Glassblowing a glass butterfly figurine

Making of - Glass Figurine Parrot - Part 2

Making of - Glass Figurine Parrot - Part 1

And this will be your next task for the June - Giveaway

Hello my friends. I am sorry I let you wait. 

But I was so tired for the last days and there is always so much to do... You choose one of my favourites, the little Dragon under the Leave. Its not only a special love I feel for this one, there is a special story too. But before I will tell you, there is a new challenge to enter and one little Dragon to win.

Challenge: 

Write a story or a poem, make a sculpture, paint a picture or leave a comment, saying what you would do, if you where a dragon for one day...

Have fun and post it here. 

If you choose a picture or a sculpture, send it please to Glasmagie@gmx.com. I will load it up for you.

The challenge ends ad midnight on June 30th. Then you all can vote for the winning post till the 10th of July.

Fairytale Earrings made of Glass - get them for free!

Do you love them as much as I do? 

For a short time, you can get a pair for free when you buy anything from my shop. 

All you have to do is to post in this thread: 

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6543004 

after your shopping.

Monthly Giveaway - A new Round - I have a Task for You :-)

Since I have as much fun with this giveaways as you have, there will be one every month and maybe sometimes a little surprise too. But I will challenge you ;-)
For now your task is very simple. 

Please visit my Etsy Shop and choose the item you would love to see as the new giveaway. 

Then come back and leave me a comment, so I know what you choose. I will post a picture of every suggested item in this post. After this weekend you can vote one from all  the suggested glass animals and figurines.
This will be our next giveaway. Next Friday I will announce the new challenge.

Jan suggested: 

Bibi suggested:

Chaoskay1 suggested:

Dawn Ray suggested:

Happyfox suggested:

Faridah suggested:

Victoria suggested:

Missus D and ced623 suggested:

Aestraea suggested:

Kirameku suggested:

Kirschbits suggested:

Pearlfur suggested:

The poll to vote is right side next to the post at the beginning of the page.

Have Fun :-)

And here are the Winners.....

Good Morning Everyone,

I am late with this post, I know. I wrote another one this night for my german blog and it took quite a  while to finish. Since we had two giveaways on this blog and a blogfeature too, all ending may, 31th, I will write one post for all.

Because the Voting was a official thing, you may already know the result. Aestraea won with very very very little nose ahead of Jen.
I won too, because of all your little stories. Wormy won new friends, a place to live and more then one identity we others could be jealous about.

Congratiolations Aestraea!!! This little guy goes to you. Please send my your postal adress to Glasmagie (at) gmx.com, so I can ship him soon.

For the Blogfeature commented only four people, so this was a short tombola. Jan won. Happy day to you :-) and will get the next Blogfeature here.

And last but not least, the Butterfly-Giveaway. This was more work.

First, the participants:

made unreadable from the outside and stuffed in this glass:

this hand is my mothers, who declared her agreement to be our Lotto-Fairie this time

"Applaus Please" :-)

the excitement grows:

and the WINNER is:

Congratiolations. :-) This lovely butterfly comes to you as soon, as I know your postal adress. Please write me to Glasmagie (at) gmx.com.

I wish you all a very happy day. The next giveaway will start in a few days and you all can choose what it should be because I will start a voting in a few hours, again together with a blogfeature.

 Please come back soon :-)

~Karo

Vote for Wormy´s best Story!

On a rainy sunday on may 9th, Wormy asked his fans to write him a story, people would love, so he shall never be a nobody again. Here are the contributions. Till May 31th you can vote for your favourite. The winner will get these unique handcrafted glass pendant with silverchain, one of the Voters the next feature on this blog for his/her website, blog, shop or whatever he/she choose and Wormy his forever home to live. :-)

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Sherrie:

I am a worm. Everyone thinks worms are gross, but I am here to tell you it just isn't so! Worms are very hardworking and noble creatures - Just think! Without worms, water wouldn't drain from the fields, rotten plants and animals wouldn't decompose.. And, I make sure your apples are the very best by testing them before you even buy them!
I am a very smart worm, too! I have two brains. Think thats crazy? Earthworms are the most loving creatures on Earth! Know why? They have five hearts!
Even though you think I am slimy and gross, I am wonderful, necessary, and fascinating.

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happyfox

Once I lived life as a free worm, leaving my casts upon lawns across the land, until that fateful day. It was very early - the best times for worms, as you well know - when I slithered forth, only to be snatched up by a shimmering blue dragon. I was carried across the forests and castles of Germany to be deposited unceremoniously on a workbench. "Ah, another a fine specimen," came that cold, crystal voice, and here I am, forever entombed in my inedible apple.

________________________________

Jen

This article is printed with permission from Worm's Life magazine:


THE EARLY WORM GETS THE APPLE


With the worm estate market booming, it can be heartwrenching when your bid isn't accepted by a seller. Not so in this case. Earl Y. Worm is one of the happiest Earthworms around.

Earl's been trying to find himself a new home for months now. Tired of living in his Mom and Dad's small 2 bedroom dirt condo, he wanted to do the adult thing and buy his own home. Renting was not something he wanted to do. "I told my parents that I wanted to be my own worm but wanted the responsibility of owning my own place.", Earl told Worm's Life.

With the help of one of the area's most prominent worm estate agents, Inch W. Orm, Earl was able to make his dream come true. "This apple had only been on the market for maybe 15 minutes when I got in touch with Earl. We were very lucky.", Mr. Orm explained. "This market is crazy and for a single worm trying to buy a home, it's not easy let me tell you."

In this case, the "Early Worm" got the Apple. Earl, with Mr. Orm's help, put up an offer that can only be described as amazing. Since the Apple has not gone to settlement at the time of this article being written, we cannot give all of the details. But, let's just say that this Apple is still on the tree and is going to stay there, in great condition, for a long long time. "Of course, there's always the chance of human destruction, but I've got good insurance coverage if that happens. I'm the happiest worm around!" Yes, Earl Y.Worm, you are the happest worm around.

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A Clockwork Porridge

Hello. My name is wormy. I am 62 years old, but I look 4 and that is why I am still going strong. I have seen my fair share of apples and would like to tell you about my favorite apple.

The granny smith in the summer of love: It was the summer of '69 and I was happily rising with the sun on a tree on Max Yasgur's farm. I was suddenly startled by the music of Ritchie Havens playing in the distance. I poked my head out of the apple to see what was happening. Hundreds of thousands of kids were gathered on my farm. I felt a jostling and was no sooner plucked from the tree. I was so afraid as somebody's mouth began crunching away at my house. Just before they reached little old me, they tossed my apple over by a rock. A dog then picked me up and carried me around protectively for what seemed like days. Anyway...when I came out of that apple, it was dark and starry. I wriggled my way through the grass for a few hours until I found a cozy new apple that was big square and black with a bunch of holes in it. As the sun rose, I heard "Hey Joe" playing in the background as I was wheeled off in my new home into an equipment truck. It turns out that my new home was an amp that belonged to Pete Townshend from The Who. Pete was okay, but I really hit it off with Roger Daltrey. We are now best friends and work together promoting healthy eating habits across America. I love what I do...and yes, I do enjoy the perks of a brand new apple home of my very own ever day in the comfort of Roger's recording studio.

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Howling Caterpillars

Hi...I'm Wormy and I'm a worm. Some people think that worms are icky, but I'm not...I brush my teeth, take a shower and have supper like everyone else. I just live in an apple. The Granny Smith that you see me in, is a condo I bought...I tried a Macintosh and both types of Deliciouses, and even a Gala...they had too many parties at the Gala... The Mac was too modern for my taste...and I wasn't keen on the colour scheme of the Deliciouses...Green's so much more me... I like to sit and read and watch Nature outside my apple...I just have to be careful when there's birds around...I can't be early... But other than that I'm a cool person for a worm...

________________________________

Katie

He looks across the land from far up in a tree, taking in the sights that seemed too grand to be true from the ground. At home in his apple he can see the High Elves roaming, casting spells and walking onward, bow and arrow in hand. The falcons, as they soar along with their owners, unnoticing of him in his home, a little green apple. He sighs, for at one time, he would have to escape from their prying eyes. Everything was safe now. Until... The day the elves had picked an apple from the tree. Sir Worm was sleeping as it happened, dreaming that he was falling. He woke up in a basket of other apples; unable to find his safe haven, his small, green apple. After the moment of sadness passed, a shadow blocked the sun from his vision. Another apple was set to fall right on top of him! Quickly, Sir worm scurried away to the edge of the basket, heart pounding as the beautiful elven mages collected apples with magic to bring with them on their journey. Hands prodded and poked and tossed apples here or there, and Sir Worm no longer could see his way from danger. It was nearing the end of the basket, nowhere to hide... Until! He found it! The front door of his home. As fast as he could, he made it, just as the apple was picked up again. Beautiful, Blue eyes in pale skin stared right into his eyes. A moment's silence. The Elf girl had seen him. And then... A SHRIEK of fear, and the sensation of flying. Shouts and questions, then laughing. "Just a worm!" They exclaimed. Pfft. Just a worm. Dusting himself off, Sir worm, still latched to his home, tunneled inside again. Though his home was on the ground again, at least in here he was safe. No Falcon, or even Elf, would want an apple where a worm resides. To this thought, Sir Worm sighed, and settled down to retrieve the sleep he had lost in the calm chaos.

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Aestraea

It was a normal, rainy spring day, and Carl the worm was once again looking for a new home. Carl hated spring. Springtime meant lots of rain, and rain meant lots of water flooding his underground home. The rain would force Carl to leave his nice, comfy burrow because the water would make it cave in, and he would have to make another new home afterward. So, for the second time in the same week, Carl glided along, looking for a dry place to dig his new house. Just then, Carl saw something green from the corner of his eye. He slithered closer for a look, and realized that the shiny, green sphere on the ground was an apple. Carl was amazed at his discovery- he had often heard from other worms of the legendary apple, one of the most wonderful places a worm could live in. After all, what other home could you also eat out of? And to think that nobody else had claimed this beauty! Carl eagerly dug into the apple and burrowed his way in, making himself at home. Finally, he had found a home to live in that won’t be washed away by that annoying rain again.

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Very important! Please leave a comment after your vote if you wish to take part in the feature. The voting is anonymus so even I cannot see, who voted.

Do you know Elephant Island?

Never heard of Elephant Island? No wonder so far. Its one of these small Islands no satellite system will ever scan or recognise as important to humanity.

Only a few humans ever found out it even existed. To be precise its more kind of island chain, inhabitated by very small colorful elephants and palm trees the size of a matchstick.
The small elephants have nearly no natural enemies and so they live peacefully from the few palm leaves and fruits their islands provide, swim from island to island, visiting each other.

Life Is Beautiful. :-)

__________________________________________________________________
All handmade with softglass from Lauscha and Murano entirely by me.

Height about 1.18 inch.

The little elephant is free to go wherever its heart calls him and neither glued nor molten to the island.

You can also choose your favourite colors and mail me your wishes.

~Please regard, that all my work is handmade and unique, so there can be little variations in color and shape~

The Story of Cap & Trade

The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from whats really required to tackle the climate crisis. If youve heard about Cap & Trade, but arent sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.

Hello Spring, hello Summer!!! --- Etsy Giveaway

Its time. House is cleaned, winterclothes packed away, my feet are bare. All plants standing outside, even at night. There is only one thing left. Decoration. I love it colorful and bright.

So I started making these butterflies a few years ago and since then they have travelled through the whole wide world. In 2004, I was in Switzerland nearly all summer celebrating a Butterfly-Festival in Brugg while working in the showroom of a gallery.

 The entire town was decorated with butterflies and I made no other glass figurines for many weeks. It was a great time and so they are kind of  favourites to me now.
You can win the butterfly in the picture by following this blog and leaving a comment.

Happy butterfly made from freeformed glass with one little hook at the end of one wing to hang them up in the air. Made with love to greet spring and summer and to bring you joy.

freeformed from a masterglassblower (me :-)) in a flame, original thuringian glassart

every single piece is unique,
overall length: about 3.94 inches

Welcome to our Cherokee Spring Frog Dance!

This is your opportunity to view the frogs made by various artists from the Etsy Native American Forum Thread Walking With The Wind.

Kicking Bear, a Cherokee elder, is our wise man and mentor. We sit around our "cyber" camp fire while he amuses us with his wit and wisdom. Recently he told us of the old tradition of the Cherokee Spring Frog Dance. He then challenged us to produce a walosi (frog) piece to honor this tradition and the frog. 28 pieces were offered up for this challenge.

We invite you to view all of the wonderful walosi and select your favorite. There is voter widget at the end so that you may cast your vote. Just scroll down on the bar to find your favorite artist.

Those of us who participated had a great time and we hope you will enjoy helping us with our celebration of the Cherokee Spring Frog Dance.

Which Is Your Favorite Walosi (Frog in Cherokee)?

You can also show them some Love on Etsy:
Treasury 1
Treasury 2

And the Winner is.....

A few weeks ago I took part in a Voting on Lindas Blog. 

The price for the winner was this Interview. Its now online. Yeah!

Glasmagie's Etsy Shop - Winner of your Votes

Karo of Glasmagie won your votes with her Hummingbird earrings, which were sold. Check out these handmade glass blown Glass Frog Earrings

Here is our interview:

Linda: Tell us a bit about yourself: Karo: My full name is Karoline Wagner, but I dont like that "e" at the end of it spoken. It sounds too official and distant. I like "Karo" best, so that's what my friends call me.

I live in a very little village, called "Bermbach", in the middle of the Thuringian Forest in the middle of Germany. And we do not eat kraut everyday or wear leather pants, (thats more the bavarian style haha :-)) and even there it is not common everyday. We do such things for tourists and to show our kids, how our ancestors lived. That is an very imortant part of my culture I think, then every little village in Germany has its own traditions, own idioms and own recipes. If we are agreeing in one thing, than it is not to be uniform at all.

Funny glass mini elephants

I live and work here but I am very often on the move through all parts of Germany and some parts of Europe from market to market to show how glassblowing works to people and sell my art. I give tutorials too, even for little kids.

Linda: What inspires you? Karo: Nearly everything, a picture, a phrase, a song, strong feelings, or very often poems. My inspiration seems to be some kind of artesian well. If I really need a good idea and find nothing good in my head, I visit a do-it-yourself-store. I dont know how it works, but after half an hour, my head nearly exlodes with ideas.

What is your favorite thing to do with your creativity? Making people happy. There is nothing better in the whole world then smiling at each other and feeling insanely content.

What are the web addresses people can find you?

Blog: http://www.magic-glassart.blogspot.com/

Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/Glasmagie
My Gallery http://www.glasmagie-karo.de/ - not finished yet, but galleries are never complete, I think

Twitter http://twitter.com/Glasmagie 
What is your favorite color combination? I love all the colors of the ocean, but I can fall for others as well.

Venetian Glass Pen

Why should people buy handmade? It's one way to ensure fair trade, human rights and environmental protection to let no multinational concern decide over you, what to wear, what to eat, how much you earn for your work and where and how you will live. Its a kind of freedom and independency. If we ever gave this away with our skills, we will not only loose a heritage but very much more.

Any tips on selling handmade items? *laughs* I´m trying very hard at the moment with so much help from others, its breathtakingly awesome. "Walking With The Wind" was a forum thread on etsy and this is how it feels for me right now. So no, no wisdom from me at this time about selling and earning money. But I found help and friendship here and so I recommend to get connected. We all together like the sea.

Apart from creating things, what do you do? I cannot separate this very good part from the other aspects of my life. Its always a part of every thing I do, how I do things. I love to work in the garden, I love to read, most of all fantasy and fiction books until my eyes burn hours after midnight. I have a wonderful partner to have little fights with and breakfasts in bed, while watching Dr. House. And I have very good friends. I write little poems when my head is stuffed up with sorrows and concern. I love to wander in the forests with my dog and listen to how the wind plays in the trees. I love to sleep and to dream.

What have been the most valuable lessons learned from other artists? That we are all different and that's the one thing that makes us all equal. We are all strong and beautiful and unique until someone tries to degrade us to standardized beings. Then we break and only learning to be unique again can save us. One way to achieve this is art.

Glass figurine jewelry - Little Horse - pendant

Made like all my other sculptures freeformed in a flame (a very little flame this time) with softglass from Lauscha and Murano.
The little horse is a pendant and about only 0.7 inch long.

IMPORTANT: the horses in the two pictures are already sold, but its such a time consuming an difficult thing for me to make an photo of every single object, that I decided to use these two as proxy for all the other horse pendants I make

You can of course choose your favourite colors and mail me your wishes or you can let me surprise you.
EVERY single horse is unique in color, movement and shape.
Delivery without the silverchain, but with a single sterling silver ring.

$40.00 USD

Item ships from Germany worldwide for $ 8.00 USD
every further item ships for free

	________________________________________________________________ FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE FOR ORDERS ABOVE USD 100 ALL YEAR ROUND ________________________________________________________________

Do you love Giveaways?

There is a new group on facebook, where you can post your own Giveaway promotions and also look for some nice things you wish to win. Check it out:

Giveaway Group