Other Locations Carrying Select Glass Fish

Swansons Nursery
9701-15th Ave.NW | Seattle, WA
Afishionado Gallery
Fishermen's Terminal - 1900 W Nickerson St | Seattle, WA
Zerba Cellars - Woodinville, WA Store
14525 148th Ave NE | Woodinville, WA
Big M Stained Glass
711 south 25th Street | Tacoma, WA
State of the Arts Gallery
500 Washington St. SE | Olympia, WA
City Soups Restaurants
Columbia Center - 701 5th Ave | Seattle, WA
Finders
7605 SE 27th St. Suite 102 | Mercer Island, WA
Herons Nest Art Gallery
17600 Vashon HWY SW | Vashon Island, WA
Cordova Historical Musuem
PO Box 391 | Cordova, AK
Good Merchandise
17630 Vashon Hwy SW | Vashon Island, WA
Gari of Sushi Restaurant
1209 S. 38th St. | Tacoma, WA (display)
Vashon Chamber of Commerce
19021 Vashon Hwy SW | Vashon Island, WA (display)

AquaRun 2010

My glass fish art has been selected as the coveted First Place Finish Award for the inaugural AquaRun and Swim for a Child Event (www.aquarunforachild.org) to be held September 6, 2010 in Commencement Bay, Tacoma, WA. This race is a fundraiser for Gift For a Child (www.giftforachild.org) to help support children in foster care and older youth out of care by providing the presence of a loving community, connections to an adoptive or foster family, and transitional living skills.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glass Art Festival (Sequim, WA)

The 2010 Glass Art Festival is a community-wide event sponsored by the MAC, the Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley, the local hub of heritage, history, culture, and art. For more about the MAC, visit macsequim.org.

Except for the workshops in artists’ studios, the events of the Glass Art Festival are free to the public.

September is a beautiful month in Sequim, on the North Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, and this year it will be shimmering with an array of glass art throughout the town and beyond. Come experience the Magic of Glass! This event will provide the public with a variety of opportunities to view a diverse selection of glass art and to experience and discover all that goes into its creation.

The Glass Fish Story--How it Began

Glass Act

From computers to kilns, Isaiah Heyer has an impressive array of talents. Not only is this **Vashon transplant known as a data network professional within the technological world, he is also a talented glass artist.

An article by Amber Grubb

Anyone who knew Isaiah Heyer in 2005 might be surprised to hear that his career path has veered off into the creative realm. After all, he became quite the technical professional after obtaining his Associates in Applied Science degree in Electronics Technology. Fresh out of college, he came on board with AT&T Fixed Wireless, where he advanced to the position of engineering technician. Later, Heyer worked for the City of Mercer Island, Allied Telesyn and T-Mobile in a technical capacity. Art was the last thing one might have expected from Isaiah Heyer.

But anyone who knew him as a child would not be shocked to know that today Heyer is a successful glass artist. Like many children, he loved to draw and busied himself with creative pursuits, not inhibited by the parameters of the ‘real world.’ Even as an adult, while occupied with his technical career, he found a creative outlet, dabbling in Web site building and design. Today, this creative bent reveals itself in additional ways, namely, the colorful fused glass fish that hang in studios and galleries all over the Pacific Northwest.

Heyer says his creative journey resumed when he moved to Vashon to live closer to his girlfriend Sarah and help care for her elderly grandfather. Despite the initial shock of the new environment, he rejected the familiarity of a technological background and embraced a different career path. Heyer, partly inspired by his brother’s landscaping business, “took the first job that sounded intriguing,” an available position at a nursery. It wasn’t long before clients observed yet another one of Heyer’s talents: hardscaping, a form of landscape design that employs stone, water and other inanimate elements. This new form of expression was something the artist admits he “picked up quite naturally.”

Soon after, Heyer stumbled upon yet another art form. While accompanying Sarah on a search for mosaic supplies in Tacoma’s renowned glass-oriented community, the duo learned of a glass-fusing workshop that incidentally had two openings that same day. Not hesitating, they both took the class. Though the workshop taught him only the basics, Heyer recalls, “I was hooked.” As the day ended, he left the shop a proud owner of a glass kiln. Completely by accident, he had learned the art of glass fusing.

In the following months, Heyer began experimenting. Knowing that colorful fish would be “relevant” to his hardscaping business, he started creating glass fish in the garage. He even collaborated with his sister Alysia—also an artist—during the initial design phase of glass salmon and trout.

In time, Heyer’s source of inspiration took on more meaning. During a previous visit to Idaho, he toured backcountry streams with a non-profit organization that warned about salmon extinction. Sarah’s grandfather Robert Morgan also had lived a seasoned life in the fishing industry, being well-known and respected in his community of Cordova, Alaska, where he owned Morpac Cannery and served as president of several fishing companies. There was clearly a deeper connection between Heyer and the underwater world he was creating in the studio.

What began with eager experimentation evolved into skillful precision. “When I first thought about the construction on the glass garden salmon, it took me a very long time to perfect before I was comfortable to show the world,” explains Heyer. Today, sea life and river dwellers are born in his studio—he creates glass salmon, trout, bass and koi; but is also busy designing coral reefs complete with sharks over two feet long and a rainbow of tropical fish.

Today, the tactile meets the technical in Heyer’s glass works. Each fish is a piece of art in and of itself, requiring a succession of painstaking steps. Before it is complete, the glass must undergo multiple firings in a kiln, a process that often takes four to five days. “I always have to be on my game to get my desired results,” he explains. “I still cringe when I open the kiln lid on my last firing hoping that the piece turns out as planned, even on pieces that I have made many, many times before.” The complex process and the fragility of glass clearly has its drawbacks. “There is always the possibility of failure,” says Heyer. “It has taken me many years just to get where I am now.”

Heyer’s glass fish bring life, color and movement to gardens and galleries, both as outdoor installations and wall mounted pieces. His once suppressed creativity has also come to life with the new art form. “Coming to Vashon opened up my eyes to a whole different side of the world,” he says. Had he not been exposed to the area’s thriving arts scene, he reflects, “I’d still be sitting in a cubicle.” Much like a fish swimming upstream, the transitions weren’t always easy. But the effort has paid off. Heyer admits that “the right plan” has always seemed to simply fall into his lap. He also credits his surroundings—and Sarah’s support—for his newfound artistic freedom. “Without her I wouldn’t have been able to do this at all,” he says. Although his youth was largely focused on the arts, a change of scenery was needed for Heyer to resume a creative lifestyle. He says gratefully, “Being here opened those doors again.”

**In the first quarter of 2010 Isaiah moved to Idaho. He has returned to the technical world continuing Cellular Communications work. And of course, is still actively and will always be creating glass fish in his Glass Shop.

Contact Us

Isaiah W. Heyer

208.360.9076

PO Box 50399
Idaho Falls, ID 83405

isaiah@islandgardenarts.com

Online Purchasing

My online store has not been integrated into this site yet. However, you may go to my current online stores at the following URLs. Please keep in mind that I have not updated my products on the following web sites. Contacting me for now may be best instead. Things will be updated soon!

www.glassSalmon.com
www.glassKoi.com

Sponsors

PAGE UNDER DEVELOPMENT