Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on November 12, 2020.

Blue Ridge Alchemy, Floyd’s new glass studio gallery, opened to the public in June. Owned and operated by glass blower artists Kenan Tiemeyer of Tiemeyer Glass and Caleb Dickman of Liquid Fire Glass, the shop represents an eclectic selection of local artists and materials, including glass works, jewelry, pottery, wood turned bowls, visionary art and more.

The gallery’s primary focus is on glass and it’s stocked with a wide variety of flameworked pendants, beads, ink pens, candy dishes, glass orbs, marbles, sculptural paper weights and functional tobacco and CBD hemp pipes. The bulk of glass works are made by the owners, but the shop also features the work of other glass artists, including Tiemeyer’s wife, Tree Tiemeyer of the Enchanted Tree, who also does beadwork and makes crochet and batik bags.

Talking to the Blue Ridge Alchemy owners, it soon becomes evident where the word “alchemy” in the business name comes from. “I focus on gold and silver fuming. I vaporize precious metals. The white is pure silver vapor. The orange and pinks are pure gold. Where the colors overlap, you get greens and different hues,” Tiemeyer, who specializes in “light vibration mandala” orbs, explained.

Dickman, a Floyd native, concentrates on copper electroforming, which is done in an acid bath with electricity. The copper transfers from a tubing solution into paint that adheres and builds up. Dickman incorporates crystals, carved antlers, fossils, gemstone insets and more into his pieces. “It’s all very unique work. There’s not a lot of people out there doing it,” Tiemeyer said.

The friends met over 15 years ago at Seeds of Light, a Blacksburg bead and gift shop that was owned by Dickman’s mother before it closed around 2005. Tiemeyer, who has worked in human services and has a degree in Communications/Film and Video production taught Dickman the basics of working with glass, which led to Dickman’s career as an artisan taking off.  Tiemeyer became interested in working with glass after meeting and becoming friends with a glass blower in Michigan, where he lived before relocating to Floyd twenty years ago.

Tucked behind DJ’s Drive-inn off 221, the shop took six months of renovations to transform it from a one-time TV repair shop, a flower shop and second-hand store into a functioning state-of-the-art glass workshop and gallery. An outside sign is in the works, and the owners are preparing to expand their hours from Friday and Saturday noon to 8 pm, to include Wednesday and Thursday. They will soon be offering live glass blowing demonstrations with the help of a large overhead screen.

Next year, “when the coronavirus settles down” they plan on expanding to incorporate a teaching studio. Typically, Tiemeyer teaches advanced classes that draw people from all over the country, but they’ll also be offering beginner classes. “If you take a beginner class you can then rent space and equipment here to practice without having to have your own studio and supplies,” Tiemeyer said.

He wasn’t deterred by the coronavirus to open the shop in June because his business, wholesale and retail, is primarily conducted online, Tiemeyer said. He worked out of a garden shed at his Indian Valley home for 11 years and is happy to have a functioning studio in town.

Everything in the shop is one-of-a-kind and prices range from $10 to up to $3,500. Glass ornaments that hang in the front window remind one of Christmas time and shopping for gifts. Tourist traffic has picked up since the shop was featured in the Floyd Magazine, noted Dickman, who comes from a family of artisans and woodworkers. “And there are a lot of glass paper weight and orb collectors out there,” Tiemeyer added.

___________Colleen Redman