Conway notebook | Demonstrations make glass artists ‘creative differently’

CONWAY Glass artist Ed Streeter says having an audience watch him and his wife Barbara blow glass doesn’t make them more creative, but it makes them be creative differently.

Rather than producing pieces that may take an hour or more to coax from a molten mass to finished art, they focus on pieces that can be formed and finished in 15 to 20 minutes.

Those that take longer could cause the audience to lose interest and that’s not the purpose of the glass-blowing demonstrations at Conway Glass. Rather, Ed Streeter said, the demonstrations are to teach watchers about the process of forming glass pieces from the 2,150-degree blob that emerges from the Laurel Street shop’s furnaces to begin the creation.

This season’s schedule of glass-blowing demonstrations, free to the public, debuts at 11 a.m. Saturday. Another demonstration begins about every hour until 4 p.m., Streeter said. Glass hearts will be the pieces du jour.

The rest of the scheduled dates: March 3, April 7 and May 5, just before the furnaces are cooled down until next fall.

Streeter said the demonstrations begin with an explanation of the process, which hasn’t changed in hundreds of years except for the way the furnace is heated. Barbara Streeter answers questions from the audience as the demonstration continues.

One of the neat things for those in the audience, Streeter said, is the opportunity to buy pieces of art they watched being created and heard the artists explain as they are being made. Some will take photos or videos of pieces being made that they display along with the final creation on shelves at home.

For those hooked by the demonstrations, the studio also offers day and evening classes where students can make their own ornaments, flowers, paperweights or hearts.

More information can be found at the studio’s website, www.conwayglass.com.

Here come the brides

Downtown Conway Alive’s Bridal Expo isn’t old enough yet to put it on Renee Wikstrom’s automatic mental calendar, but she sure remembers last year’s inaugural event.

“Last year,” said Wikstrom, owner of Magnolia Bridal on Main Street, “we were packed the whole day.”

The expo this year is set for 2 to 5 p.m. on Feb. 25, and will have 40 vendors, said Hillary Howard, Conway Alive’s executive director, with the number of wedding suppliers such as photographers and florists limited so that brides and their retinues at the Sidewheeler on the Waccamaw riverfront aren’t overwhelmed with choices.

Unlike some larger bridal shows elsewhere, there is no charge to get into the Conway expo, and the River City’s event comes with a plethora of bride-friendly shops in its nearby historic downtown.

Visitors to the event will find a menu of about 32 downtown stores that can help brides with selections of wedding items ranging from china to honeymoon clothes.

Last year, Howard said, 500 brides-to-be and entourage members attended the expo.

Wikstrom said it took a couple of weeks after last year’s expo for the orders to really start rolling in. An impressive number of telephone calls came in the week after, she said.

But, she added, “It takes a couple of weeks once the girls have seen their choices.”