Wowser!

First Oklahoma got Seattle's basketball team, now the coup d'etat, we were able to bring one of Seattle's finest glass blowers (Janusz Pozniak) to Oklahoma! (Just giving you Seattle guys who are reading this a hard time :-)
Wow! Janusz (you pronounce that, Yah-noosh) went back home to Seattle Tuesday evening. It's amazing that 5 days can pass so quickly! Bella Forte Glass Studio is better because Janusz was here. Really, really, world class in every way. We did our best to show him a little what Oklahoma was like and show a little bit of Oklahoma what a really sharp Brit was like (We tried not to mention 1776 too many times ;-) Every person I introduced him to was really impressed. It was truly an honor to have him blow glass in our humble studio. I want to thank Andy Boatman and Craig Clingan for coming out to the Bella Forte Studio and meeting Janusz.
Janusz helped us refine a few of our processes on some pieces we do called the "Redento Raffinatos" and with his help (or him with our help) were able to do some pieces in the 30" range. What he taught us on how to cold work a piece would have been worth a few hundred dollars alone - SERIOUSLY!
He almost wore us out! We were glad when he left so we could get some rest. We weren't really glad he left, but after he left, we were able to get some rest. The guy is a work horse! We even took him to church with us (pretty brave guy), he went on a catering with me to Shawnee, he even did a demo for a little group that came out to the studio. Not to mention doing a demo for a few glass blowers who were wise enough to realize what an opportunity they had to be this up close and personal with someone world-class, also helping Micah and I upgrade every aspect of our game. The guy was frickin all over the place. He was like a one man volley ball team, this corner, that corner, the middle, then slam!-game over! I am gonna post a few pictures. The first photo is some of Janusz's latest works. The one where I have just hand fed him some fresh fruit and fixing to hand feed him some more. The story behind that photo: In the 12 page contract that he made us sign to get him to come down, page 9, item 62, stating that, "....fresh fruit must be kept on hand and be hand fed to Janusz at his every request" Unbeknownst to Janusz, I had just dipped the strawberry and pineapple slice in the dog's water dish before I fed it to him. You can see he was enjoying it almost as much as I was. Really, he was a good sport. He was able to dish it out as much as we were. Oklahoma is a good fit for Janusz and Janusz is a good fit for Oklahoma! He got to eat some Italian Jim's Pizzeria food, we fed him the best steak sandwich the world has ever seen and also fed him a Freddy's Triple Steakburger with cheese, fries, and the best custard at Freddy's Frozen Custard! I don't think he's used to eating like that. We figure 3 or 4 more trips down here, he'll put on another much needed 20-30 pounds. The other pics are some various photos of blowing glass and some various studio shots and some shots of some of the things we blew. The one pic of Janusz turning the pipe and me putting the jack-line in: The story behind that is..... Janusz was feeling a little homesick and missing Dante, so I took Dante Marioni's place and let Janusz turn the pipe for me while I set the jack-line in. It made Janusz feel better (see the picture with Janusz smiling and happy) It felt really cool being Dante! After that, the prices of my work went up 300%!
Looking forward to his next trip...... and the one after that..... and the 4 after that..... and the 12 after that....ad infinitum...