Tag Archives: Makeful

Preview: Makeful’s Blown Away celebrates gorgeous glass creations

There are a plethora of competition shows on television. Some involve folks racing around Canada, while others feature people cooking intricate recipes. Even more spotlight everyday Canadians making clothing or living together in the same abode for weeks on end. I thought I had seen everything the competition genre had to offer.

And then came Blown Away.

Debuting Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Makeful—during the specialty network’s free preview—Blown Away pits 10 professional glass blowers against one another. The grand prize? A residency at the world-renowned Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York. It’s one heck of an interesting twist on the reality genre and, from the get-go, a lot of fun to watch.

According to Blown Away‘s host, YouTube star Nick Uhas, glass blowing dates back to Roman times. Not a lot has changed since then: a furnace is heated to thousands of degrees and a gob of molten glass is attached to a tube. Once affixed, air is blown into the blob, which expands. But Blown Away isn’t about who makes the roundest sphere of glass. It’s about intricacy and creativity. The set—called “The Hot Shop”—is expansive and there are obvious safety issues here. High temperatures and working with glass means there is always a chance someone could get hurt. I imagine the producers, marblemedia, had cartons and Band-Aids and pump bottles of Polysporin at the ready.

The 10 competitors vying for the title, and $60,000 US, are a mixture of glass artists, visual artists, sculptural artists and people who worked in the medium in their pasts. Aside from the competition itself, Blown Away is an education into the glass blowing industry for a newbie like me. The job of different tools, punties, annealers and—ahem—personal glory holes are all explained along the way, as is the science and timing involved in adding colour to glass and the myriad ways to shape it. Gravity, heat and cold all play important parts too.

In Wednesdays debut, the competitors are tasked with using six hours to create something that is a snapshot of who they are. For 22-year-old Edgar, that means showing how small we really are in this world. For Kevin, it’s recreating a surfing experience and the calm he feels doing that. For Momo, it’s thanking those who have helped her on her life journey with a classic glass piece. With renowned glass blower Katherine Gray as the show’s resident judge, alongside guest judge Chris Taylor, executive director at Pilchuck Glass School, the 10 present their creations.

The direction, camera work and cinematography is top-notch on Blown Away. Glowing furnaces and dancing sparks are contrasted by the inner glow of molten glass, and the gleam of a sweaty arm or a finished piece of art. It’s a truly visual, educational and inspiring series I can’t wait to see more of.

Blown Away airs Wednesdays t 9 p.m. ET/PT on Makeful.

Images courtesy of Blue Ant Media.

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Makeful heats up with Blown Away, a new original competition series that pushes glass blowers to their creative limits

From a media release:

The competition is heating up on Makeful’s newest original series Blown Away as ten extraordinary glass blowers compete to win bragging rights, a residency at the world-renowned Corning Museum of Glass in New York, and other prizes valued at over $60,000 USD. YouTube star Nick Uhas (Nickipedia; Big Brother Season 15; America’s Got Talent Season 12) hosts the series. Renowned glass blower Katherine Gray acts as resident judge, while a cast of all-star guest evaluators rotate through each episode. A Makeful Original production, Blown Away airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT starting February 20, during Makeful’s nationwide free preview, available in over 10 million homes across Canada.

In each episode, contestants have only four hours to design, create and present a piece of glass art that adheres to the creative challenge outlined by the judges. Each week, the contestant that fails to blow away the judges will be eliminated. The glass blowers are encouraged to push their creative limits in the largest glass blowing studio ever built in North America. Designed specifically for the scope and scale of the competition, the space allows 10 artists to work simultaneously, utilizing two large glass-melting furnaces, 10 reheating furnaces and 10 individual work stations.

Host Nick Uhas brings an upbeat and youthful energy to the series. Well-known for his popular science show Nickipedia that has over 14 million views on YouTube, Nick Uhas is also a former contestant on Season 12 of America’s Got Talent and Season 15 of Big Brother. Each week, Nick is joined by resident judge, professor and glass-master, Katherine Gray who offers her sharp eye and many years of experience in each round of evaluations.

The Corning Museum of Glass in New York, which houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of glass, the library of record on glass, and one of the top glassmaking schools in the world, is a key consulting partner on the series. Blown Away is a co-production between Blue Ant Media and Netflix. The series was created and produced by marblemedia.

Makeful is a Blue Ant Media lifestyle specialty channel celebrating the creativity that exists within us all. Makeful’s programming combines food, design, style and DIY series, featuring passionate personalities who share their ideas and inspire audiences to bring imagination into every aspect of their lives. Makeful also unites the creative at heart with fresh and contemporary content through its digital and social platforms.

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Blue Ant Media greenlights new original series for Makeful TV

From a media release:

Save the date! Blue Ant Media is starting production on Love By Lynzie (working title), a brand new series featuring the most beautiful, original and unexpected weddings viewers have ever seen for its lifestyle TV channel, Makeful. The 10 x 30-minute series follows the wedding planning business of Lynzie Kent, an indie event planner and stylist who steers clear of typical wedding-industry clichés and creates truly unique, bespoke celebrations that borrow from contemporary, real-world trends in fashion, art and decor.

Each episode will feature the execution of one amazing wedding in which Lynzie meets with a couple and then works with her team of talented and resourceful DIYers on a gamut of creative projects—such as creating mood boards, baking custom desserts, building on-site installations or crafting floral garlands—to set the stage. Finally, the wedding day will reveal how all the elements of the stunning event have come together and offer a touching glimpse of the couple’s surprise and delight as they take in an unforgettable celebration, reflective of their own love story.

Love By Lynzie is set to air on the Makeful channel in Spring 2018. The series is executive produced by Sam Linton, Vice President of Original Content, Blue Ant Media.

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Makeful’s Home Chef to Pro Chef gives home cooks the chance to be chef for a day

From a media release:

So you think you could be a chef? Home Chef to Pro Chef, a brand new original Canadian series on Makeful —a lifestyle brand that celebrates the maker community and the creation of one-of- a-kind, handmade goods—is giving several passionate home cooks a once-in-a-lifetime chance to live up to the challenge. Premiering Monday, March 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, during a nationwide free preview, the 14-part, half-hour series pairs home cooks with restaurants that serve their favourite cuisines, ranging from Italian to Indian to French-bistro.

After a crash course on managing a professional kitchen from restaurateurs and head chefs, the aspiring amateurs are given a shot at running a full dinner service for real, paying customers, while their mentors watch from a monitor and offer advice remotely via a tablet. At the end of each episode, the rookie chef will be critiqued by the customers, who have been unaware of what has been going on behind the scenes. If the home cook’s dishes get a passing grade, their signature dish will be added to the restaurant’s menu.

Coinciding with the launch of the series, Makeful will also roll out Cook Like a Pro Chef, a series of one-minute digital videos offering valuable cooking tips from the professional chefs themselves. The eight videos each feature a different chef and offer up cooking advice that ranges from a fool-proof method of getting pizzeria-style pizza to marinating Atlantic Cod with maple and spruce leaves. The videos will be available on Makeful’s social media feeds, including Facebook and Twitter as well it’s YouTube channel.

Home Chef to Pro Chef is premiering during Makeful’s free preview event, which gives 10 million subscribers across Canada free access to the brand’s inspiring lineup of shows that bring to life creative ideas focused on food, design and style.

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Makeful’s Post My Party encourages DIY celebrations

Lynzie Kent didn’t have dreams of being a television host. She already runs Love By Lynzie, a successful wedding and event planning company in Toronto, and fronts Electric Blonde, a band that  plays weddings, events and corporate gigs. Throw in a child, and her calendar is pretty packed. But then Makeful called, and Kent found herself in front of the camera hosting Post My Party.

Debuting Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Blue Ant Media’s fledgling craft network—fellow new original Taste of the Country bows right after—Post My Party tracks Kent while she helps clients pull off cool shindigs and saving a buck by doing the decorating yourself. Far from hanging a few sad strands of crepe paper streamers with sticky tape, Kent’s creations are creative, fun and—best of all—easy and accessible. Craft and dollar stores offer untold treasures that can be transformed into playful features in any party.

“I think that there’s a little bit of a shift towards celebrations that are a little more authentic,” Kent says. “For awhile it was all about keeping up with the Joneses and spending a lot of money, but I think people are trying to bring it back to the retro idea of throwing a really sweet party inspired by the person or thing they’re celebrating. That’s a little more down-to-earth and where the handmade aspect comes in.”

Makeful already had the show concept developed with General Purpose Entertainment and were searching for a host. They found Kent on Instagram; the series title references the fact that as parts of the party come together they’re photographed and posted on the social media site. Sunday’s first episode—future instalments cover a boy’s sleepover, a beat the January blues party, a boho-inspired girl’s night in and celebrating the end of a dodgeball season—catches up with Kent as she plans a ballerina-themed birthday party for Avery. With three days plot and create, Kent and Avery’s mother, Betta, craft tiaras made of paper, glue, paint and sparkles, personalized refreshment bottles capped with edible adhesive and candy sprinkles, and a stunning table cover mirroring a ballet tutu. Needless to say, Avery and her friends are astounded.

Achieving what Betta did for Avery is easy. Aside from acquiring items from dollar stores, there is a whole online community offering up crafting tips on YouTube, Pinterest, craft blogs and Makeful’s own  tutorials to inspire and educate.

“You don’t have to look too far anymore for guidance,” Kent says. “And you don’t have to be intimidated by it either.”

Post My Party airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Makeful.

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