The Glass Furnace in Turkey

Grant and I spent two weeks at the Glass Furnace in Turkey! Grant taught an advanced sculpting class and I assisted him, while furthering our exploration of combining torchworking with furnace work. It was incredible - truly - if you are a glass artists and have not been to the Glass Furnace, you absolutely must get yourself there.

Truth be told, we were hesitant because of the shaky political situation in Turkey, but we ultimately decided we would not miss this opportunity. In fact, while we were there, there was an attempted military coup, but honestly we felt quite safe while at the school. We absolutely loved our trip, and would return in a heartbeat - in fact - we are scheduled to teach again in the summer of 2017!

I took some 360 photos while I was there:
The main building
The dorm courtyard
The hotshop
The sweet dorm
THE POOL

This is a view of the Glass Furnace from the balcony of the dorms. The sky is gorgeous here - it pretty much looked like this every day. The weather was hot (we were there in August), but not too bad - in the 80s or 90s - it was much hotter (and MUCH more humid) back at home in Virginia. 

This is a view from the balcony in our room. Yes, we had a balcony in our room! Lovely. 

Grant and I, hanging out on another balcony, overlooking the field surrounding the studio. 

THEY HAVE A POOL. A big, gorgeous pool. Every glass studio ever made should have a pool. There is nothing better than swimming after a day of working in the studio. It was so refreshing and invigorating and super fun. Oh, and we taught everyone how to play Marco Polo, which no one had ever heard of, and everyone loved. It was awesome. 

Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed the pool. 

Here's a view of the studio - this is the bench we worked on most. To the left is another bench with a larger glory hole, to the right is the area where the production team worked. You can kind of see the green chairs in the top right - school groups came in quite a bit to watch their team work. Behind us opens up to the "loungy" area of the building, with tables, chairs, couches, a pool table, and an indoor gazing pool thing.

This is the area next to the hotshop. The upstairs has a pool table and tables/ chairs/ humongous couch. Super fun times playing pool at night. Through the glass at the far end are the picnic tables where we ate, and the cafeteria. 

We definitely made use of the pool table late night. 

Sakin = Relax
I think it's so appropriate that that made it on their poster of glassblowing terms

This is right outside the studio. So gorgeous, I can't even.

Grant helping Vahide make a rhino. It turned out so nice!

Ibo made an adorable armadillo. I love that he really took his time over a few days to work on each part, and he textured the entire thing. 

Grant's deer demo - this is the first time we've added the antlers hot.

I worked on these soft glass flowers all week. I'd never used much soft glass on the torch, and I have to say I really, really loved it. 

I set up a little lampworking bench in the hotshop so I could watch all the action while I was working.

Ibo helping Baris make a fish.

This is the river at the back of the Glass Furnace property. We hung out here a bit, and we took a boat tour from here to the sea. 

If you want to get across you pull yourself along on that little wooden raft. We would go across to walk to the village, and one night we went to a sünnet party (Turkish circumcision party). 

This is the road in front of the Glass Furnace - we'd walk a ways down to get to an awesome riverfront restaurant. 

The restaurant - it's not fancy and the food is awesome.

I absolutely loved the vibe of the restaurant. No fuss. Casual. Good food. My kind of place for sure. Also there were dogs and baby turkeys.

This is the view from our table.

Back at the Glass Furnace. You can order booze to be delivered. Awesome, right? So we needed a little taste of home (well, Grant's Tennessee home). 

After drinking you must have Turkish coffee! So delicious and thank you to Vahide for showing me how to make it, and for reading our coffee fortunes. 

We had a free day so we went to the Black Sea together. I had to buy that gigantic hat because my pale pale skin just couldn't take any more sun.

The Black Sea

We went out to eat after swimming at this pretty restaurant right on the water. Ibo may or may not have called the waiter out for trying to rip us off. It was hilariously entertaining, and I got twenty liras back! Go, Ibo!

The view from the restaurant.