My Favorite Time of the Year

Yep, Halloween's a' comin'! I couldn't wait until October to post these, so here we go....












You can find most of these items in my etsy shop. Happy Halloween!!!!

Latest....

I received a custom order fused glass guitar from a guy who is in the music industry - very exciting! He's an entertainment agent and has worked with some big names - Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum, Randy Travis, Kansas, Rascal Flats, to name a few. He was looking for a red, white and blue guitar and I came up with this for him. My guitars are one of my favorite things to make. Everything is glass, including the strings and I love coming up with new designs.



Next, a coffee tile for a good friend of mind, Jamie, from Glasstastic Treasures. She does lampwork beads, among other things, and I'm always ogling over her things and have quite a collection going of her beads. We did a trade - I made her a coffee tile for her kitchen, and she came up with a couple BEAUTIFUL lampwork pendants for me. Here is one of them:



And finally, some fun, summer pendants:

Being Green

Well, I skipped April on blogging - let's move right along to May! The 3rd Annual Eco-Chic Craftacular put on by Etsy Team Columbus is just around the corner. This is my 2nd year doing this show and I canNOT wait! The shows goal is to have vendors challenge themselves to bring a more “green” concept to some of their wares. Of course I recycle almost all of my glass that I use. I have a HUGE bin of bits & pieces of broken glass from my bigger projects that I incorporate into lots of my jewelry and other art pieces. This year, I decided to take it one step further and create something totally different that will go along with the "green" theme. I LOVE Starbucks - who doesn't? All those pretty gift cards seem like such a waste to throw away. I started saving them last year thinking I would make something with them, but not sure what. I had quite a collection - not just Starbucks, but stores, restaurants, etc. as well. About a month ago, I came up with the idea to make them into key chains. I was toying around with different ideas on how to cut them into shapes, when duh, it was right there in front of me. The ring saw I use to cut my glass surely would cut through hard plastic, right? Yep - it did, and I have been obsessed with making these ever since. Now I have a local Starbucks saving me customer's used gift cards they don't want and I have parents, friends & family jumping on board and saving me gift cards as well. I honestly need to start getting my fused glass creations ready for the show, but I can't seem to put these key chains down. They are so fun to make and just when I think I've seen the cutest gift card, someone hands me another one that tops it. Some of the shapes I've come up with are hearts, dogs, squirrels, hedgehogs, bunnies, dinosaurs, birds, whales, turtles, butterflies.... I started making these a couple weeks ago and already have 50+ made for the show (and TONS of gift cards still to use!).


So, they're super cute and you want one, right? I'll have them at the Craftacular show - here's the deets:

Saturday May 14th 10am - 6pm
Sunday May 15th 12pm - 5pm
Whetstone Recreation Center
3923 N High St
Columbus, OH 43214
http://www.columbuscraftacular.com/

Latest

So much going on..... so little time to blog. Clearly blogging has not been my forte lately, so here is what I have been working on over the last couple of months. Enjoy!

Fused Glass Circle Tile


Pretty Poppies


Bird in a Cage


Tile Art


Dandelion Dish


Custom Order


Colorful Dish


Wedding Couple


And just in time for St. Paddy's Day:

Lucky Leprechaun Pendant

Parting is such sweet sorrow....

Down in my wee little studio, I've been keeping this gingerbread house that I made out of a box when my son was just 1-1/2 yrs. old (he's 8 now). I was really into photographing his every move and pretty much made props all the time and posed the poor child in more ways than you can imagine. I've parted with most of the props but could not come to get rid of this one. It took so long glueing every piece of hard candy on it (yes, its real candy), painting all the icing using puffy paints (I swear I probably went through a dozen bottles), and even making little gingerbread men to go along with the house. I was looking at it stored way back in the closet and saw how the candy was getting a bit gross. Apparently having hard candy stored for over six years in a closet where the room gets hot from time to time in the summer months, takes a toll on the candy. In fact, there are now drippings on the carpet from where the hard candy must have started to melt. Good times.

So, I decided it was time. I brought it upstairs to await its destruction. I got busy doing something else and turned around to see my other baby making a new home for herself! Sorry Stella - trash day is in a few days - have fun with it while you can.



Oh, and by-the-way, here is MY baby at 1-1/2 yrs. old:

Custom Guitar

I've been busy this holiday season with shows, crafts, parties, etc. I wanted to take a moment to share a custom fused glass guitar that I made. Here is the original guitar and below is the reproduction in fused glass. The strings are glass as well. Its been a while since I've made a guitar and I really love the way this one turned out!

Beaded Pin

A couple months ago I had a listing in my etsy shop for several dichroic fused glass cabochons that were sitting in my studio, awaiting someones artistic vision. Well, I had a lady snag them up straight away, and boy did she ever have an artistic vision that I never would have imagined. Grace, of Grace Beading, sent me her blog post and picture of the lovely beaded pin she made with one of the cabs she bought from me. I could NOT get over it. She is a fabulous beader and makes the most beautiful beaded creations.


You can read her blog post about it here and also see her other fabulous creations.

Recent works & such....

Here are some pictures of what I've been working on in the last couple of months, and since I've been neglecting my blog, I decided to have a give-away for a fabulous Halloween skull pendant, in plenty of time for Halloween. Here's what to do: simply leave a comment here on what type of fused glass creation you would like to see come to life - the sky's the limit. Deadline for entries will be midnight EST Sept. 26th. - I'll pick one lucky winner on Sept. 27th to choose from one of the fused glass skull pendants pictured here in the last photo. Make sure to let me know how to contact you if you are the lucky winner and which skull you would like. Good luck!

Exquisite Corpse

definition: a collective collage of words or images called the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse). Based on an old parlor game invented by Surrealists in the 1900's, this was played by several people, each of whom would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next player for his contribution.

With art, this method is a collaborative experiment among artists exploring the element of chance during the creative process, in which mistakes and unexpected outcomes can generate interesting ideas and images.

I was asked to participate in a jewelry exquisite corpse with some of my fellow Etsy Team Columbus members. Our collaborations will be profiled in a publication with photographs and chronicles of each creation as they develop. The end result: a jewelry piece $75 to $100 in value and this will be auctioned for charity.

I was the second collaborator of our piece. Karla, from Adornments by Karla, started the piece by creating 26 ½ inches of silver plated wire chain containing 51 individual semi-precious stones and minerals.

I added a fused glass pendant that I created by hand-cutting a lavender piece of glass and then layering small strips of clear glass on top that were also hand-cut by me and then fused together. I'm now passing it along and can't wait to see the outcome of our piece.

Rindy's Rally

A good friend from my high school was just recently diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo a full mastectomy this week. She just started a new job and is not eligible for paid time off. She is estimated to be off work for 4-6 weeks. The classes of Reynoldsburg High School are coming together to have a fundraiser for her at Romeo's Pizza, 80 W. Church Street, Pickerington, OH on Tuesday, May 18, 2010. The event is from 6pm-9pm and tickets are $10.00, which includes pizza and pop. $8 of the $10 raised by each ticket goes directly to Rindy. Also, a portion of everything Romeo's sells that day will be going to Rindy too. So, if you are in the area.... you have to eat dinner, right? Stop by and get a pizza and you'll be helping out a very good friend of ours and supporting a great cause.

There will also be a silent auction as well. I couldn't think of a better way to donate a piece of my art to this great cause. Reynoldsburg High School's mascot is a raider (Reynoldsburg Raiders) and I thought it would be fun to create that with fused glass for the auction. I think I chose to make this because I really feel that this event shows how our class is coming together to support a fellow classmate/friend.


Now, on a personal note...... breast cancer sucks! I am a huge advocate of breast cancer awareness - my mom has been a survivor now for 10 years and cancer has affected many family members and friends. The best way to fight breast cancer is to catch the disease in its early stages. When breast cancer is detected early (localized stage), the 5-year survival rate is 98%. I actually have to thank Rindy - because of her, I got my first mammogram. So for my dear friend, hang in there, we're all pulling for you!