Trillium Arts Festival

I will be in Travelers Rest this Saturday for the Trillium Arts Festival. I am starting to get the hang of carting all of stuff to site, setting it all up and pulling it all down at the end of the show. It is fun to get a chance to get outside on a pretty, fall day and meet lots of people.

A Pretty Afternoon in the Garden

Yesterday, I spent some time at Martin Nursery's Art in the Garden Event. They invited local artists to set up in the middle of all the lovely plants that they have there. I figured it would be another opportunity to get more experience in setting up for festivals. It was such a nice day, warm but not hot.

And the Oscar Goes to Mrs. McGillicuddy...

Wow! I am so excited!

I found out that the video I submitted a couple months ago to the Paragon Kiln Company Video Contest placed second in the Warm Glass category! I will be getting a $250 gift certificate toward the purchase of a new kiln shortly, and I plan on using it to get a kiln that has a larger firing chamber - bigger tiles and the ability to fire more pendants at once...here I come!

The only requirements of the contest were that the kiln be featured and the artist be in the video. I definitely am not an actor, so I decided to recruit my talented husband - an excellent puppeteer and asked him if one of his many original puppet creations, Mrs. McGillicuddy could star as me.

The email, that notified me I placed, said that they loved my video with "the costumed character"! So I especially want to thank Mrs. McGillicuddy and Tim for their help with this project. I couldn't have done it without them!

My video as well as the other winning entries have been posted on the Paragon website. If you would like to watch the 3 minute video, you can see it at:

http://www.paragonweb.com/VideoInfo.cfm?VID=69

I would also like to thank Arnold Howard and everyone at Paragon Kiln Company for having such a neat contest and for honoring me by picking my video as a finalist!



Mrs. McGillicuddy, starring as me, demonstrates fussed glass technique.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...

Bubbles (trapped pockets of air), are sometimes frowned upon by glass artists, and I have had a few bubbles that spiraled out-of-control, grew into giant, distortions, and ruined a piece... or 10. But lately, since I started glass painting, I have decided that I kind of like the look of the tiny bubbles trapped in between the low spots in the paint and the glass cap. They add something unpredictable to the overall piece. Below are a few examples where they seem to work...





In this dragonfly tile, I managed to capture 2 little bubbles where the eyes should be...I wish I could claim to have know this would happen, but not really, it was just a happy coincidence...don't they call that serendipity?



In this lilies tile, there's a bit of bubbling around the petals and in between each lily.

This one is a little older, but I kind of liked that little bubble trapped right in the middle where the center of the flower should be. My husband, who does a wonderful job, of naming each piece did his usual stellar job of naming this one...Atmosphere Frozen Forever.

An interesting mistake.

Sometimes, these tiles will crack during firing...kind of mini explosions, I think. Because, the pieces may end up across the kiln from each other. This piece did just that, except that one small piece was rocketed to the very edge of the kiln shelf, and eventually, the glass melted from the shelf down onto the bottom off the kiln. When I pulled the pieces out after firing, I was intrigued by the results.








The piece was of a winter tree. It had split into 3 parts. I am thinking of attaching the piece on the left to a pedestal or small canvas board...kind of little sculpture.

Sometimes it doesn't work...saved from the trash

After a recent blog post that chronicled the failure of a four piece glass tree, I received several comments that encouraged me not to give up on the piece.

Unfortunately, for me, I had already thrown it in the kitchen trash can, and that bag had been dumped into the outside garbage can. Fortunately, (I think) it wasn't quite trash day, so the can was still sitting in the hot South Carolina sun...

I sifted through several bags of trash before retrieving all of the broken pieces. The whole thing went back into the kiln for a third firing, and this time it held...there was evidence running through of the previous breaks, but it was an interesting effect.

After a few days of cooling and waiting to see if there would be more cracking, I started thinking about what to do with it now. I made several attempts, but didn't like anything I tried. Finally, I pulled out a set of Prismacolor pencils and started working on the canvas around the tree.

Below you can see the result. Do you think it was worth all the effort, or should I have left it for the trash truck.

One of my favorites

When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it -- lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew.

And those that were good shall be happy; they shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair.
They shall find real saints to draw from -- Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all!

And only The Master shall praise us, and only The Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They are!


- Rudyard Kipling

Like a gray day at Tybee

I would like to introduce you to our cat Tybee. We got her from the shelter when she was smaller than a teacup, all eyes in a bundle of silver fur. It was late November, cold and dreary. We named her Tybee because she reminded us of a gray day at the beach on Tybee Island, Georgia.

I love those kind of beach days. My favorite time to be at the there isn't in the middle of the sticky, hot summer. I prefer a cool, October afternoon, with a gray sky and a deserted shore. That is when I feel the most inspired, when the beauty of God's art makes me to want to create something myself, even if it's only possible in a limited and halting way.

Sometimes it just doesn't work...

I started this tree to fit on a tall canvas board. Because of the size of my kiln, I planned to fire four separate pieces.












Ready to fire

In the kiln.







Done firing.

I thought it was going to be fine, but unfortunately, there must have been some moisture trapped in the layers during the initial firing. Long after they had cooled I found the top two pieces snapped in half.

I even tried to fire it again, but this time it snapped in another spot. You just never know...I was disappointed, because I liked the look of this one. it was tough to give up on it, but I finally had to admit defeat.

Wow and Thanks!

The Indie Craft Parade was better than I could ever have expected! it was a great event, perfectly planned, great promotion, first class effort. I really enjoyed being a part of it. I had a great weekend, the best show I've done, by far. I also have to say I had the best help ever. Tim, Emily and my mom kept me from losing my mind. The crowds were huge, and I couldn't have done it without them. I also really appreciate all the friends and family that came out to see me there.

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All that's left to do is wait.

I am almost finished setting up my spot at the Indie Craft Parade! Judging from all the great looking booths and cool work all around me here, it's going to be a fun weekend!

My table when I first got here this morning about 8:45. That's all my stuff in front.

A slow start. I don't think I was fully awake, so it took a while to get going.

Getting better...

Almost there...


My neighbors...There's an experienced show veteran on my left. She does knitting on a loom. I think that's what it is at least. She will be demonstrating her work tomorrow. On my right is a young girl who does knitting too. She seems quite timid right now. I believe this is one of her first shows.

Outside the Hugenot Mill behind the Peace Center.

Inside.

Gilded in Icy Grays

I am not sure about this whole blogging thing, but I am taking a shot at it. I have been learning how to post and add photos - it is a little bit different than using Facebook. This photo and the ones that I posted earlier are of the pendants that will be available at the Indie Craft Parade in Greenville this weekend.

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Lazy Hazy Daisy

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Flickers and Flashes Among the Ferns

Glass I've been working on for this weekend

It is almost here, The Indie Craft Parade, that is... I thought I'd put up some of the pendants I've recently completed that will be available there this Friday. One of my favorite things about creating these is trying to make each of them a tiny "work of art" deserving of the highly creative title bestowed on them by my Tim, my husband and fellow artist.

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Just a few more days!

I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about the upcoming Indie Craft Parade in downtown Greenville this week. I am trying to act like I have it all under control, but truth is, I am like the duck paddling furiously below the deceptively calm surface of the water. There are just so many details to handle when it comes to this kind of thing...cash for change, signage, setting up the display, and so much more. I think at this point, I have plenty of glass created and ready to take, so that isn't an issue.





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Getting Ready for the Indie Craft Parade

I have been working most of the weekend on glass for the Indie Craft Parade this coming weekend. I always put way too much pressure on myself, and I know I have more than enough variety right now, but I just can't seem to put the brakes on. I still have a list a mile long of things to do, glass I want to try, signage, etc. Hopefully, it will all come together in the end... I hope to post some images of some of what I will be taking with me Friday in the next few days.

An app update, and now it works

This is what I've been waiting for, the ability to post pictures and blog from my iPad. Before, I could put in text, but just could never figure out how to insert photos. Course, I say all this before I attempt to save this post to the blog...let's see if works!


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