Tom Collins and Orange Blossoms

Ah the sweet nectar of the gods! Otherwise known as gin. In this festive season, I make up a pitchers of Orange Blossoms ( gin and orange juice) and my sister makes Tm Collins( gin and lemon and orange juices and who knows what else- her version is a secret) and we merrily imbibe as we decorate every thing that is not moving, Including slow moving dogs and napping cats.

2 days after Christmas, with the house festooned with ribbons and stashes of left over candies, it's back to the daily grind, but with grins on our faces and loot in our drawers. I love the festive season!

In glass news, we sold another piece on Christmas Day of all things! Looks like someone got cash for the holidays and decided to spend it with us. Wise choice!

So it's back to cutting and making things for the new shows. We hope to be accepted by QuiltOdyssey and some other larger shows this year. Diana is busy updating our real website and we have a number of new pieces on the design board. So off to t anew year we go!

We Have a New Gallery That Represents Us

VIX gallery in West Philadelphia is our newest gallery! We met Emily, one of the new owners of the space on Baltimore Street and 50th to show off our new works and she took them!
Personally, I was delighted she really like the MacIntosh Rose panel, since that is the one, regular readers will remember, that I designed so I had an excuse not to work on the Baltimore Album panels.
Who says procrastination doesn't pay off!
Seriously, she has wonderful stuff, an array of fabric skits, knit hats, wonderful soaps, birdhouses, ties, pottery and fantastic jewelry.
She also carries other glass artists as well as yours truly.

Cool new galleries I 've found

So now we are looking for other places to sell our glass. We found this wonderful new gallery in West Philadelphia called Vixemporium housed in an old millinery shop. It has all sorts of wonderful crafts . Emily, one of the owners, kindly offered to show some of our things there. So I'm off to Philly tomorrow with an assortment of hearts , panels and other bits. Check them out at
http://vixemporium.wordpress.com/

Butterfly or Martini Glass

Okay, so when Di showed me her new piece, I had one of those weird visual experiences you get with mirages. She was happily explaining her inspiration and the quilt patterns she adapted to make this fellow look like he was flying and I'm thinking"Hun? Martini glasses don't fly. And they're not quilty either!" Okay, sometimes I'm a bit off, but I do claim that I first saw this with the lights a bit low, so the wings and the background were less prominent than the body and the blue triangles, ...which looks like a swell drink to me.

It's a lovely butterfly. And the 2 triangles give the design a sophistication it would not have if the background were one color. I'm still hanging my head in embarrassment, though. Oh well, guess that means I have to get back to the board and design the last of the Baltimore Album series to redeem my reputation.

Another Day, Another Dollar

Two shows in 2 weekends and neither of them good. The Virginia Holiday show was terrible, though the managers were nice, there was coffee on the first day, help loading and unloading, and other comforts. There were just too few customers and they were not in a buying mood. As this was an expensive show for us, I was not too happy. Today I went to a long running local show in Arnold , MD and again, the show people were nice. Just not much in the way of customers stopping by, much less buying anything. I did make some sales so it was not a loss, but neither was it particularly profitable.
I did go to a Sugarloaf show on Saturday as a customer and that was both well attended and had lots of buyers. I think every 2nd couple in the show was carrying a shopping bag. As I was leaving, I noticed everyone walking back to their cars was carrying a bag. so perhaps all the serious buyers were there and not at the 2 shows I attended.
So that's the next strategy is , to try to get into this well regarded series of shows. I know our glass is made and designed well enough to be seriously considered. We just need to get some professional photos taken.

Veteran's Day, a bit late.

Our Patriotic Heart for those who we remember on Veteran's Day; and for those who serve now.

I like the more centered, stable red heart. It suggests steadfast courage and a deep, abiding Caritas.

I'm not usually this solemn. But there's something about Veteran's Day, about the chill November air and the lengthening night reminds us that life is fleeting even for the brave. Or perhaps it is especially fleeting for the brave, who know what they are risking.

Why Good Photographers are Worth the $

So a month ago I look a workbench pictures of this piece-which looks ... well like a snapshot of a work in progress. There's still a solder spill in the upper left corner , it's not framed yet, and the steel blue reads almost black. Last week, before the show, Di set up a stand, with reflectors and special light and took new pictures. Then, darling computer jockey that she is, she spent hours with Photoshop and other software tweaking the colors and the reflections so we'd get something that more nearly resembled what is actually there.The better picture does not quite show the difference in the dark brown square from the lighter brown sides, but wow! does the piece look great. Photoing glass is a challenge, as the colors never come out right and the is the reflection of the flash or of the lights to deal with.

When she brought down a disk of new pictures along with the glass she had made, I was absolutely amazed. I had not seen my pieces in a week since I sent them to her and wow, she made them look great. She even made a slide show we set up in our booth on her laptop showing our current works, works in progress and new designs.

Our little studio is lucky she can do all this. I'd hate to have to contract this out!

Four in Hand or Card Trick

Newest piece to be made. This is a small panel, only 6 inches across. We don't make anything that small anymore as a rule, but this design is so nice.

It looks best in North facing windows colors just gleam in the cooler light from the North. In a South facing window the colors wash out. We also made a few in bright primary colors just for that reason. The really rich , deep jewel tones look great too.

People and groups who make crafting fun

The kind folk who run the Ballston Arts and Crafts shows were kind enough to put up a photo of our booth in the October blog. http://www.ballstonarts-craftsmarket.blogspot.com/
A nice touch since the shows are over for the year.

Last weekend

Our booth at the show Our Booth at the Northern Virginia Christmas Show last weekend

Today's the Day- Or Tonight's Today

It's officially Friday November 9, so the Northern Virginia Christmas Market Show begins. Or it will in another 10 hours. We've just gotten back from setting up the booth. I'm nervous but have received a great bit of news!

I'm the featured blogger on the November newsletter from the Creative Glass Guild of Etsy. Stop and look at the newsletter at http://www.cgge.org/0004Newslette1107.htmThere's a couple of links there to some well written articles on glass cutting .



For those who do not know, Etsy is a crafters selling website where crafters sell their wares, network and generally schmooze. http://www.etsy.com/Great fun! I've met some great people online and through them, some really nice crafters local to the DC region.



Do stop by and see us at the show this weekend, http://www.emgshows.com/a_nvcm.htm. We're near the Cafe at booth 389. We'd really like to meet you.

Down to the Wire

Today's the day to check if we have enough electrical supplies, paper goods and other things for the show. Also have to fix 3 broken pieces- sigh, the results of outdoor shows and wind. And why do the inexpensive, easy to repair pieces never fall?
I'm determined to consider this an good omen. Heck I'm determined to consider everything a good omen!

A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Hearts

Here they are in all their multi-colored glory. Red, vermillion, scarlet, pink, yellow, caramel, green, forest, teal, azure, cobalt, navy, violet, and purple hearts. I'm still working on chocolate, brown and irridized hearts for the show.

I Heart Nothing

Hearts, hearts, hearts and more hearts. I'm up to 45 of them and am already sick of the things- and I've 55 to go to make goal.The freehand, eccentric hearts are out biggest seller- a small trifle that folk buy as Christmas ornaments, as small sun catchers and as little decorations. They are fun to make when I'm just fooling around. But when I feel I have to make so many for a show, they become like rabbits in the garden: charming in a few but a nuisance as a horde.
Not that I should complain. It's flattering that people like these. The hearts usually cover our booth fees and other show expenses. And they do have a wacky charm all their own.
I suspect I'm stressing over a really big show and need to quilt for the night.

Off the Road and Ready for the Next Show

Spent 2 days on I-95 visiting family, so not too much glass got done. Since I finished the Baltimore Winter panel, I took it to Di to frame. She , good camper that she is, had a number of new, completed designs to show me: a Celtic Knot, a pinwheel in an octagonal frame, a beveled coupe, a beveled ribbon and more. Between us, I'm confident we have enough for the show, but I always worry that there will not be enough to last the entire weekend.
For the rest of the week, I'll be gathering our displays, polishing glass, printing labels and generally going crazy. It's enough to make me hire a pro to man the show booth, but most good shows insist the artist be there to answer questions and to show off the wares.
I understand why this must be so, but it does cut into production time and requires craftsmen to have sales skills.

By Gosh Baltimore WInter Photo

I so wanted to finish the winter Baltimore block tonight. As you can see from the photo, it's shorter than the Glasgow Rose. The bird panel is 12" square and the Rose is about 16" tall.

I will probably add a branch in the next one I make. It will allow me to incorporate the gold color I used in the others. This time out I just forgot!

Winter Baltimore Square almost done!

All cut, ground and now to foiling!

Completed Mackintosh Piece

Ta Ta! Finished and done with, the 1920's inspired Glasgow Rose style panel is finished. It's tall and narrow, like a lot of Rennie Mackintosh's work. I finished this off with with one red square in the dark brown border. It just seemed to fit Mackintosh's sensibility- he often used squares and checkerboards in his designs, The off center square of bright red echos the red of the rose. It creates another diagonal line in the design as the eye travels from the square to the rose and to the upper right corner. The wavy clear glass in the background does the same thing, making a very simple , almost childish design have an internal rhythm . I don't claim Mackintosh's sure design sense, but I can borrow some of the elements he worked out in my tribute to his work.

Procratinating on the BAltimore Album, so making a Rennie Macintosh inspired piece

There is nothing like impending disaster to make you rearrange the sock drawer. I'm at that stage now, since I have to have 2 new pieces finished by tomorrow to mail to Di so she can frame them. So what did I do today?

I visited Eastern Market in DC to see if that might be a venue to sell our wares on weekends when I'm not elsewhere. I made a new piece inspired by Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow Rose.

And the unfinished Baltimore Winter piece that is due in the mail tomorrow? It's pretty much where I left it yesterday.

For more about Eastern Market in DC , go to .http://www.easternmarket.net/

For more Rennie Mackintosh Roses go to wikipedia or to this link

http://www.labellestudios.com/auctionimages/pink_mack_rose_web.jpg

Baltimore Album Quilt Inspired Piece Fall Version

Getting ready for the Dulles show, the Northern Virginia Christmas Market in 2 weeks and going crazy. To the left is my newest piece, the second in the Baltimore Album series-Fall. On the right is the closeup of the center. Since this is meant to be a companion piece to the Summer one with the molded red roses I already made, I had to have a 3-D element in this piece too. I made the grapes of glass globs that I ground so they'd fit into each other. I also used the same glass and rough shape for the basket. This insures continuity between the pieces. Unfortunately, the Winter square, currently under design does not lend itself to a basket in the center. So taking a cue from Baltimore quilts, with their wealth of design elements, I drafted a pattern of a wren in a holly spray. I can use the same greens, browns, reds and caramels as in the other pieces, but give the block its own focus.

New Glass Heart Squares

I've been playing with hearts in squares for a few weeks now. The earlier ones looked more Arts and Crafts style, since I used the colors and textures prevalent in1910 pieces. This one, however, with a split back round , looks much more quilty. I put a few of these together to make a glass quilt and it looked really good, Unfortunately, it would be an expensive piece and I need to make some pieces that are less expensive for our next show. Next show in Dulles in Virginia at the Expo Center November 9,10,11.

Back From Ballston Show

Oh Heavy West of Ireland Sigh. I had a great time at the show, but little in sales. Mostly small items to ramblers on their way to pick up a newspaper at the deli. Which is a pity since it really is a nice venue and the people are great. Still, I need to pick up sales, so I may not do this one next year.
On the other hand I met a nice lady who is considering a commission . Shows are often like that- you get a few sales, but something crops up later down the road.

I did sell the blue and yellow sun in orbit/cross piece to a woman giving it to her minister sister for the holidays so that was nice. Also met some wonderful other crafters so that's a positive too.
Check out the jewelry from Just Plain Jane and the t shirts from I Like Seamonsters. http://www.justplainjane.com/
http://www.ilikeseamonsters.com/catalog/

Homage to Baltimore Album Quilts, Summer

Here's a picture of the Summer Baltimore Album. It's warmer and livelier in real life as the red border really glows. In the closeup you can see the swirls in the clear glass background as well as lines in the leaves and the depth to the roses.

Getting Ready for the next show

So it's off to Ballston Arts Show in Ballston Virginai again this Saturday. I did well enough there last time to make the trip worthwhile though I'm seriously considering Thurmont too. Sigh, so many shows , so little time.
Di is making a few new pieces, some more Flying Geese, a new Appalachian Star and in a departure for us, a piece with bevels. I think she is making a convertible on a road, which would be absolutely amazing!
Just finished a new Homage to Baltimore, see the blog from March to see the earlier version. I partially sunk the roses so that they are not as far forward from the design plain. I also omitted the yellow dots. I'm not sure that was an improvement, so I may return them to the design in future. However, the next project is to make a companion piece with a cornucopia . I was originally going to make 3 in this series, but Di suggested I make 4- one for each season. I like the idea so the one here is Summer, with roses in full bloom. The next will be Autumn, with a full cornucopia and fruit, possibly some wheat or corn. Thoughts for winter are easy: Holly leaves and berries , maybe a topiary sort of thing . It's Spring that is causing problems. Since I'm limited to a palate of gold, mid to dark greens and scarlet, with maybe a few touches of another color, I'm finding any thing other than tulips to be a tough design. Most Spring flowers are either clear yellow or purple . I'm sure I'll come up with something

The Bride's Basket Inspired Panel

This as yet unframed piece was inspired by an old quilt patch called Bride's Basket. It's meant to represent a flower and leaves in a small footed basket. I've made some changes to the pattern. Mostly the changes are in using parallelograms or trapezoids for the flower shapes instead of using right triangles as you do in fabric. In fabric the seam line between two same-color triangles visually disappears. Cutting and stitching 2 right triangles into squares is easier than stitching a trapezoid into another piece. You get the dreaded Y shaped seam.

In stained glass though, a Y shaped seam is as easy to insert as a right angle. However, each "seam line" really shows up. So although the final visual effect is the same in a quilters version and ours, we really do have to redraft the quilt patterns for glass use.

Pink Ribbons and Heart Panels

Hope Floats, Hearts Tilt

This week saw a few improvements in technique, some exercises in color choice and a simple repair job.

I did not want to do a pink ribbon. Or a yellow one. Or any other color for that matter. But during a visit to my favorite glass shop, I found this ribbon bevel on sale. Now I've never used bevels before. I've seen too many just gorgeous vestibule and dining room doors in Victorian mansions to attempt a beveled glass anything. I'm intimidated. But at some point , you have to hunker down and do the deed. So this is what I came up with. It's a simple design but a difficult cut. I cut the background out of one piece of pink and yellow streaky stained glass so the ribbon would appear to float in the center. I purposely wrapped the ribbon in thicker foil than the break lines in the pink glass as I wanted the break lines to visually disappear.

I also made another heart in a square panel. This red streaky heart is in a pale champagne background with an olive green border. Again , it's a different color combo than I usually work in . I'm trying to work in Fall hues to expand my color range.

Finally, I repaired a unfinished Bride's Basket panel that was sitting on the table for too long, I repaired the bottom triangle so the that basket sits on glass, not on air.

New Studio Space

I've spent the last week fixing the glass studio since I still did not have a place for the glass band saw. I've a soldering stations/layout place, a cutting area and a staging table in between to hold all the stuff that magically gathers on the 2 other tables if I'm not careful.
All that's left to do is to put up some magnetic strips t hold ideas, patterns and other papers and I'm ready to get cracking again!

Tagged- I'm it

I've been tagged, wich means I have to reveal 6 things abouat myself and then tag 6 others. It's a silly but fun way to learn about other bloggers.
Here goes
1) I inherited 19 chickens and a rabbit last year.
2) Living near DC means always having the company of relatives visiting the capital.
3) I can wriggle my little toes independently of the others. Try it, it's not easy.
4) Peanut butter and banana sandsiches are great. Peanut butter and pickle takes some getting used to.
5)I'm afraid of horses, but don't let them know that.
6)Salt makes melons taste better.

Photos of Ballston Show

It's a bit small and hard to see, but here's a photo of the Ballston Arts Show we were at last Saturday. The stained glass looked wonderful in the light. You can see the Appalachian Star on the left and some of the Interlocked Squares in the center.

Back From Ballston Show in Virginia

Phew! A great show! I was at the Ballston Arts and Crafts Show today and had a great time. I sold a yellow Arkansas Star, a round piece with 12 different yeloowish triangles surrounding a rich brown center and our own Goose Wave pattern in rainbow colors. Surprisingly, I didn't sell any of the smaller hearts and Tumbling blocks that are our big sellers. Different audience I guess.
I also sold a number of the fish ACEO's. Since the show site is near the National Science Foundation and the Nature Conservancy, I guess the locals are into natural themes.
More later including photos when I have more time.
I have to restock and make new pieces for the next show!

Picture of New Trial Piece Stained Glass

As promised, a mock up of the trial panel I'm working on. Just some English muffle for the border, some swirled pieces for the background, and a red heart in the middle. I'm not sure it is solid looking enough; a stained glass piece needs some presence and I'm not sure this has it. I'm using odd scraps I have around so I've only a bit invested. Still, I find that working out a design in paper is useful, but at some point, you have to reach for the cutter.

I'm reconsidering the heart- it's not right. This may need a different shape heart, a completely different piece in the center- I'm not sure what.

Designing Small Stained Glass Panel

I've been having so much fun with the small one piece hearts, I thought I'd try to come up with a small panel that uses them.

After playing around , I finally came up with a 7" square panel set on point. For non quilters, that means oriented like a diamond. I've a knobby English Muffle glass in a sherry color as a border, with a champagne colored background and a wine red free hand heart in the center. Since the background and border are regular, I thought I 'd more or less center an irregular heart as the focal point. It keeps the piece from being too static.



I picked warm Fall colors, but the undertones clashed. The orange red heart looks terrible next to the English muffle maroon in the border. Fortunately, the champagne swirls bridge the gap between the 2 colors.





Small panels, ornaments and sun catchers tend to be viewed up close, so the static versus flowing aspects of the design are more noticeable. In a very large piece, the most important consideration is the effect the colors have on surrounding area.

One Piece Glass Heart

I thought I'd post a picture of one of the one-piece hearts. I cut most of the shape out freehand in a sort of ice cream cone shape- pointed at he bottom and rounded at the top. I then cut a concave slice out of the top edge, creating the 2 lobes of the heart. I then grind into the space with a 1/2 inch and a 1/4 inch bit to get the v shape between the lobes.

I've no idea who makes this beautiful deeply rippled glass. I found a scrap of it in the "junque" bin at the Glass Key, my local stained glass store. The ripples are deep enough for me to really embed the wire hanger so I don't need to solder or drill into the piece.

More and More hearts-

It's beginning to look like Valentine's day here! I found a way to make all in one piece glass hearts with wire hooks. It's less work than making the 2 piece ones, so I'm making a batch of those tonight.

All the news that's not fit to print

Slow day- doing last minute taxes, getting bargain shelves at IKEA, the usual errands.
The bargain shelves have a light alread in in them so they uplight anything set on them. It looks like the perfect accessory for out booths, as stained glass panels set on top of these will glow. So not altogether a lost day.

Sold the ACEO from the group below.

This piece of green and streaky glass looked like a giant medusa floating in the sea. So what else could I do but I make but an ACEO with a 3D glass and wire baby jelly fish in front? To my delight, this sold yesterday. This is a nice art form.

Really Really Tiny Hearts

I can resist everything except temptation. So after a binge with an iced coffee and chocolate concoction, I could not sleep. Which is of course the best time to cut and grind glass. So a trio of very small, maybe 3/4 of an inch hearts. Oh and a bit of research into quilt designs for a new piece.
I don't know why I'm thinking of new pieces, I've 3 Baltimore album quilts blocks to finish in glass and a bunch of flower baskets to make.

Last of the ACEO's

I swear these are the last I will make for a while- well except for the ones on the soldering table board.

It's beginging to look a lot like

Okay, it's not even the end of Summer yet and I'm singing Christmas carols. It's the same every year. Of course every year the mad dash of Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, St Nick and Christmas gets busier, so I try to get the small annoying stuff out of the way first. I've already collected some of the stocking stuffers and the St Nick candy. I figure I'm not the only one preparing ahead so I can enjoy holidays with my family rather than running through the mall, so I just posted this wreath on ETSY. I based this design is based on Tumbling Blocks, a quilt pattern that gives either a 3 D effect or a floral effect depending on the orientation of the diamonds and the color scheme. Here, the three stars are poinsettias and the other red diamonds are buds.

I originally designed this for my mother-in-law who moved to Georgia after a lifetime in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. She took her collection of family quilts with her. I made this to remind her of the quilts and the darker, more intense colors of Christmas in Pittsburgh, while taking advantage of Savannah glorious sunny weather in December.

Annapolis Galleries

I had a few hours to day, so I grabbed the smaller and brighter pieces for a trip to Annapolis, MD. There's an slew of galleries there and I thought I'd try my luck with the owners to see if they'd like to carry some of our wares. After all, we're Maryland based, have a recognizable product line, do it well and generally, we're pretty spiff!
I trolled through the streets with my daughter- Might as well make this a family event- checking out the stock and looking to see if the shop's merchandise was compatible with ;my own. I had a really large purse, sufficient to carry a couple of pieces of glass, brochures, cards and a catalog. Okay, it is a large purse.
I'm not sure how successful I was, since I didn't sign up a gallery. But I did leave cards, and if not this season, perhaps we can get a venue for the next.
Here's a partial list of the galleries in Annapolis. It's a neat town, very art-y
http://www.artinannapolis.com/

Tonight's work in progress

I got into Ballston Art Market, a juried show I've never been in,. It's great news but that does mean I have to get cracking on new pieces or it will be a very small display at the booth. I like the red and white Lemoyne star at left, but am not as sure about finishing the all blue one. In natural light, the pale blue points are really pale, maybe too much so for the mid blues in the piece. I thi nk I like the red , white and blue one because the contrast between the red and white points makes the star look as if 2 individual stars are spinning around each other. The all blue star in contrast, is more visually static.

I trolled the web earlier and found this great and surprising source of inspiration

http://www.historic-american.com/index.html. This is a web store selling antique quilts. Since these are for sale, there are a lot of close ups of pattern and quilt details.

ACEO's Wow

Wow, from something I'd never heard of to a sale in 2 days! wow . And it was just a trifle. I joined the Etsy creative glass guild challenge with the moon light and tree one below, then thought some more and made a couple with little fish glued on to a piece of glass. Really, it's a trifle. Okay, I did ground down a clear iridescent blob, add wire tendrils and make a jellyfish to go with it. I soldered the wires to the edges of the frame and I glued the molded glass fish and the blob on with ultraviolet glue.

It did turn out rather nice . So surprise surprise , i got a sale!

Sunday evening

Well after the ACEO was so well received I had no choice but to make a larger version of the moon and the silver tree. Unfortunately, my daughter likes it. A lot. So another item not going to go into the inventory this week!

The ACEO Challenge

So I belong to the Creative Glass Guild of Etsy, a friendly group that meets online to promote glass in general. There are lots of great jewlers and fused glass artists on it, but not too may stained glass mavens like yours truly. For August, they have challenged us to create ACEO, those collectible mini cards of original art for we who love the stuff, but cannot afford large pieces.

I came up with this mini evening landscape . The glass is a wonderful opaque steel blue and white combo, the moon in the upper corner is iridized and the wire work tree is silvered . Not too bad for a few hours work. Hope the group likes it. http://www.cgge.org/challenge.aspx

Tiffany Lamp fabrications link

A great site with lots of pictures of an artist restoring and creating Tiffany lamps in Germany. http://www.tiffany-lamps.de/Customers_Information.html

Another week in Cape May

Spent another few days in New Jersey helping out Mom, so again , not much glass done. I did however take a wondrous picture of a merhorse so that is just grand. Sister and nephew still workingon the house. More small bits of glass up on Etsy. Oh and a wonderful link to the making of a Tiffany shade . http://www.tiffany-lamps.de/Customers_Information.html

See the new hearts on the Etsy link on the left sidebar too.

We're still working on the house . We are always working on the house. It will never end. The house will get nicer and nicer and we will get older and older and it will never end. Sigh.

Ah, the remodeling blues. We're still working on my nephew's house and I have to believe it is almost done. I returned last night from visiting Mom and found that my sister and nephew had indeed done lots: the living roon walls are painted, the dinning room dry wall was up. Nephew busy working on laying a new hardwood floor in the living room. So that's great. I spend most of the afternoon sanding walls. I now know what I will look like with white hair!

It's been a challenge to get this done but it has also been a great experience and will be a terrific investment. SO needless to say, not much glass done.

Etsy and Quilt Shop

I finally figured out how to use Etsy, the on-line craft outlet( see the small version in the sidebar) . I just sold a red heart and am getting a bit of interest in other pieces so that's to the good. Of course I left for the Jersey shore right after the sale so I could not mail the piece out as quickly as I'd like, but that's okay! A sale's a sale!

I got to go to the beach, to the water park with daughter, sister and little ones, and to the rodeo at Cowtown , New Jersey. Yep, for over 53 years there's been Saturday Rodeo just over the bridge form Delaware. Now for those of us who flunked American Geography , Delaware is about as East as you can get! But the Cowtown Rodeo had all the trappings: a parade, rodeo clowns, bull riding, really fast calves that did not want to be roped, bucking broncs and very sore cowboys.

More Flowers for the Commission

Okay, I've a bird, and 2 peonies foiled. We won't mention that the bird actually belongs in another window. I'm getting there.

I've also just figured out how to make one piece hearts. This was a happy accident as I had a scrap of green swirled glass of about the right dimensions. Now to figure out what to do with it!

Building a New Piece

I've received an interesting commission. The client has approved the rough thumbnail sketch and the major glass selections- but she's leaving the details up to me. Phew! The design meets her requirements that this window provide privacy from her neighbors, let in light, and add to a spacious feel in the room.

Since these are South facing windows, I don't have to worry about making the room dark if I use a lot of very saturated color. It's an issue in smaller for North facing windows. The bright and rich colors will give her all the privacy she craves.

By designing a landscape, the window will visually expand the space rather than close it off as a more Victorian design would do.

Fianlly, the right way to make a window is to have a complete cartoon of the design on the table , cut and fit all the peices and the assemble the entire panel at once. I'm not doing that. Since I have free rein, I'm building the fun elements first: the peonies, the birds, the other animals. After I've arranged them in the most pleasing way, I'll fit in the back round. This gives me the ability to tweak the design until the last moment, and fosters last- minute inspiration.

So for the next few weeks( did I mention that this needs to be finished fast) I'll be blogging about this piece and how it is progressing.

Back in the Saddle Again

It's been a while again since I posted , mostly because I'm still working on that house for my nephew. Kitchen is done, he had a barbecue for the 4th, porch is looking good. So it's time to focus on glass again.

I recently posted some glass hearts on ETSY, the craft market site. I still prefer to show our larger panels at shows since one really has to see the pieces to get the full impact- A photo does not do justice to the glass. But for the smaller pieces, where we just really are playing with pretty colors, well, it's okay in a photo.

I make these when I really really really get bogged down with a piece. Right now I'm still drafting the design for a custom window that should have daffodils, a brown cat, peonies, a peaceful landscape and a cherry tree . Okay. It is a large window and the fee will be very nice, but oh it's a big project. So I make these to encourage myself and to have a project done!

Whee, it has been a while

Oh no glass to make, other than repairing 10 lights in small paned windows at my nephew's house.
Since last I posted, the house has gotten new floors upstairs, new drywall , paint and outlets in the children's rooms, ditto in the master bedroom.

Nephew found a shelter that was gutting its kitchen and sending the almost new cabinets to the dump. He salvaged those, as well as a fridge and a vintage gas stove. So his kitchen now has those in it. Of course, before we could install the cabinets, we had to level the floor for the 18 inch tiles we also installed.

We replaced the front and side doors with antique ones.

So what's left to do? Install a pocket door, build out the wall for the pocket door, drywall 3 walls that are in terrible shape, sand and refinish a nice hardwood floor and install new flooring. Whew, I can hardly wait until this is over.

I have spent so much time picking up and returning items to Home Depot that I think they should name a cashier lane after me! I'm on excellent terms with the county dump.

My daughter has not seen me in weeks and my cats refuse to notice me. It is sad. But the house is turning out well.

Busy Little Painting Beaver That I Am

My nephew bought a house in January and we are all helping him fix it up. So when we finally got nice weather, it was Man the Tools and get to work for everyone. For some reason, I get tasked with cleanup and paint scraping duties. Which in a house with 10 old divided windows is a big job.

So that's why no glass and no blogs for a few days and likely to continue.

On the other hand, I'm getting to know the folks at the dump pretty well. It's a standard joke in the family that I always come back form the dump with something new. This time it was a 2 X 10 board. You never know when you might need one!

MacIntosh Rose Fused Project

There's been a few days of catch up at ye olde homestead, with one chicken trying to brood a batch of unfertilized eggs, a strawberry patch the needs weeding, and a studio that is a mess and a half. We're fooling the broody hen with bright pink plastic Easter eggs. She can keep those warm and we can steal all the others under her for breakfast.

The strawberry patch got weeded and 6 rhubarb plants set in. Strawberry and rhubarb pie may just be one of heaven's gifts to mortals. Yum.

As for the studio... well.... Not so much. I did manage to make this very small fused McIntosh Rose sample . I've roses on the brain these days so I experimenting. Sometime later next month I'm going to try molding something, but this is the first step.

Back From the Show

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKq-OoFOBxh_svRYf8CNZhje8wO6JrQtVGPErcdJQTsZU1yuIQ8xSXj460Pkv4tjT-mMG4acVE8VgO2wkgx0lo7QiBrbf6lXTCn6ia9f2_ryn3hIxcc3gvy9SO8lUXC6NzClYznsOISP-u/s1600-h/100_0316.JPG This link is to a previously uploaded photo, which TA TA I managed to sell at the show last Sunday.

Returned yesterday from out show at Malvern Blooms, in Malvern PA. It was a lovely day, the town is cute, the main street was closed for the fair and a good time had by all. I'd joined Di at her studio on Saturday and she showed me some wonderful new pieces she's worked up: a 2 foot in diameter Mariner's Compass, a new version of Maryland Block and a 10 pointed star in a decagon frame she designed herself. She promised to post photos on our web site , but it may take her a couple of weeks. http://www.glassonthrsquare.com/

I'm tired from the drive, got lost in Baltimore on my way to a lecture last night and generally, I need to get my act together before Wednesday.

The photo is of a 7 inch square trial piece inspired by the blue glass. It looked like the orbit of planets, so I added a sun and rays to it. Not too sure I'll make many, but I like to make things occasionally that are different form my usual pieces.

Wretched Class and Too Much Glass

Spent the day in class learning how to create web sites in Dreamweaver. Taught by a very nice, very knowledgeable man who ought to have taught an advanced class, not one for newbies. Way to long, way to in depth for complex ideas that were interesting but beyond the scope of the class. The 12 hour course is half over and we only got through chapter 1 of 7!

And when I got home, this is what awaited me: too much undone stuff.

I'm for a quick cup of tea and some bad TV.

Hearts To Go

I'm busy gearing up for the new show this weekend in Malvern, PA. We've never been to this show before so I don't know what to expect.
Di has most of the stock up at her place in Pennsylvania, so I'm just puttering around making a couple of new patterns and some hearts.
Last year before Wine in the Woods, a Maryland show, I got heartily sick of making Tumbling Block panels, so I cut up scrap into wacky, freehand hearts. They sold very well. In fact , we sold enough to cover the booth fees and travelling expenses. So since then, before every show, I check out my glass scrap stash and get to work.

I'm sure someday I'll get sick of these too, but so far, so good!

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Daily Chicken Grind

Ah, sigh. I went to feed the girls today and found 40 eggs. That's right, 3 and a half dozen. Now I should point out that my household is very small. I do have friends and family around, but even with their help, I have a lot of eggs each day. On weekends, if I've been lazy, the eggs stay in the nest for a day and poof, come Monday , 40 eggs await.

Rooting Around in the Attic of my Computer

I love computers. But I don't understand them. Someday I'll understand how I managed to delete my trashcan. Since I deleted the trash can, I could not empty it. I filled my entire hard drive . The nice people at the repair shop couldn't fix it either, so they copied my old data into the new computer .

I've been slowly going through the old files, getting rid of junk and generally digitally housecleaning. And so I ran across these. I made these 5 small sun catchers/ ornaments for a wedding. My then 11 year old daughter was the junior bridesmaid at a Wiccan inspired event. The bride had a beautiful butterfly ornament that represented Air to her. She asked if I would make complementary ornaments representing Water, Fire and Earth as well as 2 more in keeping with the occasion for the flower girls. She planned to have the bridesmaids carry these instead of bouquets. I'm particularly pleased with the star and the heart flower, representing Day and Night.

The wedding was beautiful.

I wonder what else I have in those old files...

Homage to Baltimore

Usually I design a new piece of stained glass by drawing a lot, getting frustrated, whining, and playing with glass color combos. This time around, I built the piece earlier than I usually do, since I had limited colors to work with anyway! Most of the stock is at the other studio, but I didn't feel like traveling up there, since I had a class this week in Maryland.

The red roses have an orange cast to them- these are yellow red rather than the grossly named pigeon's blood red. So that meant that most of the colors would have to be in the yellow family in order not to clash.

Baltimore Album Quilt Blocks have several characteristics in common. The designs are often of floral wreaths, baskets and urns of flowers and fruit. The background is usually white. . The flowers are more often red and yellow rather than blue and purples. Of course there's lots of green from the leaves.

So I was pretty set- I used a mus tardy caramel for the basket, indicating the different surfaces by using wispy and textured glass. I had to be careful and select yellow green rather than my usual Kelly or teal greens.

As the red roses are very thick- about 3.8 of an inch in the center, I needed another , thinner element to bridge the visual gap between the roses and the rest of the glass. Without the bright yellow nuggets, the roses would have overpowered the design.

I thought about a white background for the entire square, but this resulted in a static piece. In a fabric quilt, the quilting lines themselves add visual interest to the plain white background. I had some clear swirled glass around that gave me the same unobtrusive texture that fine quilted lines gives to fabric.

I've never seen an album quilt with the elements set on point in a Diamond-in-Square format, much less then sashed in red. But I have seen some with red sashing. So this is really my design variant entirely. Hope you like Homage to Baltimore

Finally Figured Out How To Do This!

So here I am , the less Techno savvy partner in Glass on the Square, the shared stained glass studio I belong to . Since I finally figured out how to do this, I can update everyone without having to learn HTML. We do have a real website, Glassonthesquare.com, of course, but that is for more serious things, like show schedules and new offerings.This is just me, what I'm working on now and , well what frustrates me. So here goes, full speed and ignore that lovely churning white water ....

For the last 2 years or so, Di and I have been re interpreting traditional quilt blocks into glass. Which sounds pretty easy and is not.

Glass is NOT fabric- it does not stretch, it does not fold, it does not come in as many colors, and most of all- glass breaks! I hesitate to remember some of my debacles.

Mostly we have been working on straight forward, geometric pieces. We've done variations on Log Cabins, Flying Geese, Dutchman's Puzzle, Baby Blocks and the like. We had always thought to work on other , less geometric pieces. Di wants to do a series based on Little Red Schoolhouse and I've been dying to make something based on Baltimore Album quilts.

2 weeks ago, I found 1 1/14 inch molded red roses in a little store in New Jersey. They were perfect for the quilt square I had had in mid for a while. I finally got my cutter in gear and the result is above.

Not too shabby for a working draft, if I say so myself!