travel & events Archive

A good beer needs a good beer glass, and after hearing about the new craft beer, Village Brewery, starting up in Calgary we met four artists who are hand crafting special beer mugs for the occasion. Phillip, Tim, Kai, and Ryan, are the artists of Bee Kingdom and they took us into the 'Hive' for an introduction to glass blowing and a bit of fun. It starts with rods of raw glass, throw them into a super hot furnace, add blow torches and clamps and metal bars, and with the right amount of talent and creativity you can finish up with some beautiful pieces of functional art. The GCAT team spent the morning watching these glass masters do their thing and we were very impressed. One wrong move or bad timing and it will almost immediately ruin the project you are working on, but as we could see that does not happen too often with these four lads. *** Kids, don't try this at home. *** Phillip, Tim, Kai, and Ryan are all graduates of the Alberta College of Art and Design and are part of the emerging art scene in Calgary. Along with other like minded young artists in Calgary they are inadvertently serving as pioneers on the emerging art scene in this fairly young city. Like the Village Brewery, the Bee Kingdom has a strong belief in their mandate: Growing Community. The artists of Bee Kingdom also make fine glass art using their unique skills and even have a showroom in Germany. They also run glass blowing sessions to the public so if you want to give glass blowing a try give them a ...

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