buddha

•January 29, 2013 • 4 Comments

ah buddha, you are so lovely, with your cool blue and green tones.

buddha background

I am always struck by how dark the glass is while lying down. the circle in the corner is a roundel, darkish blue, and the piece next to it is purple, though here it looks black. His robes will be made form a sheet of glass that was found in an attic a couple houses down from me. The tenant was moving, and they found the old cardboard suitcase full of glass. He said his grandmother had done stained glass til she had a stroke about 40 years ago. It was a little treasure trove. Buddhas robes with be a rich swirled purple and clear with some streaks of periwinkle.

Other sheets of glass, from that cashe, were used for the whale in Hawaiian Fling, and the coral in Peace and Quiet.

The chunk of lime-ish green at his right knee is also old old glass. It is tightly packed with seeds, and is a very delicate green when the light passes through it. This piece will end up with several pieces of my favorite glass in it.

Progress will slow down now for a a few weeks. I am relocating my biz, and will be spending every spare second getting that situation painted and set up to move on the 16th of February. A lot of changes so far in 2013. Lets hope they stay positive.

 

latest commissions

•January 20, 2013 • Leave a Comment

I love having commissions,  but I love completing them almost as much, lol.

amandas tulip

 

amandas purple sunflower

 

I am officially done with the purple sunflower. I’ve done 5 of them now. enough.

Beginning Buddha

•January 20, 2013 • Leave a Comment

New piece:

buddha piece

 

Going to try something different this time around. Less structured. Oh yeah. I wrote all this already. So I’ll just share the photos.

buddha and globs

 

Going to use glass globs. And big chunks of color in the background. I decided to tackle the globs first, because they would be the most tedious to grind and wrap. I find that the foil sticks much better if i grind a line around them. Took less time than I thought, but still… thank goodness for books on tape.

Foiled them tonight. Which is why I am posting this actually. My hands were cramped into claws by the time I was done, lol. Typing actually stretches them out, helps me limber them up. I’m going to go park my fanny on the couch in a few minutes and watch some Castle… but wanted to do this first.

glass globs

 

165 of the little bastards. I’m getting more and more excited about as I go along. Yay!!

a departure

•January 13, 2013 • Leave a Comment

For 2013 I am going to step out of my comfort zone. That is kind what this years theme is… so why not in glass as well?

Normally, I like my pieces tightly structured. I like them to fit together like puzzles. I meticulously cut out the patterns to ensure that they fit together like a puzzle. But I am not going to do that with this next piece. The next oe is a buddha window. Last summer I had all these ideas that I wanted to get down on paper. I never really managed it. the transition from in my head onto paper is not an easy one. I do not have the drawing skill for it. I can copy things, but freehand creating is much more of a problem for me. The drawing of the pattern is, by far, the most difficult aspect of the project.

Coming in a close second, for difficultly, is color selection. This part also takes me forever. Not as long as the pattern making, but certainly longer han I feel it should.

So this time, I am shaking things up. There are some organic pieces on Etsy.com that move me. I don’t know about copyright laws and all that, so I will not include and image, but you can find it here. And here.

they are abstract pieces, like someone has a super cool piece of glass and just built a window around it, using organic shapes and no pattern. Glass globs and sliced geodes are often a component.

il_570xN.355735320_2lfr

Artist is rneely, from sandcarvigworks.com, out of Gand Junction, CO and Etsy.

This one I particularly like for several reasons. The artist gets all 3D, with the use of the crystal cluster, for one. He/she  adds in some wire swirlies, which is a current fondness of mine. And lastly, using the rolled edge of the white and grey opaque glass, in its natural state. All of these things make me like this piece. And the iridescent, swirly glass.  Love it.

So I am going to incorporate almost all of these elements in my buddha piece. The wire add-ons and the glass globs, for sure. Not the crystals or geodes. Though I might in a later piece. I’m still in the process of thinking things through, but I have the pattern copied, and am finishing up a quicky commish for someone. then it is time to grind a crap-ton of glass globs. ugh. It will be sensational when it is done.

Thanks for sticking around, and Happy 2013!!

Purple Sunflower GEGE

•December 31, 2012 • 1 Comment

Now that the Golden Elephant Gift Exchange has happened at my fam’s home, I can post on here what it was. And I am really really happy with it. (disclaimer: inspired by pieces in Curliosity, the book).

GEGE 2012 purple sunflower

 

LOVE THIS!! love it love it love it. which is good, because I just took two more orders for  it. well, the small version. This one went to my lovely cousin P, who was so enamored of it in its drawn stage, and who has always been so enthusiastic about my glass in general. I am so glad that she just happened to pick my gift <wink>.

Still having those photo issues. Took a bunch of pix of this, and I thought they looked great on the camera, but when I downloaded them, they were yellow. F*ing bulb. I signed up for a photography class at the parks & rec dept in RB. He said he was going to spend a good amount of time on lighting. It is actually a class specifically for dSLRs. which is good, because I don’t even use my dSLR… which is a sad sad thing. To have spent all that money on it and never ever use it. ok, once in a blue moon I use it. Its a 10 week class, so not too long. here’s hoping I get somethign out of it, lol.

The wire work is looking good, right?!

photos and lighting

•December 18, 2012 • 1 Comment

i am having a total dilemma in regards to lighting and photographing my glass. some stuff photographs easily. Other pieces, not so much. It seems that no matter what I try, I cannot get the lighting right.

Natural light is the best, and of course, the hardest to manuever. And it changes with the time of the year. Late spring is perfect on my side porch and front window. The light is strong enough to illuminate, but not so harsh as to wash out the finer details. Other than late spring, it is a crap shoot. Sometimes direct lighting is good, though there are times I have to filter it with paper. The best stuff I have found is tissue paper, but it is so fragile, and I have het to find it in rolls, so it has folds in it when I use it. I also have a roll of thin butcher paper, white, that is very good. But still, it is a problem.

Amazon has these cool lighting set ups with a light tent and lights, for photography, which are great, but too small. I imagine i will try to rig something up in the garage in the warmer weather. the garage is now at 40 degree for the duration of winter. ok, they don’t have them anymore, but they directed me to this website, which is awesome!

speaking of winter, we had snow a couple days ago!! the last time it snowed was Feb 2011. it was lovely.

snow dec 2012this was right as it got going. It ended up snowing for a couple hours, and sticking for most of the day. which was super great. cold as hell though, lol.

Back to lighting. I can take cool, wacky, non-authentic-representational photos. Like this:

sunflower cool effectsor this:

effects flowerboth of which I think are super cool photos. But they don’t look remotely like the actual pieces. sigh.

White Elephant Gift Exchange

•December 11, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Joined with a gift exchange for the Henna group I met in October. That I belong to. My giftee is one of the instructors, whom I admire very much. I even have a little henna crush on her. Her work is beautiful, she is a wonderful person… And I am very glad I got her.

I decided to do a piece of glass for her. The dollar limit is $20, so that is out the window right away. I didn’t want it to be too over the top, so I chose one of the Curliosity pieces to copy. Its small, maybe 7 wide, by 10 or so tall. It came together pretty quick, it is only 19 pieces, but the wire-work… that took like 5 hours, lol. I used the lead free solder on the drops, cuz I read somewhere that that is mostly what that solder is used for, decorative balls and such, because is has zero play in the melt temp.

victorias gift detailStill need to polish it. Then into the mail it goes. I am hoping to do that today, but it probably won’t happen. I am having some fairly serious pain in my shoulder and elbow, and now my neck, so will probably not aggravate it with polishing.

I really  like it though, I hope she does too. I was reading some of the comments on the henna con page, regarding the gifts, and i think a large number of them are going to be hand-made. so I should be fine. ok, typing is aggravating the shoulder, had a good twinge,  off I go.

 
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