate along with some GOLD PMC, gold tubing and some new tools to play with! It is so nice to have such wonderful friends! Thanks Jim, Liz, Anna and Groves!!!!

Kathy also made this cool raven pendant for me! I told her that she needs to get busy and start making more! Kathy is also my friend that does the wonderful raven paintings that you have seen in my studio! I think that she needs to open up an Etsy store, what do you think?????

This is my birthday card from Anna ....... she is soooo talented! Anna also makes great glass beads, she has been selling them at our local farmer's market and totally sold out of them! Anna you need to come over and get busy and get some more made!
I love my card Anna, thank you so much!


OK so maybe tomorrow I will work on some of my Tuscany photos for you!

Burano

This was another magical place. Most of the buildings are painted very bright colors. Some friends picked us up in their boat at our apartment and brought us to the island that way. It was fun to see how the locals get around!

One of the brightly painted houses.

It was great being there in the evening when all of the tourists were gone. I think that this is probably a pretty typical scene around there. We loved how the locals would come out at night and all visit.

An interesting courtyard with all of the glass.

Tara was awesome! We loved having her around.

Leah, Derek, Tara (making one of her funny faces) and Leah's mom.

This is Maggie, our mother hen as she calls herself! She is wearing a heart that Leah and I made for her. I will have to show you some close ups of the heart when I find them! It is an off mandrel heart that I made and then handed it to Leah to decorate and then she handed it back to me to remove. It came out beautiful and Maggie was so touched by it.......

This is my dear friend Ilana. She is one of the best! I miss her terribly........

OK that's it for now.....

Ciao!!!!!

Our Apartment in Murano

We loved our apartment in Murano...... it was perfect for us. We cooked a few dinners and had friends over for dinner a few times. It was air conditioned which was great because it was really hot there!!!! It had a large flat screen TV which I didn't photo, forget that side of the apartment... had a large bathroom and big shower...... we were very comfortable there.

Check out the chandelier and the poster of Lucio and Davide's work.

More Murano

Another beautiful but hot day here in Murano! Check out the rainbow.... talk about picture perfect.

This is right outside our apartment, we have to cross the green bridge and walk down the canal a bit to get to the studio each day....... tough commute but someone has to do it!

We went to the glass museum today and in the courtyard were these glass flowers and the glass bed. The flowers are about 2' tall and the bed is probably about a queen size bed.

You see these mosaic's all over the island..... at first you don't really notice them and once your eye is accustomed to looking at them they seem to pop up everywhere

Laundry day on Murano

Me and Cesare. I took a class with him at Pilchuck in 1993. When we walked into the shop his wife Teresa remembered me from back then. They are so nice........ everyone here is so nice, just look at his smile!

This is part of Cesare's studio. A really awesome studio. He has 5 torches set up in there. He has 2 sons that work with him.

Here is a photo of Carlo and Roberto Dona in their shop with me and Leah. Roberto said "now don't post my photo on your blog" but how could I resist not sharing a photo of a good looking Italian man in his bathrobe?????? Don't kill me Roberto!

Well off to bed...... gotta get up early tomorrow, we are going to get going earlier in the day since it is so hot!

Ciao!!!!!!

Awesome time!

Today was the first day of class! Everyone did just great. Leah started the class with a beautiful floral bead and in the afternoon I demoed a mothwing and a salmon egg.

These two photos were of a palace in Venice, check out the mosaic tile floor. The palace was built 1400's.

We walked through the garden district of Venice yesterday and this was another shrine that was on our walk. You see these all over the place. It was amazing to see so many gardens and trees here, I never expected to see that here......

After Venice we went back to Murano and visited a few glass blowing studios. These guys were making some very large twisted glass ribbon! They were at least 10' long, look at the guy at the top of the ladder that will give you and idea of the length, he was twisting the pipe while the man at the bottom held it.

This photo is for my sisters...... and any others that enjoy looking at a very handsome young Italian man!

Today after class we went over to Venice and Vittorio demonstrated 3 different pieces for everyone, a pelican, a fish and showing how he adds legs to a spider. Again, he is an incredible person. I can't say enough about him...... and his wife Graziella is just as great!

I thought that I would end tonight with a photo of the group that went out tonight and some gnocchi's that I had for dinner! I wanted to make sure you knew that not all of the food was weird! We have been trying to get gelato's everyday at least twice..... they are sooooo good! Good thing we are doing so much walking!

OH and on the way home we took the vaporetto that went the long way through Venice and before he got to Murano it just stopped! They told us we had to get off....... and then it started pouring..... none of us spoke Italian..... well that isn't totally true, Sylvie from Switzerland spoke some..... but anyways we couldn't figure out which vaporetto was still running this late to get us back to Murano so we just ended up getting a water taxi to take us back....... 100 Euros ($150.00) later we were home!!!!

And Anna I wish you were here with us!!!! We will definitely have to come back!

Ciao for now!!!!!!