A Little Copper Pendant

I love creating these little copper enameled pendants. Its really takes a lot more time to create one of these, than it does one of the glass pieces. It's true that fused glass requires much more kiln time. Mine are generally in the kiln 8 hours or more when cooling time is factored in.

The copper goes in and out of a really hot kiln multiple times, but it's all very quick. To create this little one, I cut the shape out of a piece of copper using snips, filed off the rough edges, hammered it and created an indention in the middle, drilled a hole, and then I used a torch to burn off any oil left by my fingers.

Once clean, I sprayed with an adhesive, sifted it with enamel powder, and stuck it into the hot and ready kiln. In a matter of minutes, the powder had fused to the metal. This process was repeated several times with different powders until I like the effect and color.

On this one, I put glass jewels or chunks into the indented area and fired to melt into a liquid pool.

Once it was cool, I added a copper jump ring and soldered it closed.

A Helping Hand

The first photo is of this cool little helper tool I got at Harbor Freight. It only cost about $5, but has really come in handy. I don't do much enameling, but when I do get the chance, I usually solder the jump ring together. This little tool holds it for me, while I hold the solder and torch.

I've also included some of my more recent pendents. Even though I don't usually consciously decide to create seasonal pieces, it seems like I've drifted into more fall colors lately. All of these are glass, except the last three. These are enameled copper.

Cupcake to Order

I haven't done much enameling lately. I usually have to concentrate on glass to the exclusion of other things, to keep pace for the various show and shops. But the other day, I pulled out the copper and started cutting. My daughter likes the copper pendants and wears a heart and a little bird a lot, so when she saw me with the copper sheet, she requested a cupcake. Below is the final piece. To me, it looks more like a muffin, but she liked it. I think maybe next time, I will add a little curl of icing to the top and maybe a few sprinkles. I did enjoy creating it though. I got a chance to use the enamel watercolors I had bought a while back. Those open up a whole bunch of possibilities.

Swirling Color

A recent glass pendant. Black glass with Glassline paint swirls of color. This one just makes me feel happy.

The Last, Loveliest Smile

Fall has been In the air the last couple of days - cool, crisp mornings and hints of color shifts in the leaves. I love this time of year - school starts back, football is in full, fresh season hopefulness. I love the stark contrast of golden leaves against the shockingly blue sky. I love cool nights and breaking out my favorite sweatshirt again.

So, forgive me if I'm jumping ahead a little early, I'm sure summer will take a few last gasps in the next few weeks, but today let's celebrate autumn in all of it's full, rich smiling glory!

Laughing in Flowers

"The Earth Laughs in Flowers."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here is a recent glass piece. It's about 4"x5" - and is mounted on a larger, black canvas board.

Off the beaten path...

Since I had nonrefundable hotel reservations, my family took a trip to Cary, NC this past weekend.

Knowing that Hurricane Irene wasn't supposed to be too bad in that area, we drove down on Friday night. We decided to leave I-85 at Charlotte and take the smaller back roads to get there. I really don't enjoy being small car sandwich meat between a semi truck and the cement wall of death. If you could see my little car, you'd understand.

So when time allows, I always like to take the road less traveled and see the small towns along the way. We saw a "Walmart Express" - looked like a cross between a Walgreens and a Walmart. I didn't even know those existed. We saw a convenience store chain called "Tank and Tummy" - their slogan: "fill both at the same time!"

I was really impressed with the Cary area. We stayed in a very nice Holiday Inn and Suites. There were lots of refuges from the coastal areas staying there too. Irene came ashore about 7:00 am on Saturday, and we were in the very outer band of the storm. The winds were fairly high, and it pretty much rained all day long,

Tim and I drove over to the actual downtown Cary area and found the streets where the festival would have been. It was pouring rain, and it made me grateful to the organizers for canceling it. I think it would have been a miserable day for everyone involved. I also imagine my tent would have been worse for the wear after enduring the high winds...if it survived at all.

We didn't really do much the rest of our time there. We visited a mall, had lunch at a Red Robin, hung out at the hotel, and just relaxed. It was good for my family to have a chance to ditch the routine and just hang out. So, even though I was disappointed that I didn't get to experience my first Festival there, it turned out to be a nice weekend after all.

New, New Things...

In my preparation for upcoming shows, I've been working like mad on pendants, larger pieces and even some earrings. Since Irene blew out the Cary show, I should be well prepared for fall shows and restocking my inventory in the various shops and galleries that carry my stuff, and I will probably put some of these on my Etsy and Yessy sites as well.

Here is a taste of some of new, new things...

Black glass hand painted with Glassline paint and fired without a clear glass cap.

This piece is stacked glass that has been tack fused.

A simple set of earrings - Glassline paint on black glass.

2 layers of black glass handpainted with Glassline paint and fused.

Dichroic pattern with clear cap.

Black glass with Glassline paint details.

Diagonal quilt-square inspired pendant in green, aqua, gray and black.

Since the festival isn't going this weekend, these are all still available. If you are looking for something in different colors, etc. Let me know, I probably have it.

Disappointed...

Hurricane Irene is barreling towards the north now.

The experts are expecting it to swipe the North Carolina coast, so today the town of Cary, NC decided to cancel their annual Lazy Daze Festival - the first cancellation in over 35 years of the festival.

I totally understand the decision. It's always best to err on the side of caution. But, I confess I am selfishly disappointed. I was really looking forward to my being there this year. I applied and was accepted in the spring, and it's been fun getting ready to go. My mom and I were all set to hit the road tomorrow.

I've heard from people who have done Lazy Daze that it is a great festival, in a great area. Cary is near Raleigh - not on the coast, but near enough to get wind and rain from a storm like this.

I have to commend the organizers with the City of Cary for the way they have handled this situation, and I hope to have the chance to be a part of Lazy Daze sometime in the future. Of course, in the big picture, a festival isn't a big deal, there will be other festivals and other years.

Having watched the forecasts all week, I know how unpredictable Irene has been. Maybe, she'll take a hard right and veer off to sea at the last minute. My prayers are with all of those in the path of this monster storm. It looks to be a long weekend for many.

Design Time

I really love designing logos. I enjoy staring at a blank screen, a blank scrap of paper, thinking, scribbling, interpreting, sketching. It is fun to begin to personify an idea, to bring out the personality, voice and feel of a person's company or hobby. There is such satisfaction in finding just the right image, just the perfect font, and color scheme that brings an idea to life.

I had a chance recently to work on an image for someone I met at the show in Pendleton, SC. She makes these fabulous, colorful, creative beads using a torch and glass rods. I just love her work! We sat down for an hour, looked at beads and talked about what she was thinking about her new image or logo.

She gave me a quick lesson and even allowed me to attempt to create a bead myself. She made it look so simple. Her work was graceful and lovely. My attempt was clumsy and required several restarts! You have to turn this rod continually while heating glass with a torch. Apparently, I can't do those 2 things consistently and simultaneously ( think pat your head and rub your tummy, or walk and chew gum). But with her patient tutoring, I ended up with a functional, although very basic bead.

After a few days of contemplation on our discussions, I began the process of creating her new look. I wanted to capture the creativity, the color, the elegance and vibrancy of her work. I tried various ideas, sketched this and that, and this is the final logo design.

Getting Ready for Lazy Dayz

I've had several requests for earrings since my initial batch sold out. It takes a little longer to do a pair of earrings, because I am hand cutting and painting them. The size, shape and image need to match fairly closely, so it just requires more precision than I am used to.

But, I finished my second batch, and have ordered the findings to make 48 more pairs. I would like to have enough to get through some of the big shows I have coming up this fall and winter.

Bravo Pantone!

This probably won't excite anyone that isn't a graphic artist who also enjoys dabbling in painting too. I was wandering through the near by Hobby Lobby (which is a hobby of mine), and I was surprised to see this display...

So cool! Maybe I've missed this, and it's been around awhile, but I'm guessing it's new. I've been specing Pantone colors for over 20 years in my real job, and now I can use them in my time off as well! Whoever at Pantone that figured out that this would be a good idea deserves a raise!

A Giveaway that Wasn't...

I have to admit that sometimes this whole blogging thing isn't easy.

I really enjoy writing, and I love working with glass and paint and metal. Sometimes, I have things that I really want to share, ideas I'm excited about, random thoughts, blessings, stuff like that. I don't worry so much that nobody may actually read what I'm throwing up on my blog, it's just kind of an outlet for me, a diary of sorts. I can refer back to posts to see the different shows we've gone to and people we've met. I can see what I've been working on at different times - keeping kind of a visual record.

I do try to find people out there who might be interested in fused glass, or enameling or painting, or CS Lewis, absolute truth, beauty, design, color and more. I link up with an occasional blog to share recipes and ideas.

I even linked up to a blog giveaway recently. I was a little disappointed that not a single person seemed interested in leaving a comment and being eligible to win a pendant. I'm not really sure why this happened. Maybe it was something about the way I phrased my give away. Maybe I wasn't giving away enough to make it worth the trouble. I will try it again soon and who knows, this time it might work.

There are times I wonder if a tree falls on a blog does it may any noise?

Pretty Pair

My friend from work is a videographer and photographer. He took a few of my glass pendants on a recent photo shoot. Below are a few of the pictures he took. If you are interested in his work, you can find him on the Model Mayhem site.

Beautiful Blue Giveaway

I ran by the glass shop last week to pick up a huge sheet of black glass. I got one that's almost as tall as I am...I use lots of black glass! While there, I peeked at other glass and ended up with 3 smaller pieces. I fell for this beautiful blue piece, and it just looked so nice with the brown and green too.

How would you like to win a beautiful blue fused glass pendant. To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment below describing what this lovely blue glass reminds you of and you are entered to win. Giveaway ends July 29, 2011 at 8pm. Only one entry per person please. Winner will be chosen at random. Make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you if you win.

The Display's the Thing!

I've been thinking that I needed a new way to display pendants at the shows we do. Previously, I laid the pendants out on Charger plates and along the table. The problem there is that people have to come up to the table and look down to see the pieces.

Not having a huge budget to work with, I have to think creatively. I found a cool little fold up, metal shelf at Hobby Lobby during 50% off week. I bought it and brought it home thinking I could figure out a way to stand pendants up on the 3 shelves.

Then, the thought occurred to me that If I could find another, there might be a way to suspend something between the two. On Friday, I hit 2 other Hobby Lobby's before scoring a second shelf. Then it was off to Lowes, where I wandered, aimlessly up and down the aisles looking for bits and pieces to turn my idea into reality.

I finally decided on 3 of those metal things that hook over the sides of a paint tray, a couple of metal rods, some "S" hooks and a can of black spray paint.

Once home, I started putting things together. I sprayed the silver paint trays black and hung them over metal rods suspended between the 2 shelves. I had to hole punch all my product cards, which took a while, but once that was done, I used the "S" hooks to hook pendants onto the paint trays. I cut some black foam core to make "easels" for the shelves and was able to stand pendants along those easels on each shelf. This worked okay, but I still need to figure out a better way to stand pendants on the shelves.

I did a test run in the middle of my living room, and we really tested it out at the SLAM show on Saturday. I discovered that day that my metal rods were too weak to hold everything without bowing in the middle. So, I'm contemplating a replacement for those. I think maybe a retractable curtain rod will work better. It would certainly fit in my car better, but I think it would be stronger too.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for improvement, I would love to hear them!

This butterfly pendant found a good home at the show. It went home with a sweet little girl from Florida who was visiting Greenville.

Poppies for Linda

I started this piece, actually 3 pieces for a friend at work. She really likes one that is hanging in a show here at work, but she needs a vertical in a very specific and unusual size. Rather than order a specially made board, I decided to try 3 square boards that she can hang as a group, or hinge together. This is still a work in progress, and I work a little on it most evenings. I will post the finished piece soon - I hope.

I finished this piece on Sunday. Below are shots of it after it was done.