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!!!!!!

class starts today......

I got home too late to post photos and slept too late to post them this morning! We walked all over Venice yesterday and then came back to Murano and went to several glass blowing studios.
Today class starts and then at 3:00 we will catch a vaporetto to Venice to go to Vittorio's studio.

I will do my best to get some more photos up tonight!

Ciao!!!!!!!!

Murano!

OK here are just a few photos from today. I will take more photos tomorrow of the town and our apartment and the views from there!

A shrine I saw when I was walking from the studio to our apartment.

Lucio's sign outside his studio!

Lucio in his studio! Very nice studio. We also went to Cesare Toffolo's gallery and studio today, I had taken a class from him in 1993 at Pilchuck and when I walked into the gallery his wife Teresa remembered me from back then! She got on the phone right away to Cesare and he came and took Whit and I to his studio where his 2 sons were working! His studio is awesome!!! I am going back there this week and will try and get some photos of it then, today I was just too excited visiting with him that I didn't even think about photos....

And I bet none of you knew that I too had a gallery and studio here on Murano since 2000!

Here is the group at dinner tonight! Isn't Tara the cutest (Leah and Derek's daughter for those of you that don't know her). We have a great group here, I am looking forward to our workshop which will start on Thursday.

Just thought I would share with you all what was served tonight at dinner........ I just couldn't eat them.........

Or this guy!!!!! But I did have some great gnocci with cheese sauce!

OK more tomorrow!

Ciao!!!!!!!!

Venice

Flying from Amsterdam to Venice we flew over the Alps, what an incredible site. I would like to visit this area some day!

Now we are in Venice! We are actually staying at a hotel near the airport so we were pretty proud of ourselves that we figured out how to take the bus, and which one to take, to the water buses! Of course neither one of us speak any Italian and we haven't found many Italians that speak much English!

The Rialto bridge photo for Billie!

Shops on and near the bridge.

St. Mark's church

the pigeons!

A narrow walk way on our way to Vittorio's studio! Another thing that we were proud of finding!

A butterfly in the window of Vittorio's shop. It was great to see him again! Graziella, his wife wasn't there so again communication was a problem..... Oh how I wish I could speak Italian, I would love to be able to have a real conversation with him!!!

We are having a great time here. Tomorrow we will meet up with Leah and the students and all get settled into our apartments on Murano where we will be staying for a week. I will do my best to keep you posted on what we are up to.

Ciao for now!