August 24, 2017 Meeting of West Bay Rotary

President Mik asked Ray Fink to introduce today's speaker, David Jacobson, glass blower from Montville. He will be including some of his work in the Christmas Tree sales this winter. He enjoys sharing his passion for glass blowing whenever he can. He was a cartoonist, and discovered glass blowing before he began his career in cartoons. He freelanced for newspapers and got his degree is glass in Minnesota. He and his wife moved to New York City and worked for 18 years in cartoons, knowing he wanted to return to glass, which he did in 1994.  He started evenings and weekends after work, and they bought a property in Montville with the dream of having a studio for glass.  In 2013 he converted the barn into a studio. He likes to incorporate natural colors and effects, including Venetian styles of color and complexity of patterns. Part of his business plans includes teaching people how to blow glass, and he has affiliated himself with the B&B owners and tourism industry to bring people in to glass. His wife of 34 years died suddenly October 27, 2016 and he is working to adjust to life without her. Her death had an impact on his creativity for weeks following her death, until he began creating a memorial urn for her cremains. It has become an area of production for him to honor people's lives to make urns. He spent a week at Corning in Rochester in a glass class, with a Czech teacher from Prague, where he learned how to color glass with metal oxides, and friends sent him to his class in Prague through a "Go Fund Me" page. He just returned last Friday. He likes to do one-of-a-kind art pieces, but also does work for his shop that is mostly smaller and one of a kind. He also runs an Air B&B out of his house. He still does cartoons for magazines for caption contests, too. People come and make their own ornaments two at a time. He's also marketing urns for pet cremains, and paperweights.