Now For Something Completely Different

I took the time this afternoon to list some beads on Etsy.

I know, it has been forever, and a day, since I tended my Belvedere shop.

There are some birds and some seeds and some nice pairs for earrings.

O Beautiful Glass!

It was, indeed, a nice morning at the torch.
Many headpins found their way into the belly of the big red kiln today.
Tomorrow, blissfully, will be more of the same.

Turquoise Glitter

Each bead in this big, graduated strand started with a barrel shaped core of pastel light turquoise. Next it was rolled in medium sized aventurine frit, and then the whole mess was encased in multiple shades of pale, watery transparent glass.

They're the last beads of summer.
Autumn is here and it's time for mossy browns, coral red, ocher, toasty tan and every shade of dirt.

It was a great day to make glass, the air was still so I could have all the windows wide open.

The sun poured in and the trains kept coming and going down in the yard.

Artist's Row 2011

This was the 7th year for "Artist's Row at the Public Market."
I have done it every year and love it. It's a simple, inexpensive and fun show to set up at.

My friends Eve and Annette shopped their way around. Luckily for me Annette brought her camera and snapped all these great photos of my glassy crap. Annette Dragon is an amazing photographer and I have put a link to her website here.

The weather was perfect, sales were brisk and just when I thought it couldn't get any better - I won an award!

I think it was for 'best in jewelry.' I am not sure because I was in the bathroom when it was announced, anyway it came with a trophy (!) and an envelope of cash. Days just don't get much better than yesterday.

Home

I'm back where the living is easy.

In the snapshot below I am wearing my parent's new kitten as a fur collar.
Let me tell you, that sweet little blob of a cat can purr louder than any other feline in the world.

I spent ten exhausting, bittersweet days in Florida helping my Dad care for my Mom.
Her Alzheimer's is progressing at an alarming rate. What a terrible, wicked disease.

Magnolia Bracelet

It's done.

Magnolia Buds bracelet.

Glass, blackened steel, gunmetal.

There are 54 glass headins on this bracelet.

Some of the glass colors I used are: Cim's Desert Pink and Gelly's Sty, Effetre's Pastel Pesto, Pastel Lichen, Moss Agate, Fossil Light, Seashell Swirl, Opalino Carnelian and Silver Pink.

























I am delivering it today to the museum gift shop at the Memorial Art Gallery.

Open House

Friday evening is my first open house at the glass studio.

Besides inviting just about everyone I know, it is also an open house for the whole building I rent space in.
It should be quite a scene... so I wanted to make something special just for the party.

Say hello to my $10 headpin earrings.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's a stupid price. But I want them to be a treat.
They were so much fun to make, I adore torching headpins so it was breeze to do.
There are almost 40 pairs.

Berry Nice, Indeed

I am still working on those five paintings. One is done and delivered but progress on the remaining four canvasses is slow. They're sitting neglected on their easels while I churn out jewelry for an event this Friday night. More on that later.

I am crushing on this one, as in, I am so in love with it that I am going to marry it.

Aren't the photographs gorgeous?
Miss Margaret is home for a month and it certainly is nice to have a professional photographer in the house.

Magnolia Buds

I am completely obsessed with glass headpins.
First making them at the torch and then using them as elements in jewelry.

The page in my bead sketchbook where I pasted a magazine clipping of magnolias that became the inspiration for this big set of headpins. Without reservation, I can say that archival gluesticks changed my life.

All of the headpins were made on blackened steel wire that I got at the hardware store.

A bracelet? I think so.

Here's an Idea

I hammered the end of a piece of 20g copper wire flat and twisted it into a spiral.
Then, at the torch, I captured the spiral in the center of a blob of glass to make a headpin.

It's really wonky because the extra bit of metal inside the glass conducted the heat like crazy and made the wire too hot to hold on to. I had to get that miserable, finger burning, sucker in the kiln FAST.  I should have just dropped it on my work table and  saved my tender digits, but no, I wanted it and had to practically throw it into my kiln.

Next time, either a longer piece of wire or some sort of finger protection will be used.

I love how the spiral is magnified by the glass. So, so many possibilities here.

Maine

To Maine and back.

These family snapshots were taken at York Beach near Kittery.

I gave my husband the task of finding a heart shaped rock. It kept him busy long enough for me to spend about a half and hour staring aimlessly at the waves. Looking and listening to the ocean is like a drug.

p.s. He found about a half a dozen incredible ones.

Charming Lilies

What a frazzled week I have had - far too much time spent running in tiny circles and squawking. Not nearly enough time spent with the flame.

My last blog pictures were of a painting I just finished, an oil of lilies of the valley.
After drawing them all week I just had to try making them in glass.

These are wee milk glass white blossoms made on brass headpins that have been wound into charms.

Perfect for earrings or as dangles on a necklace.

I made two of them into earrings for myself and these four are up in my Etsy Belvedere shop.

Lilies of the Valley

I finished a painting this week
I's always a great feeling when you say to yourself (or to the dogs if they're listening) "done."

The poodles are my constant studio companions.
If they weren't colorblind they would probably be excellent art critics.

Lilies of the Valley
oil on canvas - 24' x 30'
(sold)