Welcome to Taonga Glass

Join Us Saturday January 21 10am-5pm for a special Kids Event. Come and see our glassblowing studio as I create glass sculptures based on kids drawings and sculptures. We will supply crayons and paper along with clay for kids to make designs for us to make out of glass. Designers will be kids under 18, however all ages are welcome to come and join us as we demonstrate how to make glass objects. Demonstrations will be all day, however a few designs will be chosen periodically throughout the day so all the kids can play.

Welcome to Taonga Glass, an American Glass Blowing Company based in Oahu, Hawaii. So many things have happened this year, as you will find throughout the web site. We have recently expanded the studio, now open to the community as a true Public Access Glass Studio. This space provides the setting for a glass community; offering classes from beginning to master skill levels, including visiting internationally renown glass artists; studio events in the form of Date Nights and Party settings with demos and hands on activities; as well as hot and cold glass studio rentals for professional and hobbyist glass workers. Patrons may visit our gallery and take a piece of the magic home with them. From weekly demonstrations and monthly events, there will be many exciting things happening in the studio daily, so you will have to keep coming by to see the changes. I've been told by most visitors that they learn something every time they walk through the studio. Connect through these links to find out about major events this past year, such as the studio move in, my demonstration at the Glass Arts Society Conference, a kids design glass with visiting school group where I sculpted a collaboration of 4 kids drawings, as well as exciting shows here in Hawaii and nationwide I have won awards with and seen many of you. Please take your time looking at our web site, and feel free to contact me about anything from classes to custom orders, or when you can come check the studio out. I am updating the web site constantly, so come back to see what we are up to.

The New Studio

Upcoming Classes

Join Our Team: Internship and Job Applications

Glass Art Society Demonstration in June, Seattle Washington where I made a Puget Sound Ecosystem

5 Award Winning Pieces already in 2011

Come see my work on display at the Association of Hawaii Artist show as well as the Windward Artist Guild show, on display this month of October. Come see the award winning piece, Study of Self, that wonBest in show for 3D.

 

Opening Party!!! Oh Yeah!

Thanks for all of you that showed up at the Opening Party in August. We had tons of fun, and made 4 reef sculptures based on our local reefs here on Oahu. Music by Mr Chris. Our Assistant, Kazuki Takizawa had his last day of sculpting on Oahu before moving away to San Francisco. Thanks for 6 years Kazuki. So maybe you missed the Opening Party. That is ok, soon Scott Moffat will deliver the photos from the party after he finishes his move to the Mountains of California. With all the excitement watching my glass demo, his baby girl Scarlet decided to take her fist steps. But if you want information now, and can not wait for those images, a new friend Terry, or Ray Gee "Terry" Maruyama came all the way from Dusseldorf Germany, and ended up writing an article about the event. Below are links to his article (in Japanese and will have translation soon), as well as images and videos. Thanks again, and maybe we will see you soon at the spooky Halloween Party in October for demonstrations of ghosts, goblins,witches, jack-o-lanterns, and frankenstein with special musical guests.

Click Here for the Opening Flier

Click Here for Article

Click Here for Videos

Want your own Auction Piece of a special nature? Find this piece, Love at Snails Pace, in the upcoming 12th Annual Glass Now Auction at the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia PA on October 15th. FInd out more at www.libertymuseum.org/glass-art-and-auction/

This piece is of a special nature. To be honest is was not only made solo in 2010, but is extremely valuable for it is one of the three surviving sculptures from a tragic incident in February 2011 at the Buyers Market of American Craft where over 30 of these sculptures were accidentally destroyed by someone else during break down.

To learn more about that incident follow this link.

I want to make a special thanks to all the artists who helped me through this catastrophe, buying work that survived, offering studios to remake work, and to all the people who read the shout outs and wrote emails, sent letters, sent money through pay pal or checks with the letters, as well as all the great mental support from everyone. I want to also thank Craft Emergency Relief Fund for the Grant and Quick Loan to keep me in business the following month of that crash as I figured out how to rebuild the broken shards of life.

The catastrophe has forced me to expand my studio and follow my dreams, for I lost over half a year of work in one blow. It was never something I had imagined, but I was amazed by the response from my community at that show, as well as the entire international community of art patrons. Without you all I could have easily been doomed into failure. But the way you all responded positively to my work and me as a person really showed how much affect I do have on this community. I forget sometimes out here in the middle of the Pacific, just how interconnected this community really is. I urge you to keep in contact, and come check us out if you ever in this neck of the woods, or ocean as it may be.

Thanks again!