Trip to Cary

This past weekend, I was able to go to Cary, NC for their annual Lazy Daze Festival. This was the one that was cancelled last year when Hurricane Irene blew into North Carolina.

It was a great festival! There were over 380 artist from all across the county! The weather was perfect. It turned out overcast, breezy and cool. From what I heard, that was a big change from the usual 95+ weather that they usually have for the day.

My mom working my booth.

I was blessed to have my mom and mom-in-law along with me. They were a huge help, and I could not have handled the crowd without them. I think of all the festivals I have done, this was the most well attended. I think the cool weather was an incentive to be there even in the afternoon hours.

Below are a few recent fused glass pendants that I took to Cary...thankfully some of them didn't make the trip back home.

 

 

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Classic Case of Burnout

I've never really understood the term "burnout" until recently. I was working really hard during the fall and early winter to keep up with the various shows and festivals I had scheduled. When May came, I kind of just stopped working for a while, and a while became longer than I originally thought it would be. I was distracted by all the end of the year activities at my real job, and so I thought as soon as May was over I would get back to it. May ended, and I just wasn't feeling it. That's when I realized I had a classic case of burnout. I looked at the glass stacked around my garage and my heart just wasn't in it. I kept waiting to get inspired, and it didn't happen.

In the mean time, I picked up sketching on the iPad. A fun diversion, but the glass still waited. I didn't schedule any shows in June or July - lots of time to recover the glass groove. My next show isn't until late August, I have a pretty large inventory and I'm still coasting along.

I've decided that I will just muddle through the burnout. I will take baby steps and see if inspiration returns. I willed myself to get started this past week when I was off for the holiday. I moved my ring saw out of my very hot garage and into the dining room. I gradually started and began to enjoy working. Still, I crave something fresh, a new way of working, something new to try...but at least I'm working again.

My mind is working on new ideas. I have a few things percolating that I want to try, a few experiments to get to. I wish I could say I'm truly motivated, but at least I see a little spark. In the meantime, I will keep working. I want some new, fresh pieces for my upcoming festivals.

Below are a few of the pendants I created last week. Overall, I'm pleased with most of them. When working with the ring saw, you have to carefully clean each cut piece before firing. For some reason, even though I washed the pieces a few of them still had the debris on them - this was only apparent after firing...so I lost a few in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Little Rusty

It seems forever since I was able to work on anything new. May is always so hectic because of my job with the school district. I try to keep my schedule clear of festivals and other events that require me to work on glass. So, when I pulled out my glass this past weekend, I didn't really know where to start. I felt out of sorts and rusty, so, I just willed myself to begin simply.

Almost all of my cut floral pendants are gone, so I decided to work on a simple group of those. I enjoy wearing and get lots of compliments on my daisy with the lime green center, so I created three of those. I did a few other color variations and used some scraps to created a red and black piece. It was good to get back up and running!

 

 

 

 

Stained Glass

Saturday was a rare day for me. I don't have any impending shows, so I was able to take it easy and do things like clean up my work space. It felt so good to be able to organize my area and my thoughts. I am looking forward to having a little time to experiment and do some of the things That have been percolating in my mind for a while. I did do a couple of small firings on Saturday. I was playing with flat dichroic on a black base with no clear cap. These were 2 of my favorite pieces. They remind me of lovely stained glass windows, I love the geometric patterns and the way the dichroic looks to be softly glowing from within.

This one is a little different because I put a cap of clear glass on it before firing.

As you can see, my work space seems to get pretty chaotic. I bake glass the same way I bake a cake...stuff everywhere. This photo was taken before my weekend clean up and organization. It is much better now...but not for long, I am sure.

 

 

Ribbons of Love

Mother, the ribbons of your love are woven around my heart. ~Author Unknown

Mother's Day is coming up in a few weeks. In honor of my wonderful mother, I am giving away a pendant and a $20 Target gift card on my LeisaWorks Facebook page.

All you need to do to enter is click over to my page and leave a comment about mothers under the post featuring the photo above. On May 1, I plan on doing a random drawing. So, if you would like to win a gift for yourself or a deserving mom, enter now.

My lovely, talented, kind and giving mama helping me out at a recent show.

 

Patchwork

Last week on Spring Break, I had a chance to visit my favorite glass store. I picked up a huge sheet of black glass. It's like a staple for me...the base that anchors the colors I enjoy playing with. I also came away with a few vibrant sheets as well.

 

 

 

To tack or not to tack...

Saturday, I was straightening up my work area and ran across some transparent glass that I had purchased a while ago. I sat down and started experimenting with the colors - layering blues and greens, yellows and browns. I pieced together a few small pendants and prepared to fire them.

I had to decide if I would fully fuse them or tack fuse them. I went the tack route, although, I put a few aside because I really want to see what happens to the transparent glass when the pieces fully fuse together.

Tack fusing occurs at a lower temperature than full fuse. For me, it's between 1300 and 1400 degrees. Basically, it's fusing the separate pieces together, but stopping before the pieces lose their actual shapes. It gives you a kind of layered look. I keep a close eye on the pieces in the kiln and stop the process when the desired look is achieved.

Here are the pieces from the weekend.

 

 

 

 

Mystery and Surprise

Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise. - Julia Cameron

One of the really fun parts of working with glass is the moment when you open up the cooled kiln. The pieces go into the kiln and all sorts of happy accidents and mysterious reactions happen in the intense heat - colors deepen, edges soften, shapes shift. It takes from an hour to several hours to fire a load of pendants depending on which kiln I use. After the firing is complete, I have to let the kiln cool before opening, that takes another 8 hours or so. Saturday, I created a big batch and fired them in my biggest kiln. It was like opening gifts on Christmas morning when I got to open the lid this morning. Below are pictures of the pieces inside the kiln and then some close-ups of the finished pendants.