Anniversary Month Sale

2011 Gallery

Hi Everybody, it's now well into August and we thought it'd be good to mention here that this is our 37th year in business in Benicia. It's still fun to make new things in glass after all these years. Right now you can save 50% on old firsts in great styles like the Scarlet Nova® and Red Satin®. The rest of the glass is 20% off and you can click above for a recent picasa web album of what's in the gallery now.
Hope you can stop by soon. This week and next we are BLOWING glass. We are really excited to be able to do so, because, we CAN afford it thanks to our great collectors and supporters who have made a purchase these past two months.
The galleries who sell our Nourot Glass are reviving and planning on adding new pieces of ours in places like Aspen, Colorado (Pismo Glass) and Annapolis, Maryland (Applachian Spring). We are blowing pieces for these two place this week, Also working on a few corporate jobs. More on that later.
Next Tuesday we will be featured on Eye on the Bay KPIX TV CBS 5 when their crew comes to film. Their host Brian Hackney wants to take a lesson. Should be fun.

It's the Little Things

“To see the world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower,” said William Blake. Magnified 250 times common sand which is found found all over our Earth takes myriad forms and striking colors.

What is sand? Where does it come from?  Sand is tiny fragments of rock that have been worn away over thousands of years.

Contrary to popular belief, sand is made as rocks crash and break in rivers and streams on their way to the sea, rather than the ebb and flow of the tides.

Deposits left by breaking rocks in the sea turns to silt and is much lighter so is dispersed over a much wider area out to sea, rather than on the shore line.

Some of the rock is soluble, but other bits remain and as they are slowly rubbed down over time they get smaller and smaller until, Voila! C’est magnifique! 

So next time you are at the beach or a bit of bare ground shows itself to you as sand, take a moment to contemplate it's complex history.

Glass making sand at Nourot Studio comes in two forms. We get it in big bags, really big bags of 50Kg (110 lbs) each.  Times were when we would get a half rail car full. Hence the dilapidated fork lift in our yard. 

Did you know how important the source of the sand for making glass is? The grain size and shape effects the fining of the batch, so a certain color to be melted calls for a certain kind of sand. 

Scarlet Nova® glass by Nourot is made with a particular grain size.  The atmosphere above the melting glass is just as important, too. But let us leave that for another day.

Go see the beautiful images of sand grains at the link below.  Also read the Michael Weland book about the history of sand.  Truly it had an effect on where people settled, how they could develop products for market and even warfare. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2011471/Pictures-sand-Close-photographs-reveal-incredible-beauty.html
Picture: Scarlet Nova® and Red Satin Glass® in the Nourot Gallery, Benicia, California

Crucible Giving Classes for Adults and Kids

Who said Spring Break was just for kids? Break away from your day job for a week of creativity glass blowing in Berkely, California. The Crucible’s Adult Weeklong Workshops are great for those of you out-of-staters who’ve been itching to take part in Crucible classes.

Many have asked about glass making lessons, and this is a local opportunity. Just like summer camp for big kids. You can learn one of several disciplines over the course of a week. The Crucible is known for other kinds of classes aws well like Welded Sculpture, Blacksmithing, Foundry Fundamentals, Glass Flameworking, Intro to Jewelry and Metals, and Beginning Woodworking.

Summer Breezes Art and Anniversary Sale

You're invited to visit Nourot Studio and see the art works in "Summer Breezes" by six women artists on display through September 15th.

There is also another reason to visit: Nourot Glass is celebrating 35 years in business this month. It seems like, well, another age when the studio first fired up in 1974. Then we did not know what we did not know and that probably was a good thing.

Now the studio has son Nicholas Nourot, 26, making glass along side of the "maestro". Please visit and give them your congratulations on 35 years in business. Blowing demonstration on Youtube.

Thursday August 20th from 4:30--7PM there will be a Benicia Chamber Mixer and you are invited to come celebrate and mix with the artists that are represented in the lovely "Summer Breezes" art show that is hanging now. Since June the furnaces have been off to economize (PG & E will not accept enthusiasm as payment as of yet). Now we are firing up: that means hot glass again and many new works by the famous artisans of Nourot Studio.

While you are there take a peak at the custom jobs that are in the pipeline: delicate soft yogurt cups in mint, pink and yellow for Big Spoon Frozen Yogurt Shops and also Corporate Awards for many new customers, etched with their corporate logo and personalization.

Social Group? Brownie Troup? This fall is a good time to schedule a tour of the Benician Glass studio of Nourot. See our tourist website.

Pictured above: Kay Carlson's work, left and center; Kara Young, right.