Hello from the Baltic!

I am so very excited to be back in the Baltic! Scandinavia is incredibly magical. One of my favorite places in the entire world is Copenhagen. It is such a clean and well-kept city, full of street art and beautiful architecture. Because of the fantastic bike paths that run through the city, many of their residents use them and they can be even more congested than the car lanes. It’s so funny to see the Danish riding in their dressy work attire not even breaking a sweat.

Exploring the waterfront area, just nearby the historic Nyhavn canal, I came across something sparkly in a basement level window. Blown glass! So I went inside the gallery and met the artist/owner Christian. He was kind enough to chat with us and even brought us out back to view his hot shop. I always love to peek into other glass studios to see alternative studio setups and the personal touches each shop has. I really gravitate towards Scandinavian style glassmaking. They use a lot of simple soft forms and a certain weight to the glass that I find visually pleasing. The picture below is not of Christian’s glass but actually of another storefront that I spotted in town.

Ryan has become a real tennis pro. She has picked up this sport while traveling the world and plays in cities all over including Copenhagen. This particular day she enjoyed a match at our Hot Glass Show. Ryan-1 Glass-0.

I for one am always inspired by what I find in port. I was fortunate enough to visit the Church of Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg, Russia. I took a tour to view the inside and out and I can safely say that in all of my travels this is the most incredible piece of architecture I have ever seen. If you think the outside is ornate, you should see the inside. It is a whopping 7,000 square meters of mosaic. I designed a church inspired bottle with stopper trying to pick up some of the colors from the building. Ryan was also inspired by Russia and she created this fantastic vase.

We like to end our cruises with a Meet the Artist event held in the Molecular Bar on board. This allows our extreme glass enthusiasts to come socialize and say goodbye to us before they head home. We bring with us a slide show of images- both pieces that have been made at the Hot Glass Show, as well as our personal glass that we create on land. The Molecular Bar creates really out-of-the-box concoctions, even to the point that the bartenders are actually called liquid chefs. This night however I made sure to bring my volcano cup so I could order a drink with liquid nitrogen and create a smoking volcano. This brings glass nerd to a new level.

Love from the Hot Glass Show team on the Eclipse!