Garden Flames

The tulips by my front door are looking a bit tatty.

Like a bunch of happy party girls during the last dance of the night.

Falling apart at the seams yet still beautiful.

A big set of orange and yellow beads.
The colors of glass I used are my favorite Cim's 'clockwork' orange, some oddlot striated yellow that I am not sure what it is or who it came from, pastel pea green and transparent electric yellow.

Plenty enough for a big showy necklace.

The focal is a very large orange and yellow hollow.

They never weem to last long enough.

How goofy is this? Dick noticed that were all out on the town in our red shoes.

Grayscape

Public Market Crow

Another wonderfully long day at the torch - so many new beads.

Most of today's lamp working was devoted to filling out sets for necklaces, but there was time to try out new ideas. Using pale aqua transparent glass I fooled around with some funky, flowery, organic shapes that will be etched - I am trying to make a funky sort of beach glass blossom. I have high hopes for these. My trunk show at the museum is looming large, it's only a month away now. Fret, fret, fret.

And, I am a last minute artist addition to a Garden Art show - which is next Friday. Luckily they only want the new Snow Drops painting and a handful of small drawings and paintings which are already done, shrink-wrapped and ready to deliver. All I have to do is show up to the opening, which will be tricky because it is also the opening party for another group exhibition I am in. Two openings in one night? Lightning can strike twice in the same spot.

single cellular division

my protozoan beads are multiplying.

with these ten, and another five that are cooling in the kiln right now, I think I have enough for a necklace.

When I first mentioned making these I thought I was using opalino blue for the center, but they are an opalescent blue from Messy Glass (cims) called Halong Bay.

a tulip in my garden.

Snow Drops - complete

Snow Drops - 18' x 24" oil on canvas


details (above & below)

It is all framed and ready to go. I found the frame at a garage sale - how perfect is that?
It was only a couple of dollars, which was a huge, huge savings for a beautiful silver leafed frame. My husband suggested that from now on I reverse engineer all my paintings, starting with a found frame and making a painting to fit it. This seems a bit like painting to match the sofa, but it certainly would make a lot of sense in terms of the economy of framing art. I don't know, it seems somehow aesthetically unsound. Lily, if you read this please comment, what do you think about working from the frame backwards?

Snowdrops - in progress

This painting has been nothing but trouble. I have been working on it, on and off (mostly off) for well over a year. Today I declared it complete.


Step one, silver under painting.


A little further along.


More greens.


Nearly finished, but I moved the studio and lost the painting.


Finally located and set on an easel in the new studio, but still I mostly ignored it.

Somewhat anticlimactically, I finished it this afternoon. Tomorrow I plan to post pictures of the finished painting. I tried to photograph the shiny painting twice today, with no success. The metallic silver under painting is so reflective that it just reads as white and the white snowdrop flowers are constantly over-exposed. Very tiresome, I wish I knew more technical stuff about photography.

tenderloin of baloney

This is my husband with his new best friend - a 4lb log of baloney.

Several times I successfully dissuaded (forbid) him from buying it. Alas, last night I lost the battle. His plan? To cut it into thick rounds and bbq it. Names that have been suggested for this culinary creation are 'grilled tenderloin of baloney' and 'bologna mignon.'

I have wads of beads downstairs soaking - i used everyone of my mandrels yesterday and tried out my new marble marver. I <3 my new marble marver.

spring candy

Up with the birds this morning to go to an estate sale. I crashed through closet after closet of 80's finery, there were even clothes stored in the garage. So, if batwing jackets are your retro thing then this is the week to visit my shop.

Not much bead news, waiting to get some more torch time in. I have all day on Wednesday scheduled to play with the beautiful flame.

May Rain

the beginning of a new set of beads.


A bit of a garden photographed through my wet and foggy car window. It's steamy here today, a very welcome bone-warming humidity.

It's time to garden. I am very excited that I found a black hollyhock for by our front door. When I picked it out I was already thinking about the beads it will inspire when it blooms. Do petunias come in pale yellow?


These beads have a core of opalino sky blue glass, rolled in aventurine frit, then encased in several pale, watery transparent colors. I hand pressed them to get the wonky sort of protozoan shapes that make the beads look like something you would find under a microscope.

Glass Dandelions

It is time for my yearly rant about dandelions.
Why are they so maligned? I think they are beautiful and I cannot imagine poisoning them, my lawn, my poodles and my family in order to exterminate them - it's insanity.


Here's the start of a set of lampwork dandelion beads.

What other plant makes such an extraordinarily fun seed pod?

The yellow tipped glass leaves were the most fun to make. I started with a basic lentil shape and pulled and pushed the squishy hot glass with tweezers until it resembled a deeply cut leaf.

I used a blend of hand pulled emerald and straw yellow for the leaves, the blossoms are a cored odd lot yellow.

Dandelions are so lovely, like little suns, that I imagine if they were hard to grow that people would cultivate them in their gardens.

Lilac Bead Tutorial

It's lilac time here and the Rochester Lilac Festival is in full swing in my backyard. Hundreds of people are parked on my street everyday and making the hike up behind my house in to Highland Park. The bushes are in full bloom and the air smells wonderful despite the occasional whiff of festival food mixed in with the rich lilac perfume.

Recently, I made some lilac inspired beads and fashioned them into a necklace.

I am celebrating my first day of teaching bead making today and I thought I would share my sketches and notes as a free tutorial to try and get my mojo working for tonight. I am very nervous to be actually working with a group of beginning bead makers. The regular teacher has family in town and I was asked to cover her class. I am as nervous as a cat.

Above are the sketched notes I made for myself.

Start with a thin lentil bead. I use ice tongs to form my lentils but any sort of lentil press will work. After you have your lentil you heat one side's edge till glowing - it's all about temperature - when it is just about to start to slump take your rake, tungsten pick or even a mandrel and push the side in perpendicular to the mandrel. It sort of folds in like a fortune cookie, pushing the glass towards the mandrel in a soft bump. Pull the tool straight out between the fold, don't try to take it out the same way you pushed it in.

repeat on the other edge of the lentil. flame polish and anneal.

Storms

While driving to collect Miss Mango from college

we drove thru a wild spring storm.

I was snapping away

while my husband/driver was white knuckling it.

I do so adore a great storm.

None of these snapshots were touched in photoshop, they are exactly as they came out of my trusty old Canon Elph.

Mothering

Watching your child blossom is the joy of motherhood.

This lovely tree is at the end of our driveway.

2 days ago


yesterday


today

Happy mother's day.

Audubon Again

Raven - plate #212


Chimney Swift - plate #186


Acadian Flycatcher - plate #199


Red Headed Woodpecker - plate #191


American Dipper - plate #220


Fish Crow - plate #214

Each of these small paintings are Audubon inspired sketches. There is something so naughty about making paintings of famous paintings. They are acrylic on paper and measure 6" x 6." All are headed to the RoCo 6x6 fund raising event.

Ghost Tweetie

While sitting at our kitchen table, working on some new small acrylic Audubon paintings, I was enjoying one of my favorite possessions - an old, faded Tweetie Bird glass.

It holds my favored acrylic brushes.
My dad always called Miss Margaret 'Tweetie' when she was small and there's my love of quirky bird images. All 'round, it amuses me.

It has held the same purpose, and spot in my heart, for almost 20 years.