Glass Shop: We Have Lift Off!

It's taken nearly 3 years, but last Thursday, Eddie Bernard lit the first glass furnace at the new STARworks Glass Studio!  The studio was funded by a grant from the Department of Commerce's Community Development block grant program and was designed and built by Eddie's Wet Dog Glass team.  A big shout out to the Doggies who spent many, many long nights and long weekends, and lots of beer and pizza making it happen.  Thanks to Steve-o, Mac-adoo, Nick Dog, Phil Dog, Evan Dog, Megan Girl Dog, Eddie Dog and Angela Boss Dog for lighting our fire! 

The furnace and all the equipment is designed for maximum energy efficiency, right down to the fancy heat recuperator above the furnace. The equipment is also designed to be run on various fuels, including biodiesel or waste glycerin (a byproduct of biodiesel production.)  Here's Eddie pointing out the fancy-schmancy heat recuperator:

We also have a new instructor for the studio!  Mike Linzy comes to Star from the University of Louisville Kentucky where he was a student of Che Rhodes. Mike is going to be designing and teaching programs for high school students, as well as adults interested in glassblowing. Make sure you get a chance to stop by and welcome him to the area. 

To celebrate the firing up of the furnace, we popped a couple of bottles of champagne and in the spirit of things, decided to give Miss Louise ("Weezy the Wet Dog") a bath in the glass shop 

sink. 

just a picture of the fall garden

STARworks Glass In The Final Stages!

Hello Everyone,

We have gas and electric!  A big thanks to Nancy, Adam & Beth of the STARworks staff for getting everything rolling with the install of our services for the studio.  A special thanks to VanDerveer Gas, Larry & Ray for hooking up all these services.

Soon we (Wet Dog Glass) will finish the groundwork for the studio equipment at STARworks. 

We are over 60% finished with the hot glass studio and will be moving faster with the completion after the last final parts arrive.

Steveo

Sprinkler Leak!!

Always an adventure, our old building cried out for some attention earlier this month.  Kenneth from Comfort South noticed water coming out of the ground near the loading dock at Wet Dog Glass and together with Santiago found the general direction of the flow.  It was coming from a pipe under the building and they turned it off at the valve.  It was hard to tell exactly where the leak was until we busted up the concrete and dug down about fifteen feet to find the poor old pipe, exhausted and fractured.  Luckily the split was around the circumference and not lengthwise so we were able to patch it.  Wesley Brown, the "do everything" guy in Star helped us out by supplying the clamp we needed to get the leak stopped.  (It is the shining bit of blue amidst the red clay)  Thanks Wesley!! 

After that I ordered some perfectly mixed concrete from the guys at Chandler in Biscoe and we sealed it off as good as new...well as close as we could get.  In addition to growing one hell of a yummy tomato, our resident gardener Anne Pärtna, can float concrete like a seasoned professional.  The whole ordeal was a bit of a mess, but thanks to our awesome staff and our local help, we got 'er done.

STARgarden news

We have a new edition in STARgarden! Check out the blog!
Anne

STARgarden Blog

If you are interested in following what is happening in the STARgarden more closely, you can click on KRIIPS under the "contributors" section, then choose STARgarden. I will be posting longer entries there about what's happening in the garden!

Or look up    http://miskasvab.blogspot.com

Anne alias Kriips

Wet Dog Glass Progress

Hello Everyone,

For those of you who don't know us yet we are Wet Dog Glass.  We manufacture some the worlds best glass art studio equipment around.  We have clients all over the world and have been in business since 1996.  Eddie & Angela Bernard are the owners of Wet Dog and moved the company from New Orleans, LA this year.  Eddie and Angela were met in Star by three new employees; Evan Morgan from Hawaii, myself Stephen Protheroe from Kansas and Mac Metz from North Carolina.  We are thrilled to be here and join the Star community. 

Wet Dog Glass, LLC is in the process of several contracts at the moment.  An on going project is the Tyler School of Art, Glass Art Department (Philadelphia, PA) aka Temple University.  This is the largest project ever tackled by Wet Dog Glass.  Since our relocation from New Orleans, LA in March of 2008 to Star, NC we have been working on building a full force staff since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  We would like to welcome Phil P.(forgive me polish... I will attempt the spelling at a later date) from Oregon, Nick Fruin from Nebraska & Megan Steljes from Kansas.  We are honored to have them join the Wet Dog crew and we look forward to growing as a group in the years to come.

Steveo

How Did Our Garden Grow?

Summer is almost over... STARgarden had it's humble beginnings in early March. Seven months later we have 5 raised beds that have grown many pounds of vegetables, a heaping compost bin, one mushroom log, and a space cleared for a greenhouse (but more about that later). Here is a slideshow of how our garden grew since we started:)

Thanks to all that have pitched in to build this little jungle, and to those who have supported us in buying vegetables each week!

Fundraising Auction for North Carolina Pottery Center

Fundraising Auction of North Caroline Potter to benefit the North Carolina pottery Center
Date(S); September 28, 2008 on Sunday at 2 PM
Location; 246S. Nash St., Hillsborough NC

They will have a Foundraising Auction of North Carolina Pottery to benefit the North Carolina Pottery Center. Auction will be hosted by Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd., featuring the legendary collection of Art Ware pottery of Dr. Everette James, as well as Catawba Valley pottery, Eastern Piedmont salt-glaze, and other Art Ware pots donated by many well-known collectors and potters from across the state.

What's New!

We are pleased to announce that Wet Dog Glass LLC joins the STARworks team as its newest tenants. They bring 6 staff to Star - co-owners Eddie and Angela Bernard, 3 glass blowers and one metal sculptor. Wet Dog has recently been awarded a major contract and will be bringing several more glass blowers to town in the near future as employees. They have also begun building out the public access glass studio where they will be offering glass blowing classes and other public events.

We are also pleased to announce that Central Park NC was awarded a $148,800 grant from the new NC Biofuels Center to build out STARworks Biofuels, a biodiesel production facility. The biodiesel plant will provide biodiesel for local customers as well as the STARworks glass studio and other projects. Piedmont Biofuels will begin building the plant this summer.

Finally, our new community garden project is underway. Led by Anne Partne and a group of volunteers, we are building a garden that will feature sustainably grown vegetables that will be offered for sale on a subscription basis to local residents. The project will also feature a green house that will be heated with waste heat from the glass furnaces. More on this project and the others soon!