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Janet: This year’s BECon theme was “Kiln-Glass in Architecture”, with the various talks, workshops, and exhibits relating to that theme. Overall it was a very positive experience. It was interesting to see some really massive projects that are underway, and to meet folks from all over the world who have a shared interest. Janet - Pre-Conference Workshop: I attended a four and a half day workshop titled “The Sum of the Parts”. It was led by Laurel Porcari an architect and glass artist who taught at Tulane. We had a diverse and energetic group who contributed much to the workshop as well. We started out by creating cardboard architectural models of a section of the building we were in. We then designed individual “makeovers” of the building, with the idea of incorporating glass as the primary design element. We chose a section of our design to execute in kiln formed glass. We created several versions of our idea. The base layers were fired first from a couple layers of colored glass creating the design layer of the piece. The top was created by firing couple of clear layers on sand that we texturized in order to form a relief layer. The two sections or layers were created so they could be laminated together later. Viki - Thursday, Pre-Conference Studio Tour: The decision to arrive early in Portland, OR for the Bullseye Conference was a good one. I wanted to take the Portland Studio Tour. We left the downtown Hilton at 9:00 in the morning on Thursday. A van took us around the city to various studios: Jeremy Lepisto & Mel Georges Studio Ramp ( which included Juno glass), Ray Ahlgren’s Fireart, George Batho’s Bathos Studios and Bullseye Glass Co.’s Research and Education Studio. Everyone at each studio was very accommodating - taking time to show us all aspects of their studios and current work and answering many questions. One thing they all had in common were HUGE kilns in which large architectural pieces could be made. We saw a huge wall piece 60” x 80” x 30” thick just finished at George Bathos Studio. At Ray Alghren’s, among other great things he showed us the huge dome light for the National Capital Visitor’s Center that he was working on (Metal cast from old Naval vessels) He was making the white curved glass pieces. Bullseye staff at the Research Center had a huge project almost completed by Klaus Moje. We also saw their great new coldworking shop and learned some great tricks. They also showed us their new kilns and explained how to prepare the firings and the new smooth shelf system for large projects (the new tip sheet from Bullseye has everything described in detail.) At Jeremy Lepisto’s we saw how they do castings for other artists. So even if you don’t have room for a large kiln there are lots of possibilities for getting things done. At Juno Glass, Juno Lachman showed us his large sandblasting room and equipment and showed us how he laminates art glass- one of the requirements for many of the building codes that artists must meet when doing large pieces for public places. In addition to all the fun glass stuff, we had lunch outside at Ray Ahlgren’s studio and delighted in filling containers with jumbo blueberries that were growing on bushes in the yard! Viki - Thursday - Opening Reception: After a delightful day, the evening brought more excitement. The opening reception was held at the Bullseye Connection Gallery in the Pearl district of Portland. The Pearl District is filled with galleries and lots of cafes and restaurants a very eclectic setting for the glass gallery, There were some wonderful hors d’oeuvres we munched as we wondered the galleries and viewed and talked about the incredible show “Art into Architecture”. This was an invitational show that presented both built and unbuilt projects in architectural kiln-glass from local and international artists, designers, and fabrication studios They were also hosting a show by artist Jun Kaneko that contained large kiln-formed installations. In fact, there was so much glass art of exquisite quality and imagination that we could have remained there all night examining and talking about techniques. Everyone was having a great time but we also had to sample some good food in one of interesting restaurants of the Pearl district. Viki: Friday started with presentation of slides and talk by Lani McGregor “Kiln Glass in the Built Environment: the Real and the Imagined” followed by “3-D Color Design for Professionals” by Harold Linton then “Size Matters: Issues in Large Scale Kiln-Glass” with Dan Schwoerer. The good thing about this conference was that you did not have to choose which sessions you had to go to. All sessions were presented one time for everyone. Nothing was overlapping anything else. In the afternoon we heard from the staff of the Bullseye Research center (Ted Sawyer, Tom Jacobs, Nathan Sandberg, Erik Whittemore) all about what it really takes to produce large scale works in glass and working with artists and architects...some very interesting stories. Q & A afterwords. By late afternoon Narcissus Quagliata was ready with his presentation of his current work in Kaohsiung, Taiwan of a 7,200 square foot glass dome - Wind, Fire, Light - for the main Metro station. Needless to say the whole process has been meticulously documented with still photos and also a documentary is being made. He spoke of the process of starting a job of such magnitude and how he has incorporated all styles and techniques of glass in the panels. He is very engaging and readily answered questions from the group. He finished by showing us a ’teaser’ for the video documentary. Friday evening ended with tours of the glass factory and a chance to check out all the Bullseye products. Janet: Saturday’s Becon conference began with a presentation by Gordon Huether; a glass artist who’s amazing studio in Napa, CA I had the good fortune to visit a couple of years ago. I was extremely impressed by the caliber and scope of the work being produced there. Gordon has been awarded many architectural commissions over the years, and his retelling of his quests for projects, along with his trials and perseverance was heartening and entertaining. The next presenter was Patrick Loughran an engineer and author of “Falling Glass: Problems and Solutions in Contemporary Architecture”. He spoke to us about some of the possible pitfalls of architectural glass including: thermal stress, nickel sulfide, corrosion, incompatibility, leakage, and impact. The following speaker was Paul Housberg whose work is currently on the cover of BE Glass catalog 5. He spoke about various marketing tools including; effective P.R. methods, finding potential clients, pricing, and available resources. The final presentation on Saturday was a panel discussion featuring Richard Parish and Laurel Porcari, and moderated by Ted Sawyer; BE director of Research and Education. They spoke about what was involved in starting their glass studios, and their various architectural projects. Saturday’s events were capped off be BE’s infamous “Lehr-B-Q”. This was a major shin dig/barbecue held in the BE factory, with the cooking done directly on the glass continuous-belt annealer! A festive time was had by all.
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Two of our members, Viki
Keating and Janet Wittenberg, attended 