Harmony Studios & counter tops

Those of you that have stayed with us before and are planning a stay with us in Harmony Studios this winter may notice something a little different in your units this year.

"building" on the theme of using as many crushed glass bottles as we can around Maho and St. John, our latest project includes making counter tops like the one pictured above. The process of collecting glass, crushing the glass, creating a mold, mixing the cement with crushed glass, pouring, curing, and finally sanding/polishing the final result takes a great deal of time, but the final result speaks for itself!

You may notice a few pieces of glass within the counter top that don't exactly look like crushed glass; our talented glass blowers have created many different unique "pulled glass" pieces that have then been sliced like bread and carefully placed in the cement before it hardens. And of course the soap dish was made here as well!

If you're curious what it is we're working on directly across from the glass studio then come ask us, we're probably working on a counter top like the one above.

More local publicity for our Art Center

On-StJohn.com has posted a great video today about our recycled glass program here at Maho. Mariel & Greg, our resident glassblowers, get quite a bit of facetime as they create a palm tree mug and tree frog. Towards the second half of the video is our newest form of recycling: mixing glass with concrete to create table tops.

Those in the area this week should definitely stop by and watch one of our demonstrations, now on Monday or Friday nights. Of course if you're interested in taking a class like Jeff & Russ are doing in the video you'll have to call us ahead of time or stop by first thing upon your arrival.

Maho Bay Camps Glass Studio

Cordially invites you to attend

An opening reception

For Gregory Lee and Mariel Bass

Friday May 6, 2011

5 pm to 8 pm

at Bajo el Sol Gallery

Mongoose Junction

Batik Continued

Last month we had an interesting post about batiking here at Maho, and what we do with all those old linens from our resort (and hopefully other resorts soon). Last week I noticed our art department was now selling the batik cloth by the yard, which I was very interested in for creating a unique "hideaway" for some shelving at home. Apparently we have plenty of other visitors thinking the same, and even creating what they've seen and learned here at Maho at home. Below are pictures sent to us by one such visitor:

when you thought it couldn't get hotter: Wood Firing

A few times a year the clay studio does a wood firing here on property. This process from start to finish takes 3-4 days including the initial heating and the cool down. We use old shipping pallets to fuel the flames. Generally they would end up at the dump, luckily we have a few sources that send to us instead of doing that. The most labor intensive part of this is breaking down the wood pallets into manageable pieces that can be put into the small opening. Staff, locals, and guests all participate. The main event takes the better part of a whole day when the fire has to be constantly maintained. Andrew Scully, a recent guest is giving a hand keeping the fire up.

There were 20 people standing around at one point during the afternoon just hanging out enjoying the process. People brought food and drinks and literally sat around the fire. A few days later the kiln had cooled enough for the bricks to be removed and the spoils of their labor revealed.

Wax On, Wax Off

Not just a Karate training technique anymore. Now its recycling. Sometimes we have linens that become unusable. They get a stain or a rip or its just time to retire them. Instead of tossing them out, we recycle them into hand made items for sale in our shop. Annalisa is our resident artist in our textiles studio. She and her team prepare all of the fabric, put designs into it with wax (wax on), dye it, boil the wax out (wax off), some times adding more wax and more dye for multiple colored cloth, and then they are finally ready for the fabric to be cut, sewn, transformed into a bag, or place settings, bandannas, and anything else our seamstresses can come up with. The process isn't overly technical. In fact, many people take a class here making their own table runner and then go home and continue recycling by buying home kits from hobby stores. You need wax, a brush or stamps, dye, and boiling water; and of course some old linens.

online store

The Maho store is back online! Our Art Center has been busy lately as we start heading into season preparing and filling all those holiday orders. Hand blown glass, fabric and paper art, pottery and clay works as well as our new Maho Bay T-shirts and hats are all available now. If you have any ideas for other items please let us know!