Leona Long Hawks signature piece is a rainbow trout made from recycles glass. She makes a variety of items, in different shapes and colors that will be for sale at this weekends at the Holiday Gift Show.
LOGAN – Leona Long Hawks recycles glass. She started out in ceramics and gradually began working with recycled glass. She takes old glass and makes a variety of items out of them, in different shapes and colors.
Hawks and 16 other local fine artists will be putting their work in the Holiday Gift Show, to be held at the Cache County Event Center located at the Cache County Fairgrounds at 490 S. 500 W. in Logan.
The show will be from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. Friday and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday.
To prepare for the gift show, Hawks collected glass and, using molds, heats the glass, making it pliable and shapes it into the creation she wants.
“It takes two days because after heating it up to 1600 degrees, it has to cool slowly to 1,000 degrees,” Hawks said. “It takes a lot of power to run the kiln.”
She went to workshops to learn some aspects of glasswork, the rest came from just doing it.
“A lot of artists use art glass,” she said. “There are not that many using recycled glass.”
Her trademark piece is a glass rainbow trout.
For a long time, Hawks would take her wares to shows and travel from venue to venue.
“Shows are a lot of hard work,” she said. “The weather and the traveling got old.”
The retired Utah State University extension agent began holding a gift show in a refurbished seminary building in Hyrum 12 years ago. With other local fine artists, in a variety of mediums, she sought out new locations to accommodate their growing exhibit.
Sharon Brown Mikkelson from Paradise said this will be be the second year the show will be held at the Cache County Event Center.
“The Center is a beautiful venue for showcasing local artists and bringing the community together,” Mikkelson said. “Art pieces displayed at the show will make wonderful gifts for friends and family.”
Refreshments will be served and people can browse the works of 16 local artists who have been working together for years.
Besides glass works there will be pottery, paintings, soap dishes, jewelry, metal art, greeting cards and other items that can be used as gifts for Christmas.