2023 in Review

As we set new goals for the new year, we like to take a minute to look back at everything we did in the past year; the joys, the sorrows, the successes, and the setbacks, there is something to be noted in each one.

January

2023 was the 30^th anniversary of epiphany and to celebrate we themed the year Living the Dream. What is the dream? To be self-sustaining artists who make work that they love in a medium they love with the people they love. If this doesn’t seem like a big deal, think again. Not many can say they love their jobs, not many like the work they make, and not many are successful. With grit, passion, and perseverance we’ve come a long way, baby! 2023 was the year to celebrate and we did so by using the most expensive, most difficult glass colors available – dichroic glass. Bling bling!

February

Our long-standing love affair with glass culminated in 2023 being the year of dichroic glass. Check out our blog post about dichro here.

The first piece in our new series was the Moonlight Dream Heart Paperweight. Using swirls of blues hues mixed with sparkly dichro, we created the dreamiest paperweight that captured the romance of moonlight rippling on water.

And then, because who doesn’t love a rainbow, we took it to the next level and introduced our Rainbow Dream Heart Paperweight, using the same technique but with the bold colors of the rainbow and a hint of purple dichro. So juicy to the eyes.

We also got out of the studio and traveled to a trade show in Philadelphia in February. Ever wonder how you see our pieces in galleries across the country? We attend trade shows to visit old clients and friends, and to meet new ones.  Know a gallery you think should carry our work? Have them check out the wholesale portal on our website.

March

Next, we released Dreamy Goldfinch in our Birds of Beauty series. With their vibrant yellow coloring, the Goldfinch embodies optimism and energy. Full of activity, these birds inspire us to dream big and to follow our dreams with our whole heart, never giving up no matter how difficult the journey. Sizzling with possibility and golden like the sun, these birds remind us to reach for the sky and all our dreams will come true.

April

Our love of animals got taken to the next level. In addition to our adorable Sleeping Kitty we created the majestic, regal Bastet, the Cat Goddess sculpture. Colored with one of our favorite ‘reduction’ colors which turns from blue to silver or gold. Nothing says you’re fancy like a royal cat in your collection of treasures. 

Our amazing team cleaned April’s sculpture ‘Solstice’ at the Huntington Place (formerly TCF and formerly formerly Cobo Hall). Read our great blog post about it here.

May

We started the month with our annual Spring Open Studio. This is the time we show you all the hard work we have done over the winter, getting feedback on our new designs and refining them for the next round.

Not wanting to limit ourselves to indoor pieces, we launched the Dreamy Goldfinch for the Garden, just in time for the spring showcase in your garden. We added this little gem for a fun spot of color that lasts all season.

June

We introduced a completely new line of pieces, the Wanderlust series of blown glass bowls. Wanderlust represents our love of travel and seeing new places, of the rich colors, smells, foods, and people we encounter that offer so many possibilities and inspirations. We used a newer color technique of picking up flat strips of glass to create a vertical, swirled pattern. The Chennai Wanderlust bowl, with classic black and white stripes, was the first piece launched. It’s named after the city on the Bay of Bengal in India where we haven’t been yet, but long to go.

For eight years we have been proud partners with Michigan Humane (MH). Not only do we donate a portion of the proceeds of our animal-themed artworks to MH, this year we put together our very own Mutt March team. We are all lovers of animals at the studio, and loved strutting our stuff for a good cause. To date we have raised over $33,000 for MH!

The Glass Art Society brought their international conference for artists, educators, scientists, collectors, and students to Detroit. April was on the site committee for the conference, hosted events, and moderated a panel discussion.

For our loyal fans who have attended every workshop we offer, we launched a new, advanced workshop to make a fish. We sold out of this fun experience and received rave reviews about it. We only offer this workshop once a year.

July

We blow glass at 2000 degrees. We work really hard in the colder months so we can shut the furnaces off in July and August. We spent the month of July at more trade shows. From Atlanta, to Vegas, and Chicago, it was a whirlwind of travel. Fun but also a lot of work, packing and unpacking our trade show booth.

We launched the next in our series of Wanderlust bowls, Vinicunca. Named after the famous mountain in Peru, this rainbow bowl has bright, transparent colors plus a touch of sparkly dichroic to set it off. Especially tricky to make because of all the colors, we are really proud of how lovely this bowl looks!

August

We used the opportunity when the furnaces were off not only to refocus and relax, but to perform much needed studio maintenance. This year we rebuilt our workhorse reheating chamber. We use this piece of equipment almost every day and we have not rebuilt it since 1999. It was about time!

As we started to think about fall, we decided to get people inspired and do our first pumpkin giveaway on social media. It was a huge hit! We love sharing our glass and know not everyone can afford it, so this was a really nice way to engage a new group of followers and friends!

September

We are a Certified Woman-Owned glass studio. So, of course, we were inspired by the record-breaking new Barbie movie to create a Barbie Pumpkin. We only made a limited-edition series of 10 of these and it sure was fun, but we sold out so quickly we know a lot of people were sad to have missed out. We always release new pieces to our newsletter subscribers first, so if you aren’t on the list, sign up now.

When Fall is in the air it means it is pumpkin season! We really got into the spirit of things this year and hosted our first annual Pumpkin Patch Party showcasing all our one-of-a-kind pumpkins as well as offering our first blown glass hands-on workshop to make your own pumpkin. It was a huge success and we’re looking forward to doing it again in 2024. Read all about it in our Pumpkin Patch Party blog post.

Halloween is our favorite holiday, so it only made sense that we honored it with a new trio of Halloween pumpkins, Casper, Black Lantern, and Jack. With crisp colors and contrasting accents, this series was our new favorite.

In our Wanderlust series we released the Marrakech bowl. Named after one of the four imperial cities in Morrocco, the refined reds and oranges in this bowl are contrasted so nicely with the elegant blue greens.

October

We had not forgotten about our dreamy love of dichroic glass, but it is a very difficult material to use so we spent a lot of time playing with it before we figured out how it really looks best. But once we did, it blew up on social media. Trying to get feedback, we shared a video of our Party Gras pumpkin and were COMPLETELY overwhelmed by people wanting to buy it. We got over 1 million likes and 50,000 shares from people ALL over the world!

Like most amazing things there was a downside. We ran out of color and couldn’t get more from our supplier for 6 weeks, our team got hit with another round of Covid, and the studio shut down unexpectedly.  People online were getting angry about the lack of supply. Who gets angry about art glass?

Once we got back on our feet we shipped to places like Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and South America. We love having so many fans from so many places, knowing our work is so well-traveled. And for anyone wondering – nothing got broke in shipping. Our shipping team does a fabulous job making sure our glass arrives in one piece.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and we know the power of supporting the causes that we love. So, we designed a custom Pink Power Pumpkin to honor the thrivers who have struggled with this disease, donating a portion of the proceeds from each pumpkin to the Pink Fund. Together we can change the world by focusing on good causes.

November

Our 2023 ornament was the Berry Dream Flurry. Using a similar technique to the Wanderlust bowls, the crisp vertical stripes were modern, yet felt traditional in the classic, red and white coloration.

We also made a limited series of Dichroic Dream Flurry ornaments available only to our newsletter subscribers in limited quantities.

Our studio has been home to a colony of feral cats for the last 8 years. After their TNR experience, they chose to stick around and become part of our family. Jack White, the colony leader, became our studio mascot. He was always there to greet us in the morning, demanding his ear scratches and lap time.  As friendly, charming, and full of swagger as any swashbuckler, it was with a heavy heart that we found him passed away. We, and the rest of the colony miss him with all our hearts. Read the story of Jack here.

December

Our holiday show, the first weekend in December, was a “smashing” success. The weather was good, the crowds were excited, the art looked delightful, and the glassmaking was amazing! Read more about it here.

We were deeply saddened by the passing of Mike Teeple, father to our studio manager Shannon, and longtime contractor for epiphany. He truly was a member of the family, helping us make our dreams a reality with his expert electrical, carpentry, and fabrication skills. We know he is resting in peace, looking down on us from heaven like a guardian angel.

Our amazing Social Media Manager, Angel announced her retirement. Angel’s effervescent personality, awesome design skills, and witty social media repartee will be sorely missed but we wish her the best as she works to convert her new van into a camper to travel the world!

In closing

2023 was a year of challenges, so many creative achievements and joys, but also so many losses that make us remember that every day is special, every person is special. We need to live for the moment and love those around us. Making glass is our raison d’etre and we make it for those who we love.