forsythia necklace

the forsythia are not blooming here yet - this is a photograph i took last year -
but my forsythia necklace is all assembled and ready to deliver.

it's my donation to a charity auction.
the local forsythia should be blooming just about the time the gala event happens.
at least that's the plan - but it's mother nature and we all know how erratic her schedule is.

each of my flamework glass beads now has little peridot chip bead nestled at each end

and the links were made with 20g round steling wire that i hammered for a more rustic look.

i particularly like the 'branch section' beads.

the whole piece measures about 26 inches in length and the largest hollow focal bead is almost 2 inches long.

spring is still being a bit coy - it snowed here yesterday.
kind of a bummer.

sunday morning

now that's a color palette.
(dark fossil, red tile roof, nile green, cims french blue and anice white)

i torched all afternoon yesterday, and almost nothing went according to plan.
since today is sunday i won't be picking up my beads until tomorrow. i have no idea what i will find when i open the kiln door - but it probably won't be great. some days you just don't have the touch.

does anyone else have days when, out of the blue, your bead release just won't cooperate?
no, i wasn't tugging on my bead at all, but it just kept shattering.
in any case i did make some lovely goldstone stringers and raku flecked murrini.

forsythia

a new set of beads in anticipation of the forsythia blooming -

the forsythia are not blooming here yet, but i checked the branches and the buds are starting to swell.

i started with a couple of literal takes on the luminous yellow blossoms -


but then stuff started getting a bit dr. seuss looking.

juicy pods and spiky orbs.


even some branch segments.


and finally, for good measure, a couple of big silly hollows with frilly, ruffled ends.

the plan is to string these up with peridot chunks to make a spring necklace.

fantasy treasury

an antique key in my curious old things etsy shoppe gets included in a treasury.

full tilt tuesday

i woke up this morning to brilliant spring sunshine coming through the trees and my window to make an ornate organic lacy pattern on the wall.

it's amazing what a little sunshine can do for your morning mood.

i started by getting some festering laundry done (can you tell how much i like doing laundry?)
then i answered my email and while still in my nightclothes i started painting.
alas, everything i own has paint spatters on it - even my nightgowns.

this is a barely started audubon painting that got a jolt of pea green oil paint slathered on the lower left corner before nine o'clock this morning - it never saw it coming.

then i dug out this long unfinished painting of snowdrops and started back in on it. finally i worked on a third canvas of birds and berries before washing up my brushes and getting ready to leave the house.

by one o'clock i was at more fire glass studio to hostess an afternoon torch session and at five o'clock it was back home for some dog time, sewing and the presidential news conference. it was a very busy and creative day, if only they could all be this fun and productive.

beige berries

messing around mixing felt beads with glass beads.

i love the contrasting textures together, all hard and soft, shiny and matte.

the plan is to make them into charm bracelets.

yes, there might be a tiny bit of poodle fluff felted into some of these beads.

there's a lot of new stuff in my other etsy shoppe - curious old things.
i found a tin full of old skeleton keys and have them up for sale there. i use the money from this account to buy my lampworking supplies, so get to shopping, 'cause baby needs some more double helix glass.

bird buttons

i made some glass buttons shaped like fat little birdies -
a bluebird and a robin.

they're up on etsy.

spring is a miserable tease this year - it snowed last night.
even the dogs were bummed this morning when they went outside and saw the white stuff was back.

sprung

spring is wiggling her butt and strutting her stuff.
we sat outside yesterday drinking mango margaritas, in heavy sweaters by a fire, but outside none the less. it was so much fun.

i have a new batch of beads soaking that are all about forsythia bushes. you can see all the yellows and spring greens in there.


i also have an update of dick's painting of our poodles. do you think it needs more gravy?

see that gorgeous stuff streaming in through the window? that's sunshine - something we mole people have not seen much of lately.

alfred to & fro

we drove margaret and a friend back to alfred university yesterday.

it was the perfect day to end spring break - sunny and 50 degrees.
that's the friend wearing white flip-flops and the fur leg warmers, my child is in the tatty cowgirl boots. yes, they're both art students. where is 'the sartorialist' when you need him?

i love this highway snapshot taken out the van window at 65mph.
it's all about the white horse head on the right - no explanation, just serendipity.

the fast moving trees did have a subtle spring haze to their branches, but it is still pretty grim and dead winter beige here.

sigh, it's so boring here this morning without miss baby - the house is too quiet without her and her friends.

fly girl

a flea and a fly in a flue
were imprisoned and what could they do?
said the fly "let us flee."
said the flea "let us fly."
so they flew through a flaw in the flue.

a lampwork fly bead, approximately 1 1/4" long.

daffy down dilly

if i were the sensitive, poetic type i would write something meaningful and inspiring about the word emergence in this post. but pfft, that's so not me.

daffodil shoots by our front door.

right now, there is no color more beautiful than spring green.

bloo

a set made using a color called intense blue transparent.


these two are my favorites, the pod on the right is hollow and about 1 3/4 inches long.


the plan is to string them all into one necklace.


i think i will do this again, but this time with a blend of grass green and amethyst.


i love how they cast luminous blue shadows when the sunlight passes through them.

hair of the dog

kiki's got some hair now.

there has been some progress on my husband's painting of our dogs. the green one, kiki, now has some 'fur.' nobody is ever quite sure what to make of dick's paintings.

the noxema blues

as i wrote in the last post, the plan was to make a set of monochromatic beads with organic shapes.

before setting out for more fire glass studio i doodled up a page of possible forms - a sort of cheat sheet to work from as i torched.

happy with my quick sketch i set about choosing a color. standing in front of my glass stash it took about a minute to decide - intense transparent blue. a color i completely neglect. it is a vivid blue that reminds me of old cobalt blue glass noxema cold cream jars - or evening in paris parfum bottles like my grandmother had oodles of on her dressing table. i used up all that i had on hand - seven rods.

my shapes ended up being a little more decorative and fanciful than the ones in the sketch. most of them are big plump pods with applied leaves, lots of bumps, lobes and ruffles.

and the cherry on the top of tonight's torching sundae? i finished the evening with a really big nasty house fly. i have no idea why i was inspired to make a lampwork fly but it sure was fun.

love button

i dropped some buttons off at the museum shop - but saved a few back for etsy.

i am itching to torch - and tonight is the night! just a few more hours before i slip up onto a bar stool, flick open that vintage zippo and order up a cocktail of oxygen and propane.

the plan is to make a set of monochomatic beads in as many different organic shapes as i can come up with. i had chosen to work with translucent yellow since it was feeling like spring here. but the snow is back and all over the ground again, thusly i am not feeling all that cheerful and yellow. maybe transparet red? maybe dark ivory? fossil, there's a nice grim muddy, endless winter color, maybe that will be tonight's color?

all my odious projects are done - especially the yearly torture that is fafsa/financial aid/tap/taxes. you don't know what i am griping about? then you don't have a kid at an american university.

blackbird

just a little bead, but it's all i have.

i am wretchedly busy with things that are not fun - like taxes.

the geese were winging their way south today - i couldn't see them, but i could hear them onk, onk, onking. could it really almost be spring?

earth gravy

dick's been working on his painting of the poodles today...

yes, those are peas.
"just wait until i paint in the gravy on the plate - it's gonna look like the earth" he says.

tree swallow

look what margaret found tucked away in a pocket of my painting kit.
it had been there, completely lost and forgotten, for years.

a tiny little painting - only 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" done in colored pencil and gouche on brown paper.

spring hollows

a mess of huge hollows.

there's thunder and lightning tonight which means that winter just might be nearing its end.
i'm just hanging out putting some stuff up on etsy and listening to napoleon snore like a little furry black chainsaw. margaret is home this week over spring break. my whole family is asleep and the house is as peaceful inside as it is wild outside tonight. sigh, contentment.

men <3 marbles

these are some of my first marbles.
believe me when i tell you there were quite a few potatoes and cracked blobs that preceded these two. especially before i discovered there were marble molds.

they're 7/8" of an inch in diameter made of soda lime glass, not borosilicate (pyrex).

according to my husband, the expert, "men love marbles."

ghost dog

napoleon p. oodle

because it's my blog i can post as many gratuitous photographs of the dogs as i want.