Cindy Jenkins and Fun House Studio

  

                

Sarah Sturgis, Gail Crozier and Cindy Jenkins at the Fun House

  I’ve just returned from teaching in St. Louis at Fun House Studio for Cindy Jenkins (the fabulous glass beadmaker) and Sara Sturgis (owner of the Fun House and artist extraordinaire).   I can’t tell you how much fun I had there and how much I enjoyed getting to know Cindy and Sara and their friends (oh and Dr. Ed!). 

  I truly admire and respect these women and their passion. Cindy had asked if I could spend some time after classes were over so I was lucky enough to play and work in the studio with them for a couple of days.  Talk about fun! This trip will be one of my most treasured memories.

  I felt so welcome that St. Louis even exhibited some Seattle weather for me! 

  My visit coincided with the anniversary celebration of 3rd Degree – a well known glass art studio in St. Louis so of course we had to go. They had a room of people making lampworked beads, a collaborative art glass project, and a lot more. We missed the fire eaters though. Apparently they had them out front of the studio and when we left the gala I noticed the burning torch outside. It was about 7 feet tall with a 2 foot flame. Totally amazing place.

 The next night we went on a tour of the City Museum. The best description of this place I’ve heard was Disney meets Mad Max and I’ll concur with that.  The place is an amazing feat of engineering and imtagination made reality. The fabrication of this place alone should be one of the major wonders of the world. Friend Mark does all of this stuff there for the owner and it’s hot.

  Thanks to Don and Gail Crozier for doing all of the driving to these events and taking me to see the Arch.  I didn’t know it was clad in stainless steel. Wow! It’s the biggest piece of metal I’ve ever seen. The intricate details of how they had to build it are fascinating. Who knew? Then we went and looked at this fabulous metal sculpture at the St. Louis zoo. At the entrance there is a sculpture of just about every animal you can think of.  Clearly this was fabricated using a plasma cutter or something because the rhino was made from steel plate about an inch and half thick.  Beautifully done, this sculpture could be replicated in paper because it was done 2 dimensionally, as if the metal were paper. For example, the main body of the zebra was a silhouette with the stripes arcing out from the body to give the feeling of a full bodied roundness. Extremely clever treatment there. That was a night to remember.

   I was treated so well that I kept teasing Cindy that I was never going to go home. I do hope to go back and visit again sometime down the road. Besides I have to get back to ARTMART!