It's 'Hands up' time!

The 2015 Festival of Glass committee is inviting Friends and supporters of the Festival to join-in the activities that make up the Festival Expo.

The committee has worked hard and long to put the 2015 Festival tExpo ogether, but its success depends on people who help on the day. We'd like to know just who's coming to help and when, so that we can create a Volunteers Rosta. You can spend as little or much time at your job as you wish.

A job for you, maybe??
There's a list of jobs below. Browse the list as if it were a box of chocolates and choose your favourite/s! Then just let us know (dryclift@bigpond.com) your choice/s. All jobs start at 10.00am onwards, except the Door Monitors and the Information Desk.

Door monitors (3) 7.00am to 9.30am
Each exhibitor has been asked to enter the building via a specific door, to avoid traffic jams! This job entails guiding exhibitors to their sites via the correct door.

Information desk 9.30am onwards.
Giving visitors general information about the Expo.

Raffle Table
Selling raffle tickets, keeping an eye on the box containing the ticket stubs and on the raffle prizes - glass collectibles.

Silent auction
People write bids for an item and place their bid in a box. This job involves accepting bids and keeping an eye on the box and on the items for auction - glass collectibles.

Glass Art Awards
The winners will be on display in an area roped-off to keep them secure. This job is to make sure that they stay secure.

Photography display
The winners of the 'Glass-related Photography' section of the Glass Art Awards will be on display in an area roped-off to keep them secure. This job is to make sure that they stay secure. 

Glass Art Awards: raising the prestige

February 6th is the due date for completed Entry Forms for this year's Glass Art Awards. (N.B. Just the Entry Forms - not the entries themselves.)

The Divisions and Categories of the Awards are set out below; they are also on the Festival of Glass web site. Entry Forms and the Award rules are also on the web site:
www.festivalofglass.net.au

Increasing prestige
Three sponsors are increasing the prestige of the 2015 Awards: the Bead Society of Victoria, the Rotary Club of Drysdale and Glass Fusing

The Bead Society of Victoria (www.beadsociety.com.au) aims to foster interest in the art and craft of beading. It's sponsorship of $500 is supporting the 'Jewellery Glass Art' category. This category always attracts a strong entry and the Bead Society of Victoria's sponsorship will add prestige to the awards.

The Rotary Club of Drysdale is sponsoring a new Glass Art Award - "Second Life Glass Art". The $1,000 Award will go to the best piece of glass art made solely by recycled glass. This year's theme is "Light Up", reflecting International Rotary's theme for 2014-2015, "Light Up Rotary". The Award-winning piece will become the property of the Rotary Club of Drysdale, which will use it to promote its annual Easter Art Show.

Glass Fusing (www.glassfusing.co) is an online company selling resources for glass fusing. The company's sponsorship of $100 is supporting the Sculptural Glass Art and Functional Glass Art categories.

A big "Thank you" to the Bead Society of Victoria, to the Rotary Club of Drysdale and to  Glass Fusing for helping us to inspire glass artists!

  
Divisions:

• Junior: 8 - 12 years old
• Intermediate: 13 - 18 years old
• Open: 19 years of age and over

Glass art categories:

• Jewellery Glass Art
• Functional Glass Art
• Sculptural Glass Art
• Glass-related Photography
• Second Life Glass Art

Prizes for divisional winners in each category.

A new Bellarine glass artist

Jutta Larcombe is about to exhibit her work for the first time at the 2015 Festival of Glass!

Jutta  became interested in glass after attending the fourth annual Festival of Glass in February 2014. In July 2014, she joined a weekend class with local glass artist David Hobday and, with his help and encouragement, created her first Dragon, small plates and coasters. Jutta was hooked!

"It's great therapy!"
"When I work with glass, I become totally engrossed with it and forget all around me", she said. "It's great therapy! I love the whole process, from getting an idea to getting the finished thing out of the kiln. Amazing, I never thought I could do anything like it."

The Festival committee is delighted at the emergence of a new local glass artist and pleased to have played a part in it. Festival coordinator Doug Carson said, "A major reason for holding the Festival is to develop the area's reputation as a centre for glass-related activity, so we're pleased to see the Festival encouraging new glass artists like Jutta."

Naked Sheep promotes Glass Art!

Haberdashers The Naked Sheep, in Ash Road, Leopold currently has an unusual window display - glass art.

The display features the work of glass artist Lynda Rogers, of Klassay Glass Art and is a win for both her and business-owner Amanda. Lynda gets to exhibit her work at a striking location and Amanda gets an unusual and eye-catching window display.

Festival-business links
Lynda is an exhibitor at the 2015 Festival of Glass and her collaboration with Amanda around the window display shows how local businesses can benefit from the Festival of Glass.

Other businesses might consider a similar arrangement, where they invite a local glass artist to exhibit their work in some (or even all!) of their shopfront. Alternatively, a business could offer special 'on the day' discounts to Festival visitors; or it could increase its local profile by sponsoring an aspect of the Festival (e.g. one of the Art Glass Awards).

Volunteers wanted!

As the 2015 Festival of Glass Expo draws closer, we'd like to hear from anyone who'd like to be part of the event.

The Expo will happen on Sunday 15 February between 10.00am and 4.00pm at Christian College, 40 Collins Street, Drysdale.

The good news is that most of the jobs involve very little activity! Essentially, they involve supervising a site/table. Some jobs involve providing visitors with information, which will be available at the site/table; and members of the Festival committee (identifiable via their jolly badges!) will be on hand to help throughout the day.

THE CHOICE IS YOURS

There is a range of jobs to be done, so volunteers can choose jobs and times that suit them. Volunteers for each job can say when and for how long they are available. Anyone who volunteers for more than one job will be especially welcome!

All jobs are from 10.00am onwards, except the Door Monitors and the Information Desk.
Door monitors (3) 7.00am to 9.30am
Each exhibitor has been asked to enter the building via a specific door, to avoid traffic jams! This job entails guiding exhibitors to their sites via the correct door.

Information desk 9.30am onwards.
Giving visitors general information about the Expo.

Raffle Table
Selling raffle tickets, keeping an eye on the box containing the ticket stubs and on the raffle prizes - glass collectibles.

Silent auction
People write bids for an item and place their bid in a box. This job involves accepting bids and keeping an eye on the box and on the items for auction - glass collectibles.

Glass Art Awards
The winners will be on display in an area roped-off to keep them secure. This job is to keep them secure.

Photography display
The winners of the 'Glass-related Photography' section of the Glass Art Awards will be on display in an area roped-off to keep them secure. This job is to keep them secure. 

The FoG bus!

Coming soon to a bus stop near you - the FoG bus!

As part of the promotional campaign for the 2015 Festival of Glass (FoG), a bus with an advert for the Festival covering its back end will be in service around Geelong. The bus won't be restricted to any particular route, so keep a look-out for it!

(This article was posted last week and disappeared from the blog, so the bus clearly moves very quickly!)

Building the campaign
The FoG bus is a new addition to the annual campaign to promote the Festival of Glass, which is in its fifth year in 2015. Media releases have been sent to local, regional and national media (of all types), to glass industry groups/associations and to relevant arts and crafts groups/associations. The Festival committee hopes that local and regional media will feature Festival events as they have done in previous years.

In another part of the campaign, entries for the 2015 Festival of Glass are starting to appear on local, regional and national tourism web sites, as well as on 'what's on'-type web sites. If you know anyone who's planning to visit Drysdale in early February, you might like to suggest that they include the Festival of Glass in their itinerary.