How long have you been a part of Artistic Portland, and what appealed to you about joining the Co-op?
I joined Artistic Portland in February 2014 when we were located in the Hollywood District.  I had recently moved back to Portland and was looking for a place to sell my work in addition to weekend art shows.

Where are you from?
I grew up in Montana and lived in New Jersey for a couple of years, but Portland has been my home since the early 90s.

What jobs have you had other than being an artist?
I worked for a short while in retail, but the majority of my experience has been in administrative support roles.  Most recently I worked for a company in a financial capacity and got to play with money all day!

Where did the name “Blue Fox Glass” come from?
Blue Fox is a nickname I use in some outdoor games I play so when I was trying to come up with my business name it was the first thing that came to mind.

What lead you to working with glass?
A former co-worker brought in a stained glass panel she made and I thought to myself “I can make that.”  Within a week I had signed up for a stained glass class.  I worked in stained glass for about 15 years before taking a break from it.  In the fall of 2009, I decided to get back into glass and bought my first kiln.

How would you describe your style in three words?
FUNctional, whimsical, colorful

What do you love about creating with glass?
I am continually amazed at the creative works I see made from glass.  I am fascinated by the colors and the “magic” that happens inside the kiln.  Some glass changes color when exposed to the high heat so I don’t always know what I will see when I open the lid.  All the glass I use is manufactured in Portland and I love being able to handpick each sheet of glass I use.

What frustrates you about glass?
Glass can be temperamental at times.  There are some days I can’t seem to get a straight cut no matter what I do.  Many factors come into play such as the temperature of the glass, the brittleness of the particular sheet of glass, or how hard I press down when I’m scoring. 

What inspires you?
Though my style is constantly changing, I seem to circle back to mosaic-style pieces.  We always had a jigsaw puzzle in progress as a child and there is a sense of satisfaction when all the pieces fit together nicely.

Where is your studio?
I turned one of our extra bedrooms into my studio where I do all my designing and cutting.  An old door and a counter-top sitting on top of a set of cabinets I found at the Habitat for Humanity store serve as my cutting surface and a wire storage rack in the closet holds my stash of glass sheets.  The kilns (I have two!) are in the garage.  My husband would say that the whole house is my studio since another bedroom was turned into the photo studio to photograph my pieces and various items can be found in the kitchen either waiting to be photographed or put back into the kiln for a second firing.

If you could wake up tomorrow with a new artistic skill what would it be?
I wish I was more right-brained than I am.  My strong left-brain comes in handy for the record-keeping part of my business, but I struggle to see things in abstract.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself.
Some might say I have a bit of daredevil in me.  I think the scariest thing I have done was bungee jump 440’ above a canyon in New Zealand.  I was slightly under the minimum weight requirement so they added a couple weights around my waist.  Talk about a rush!

How long have you been a part of Artistic Portland, and what appealed to you about joining the Co-op?    
I joined in January 2015.  I wanted to be able to show my jewelry without having to do shows.  I wasn't able to set up for the shows anymore and thought this would be a good way to showcase my jewelry.

Where are you from?
 I was born and raised in the Portland area.  I lived in San Jose, CA for about nine years and then moved back to Portland.  I also lived in Seattle for a year after I got married.

What jobs have you had other than being an artist?   
I have worked as a billing clerk, also in a one-girl office as a secretary.  I worked for the City of San Jose in the records department in Public Works.  I then decided that I wanted to do something different and trained as a nursing assistant at Stanford University Hospital and worked there from 1969 to 1971.  I moved back to Portland after a trip across the country for two months.  I worked at Good Samaritan Hospital for a couple of years.  I got married and after having two children I went back to school at the age of 40 and became a RN.  As an RN I worked in hospitals, at a state prison in Portland until I had back surgery, then as a trainer in a Nursing Home, and lastly I worked with the developmentally disabled.  My nursing career was varied and very enjoyable.  I retired in 2007.

What led you to making jewelry?   
I have been interested in learning how to make jewelry for many years.  In 2009 I took the plunge and enrolled in Mt. Hood Community College in metalsmithing and jewelry making and the rest is history.

How would you describe your style in three words?  
Organic, unique and wire wrapping

What types of materials do you like to work with and why?
I work mostly with copper and brass or bronze.  I like the looks of these metals and they fit my organic style.  I also work with some silver and my wire wrapping is mostly done with Argentium silver because of its slow tarnishing to non-tarnishing quality.  I use sterling for the chains on my expensive pendants and some pendants that are lower in price are base metal or stainless steel chains.  I also have made roosters out of copper and then painted them with alcohol ink.  Some hang on the wall and some are to put in a house plant.

What do you love about making jewelry?
I love creating something that is unique and that no one else would have.  I love one-of-a-kind pieces.  I also like to create pieces using the torch.

What frustrates you about making jewelry?   
Soldering is my least favorite and most frustrating thing that I do.

What inspires you?
Sometimes other people, things I see in nature or in magazines and sometimes the stones that I see and then see what I can do with them.

What do you like to do when you aren’t creating jewelry?
I love to travel, play dominoes with a group of friends, keep in touch with old friends, target shooting.

If you could wake up tomorrow with a new artistic skill what would it be?
I would love to be able to draw and paint.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself.  
I am finally a grandmother to an amazing little boy who is four months old.  I just bought a new Kia Soul and love driving it.

Now that the holiday season has come to an end and the bills are rolling in, it’s time to take a breath.  With this blog post I want to thank you, our customers, for making our season  bright!  All of the money that come from your purchases supports local artists. The money that we received from your purchases goes towards shoes for kids, payment of the rent and the utilities as well as for art supplies.  We can’t do it without you and for that, I want to thank you.

Every dollar that is spent in this shop stays in the Portland area, contributing to other local businesses, driving the engine of our local economy.  In my case, I create the mosaics and coloring items as well as paper flower headbands.  Every dollar that you spent on my creations this season went towards my bills.  I’m a recent widow and your purchases made a difference in my situation.  Each coloring book that you bought contributed to my ability to pay my basic bills.

This applies to all of the people in our gallery; all of us are regular folks (okay, CREATIVE regular folks) that rely on the money that we make from our products to purchase not just the basics of life, but to have the ability to contribute to local restaurants and other businesses.  Our ability to do these things comes directly from you. You make a direct difference in our lives by your financial support of your local artists.

The other huge plus to purchasing our creative products is that each one is handmade and unique.  That means that each gift that came from our shop is one of a kind, with no mass production in a factory in China.  The only mass produced items that we have are made by the artist themselves, the skin products and the soaps and candles.  In fact, some  of those are made in the basement of our gallery!   Nowhere in the world, other than our gallery, can you find the products that we sell.  It was wonderful this holiday season to see the turnout to support the local artists and the creative output of our fair city!

Have a wonderful and prosperous 2016!

Many talk about the positive nature of art and business in this blog... But no one talks about the dark curse that trails this fine establishment from its humble beginnings on Sandy... A former tenant had a dark secret that tainted the building deeply... They kept a maidservant locked in the basement who spun such wonderful fabrics that where so well known that even the Emperor of San Francisco wore a pair of her socks... She died there forgotten one day while the shopkeepers took part in the once in a lifetime Hood to the Coast naked bike ride…

She was able to leave her old haunt because of a blood moon which allows spirits to travel and did so because she missed the voices…,

Beyond the light she lurks, far from the wonderful scents of the candle maker and the gentle dry moss and pine cones of the fairy castles in a pool of deep darkness... It affects the upstairs in that the water in the pipes runs cold as blood... No hot water to be found... Otherwise no one seems to notice except when strange flickers skitter across the bulbs sometimes late in the evenings…

Without the hole in the floor she has less access to the plumbing... Thus no poltergeist activity involving brown sludge…

A Professor Togglesworth has had some success communicating with her and found out about her tragic past... Her whole family died during the housing crash due to losing everything and then dying as a result of a power outage that allowed for the release of a hedgehog retrovirus from a secret test lab in Cork. She came to Portland to seek her fortune in crocheting but fell into a bad crowd of speed knitters and lost her nest egg forcing her to become an indentured servant of M. Katherine…

She moved with the Co-op as her anchor was one of the displays rather than a solid part of the building…

Late at night one can hear her weeping for her lost past. she is not an angry or negative spirit so the consensus is there is no reason to  call in an exorcist. In fact she fills a space in the local continuum that could be filled with something much worse... All she needs is a few balls of yarn and spools of thread so she can enjoy the colors and she lingers in her own private limbo until the end of time…

-Ben Gilbert