Swanstrom Sweetness

I received the BEST birthday gift!
Thank-you Richard, you nailed it big poppa.

Something so sexy and sweet - a Swanstrom Disc Cutter.

I have been lusting after one for over a year.
It's not like I didn't already have a disc cutter but mine was a sad, cheapy, crappy, hard-to-use piece of trash.
It was a Ford Pinto and this new baby is a hot rod Lincoln.

If you want to see it in action there is a short training video on You Tube.

It's a few days before my birthday but I just couldn't wait.
I busted it out last night and whacked an old cookie tin into a pile of  cute little red and white polka-dot spangles.

We all know how I feel about red and white polka-dot mushrooms, right?
No?
Then click here.
Who doesn't like to get a peek at another person's obsession?

These are headed for a jangly charm bracelet.

Pink Peony

'Pink Peony' oil on board - 11" x 14"

Thought it might be fun to show you the snapshot I worked from.

Yellow Apples Painting

'Yellow Apples' oil on board, 24" x 24"

I thought I would share a sort of strip-tease of this painting.
Baring layer after layer of some working photographs.

Lilypad Party

So many waterlilies, so little time.
I took lots of snapshots yesterday of my sister's pond with the hopes of making a painting.

After Monet, painting waterlilies seems sort of pointless but they are truly captivating.

Her pond is amazing, full of loud frat boy frogs. All of them are named Homer.

There he is.

Bird Song

Look what the very talented Debbie Sardina, from Let's Bead, made with one of my glass bird charms. How cool is that?

I absolutely love it.

Vinyard Necklace

An old necklace came back to me for a repair.

A nice mix of glass, smoky topaz, rock crystal, amethyst, moonstone and sterling silver.

I wish I could give you the recipe for the glass beads.
Definitely Cim's 'Army Men,' black, large raku frit, dark ivory and I think Cim's 'Eggplant,' but it might also be Cims 'Plum.'

It's back home now with it's owner and it looks spectacular on her.

Post Show Sloth

Big thanks to "Let's Bead" for inviting me to have a bead trunk show and to all the bead lovers who came yesterday and shopped and yakked.

It was a success and a lot of fun.

Man, it was a lot of work getting ready for it. So many beads!

Today, on the day after, I am having a day of sloth.
It's Father's Day so there will be some grilling but other than that nothing much is going to get done.

Let's start the 'the day of sloth' with some time well spent playing with Miss Kiki.

Miss Dog America has a new favorite toy.
It's a tiny beanie baby frog that I found in a free box at a garage sale.
It came covered in cat hair which made it all the more delicious.

Hmmm, what next will I not do today?
Sloth is fun.

Studio Snapshots

I have lots of paintings going right now, which is just how I like it.
White bleeding hearts, a pink peony, yellow apples and red poppies.

Here's an old one back on the easel. It's of pale pink tulips, sadly it never sold.
I have been reworking it, seeing if I can make it more loveable.

The trains are my studio funtime companions, banging and huffing all day long.
This is the view out a window looking west.

It's a never ending, constantly changing, gallery of graffiti.

I'm Flocked

13 wee glass birds and a berry.

I'm getting ready for a trunk show of beads and that means it's time to make birds, birds and birds.

I love making these little guys on the ends of mandrels.

I get out all my short rods, stringer bits and my tin of fancy frits and just play with all the colors.

Wild Blue Yonder

I got bored on the flight home and played with my camera.

It's Show Time

Let's have a trunk show of beads!

The front and back of my show postcard

I'm back from a couple weeks of hanging out with my dad in central Florida.
Let's make some glass.