Let There Be ... Leaves

Who doesn't love painting leaves - it's the best part.
I spent hours, and  hours, yesterday with lots of gooey green paints filling in the foliage.
The studio was super toasty warm, the light was perfect and there were pots of ginger green tea..

What's next? Not sure. Maybe working on the reds.
There are lots of little bits of background apples missing and the big ones need their shapes refined.

Some gooey details.

There are even more leaves, a batch of glass leaf buttons and charms came out of the kiln yesterday.

Applesauce

It's been a good week in the studio, things are humming along.
Lots of painting and a bit of glass making.

Blinding winter sunshine streams in everyday and the old steam radiators bang and clank the indoor temp up to around 90 degrees. My old bones love it.

Almost all the shapes are blocked in and the composition seems like it's working.

The paint feels good.
You can see that I've been working on the 'darks' the last few days.
Tomorrow leaves and sunlight.

A Recipe for Winter Skies

Even the dreariest February skies can inspire.

These seven beads have a base of 'pastel pearl gray' glass on one end and 'light fossil' on the other.
Next step was a quick roll in a little bit of 'dark ivory' frit.
Step three was encasing them around the middle with 'blue lavender transparent.'
Then hair thin trails of' intense black' stringer and a bit more 'dark ivory' frit.
Melt down and shape.

I use an edge in my graphite marble mold to shape round beads into ovals.

Maybe I'll mix these with lots of little snowy white pearls for a bracelet.

Who Is That Sleeping In My Bed?

Since my return from Florida this little one has been my shadow.
Everywhere I go, there she is, just sitting there staring at me.

Speckled Seeds

Soon to be a necklace.

A big set of small beads.

Very simple.
'Opalino Yellow' glass - not the expensive 'Opal Yellow' just the original Effetre classic.

The Opalino glass colors are some of my favorites - make sure you work them with lots of oxygen or you can get soot trails.

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The spots are Double Helix iridescent 'Triton' frit.
Some have only one or two spots and some have many, some I put thru a reducing flame at the end, some I did not. I wanted lots of similar beads, but nothing identical.

Yes, all those butter yellow to dark honey color variations are from the same color glass.
I love how some of them get all toasty and some stay pale.

Apples to Apples

Right where I left it.

I can't wait to mess with you tomorrow.

Furry Florida

I spent the last two and a half weeks in Florida hanging out with my dad.
He spends a lot of time asleep in his motorized recliner chair, his cat Snowy naps right there beside him.

I'm more of a 'dog person' than a 'cat person.'
Yet, we forged a furry bond of sorts. I took antihistamines and she howled at me for catnip treats.
Miss Snowy has the same hairstyle as Hitler.

My Dad has TV trays set up for her in strategic sunny window spots around the house.

The Florida weather was gorgeous and I took her for lots of cat walkies.
Walking a cat is not for someone with a logical mind or anything better to do.
A single walk to the mailbox and back can take up to 30 minutes.
There's a lot of spontaneous catatonic flopping, grass eating, gecko chasing, dramatic pouncing, twitching and sudden mysterious freezing in place.

Her only trick is doing an impression of a dead bug. Nailed it.

She has a mesmerizing electric water fountain - very zen.

Man, I missed my dogs.