Flowers and Trees...I am waiting for spring.

I love flowers and trees...in the garden, in paintings, and definitely on glass...this is a bad photo of a beautiful piece of art done by my 8 year old grand.

And these are some of my flowers...I have visions in my head and these are close, but not quite there yet.

It's Winter again...and it's really COLD!

It truly is winter....again. You always know it will be coming and yet, somehow, I am never quite prepared for how really cold North Dakota can get in the winter.

I needed a new picture for my website, so with some help from the season I came up with this one...yep, I went out and gathered a bowl of snow for the photo.

I spent a week away from home. It was so much fun to get out of town and just hang out, but as always, it's nice to come back home.

Let's see, I've made a few beads, finished a necklace for a customer and had a small group of teenagers over to visit the glassy space. I'm always awkward having people watch me...I'd rather be the watcher than the one being watched.

Not a bead, but a bed.

My sister has been storing this for years and years at my house.
It's now been passed on to me, and I have made a decision about it. But first, a bit of history. My family homesteaded in southern Colorado, right along the Santa Fe Trail. I grew up going to the ranch and the memories of my granddad will always be strongly linked to horses and cattle and his fiddle. The ranch was his haven and I would bet that he traveled every possible inch over the years. This bed frame was one of the things that he found out there and according to my sister, he believed it had been left behind when someone needed to lighten their load. I'll do some work on it and give it a coat of paint, and then it will go into the back yard and I will plant a climbing rose in front and the frame can become a trellis. It will go near the wind chime that reminds of us of Jeff's mom who was taken too soon, but so loved the sound of the chime that her brother had made.





Okay, one set of beads. I am hoping that as we approach fall and the days begin to get shorter and cooler that I will find it easier to be inside on the torch rather than playing outside.

Spring is Finally Here...maybe

I've been seeing a few tulips blooming here and there, but still no lilacs or iris yet. But of course, the dandelions are out in full force.


Yep, I still have more mowing to do, but I have to go fill gas cans and I'm waiting to see if I can get Jeff to do it for me.
After the long winter, I am having a hard time convincing myself that I should be in the studio. I'm thinking I might have to put aside the glass for awhile and do some other projects that I can take out and work on in the sunshine.

But...here's a few things.

and the cuff I finally finished.

Brrr....

They say a winter storm is coming tomorrow. Brrr...blizzards are just not fun. We went to the grocery store and stocked up on all the necessary things like dry roasted peanuts and butter mints. Let it snow...I am ready!

Now that winter is truly here, it seems like all I can think about is flowers. Every time I sit down at the torch lately it's been flowers and not even normal(for me) flowers. It's all part of the process....I see something in my head and then have to figure out how to make the glass do what I see.
These are the first and don't quite make it. They are too abstract, way too top heavy and even the colors are just "off" from what is in my mind. But I do like the etching and I like the color changes on the bases.



This bead still sits in the "to list" drawer. I pull it out with every intention of listing it for sale and then for some reason, I just don't. First, it's been impossible to get a really true picture of the colors and metallic stringer. Secondly, I just don't know...so I set it aside and try again to get a good picture and it goes back into the "to list" drawer.

Busy, busy....

I entered a contest with one of my implosions. It got 2nd place in the intermediate class, and I am thrilled. Plus I get free glass...life is good!

Want to see the other entries?

http://artistryinglass.on.ca/newsletter/contestwinners.html

I have been out in the studio. I have been spending time making beads in the morning, then as the kiln is annealing the beads, I am working on fusing projects that will go in the kiln once it has cooled down from bead duty. By morning, it has cooled down enough to unload the fused pieces so I can start all over again. I only have a 13" shelf so you can imagine that I don't get too many fused pieces in there at the same time.

I made a bunch of leaves for a fall exchange with some other glass artists. I love the exchanges~I get some of the most amazing glass pieces in trade. Now I haven't technically signed up because I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling, but I think I'm good. These leaves are all about 2 inches long.

Okay, so I haven't started selling the fused stuff yet! But I am finally getting a few pieces done. Tomorrow, I will hopefully have some nightlights to show you. I had these nightlights from back in the stained glass days, so they "should" work well for the fused ones. We'll see tomorrow.

And, I just got a new tool today. It will punch holes in metal in 7 different sizes from 3/32" up to 9/32". I want to try and use copper with some of my beads, so we will see what I can come up with.

Isn't this an interesting bead? I know I made it, but it's still one of those beads that just intrigue me~trying to figure out a way to use it so I won't lose the depth.