Here's what we found.
Introducing to the gallery: Ted Jolda. 
Ted is one of Canada's best known glass artists and has been called the nation's preeminent ornament maker. Working primarily in glass since 1985, Ted has received international recognition for his work. As well as being in the collections of the royal houses of the Netherlands and England, his work is in the collections of the Canadian Craft Museum and the Corning Museum of Glass, and has been exhibited internationally in numerous group shows representing the finest of contemporary Canadian Art. Ted was chosen to create the goblets for the formal table of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia and later was asked to expand the set to accommodate the eighteen heads of state attending the 1999 APEC conference in Vancouver. His work has been presented to presidents, prime ministers and heads of state around the world.
Ted comments on a recent brush with retail nirvana:
This is one of the things I get asked most about . . . No I didn't me
et Oprah. Nor did I send her any of my work. I had an agent, who for a couple of years took my stuff to the big Gift Trade Shows out east. In New York some of Oprah's personal shoppers saw my ornaments at the booth and liked them. Bought some and took them to show Oprah. She liked them and put them in her magazine. I knew nothing of this until about a week before the magazine came out. It was great. It was amazing. It was an incredible year. I made little else for the next year. My income (for that one year only) more than doubled. We were able to buy a new washer, a new - to us - car, and a new refrigerator. Paid a bit off the mortgage. That's it, that's all. The next year I was no longer the 'new thing' and sales went back to their old - well actually slightly worse than their old levels. I had lost some clients that I couldn't supply with other work while I was making pears. I'm not complaining. Variety is good. But it was amazing while it lasted.
In the year following the appearance of his Golden Pear ornaments on The O List, Ted personally hand-blew 10,000+ ornaments for which he had received back orders. Happily, he has lived to tell about it, and we welcome Ted as the first glass artist to be represented by The Island Gallery.
I'll post more of his designs - but if you are already thirsting to see them, here's a cutie, available just in time for Christmas:
Ted comments on a recent brush with retail nirvana:
This is one of the things I get asked most about . . . No I didn't me
et Oprah. Nor did I send her any of my work. I had an agent, who for a couple of years took my stuff to the big Gift Trade Shows out east. In New York some of Oprah's personal shoppers saw my ornaments at the booth and liked them. Bought some and took them to show Oprah. She liked them and put them in her magazine. I knew nothing of this until about a week before the magazine came out. It was great. It was amazing. It was an incredible year. I made little else for the next year. My income (for that one year only) more than doubled. We were able to buy a new washer, a new - to us - car, and a new refrigerator. Paid a bit off the mortgage. That's it, that's all. The next year I was no longer the 'new thing' and sales went back to their old - well actually slightly worse than their old levels. I had lost some clients that I couldn't supply with other work while I was making pears. I'm not complaining. Variety is good. But it was amazing while it lasted.In the year following the appearance of his Golden Pear ornaments on The O List, Ted personally hand-blew 10,000+ ornaments for which he had received back orders. Happily, he has lived to tell about it, and we welcome Ted as the first glass artist to be represented by The Island Gallery.
I'll post more of his designs - but if you are already thirsting to see them, here's a cutie, available just in time for Christmas:
Lumps of Coal. . .
Stay tuned!- Susan R., sales manager
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