Roadtrip!

I had the best day saturday. All glass, all day :)
I drove around 670 kilometres in all, and enjoyed myself doing it. I were happy to have breaks on the half-way though, as this is the longest I have ever driven, and the hightway is not all relaxation after all.

Months ago I had seen advertized that Anlaglas were having an anniversary open house sale on saturday, and I had marked the calender hoping to get to go. Then the new danish glassgroup webglas were formed a few weeks ago, and people started talking about meeting up there, and it turned into a priority. So I went, and I visited Lenette on the half-way and picked her up so we could take the rest of the trip together.
I had never shopped at Anlaglas before, and didn't know what to expect. I don't know if they are more geared towards fusing or it is just because the sheets of glass and slumping forms take up so much more space than the rods we use for beads, but there were tons of sheets around, and they were so delicious one might be tempted to try fusing at some point :)

Anyway - we located the glass rods, and it was fun to see a whole bunch of people (all ladies) all wearing their own beads and shopping for rods. Except for Lenette and the sellers at Bifrost (my local rod-dealer) I find it very hard to meet beadmakers. We don't have the great shows here, that I read of in the US and UK. It's just me and my torch and the internet, so this was great fun.

Now I am not one to go around chatting up strangers, but luckily others are, and the founder of the Webglas group Lone were spreading the word of the group to anyone wearing their own unique beads, and so we met her.
One of our webglas group members were hired there to do demos of beads all day. It was the lovely Louisa of Moeslund Glas.


So we said hello to her, and while we were all chatting away at the demo table, another member introduced herself, Eva of Streva Beads. This is her and Lenette shopping for rods later on.


We were of course checking out each others beads, and Louisa asked how I made the pendant I was wearing (picture will follow shortly). I told her, and she asked if I would like to do a little demo of it - so I did :) Yay! And it was fun. I didn't even mind having (a few) people looking at me, because I knew what I were doing. I got a little bit nervous when it got a bit crooked to the one side, but in all I really liked it, and I don't think I would have a problem doing demos for real some time. That would be fun! :)
So you see, I am not a complete introvert after all :D

The loot -
I were looking for a larger graphite paddle. The one I have is fine, but I keep rolling over the edge when I make drops and other shapes which is a bit annoying, and I found a nice big one, roughly the size of a hand.
As for rods, they had Moretti, which I have enough of for now, and Bullseye, which I am not ready to branch into, since it is not compatible with what I have. So no rods, but they had some nifty dichro stringers that I had wanted to try so I shared a bunch of those with Lenette.
And in the bargain bin I found those inward pointing tweesers that make holes in off mandrel pieces, and also a small graphite paddle with indentations the shape of lentils and tabs. Yay! Both are things I have been considering buying for a while :)

And I also won the lottery. There was a draft of tools and supplies, with a lot of prizes, and so I got one too :) It's a sample box of sheetglass, frits and stringers. It's in COE 85 though, so I don't really know what to do with it quite yet.
And we got free pancakes :)

So in all it was simply a thoroughly great day, that I am still a wee bit high on, although I were sore all over and very tired all of sunday. A great big 'Thank you!' to all the lovely ladies I met, and I hope we can meet up some other time.

And finally, also a big thank you to my lovely driving companions, Meat Loaf and Queen, who had to put up with my very loud (and often incorrect) singing of their timeless hits.

P~