AAE Glass and Social Media

AAE Glass wants to share a social media presence with you.  One of the most common questions I am asked is, "Which social media outlets are best for my business?"  The truth is, you can make any outlet work if you build a solid foundation of followers. 

A solid foundation of followers will allow you to maximize the results of the time you devote to social media marketing.  Time is the biggest hurdle when using social media to market your business.  Don't follow people (or accept followers) who don't fit the profile you are looking to interact with.  We have all heard the saying "Quality over Quantity," this applies to social media as well.  When you have a group of people who share information and answer questions kindly and intelligently, you will quickly build credibility.  The more credibility you gain, the more quality followers you will attract and your solid foundation will grow into a larger and larger pool of potential customers and vendors. 

With that said, I want to offer you a "jumping off point" to help you build a solid foundation.  I am going to list a few sites that we use to promote our classes and products. Feel free to see who our followers are or what groups we have joined.  You may find some people you know and want to connect with them.  If you decide to follow AAE Glass or Tanya Veit, you will be connected with several other glass artists around the world.  Also, if you haven't already, go ahead and "join" the blog and you can be alerted of any new tutorials or new products that are released.

BLOG- Full of FREE tutorials, new products, glass art news, sales, and more!  We even feature glass artists from time to time with links to their sites, lists of the shows they are participating in or just to spread the word about glass art. 

FACEBOOK - The most popular social media outlet today.

TWITTER @AAEGLASS - Great for sharing quick information and links. You will also want to utilize BITLY.COM to shorten your links which will leave you more characters for content.  Millions of users. 

GOOGLE+ - Google's entrance into social media, still new and slowly growing.

LINKEDIN - Lots of great groups to join for anything you are looking for.

YOUTUBE - Video tutorials.

Thanks as always,

Mark Veit

AAE Glass

To Cap or Not to Cap...AAE Glass has the Answer

AAE GLASS DECALS

We receive this question from our customers often and would like to address it first hand in case anyone else is curious. The answer is “NO” and there are many reasons why. 

There are two types of fusing decal formulas on the market, put simply, low-fire and high fire. AAE Glass decals are actual enamel and are screen printed. The decals are strong, rich & detailed, this is due to the screen printing process. We are only able to do this with a low-fire formula. The higher the firing temp and formula, the less pigment color (vibrancy) you are able to achieve. This is why we made the conscious decision to stick with a low-fire formula and process.

When Tanya first started decal designing, she had a vision of designing a foreground and a background. Her thought was to create layers of glass scenery (background) while topping it off with a beautiful foreground image. When she first started creating, many years ago, only high fire formula decals were available in very limited designs. After creating a beautiful four layer background, she would place the decal between her final clear coat…not good! The decal design would spread and was distorted due to the amount of glass layers Tanya was using. Determined to achieve her vision on multilayer glass, AAE Glass developed a low fire decal formula that is fired LAST on top of the glass. This way, it would not matter if you used 2, 3 or 6 layers (as most of Tanya’s work does).  The decal can be fired on top of the glass and never distort the image, while focusing on the depth of the glass and really making the foreground decal image stand out. This method of using decals and layering has been a hit with Tanya’s jewelry with over 140 galleries and boutiques carrying her multilayer, scenic decal pendants. No Limits! That is what we at AAE Glass base our business and artistic principals on.

If you would like to learn the layering and design process with Tanya’s glass, please sign up for one of her many workshops at www.aaeglass.com

Customer Appreciation Day Sale at AAE Glass Studio in Cape Coral, Florida

AAE Glass wants to invite you to the biggest sale our new glass art studio has ever seen.  We want to offer anyone who comes to see us Sunday, March 18th, from 10-3pm, a chance to SAVE 25% on ALL glass and glass fusing supplies.  We are located at 1228 Lafayette St, Cape Coral, Florida 33904. (239) 471-7724. We will also be offering special discounted class tuition to anyone who signs up for a class starting in April.  This is a 1 day, in store only event.  Whether you are trying fused glass for the first time or you have been fusing for decades, we have a class for you.  We offer a very relaxed atmosphere for learning and have fun with all of our classes.

Tanya Veit, principal artist, just returned from teaching at Coatings By Sandberg in Orange, California.  She went on a shopping spree and brought back over 100 POUNDS of handpicked dichroic glass.  Yes...100 POUNDS of both 90 and 96 COE dichroic glass handpicked by Tanya herself!   These aren't your typical dichroic colors either, these are hard to find and never before seen colors.  We have a selection of dichroic glass that will have your jaw dropping.

On top of the dichroic glass, we have massive amounts of both Bullseye and System 96 sheet glass, including several special production sheets.  We sell our sheet glass in various sizes, depending on your preference (6x6, 12x12 and half sheets).  These smaller sizes will allow you to purchase a wider variety of colors.

We will be offering $100 off any new kiln purchased on March 18th.  Who doesn't need a new kiln?!

We also have glass fusing decals, frit, powder, paint sets, silver settings and various tools.

We will be releasing "studio time" as well.  For everyone who purchases $300 or more will receive one FREE hour of studio time with access to all of our state of the art equipment.

We might even have cookies!!!

Tanya will be doing a FREE, LIVE dichroic layering demo at 12pm, 1pm and 2pm for anyone who wants to learn a few tricks and get a preview of the Extreme Fusing classes. 

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday, March 18th from 10-3pm.

AAE Glass

Win a Prize Pack that Includes a Glass Pendant from Tanya Veit and AAE Glass

SPRING FASHIONISTA GIVE AWAY

We at AAE Glass pride ourselves on helping artists gain exposure.  We have sponsored an international give away that anyone can enter.  Tanya Veit has donated a one of a kind fused glass pendant to the contest and everyone has a chance to win it! 

Beads by Roni has been a loyal blog follower of ours for a few years and we want to help promote her blog as much as we can.  You can view the Spring Fashionista contest HERE for your chance to win several great prizes.  Entering will take you less than 2 minutes and we would love to flood her with entries for Tanya's piece!  The deadline is March 7th, so be sure to act quickly.

If you have a glass art blog, website or business you would like to share with us, please email Mark at info@aaeglass.com.  We are here to help you not only learn unique glass fusing techniques from Tanya, but to help you on the back end with promoting your business.

Keep fusing!

AAE Glass

AAE Glass Fusing Video Projects

AAE GLASS

AAE Glass and Tanya Veit want to introduce you to our YouTube channel and all of our glass fusing projects and tutorials in one place.  If you haven't had a chance to view these videos you will see all of our video projects, as well as David Alcala's videos and a tour of our glass teaching studio in Cape Coral, Florida.  You can subscribe to our YouTube channel and receive updates every time Tanya posts a new video.  She is working on some new techniques now in between Extreme Fusing classes. 


AAE Glass has some big ideas and projects in store for 2012.  We want to share as much information with you as we can to help you grow both your art and business.


Thank you to everyone who has supported us through the years and for those of you who are just finding us, we look forward to helping you ASAP.


AAE

AAE Glass Extreme Fusing Class Contest Winners

And the winners are...

AAE Glass would like to thank the 30 talented glass artists who took the time to enter our glass fusing contest.  With this type of turnout, you can be assured this won't be the last contest held by AAE Glass. We enjoyed reading the thoughts behind each piece as much as the glass pieces themselves.  It is great to know that AAE Glass decals and products overall, are so well received by talented glass artists who have been in the game for years.  We know this is a passion for you and we want to make sure you have the best tools and resources available to express yourself through glass.  If you haven't seen all of the entrants, click HERE.

Tanya Veit's Extreme Fusing classes seem to have inspired many of these glass artists, as you can see by their comments.  Tanya's energy is infectious and her positive attitude is sure to leave you wanting more.  Many entrants have taken 1, 2 and even 3 workshops from Tanya.  Repeat business is the best business.  The AAE Glass studio in Cape Coral, Florida has been a draw for glass artists around the country since we opened in November.  We have had glass artists visit from all across the country, as well as Canada and London to take an Extreme Fusing Workshop or two, and based on their comments, they will be back for more.  We make it a point to have fun while learning!  

After reviewing all of the entries, 2 prizes were not enough.  We broke down the entries into an Art Category for non-jewelry pieces and a Jewelry Category obviously for the jewelry pieces.  We just couldn't settle on 2.  So if it is ok with everyone, we gave away even more prizes!  Overall, $1,000 of classes and gift certificates were given away and trust me, it was hard to stop there.  We want to thank Patty Gray and David Alcala for their contributions as well.  Both Patty and David will be visiting the AAE Glass studio to teach in 2012.  David at the end of April and Patty in October.  You won't want to miss it! 

 OK, enough talk...Here are your winners

 ART CATEGORY

Grand Prize Winner

Tonya Nelson – Five Pack Designs.

Tonya’s use of creativity and design won the judges over in this beautiful 3 part art panel! Her use of scenery with the decals just goes to show there are no limits on design with AAE Glass decals. Notice the overlapping of the decals with jellyfish! Bravo! We look forward to Tonya’s visit to Florida to redeem her Grand Prize of a free extreme fused glass workshop!

1^st Runner Up Art Category $100.00 g.c. to aaeglass.com

Hummingbird Art Glass Studio –Savannah Fan

The contest was so close, we just had to have a 1^st runner up! The use of foreground and background was spectacular in this piece! (Not to mention the combination of large and small enamel decals.) Such a unique shape and beautiful colors create a realistic scene. Well Done!

JEWELRY CATEGORY 

Grand Prize Winner

Maureen Connor - Meant 2B Cherished

Maureen has really captured the essence of this contest! Using AAE Glass enamel decals in a unique way! Adding color to the decals was nothing short of exceptional and the sky background is beautiful! This is a nicely finished piece with delicate and sophisticated wire wrapping. Congratulations Maureen, see you in your free Extreme Fusing Workshop!

1^st Runner Up – Jewelry Category $100.00 G.C. to aaeglass.com

Blue Dragonfly Glass – AfricanSunset

The beautiful depth and coloring in this jewelry piece captivated us! The design was well planned, and the decal really pops on this piece! Congratulations!

HONORABLE MENTION

The following 3 pieces deserve honorable mention and a $25 g.c. to aaeglass.com

MARY GERMAN

DEBRA NUCKOLLS

FUSED GLASS BY DESIGN

BE FUSED HOT GLASS

15% Off Supplies Through Thursday

15% OFF SUPPLIES

AAE Glass wants to share the Valentine's Day love by offering you 15% off all supplies.  This includes Decals, Silver Settings, Scrap Packs, Frit Blends and more.  Offer valid through Thursday only. 


Be sure to view our FREE video tutorials on youtube, as well as step by step tutorials on this blog.  You can sign up to follow both and be alerted of all new tutorials as soon as they are posted. We want to offer you as many tools as possible to expand your glass fusing knowledge and even reconnect your passion with fused glass.  It is our goal to pass along new and exciting techniques to all glass fusers and artists.  Tanya Veit teaches one of the hottest and most attended glass fusing workshops out there.  Take a look at her schedule HERE.

Be sure to enter our current contest for your chance to win a FREE Extreme Fusing I or II class in sunny Cape Coral, Florida. 


If you have any questions, email us at info@aaeglass.com or call the studio at 239-471-7724.


Thank you for your time!


AAE