Treasure Hunt on High Tea menu

A High Tea at Café Zoo in Drysdale on Monday 7 January will launch the 2019 Festival of Glass Treasure Hunt.

"Owl" Marina Villani (Birds of the Bellarine)

 

High Tea guests can watch local glass artist Glenda MacNaughton blowing and sculpting glass and browse the “Birds of the Bellarine” glass art exhibition that runs until March.

The High Tea was booked out two weeks in advance and, not surprisingly, owner Marc Rodway is delighted. “It will be a great start to this year’s Festival of Glass and to its Treasure Hunt”, he said.

Thirty three businesses in Curlewis, Drysdale, Clifton Springs and Portarlington are involved in the Treasure Hunt, which has over a hundred prizes of locally-made glass art.

Treasure Hunt organiser Diane Schofield said, “New businesses join the Treasure Hunt each year, generally because they’ve heard good reports from other businesses who’ve been involved”.

2019 Festival biggest yet

The Treasure Hunt is the first event on the 2019 Festival of Glass calendar, which also includes an Expo with 45 exhibitors, the annual Glass Art Awards and demonstrations and classes by renowned glass artists Davide Penso (from Murano, Italy) and Karina Guevin and Cédric Ginart (both from Montreal, Canada).

“The Festival’s visiting artists have international reputations for excellence”, said Festival coordinator Doug Carson. “Their classes enable glass artists in Australia to develop their abilities without travelling overseas and their spectacular public demonstrations introduce audiences to the beauty and skill of glass art.”

The roadside signs are up!

The first wave of roadside signs for the Festival of Glass has hit!

Cnr. of Wyndham St. & Jetty Rd

There are large (6' x 4') signs for the Treasure Hunt and for the Festival as a whole throughout Drysdale (sponsored by Hayeswinckle Real Estate). They include a Festival sign at the front of the service station at the Jetty Road roundabout, which motorists will see as they enter the town.

The 2019 Festival will be launched officially at a "High Tea" on Monday 7 January between 3.00pm and 5.00pm at Café Zoo, 23 High St, Drysdale. the event will also launch the Festival's 2019 Treasure Hunt. Booking for the High Tea is essential; phone Café Zoo: 5251 5333.

In the meantime, Café Zoo is hosting Glass Inspirations - an exhibition of glass art around the theme “Birds of the Bellarine Peninsula”. The exhibition features large and small pieces of glass art jewellery and sculptures created by local glass artists. Each piece will be unique and hand-crafted on the Peninsula, making them ideal gifts.

Glass Inspirations will run to Monday February 11th 2019, between 9.00am and 5.00pm.

Glass Expo crowds defy storms

Crowds defied unexpected thunderstorms to enjoy the 2017 Festival of Glass Expo on Sunday 19 February at Drysdale’s Christian College.

The Expo showcased the glass art of fifty artists and businesses and encouraged visitors to become glass artists for a day. They could learn about mosaics with Montage Mosaics, create mosaic pavers with experts from Bunnings, or create leadlighting with RuMa Leadlighting. They could string beads with the Bead Society of Victoria, weave glass beads into patterns with Dax Bead Art and create glass jewellery and sculptures with Klassay Glass Art and bead maker Pauline Delaney.

“The weather doesn’t seem to bother glass lovers”, said Festival convenor Doug Carson. “Thousands of people attended each of the first six Festival Expos despite very hot weather. Nonetheless, we were delighted at the forecast twenty degrees for today, but even the forecasters didn’t foresee thunderstorms! Still, around five thousand people defied the weather, came to the Expo and enjoyed themselves.”

Two especially popular features of the Expo were the annual Glass Art Awards, which attracted over thirty entries and the draw for the 2017 Treasure Hunt. “Well over a hundred hopeful hunters entered the draw”, said Treasure Hunt organiser Diane Schofield. “It was a happy event, because almost all of them went away with a prize.” The 2017 Treasure Hunt was launched in early January, supported by twenty eight local businesses.

Murano comes to Drysdale

A special Expo attraction was the glass blowing demonstrations by glass master Davide Penso, from Murano, Venice, renowned for centuries for its glass art.

Davide Penso creating glass art

Davide is Artist in Residence at the 2017 Festival and he starred in the sell-out “Twilight Flames” at Leura Park Estate winery on February 18, where he blew and sculpted glass and talked about life on Murano.

The face behind the flame!

In the ten days after the Expo, Davide will run classes for beginning and experienced glass artists; and these will be followed by classes by local glass artists.

 

Festival raises its profile as starting date approaches

As the starting date of the 2017 Festival of Glass approaches, the event is raising its profile in local venues.

Glass art at Leura Park Estate

Local wineries Leura Park Estate and Jack Rabbit. together with the Clifton Springs Golf club are each hosting a presentation cabinet (glass, of course!) containing pieces of glass art.

Equivalent cabinets will appear soon at the Springdale Neighbourhood Centre, the Portarlington Golf Club and Geelong City Hall.

Just a foretaste ...

Each cabinet offers a foretaste of the 2017 Festival of Glass Expo, which happens at Drysdale’s Christian College on 19 February.

Jack Rabbit's mosaic head

The Expo will display the work of fifty glass artists and businesses, together with the Annual Glass Art Awards, glass art exhibitions and short films about glass. The Expo will also include the grand draw for the Festival’s Treasure Hunt, with dozens of prizes to be won.

The Festival of Glass committee is grateful to these venues for hosting the cabinets; we hope that their visitors enjoy the contents - perhaps enough to want to see more!

Featured Festival sponsor – Chris Walsh Amcal Pharmacy (ii)

Shop 5, 3 Wyndham Street, Drysdale Vic 3222         03 5251 3298

Hours: M – F 9.00am – 6.00pm; Sat 9.00am – 1.00pm; Sun 10.00am to 12.00pm

https://www.amcal.com.au/store-locator/chris-walshs-amcal-pharmacy

The Festival of Glass committee is grateful once again to the Chris Walsh Amcal pharmacy for supporting this year’s Festival Of Glass Treasure Hunt – its second year of involvement.

Chris Walsh’s pharmacy is part of Amcal - the largest network of pharmacies in Australia. Under the banner “Expert advice for every Australian”, the pharmacy offers a range of products promoting health and wellbeing, together with expert advice from experts on how best to use them.

As part of the Amcal network, Chris Walsh’s pharmacy holds an ever changing stock of gifts and homeware and its Facebook page regularly presents the latest Amcal catalogue. So you can make your choice before leaving home! (https://www.facebook.com/chriswalshpharmacy/posts/).

Get the latest Festival news

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Festival-of-Glass-189670377738114/

On the web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

On the blog (you’re here!): http://festivalofglass.blogspot.com

Volunteering at the Festival

Our “Friends of the Festival” online newsletter gives the latest Festival news specifically for our volunteers. To become a Friend of the Festival, please send an e-mail to festivalofglassdrysdale@gmail.com

Put “Festival Friends” in the subject bar and put your name and address in the body of the e-mail.

More Bellarine businesses back Treasure Hunt

More businesses on the Bellarine Peninsula are backing the 2017 Festival of Glass Treasure Hunt, which runs between 2 January and 18 February.

Curlewis's Chemist For Less is ready!

Twenty eight businesses in Curlewis, Drysdale and Portarlington are backing the 2017 Treasure Hunt - eight more than last year.

Treasure hunters can spot each participating business by a poster in its window or by an interactive map; if they find a glass 'Tiny Treasure' on the premises, the business will stamp their Treasure Hunt entry form.

Portarlington's Wish Pond is set!

Each entry form with ten stamps on it goes into the Treasure Hunt draw at the Festival of Glass Expo on Sunday 19 February.

The draw has over a hundred pieces of locally made glass art as prizes, so treasure hunters, businesses and artists can all be winners!

Business benefits
Being in the Treasure Hunt is good for a business, because while treasure hunters search the premises for its 'Tiny Treasure', they see everything else that the business has to offer.

Participating businesses recognise that the Treasure Hunt attracts inquisitive treasure hunters who  may not otherwise come onto their premises; and they are responding by displaying Treasure Hunt promotional material prominently.

Portarlington's Montana's is keen!

Each participating business is featured on the Festival web site and the Festival blog, exposing them to potential customers who may not otherwise.

Several participating businesses have been featured in previous posts on this blog, all feature on the web site and, of course, all the businesses appear on the Treasure Hunt entry form.

Featured Festival sponsor – Blue Pen (i)

0429 911 980              blupen@ncable.net.au

Blue Pen is the business name of graphic designer Lyn Ingles, who has been a significant supporter of the Festival of Glass since it started in 2011. Lyn has been the major creator of the Festival’s ‘face’ – a consistent, coherent series of images that integrate the Festival’s increasingly diverse activities.

Lyn created a logo for the first Festival of Glass in 2011 and that logo has been associated with every subsequent Festival. The logo’s distinctive typeface and colours have underpinned other logos that Lyn has created subsequently to identify and integrate elements of the Festival. These include the Expo, the Glass Art Awards and the Workshops, as well as Festival projects such as The Glass Trail, the Glass Reflections web site of local glass history and The Glass Mural in Drysdale’s town square.

Most recently, Lyn’s original logo has inspired the striking graphics that she has created for the Festival’s Treasure Hunt, which started in 2016.

Lyn’s creativity and imagination are evident in her work for the Festival of Glass and those qualities are available to any private or public organisation wishing to create a brand or a public ‘face’ - or to improve its existing one.

Get the latest Festival news

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Festival-of-Glass-189670377738114/

On the web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

On the blog (you’re here!): http://festivalofglass.blogspot.com

Volunteering at the Festival

Our “Friends of the Festival” online newsletter gives the latest Festival news specifically for our volunteers. To become a Friend of the Festival, please send an e-mail to festivalofglassdrysdale@gmail.com

Put “Festival Friends” in the subject bar and put your name and address in the body of the e-mail.

Pirates raid the Bellarine in Treasure Hunt!

On 2 January, shoppers at the Curlewis shopping centre were surprised to see a group of pirates approaching them!

Suddenly ... pirates at Curlewis!

The pirates were launching a Treasure Hunt that runs until 19 February in selected businesses in Curlewis, Drysdale and Portarlington as part of the 2017 Festival of Glass.

After visiting Curlewis and Drysdale, the pirates’ next stop was Portarlington, where a major cycling event put a spoke in the treasure hunters' wheel.

Brigands among the bromides!

In Portarlington, the pirates visited Montana's and Wish Pond, before ending their visit with a hearty lunch (or is that "A lunch, me hearties"?!) at Portarlington's Postscript Cafe.

Pirates at Postscript Cafe

Good signage at Montana's

During the Treasure Hunt, each participating business will display a commissioned piece of glass art; then all the pieces become prizes in the Treasure Hunt draw at the Festival of Glass Expo on Sunday 19 February at Drysdale’s Christian College.

Treasure Hunt is up and running!

On 1 February, treasure hunters young and old started searching Drysdale businesses for clues in the area’s first glass art Treasure Hunt.

"Are you sure it's here?"

The Treasure Hunt is part of the 2016 Festival of Glass, which will present events in the Drysdale area throughout February.

Each of the twenty one participating businesses in the Treasure Hunt is displaying a piece of glass art it commissioned from a local glass artist and these pieces will be major prizes in the Treasure Hunt draw.

(Pictured here: Festival organiser Patrick Hughes at Wallington Rural's new aquatic section; and local glass artist Glenda MacNaughton at the Mannerim Stables flower farm.)

Treasure Hunt organiser Diane Schofield is excited about the event. “The 2016 Treasure Hunt is up and running and Drysdale is the epicentre of glass fever”, she said. “People will look high and low for Tiny Treasures and there are dozens of prizes, so everyone stands a chance of winning one.”

"Aha! Spotted you!"

Hunting for treasure

A Treasure Hunt poster in the window identifies a participating business and treasure hunters are combing each business for its ‘Tiny Treasure’ – a small glass ornament.

Once a treasure hunter finds a Tiny Treasure, the business stamps their form; and once they have at least ten stamps, they enter their form in a draw at the Festival of Glass Expo on Sunday 21 February at Drysdale’s Christian College.

Upcoming Festival events

Drysdale will soon see more Festival events. Leura Park winery in Curlewis will host a glass art Masterclass on Friday 19 February (7.00 – 10.00pm). Two renowned glass blowers will create replicas of the locally endangered Orange-bellied Parrot and Hooded Plover. The winery’s drinks and nibbles will add pizazz to a fascinating display. Booking is essential and can be done via the Festival web site.

On Sunday February 14, the Bellarine Historical Society invites anyone with old bottles among their family heirlooms to have them valued by experts Paul and David Bruce at the Society’s evaluation session at Drysdale’s Old Courthouse Museum (10.00am – 3.00pm).

Details of all Festival events are on the Festival web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

Searching Drysdale businesses with new curiosity

On Monday 1^st February, customers will search businesses in the Drysdale area with a new curiosity.

Ronnie (Ronnie's Cafe) and her 'Tree of Life' platter

The customers will be looking for small, hand-crafted glass ornaments - ‘Tiny Treasures’ – that are clues in a Treasure Hunt being run by the 2016 Festival of Glass.

21 local businesses are participating in the Treasure Hunt and each one has commissioned a piece of glass art – and a ‘Tiny Treasure’ - from local glass artists. 

From February 1^st, each participating business will display its piece of glass art, together with its ‘Tiny Treasure’ for treasure hunters to spot. A poster in its window will show that a business is part of the Treasure Hunt. Treasure Hunters receive a stamp on their entry form for each ‘Tiny Treasure’ they spot.

The Treasure Hunt will culminate in a draw for dozens of pieces of glass art at the Festival Expo on 21 February at Christian College, Drysdale.

Jacquie Campbell's glass shell at Surf Junction

Festival of Glass convenor Doug Carson said, “Everyone benefits from the Treasure Hunt. It brings customers to local businesses, it promotes local glass artists and it shows local people the beautiful things that artists make with glass. We hope that the Treasure Hunt will build a strong and mutually-beneficial relationship between the Festival, local businesses and local glass artists.”

Each year, something more
The Treasure Hunt will be a novel addition to the Festival of Glass, now in its sixth year. Each year, the Festival committee adds a new feature to maintain interest in the Festival. For example:

• the 2015 Festival featured internationally renowned Sydney glass artist Mark Eliott, who held demonstrations of glass art at the Festival Expo and ran workshops in the following week. Mark will return to the 2016 Festival, along with fellow glass artist Peter Minson.
• the 2014 Festival included Glass on Film - a rolling programme of short films about glass. Glass on Film was also a feature of the 2015 Festival and will be part of the 2016 Festival.

Glass art lights up local businesses

Businesses in the Drysdale region have started to display pieces of glass art that they have commissioned from local glass artists.

The commissioned pieces are among dozens of prizes in the glass art Treasure Hunt that is a feature of the sixth Festival of Glass in Drysdale in February 2016. Participating businesses will also display glass ‘Tiny Treasures’ - clues in the Treasure Hunt for treasure hunters to spot.

The first business to join the Treasure Hunt was Drysdale Fish and Chickens (30 High Street), and Mersina and her daughter were very pleased to receive a Flying Fish from local glass artist David Hobday.

Mersina and her glass fish

The Elegant Profile Beauty Salon’s (7/3 Wyndham Street) commissioned piece is a striking blue necklace made by Fiona Horne from recycled gin and mineral water bottles.

Pam's Marina Villani platter

Elegant Profile's necklace

At the newsagents in Drysdale High Street, Pam is pleased to display a fine glass platter by Marina Villani, featuring wattle flowers and foliage.

The Treasure Hunt starts formally on February 1^st, when treasure hunters can start to spot the ‘Tiny Treasures’ and receive stamps on their entry form. The Treasure Hunt culminates in a draw for dozens of pieces of glass art at the Festival Expo on 21 February at Christian College, Drysdale.