Eprhraim Co-op

Well, I haven't posted in a while.  It is not because I haven't been doing glass or gardening, but it is because We Moved!  That's right, we have left our beautiful garden in the city to move to lovely little Ephraim, Utah.  My wife and I met at Snow College and ever since we graduated and left, we have wanted to go back.  I transferred to the University of Utah and earned a Masters Degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism and have been running swimming pools and recreational programs for Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation  for the last 8 years.  But, this spring a position opened up here at Snow running the swimming pool and teaching the aquatic classes.  So, we moved.  We are excited to be here and love it all so far.

  I have always wanted to build a straw bale home, and this move will allow me to finally build one.  We need to sell our home in Salt Lake before we can, but we are gearing up for it now.  I have been sharpening up my knowledge of building practices especially those surrounding straw bales and am getting pretty stoked up about it all.  In the mean time I have still been doing some glass work, but not so much gardening as we are just renting for now.  As things progress, I will be posting as much as possible to keep everyone up to date.

In the mean time, here are a few pictures of some stained glass that can be found at the Ephraim Co-op.  This is a location that allows crafters from around the area to sell their wares to the community.  Besides the stained glass I have also placed there some bottle vases, earrings, and necklaces.

Manti Temple

Stained Glass Manti Temple





Trees in front of the temple

I finally finished it!  After a long and time consuming marathon of stained glass, I was finally able to finish the stained glass picture of the LDS Manti Temple.  This beauty took over 80 hours of work, but I was able to get it done in about a month.  The temple is made of light sconces I melted flat, the windows, roof, and trees are also recycled bottles I melted flat.  The sky and grass are made of salvaged stained glass I bought.  Even the frame is made of salvaged molding. 









Manti Temple west tower with light rays



This is by far the biggest, most difficult, and most rewarding piece I have made so far.  It has just over 500 pieces in it. 

Unfortunately there is no income off of this one; it was a wedding present for my brother-in-law and his new wife…they had better like it ;)  I hope to be able to start making more large pictures like this one soon.