Jewelry Boxes Make Good Gifts

We stacked up a bunch of Jewelry boxes yesterday when Dallas Golden came over to shot the second video in our project series. He also brought the first draft of the picture frame video. It's very good, just needs to have some sound adjustments. While watching it, I'm amazed that I can see some of the soldering better than in real life. I have to admit that it may be better than our first video. The first took over five years to get complete because we kept having to change people and pick up the project, do a piece and then find someone else. Dallas got this together in less than a month and it looks so good. It's longer than the first video, right at 1 hour.

When You Don't Get The Job

Okay, some folks are just weird. About two weeks ago, some people called us and made an appointment to come to our studio to talk about a piece of glass. They came and Jeanne and the woman talked about the design they wanted for a stained glass window. They drew a sketch and they picked out all the colors for the window and set them out on a table, ready to cut.

I had a nice time, showing the husband different projects in various stages and telling him about how stained glass was built. So..they left and I drew the design on AutoCAD, sent it to them with a price (around $400). A day or two passed and I called to see when they wanted us to start. Husband was out of town and he'll call when he gets back. A few days go by, I call again. "Oh, I'm not sure what my husband has decided, I'll have him call tonight." We wait. I call mobile phone next day. Husband says we've decide to go a different way. I ask if they've decided against stained glass. "No, but we've decided to go with another company." So I start quizzing the guy because I want to know what lost us the job. I mean we drew drawings immediately to their specifications and were poised to start cutting glass. Maybe it was price..no they are getting the other design done for about $600.

Bottom line, I still don't have a clue why they went with someone else and why they chose to pay more money for a lesser piece of glass. People are really weird. Jeanne says I'm taking this too hard. She points out that we've not gotten jobs before and it just rolled off my back, no big deal. But this time I seem to be taking it to heart. And I guess she's right, but it's just that I can't explain any good reason that these people went with another artist....hmmm

The Chipboard House

We went to meet a client the other day to measure for stained glass. It was a little surprising when we arrived to the home and found a chipboard box. No finishing details yet. So we're a long way from actually being able to measure for windows. At least we're talking to the home owner early in the project.

Elk Window

I've metioned the Elk window we've been working on on facebook. It's really looking good. I think the client will really like the great colors. Jeanne spent a lot of time and care picking the colors so they would be realistic.

Platter For Wedding Reception

We're making some platters so we can make some cupcake stands for Katherine's wedding reception. We thought it would be cool to make them ourselves so that we could put some custom colors into the platters. The two in the foreground are the two largest and were quite complex to create, but they really look good.

A New Look For Our Website

Every year or so, I get the feeling that things look a little tired on our website and I feel driven to do a makeover on it. So that's what I'm up to now, the photo above is a work in progress, it's not the final new look, but it's a step towards a new look. Content won't change that much, but I'm reorganizing hoping that the flow of the user experience is smoother.
If you want to see the new look as it progresses, go to www.gommstudios.com and click on the temporary link to the working page.

Summer Bear Life Balance

Here's a screen shot of the opening page when you get to the Summer Bear Site.
Nadhirrah (na-dear-uh)is an author and healty food advocate. We meet each other at many small business functions. Our small business are growing at about the same rate, so we have many concerns in common. I volunteered to write web pages for Nadhirrah several years ago and she took me up on the deal. (The price was right-$0)
She now has announced a facebook group called "Summer Bear" and you can also join "Utah Raw Foods" on facebook.

Picture Frame Video

Last week we met with Dallas Golden and shot video for an instructional video on "How To Make A Stained Glass Picture Frame." We notice that most stained glass students have from one to three windows in them and then they start to run out of ideas.
This video and subsequent ones are designed to help breathe new life into the art of glass. So we think it will help to inspire stained glass artists to dust off the old tools and make some pieces for their homes and gifts for their friends.