Hey All-

I'm ready to ring in the new year with more engagement with neon and glass related events. They say the more you know, the more you realize you don't know-- so I'd love to learn special skills, fine tune my bombarding, pull tubes, attend interesting workshops, intensive courses/residencies, etc. Any suggestions on upcoming events or what it was like for you if you have attended things like the GAS conference or Pilchuk, etc and which were good experiences. I'm on the east coast but would consider traveling for cool opportunities. Thanks!

For hand pulled tubing, try reaching out to James Akers and see if he has an upcoming workshop somewhere. 

As for processing, this is an area of special interest of mine, due to the scientific nature of it, and while I am not planning any formal workshops for it, I am always happy to answer questions and demonstrate some unusual bombarding situations and explain the how and why from a scientific perspective.   It is the most critical (and historically, misunderstood--almost alchemistic) part of the whole business and it is a subject that I genuinely enjoy teaching.

When I was a presenter at Pilchuck for their Neon Symposium a couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Dani Kaes and discuss bombarding with her prior to her demonstration.  She is out of Tacoma and is regularly at Pilchuck as well.  If you can get an opportunity to speak with her, be it at a structured program or just a call, I strongly recommend it--Dani is one of only two or three of us (it seems) that has the deeper physics and chemistry based interest in the subject and of the many I've met and worked with over many years, Dani is one of only two or three that I could discuss it with and come away learning something I wasn't aware of before.  

We're running a cursive intensive class in March, and I'm hoping to schedule a bombarding workshop with Morgan and Jake in the fall. 

I'll be super interested in that bombarding workshop, Zoelle!

I'll ya posted Lila!

I wonder if a community calendar would be a popular feature to add to the guild website. I would be interested in knowing about any kind of neon event/workshop/art show coming up. 

I think that would be awesome - it might inspire a few more of my students who want to get involved more in the neon community to join...

I don't know how to tag but we should ask Eve and John if it's possible to add that on the website. 

This is so awesome -- thanks guys for all your suggestions and Zoelle i'd definitely be interested in a bombarding workshop!
Keep the suggestions coming in hopes of using this forum to gather info for a calendar! 

I highly recommend Zoelle and Jacob's Lightwriters. I also think Pilchuck has a neon class or three this spring/ summer. I heard one of those Pilchuck classes is about making manifolds- could be pretty interesting!

I am slated to teach two, consecutive, week long classes at the Columbus Glass Art Center (Ohio) from June 29th to July 10th. The first class will be setting up their neon shop (used to be set up at their old location). The second week is an all levels bending class (with as many fun "diversions" as I can fit into a day) with the exact curriculum still in the works.

On June 20th and 21st I am planning on teaching an all levels neon and synthesizer weekend workshop at Urbanglass (Brooklyn). It will be mainly breadboarding through hole integrated circuits to hear the electrical current going through them and then seeing that current flash tech 22s with control inputs. There will also be a little bit of learning about bending, but just the very basics.

I really like the idea of a calender feature to the website. It could be a great way to see neon related events/ happenings at a glance. It would also be a good way to promote classes/ events an such and keep people coming back to see whats happening.

This sounds awesome James-- I'm interested. Thanks for the class descriptions. I'll ask about a calendar we can all share!

Something like this perhaps?

the link can be found in the "Learn" menu currently.