catching up on some things

•August 30, 2012 • 13 Comments

I believe that I never posted a finished pic of the wave lampshade, so here it is:

 

The last couple Farmer’s Markets have been good for glass. I sold both Fish Windsock pieces. To the same lady, lol. She bought the one, told her husband about it (he is out on the fire-line here in NorCal, where we have had a fairly hard fire season so far. the poor guy hasn’t been home in a month.) and he said “buy the other one”. Yay!! I think I am going to need to do another…

the paperback windows aren’t getting enough comments…I think I might need to make them a smidge larger.

I had said that if I didn’t make $50 at this market, I wasn’t going to go back in Sept (there are 3 weeks left in the season), and not including the fish, I made $53. Plus, the lovely ladies from the historical society came over at the end last night, and offered me their space for the remainder of the markets. I currently am on a side street, not the main drag. Their space is towards the inside end of the main street and is in shade most of the market. Yay!! so I will relocate next week. See how that turns out.

Here is some of my other art, what I do at the Markets.

love the henna. so fun. ok. time to shower and head to work…

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stuck

•August 26, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I’m having a little artist block. i want to do these small windows but I have an idea about painting on the glass on the inside pieces. but I am also wanting to do this buddha piece i have been drawing. i have the buddha piece mostly drawn out full-sized, but the piece of glass I want to use isn’t big enough for the background. and if i make it smaller… it looses its detail. and that is a full-sized piece. so I thought, well, I’ll use the cool background glass as the centerpiece for a small paperback window and draw buddha on it with glass paint… but I am not loving how that is turning out. maybe i need to change to the reclining buddha for this one. or make something different.

just finished the redo/repair of the dark coven piece. it is framed up in oak, and has a clear glass background of swirly glass. that should support it. used the framing material from Northern Hardwoods Frames, for the first time. It is certainly hard wood, lol. I had to glue and clamp that sucker four times before all 4 corners were joined and screwed. i also abandoned my cross-nailing technique. the wood was just to hard. so I inserted long screws horizontally. Oh, and if you order a frame from them, only order the copperfoil rabbet width if you are not putting any came around the outside edge. it will be an incredibly tight fit. I had to file down my corner solders almost flat. my bad, but I thought i would share that will you. I’ll hang it a bit later and take photos and put them up.

Posted in Commissions, Cool glass, Custom, Technique

Constructing the pyramids

•August 13, 2012 • 1 Comment

I know everything would go so much smoother if I read the instructions. Just I don’t. So far so good.

Taped everything together, tack soldered the outer corners. Inserted the lamp strut thingy ( i love it when i can use the technical term for a part =), tack soldered it, then soldered the inside seams, and added more solder to the strut thingy seam. I kinda want to drop balls of solder along the edges, I like that look, but once I start, it will take forever and use up a ton of solder. Plus I am not 100% sure how to do it. I could always go to the hardware store and buy some chain and add that. But again, i think you have to tin it, and I have just never had any luck wit that. My tinning always turns out lumpy and discolored. No likey. So maybe I’ll just put a fat bead down the sides and be done with it. Anyway, it is coming along great!!!

so stoked!!!

Posted in Cool glass, Custom, Inspiration, Patterns
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wave lampshade

•August 12, 2012 • 3 Comments

got on a tear last night and did the majority of the soldering on the lampshade panels. It looks so bitchin’!!

I’ll Finish it up tonight. Been thinking about how to do it. Last time, I taped it on the outside. This time, I believe I will tape the inside and solder the outside first. I have a jig to hold the thing square, and a box of rice to set it in. So we will see. So excited!!

Posted in Cool glass, Custom

paperback windows

•August 9, 2012 • 1 Comment

Did the Farmer’s Market last night, with the new windows. I am calling them paperback windows because they are the size of a paperback book. For full disclosure, they are copies of the work of M. Skip Vasquez. I was trolling etsy one night and stumbled on a book of hers, called Curliosity. It intrigued me, was affordable, so I purchased it. It arrived the day before I drove to the coast, so I took it with me to peruse on the beach. Honestly, it blew my mind. Gave me an entire path to follow.

I have been wanting to do some small things, things that aren’t crazy expensive, that I could have with me at Farmer’s Market, or the Art Walk Event in November. (which I need to begin planning for). these little windows fill that need, plus they use up scrap glass. I have tons of scrap glass, too big to just toss, but too small to really get any useful piece out of.

Anyway, here they are. photos are not great. one of these days, i will build that light box… met a guy who takes beautiful photos. he teaches a digital photo class and a software class. begins in December or January. going to take them so I can learn out to use my fancy camera.

anyway. windows.

LOVE the bottom edge on this one. the rolled, natural edge. I am going to be using these edges much more.

the sun was horrible at farmer’s market. i had a new space, a one-time space, on the main street. omg!! it was like being on the surface of the sun. terrible. If i get offered a washington street spot again, I am going to be prepared. horrible! traffic was definitely  better. had many more people asking about the spa services, esp the permanent cosmetics. yay!

ok, time for shower and work!

Posted in Cool glass, Inspiration, Patterns

wave lampshade

•July 31, 2012 • Leave a Comment

this lampshade has gone thru more incarnations than anything else i have EVER done. but i think i am golden now.

need to fix one little piece  on side #4. maybe that whole seam there, but all in all. i like it.

 

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ms. popular

•July 25, 2012 • 1 Comment

for some bizarre reason (maybe moola?) a bunch of new peeps have landed on my tiny section of the internuts. Welcome to you all, and thank you so much for your likes and comments. i feel like ms. popular, lol.

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credit

•July 22, 2012 • 4 Comments

i am the first to admit that i look for inspiration via the internet or pattern books, or what have you. occasionally, something pops into my head, and I draw it out. but even then, I often look to existing pattern books for help. example: the Hawaiian fling piece. i thought of the concept, but I used an existing pattern for the whale. the sea and shore is all  me, though, and I am really proud of it. the clouds i took from another pattern.

but normally i credit these sources.

I was trolling through etsy, looking for a piece that I unforgivably didn’t mark as a favorite. I want to copy the border in my next buddha piece. can’t find it, can’t find it… trolling trolling trolling thru 20 pages of stained glass panels on etsy. btw, there is some really phenomenal art on there. i come across a pattern i love, but have never done. bunch of koi in water, with ripples and bubbles. love it. have set out to do it a couple of times, and gotten distracted onto another project.

but I still have the pattern. so here is this gorgeous piece, really pretty. its larger and has more fish than my pattern, and the artist added a dragonfly in the center as a 3D accent. its super cool. so i send the artist a note saying i have the pattern but have never managed to get it done and I love  her treatment. she sends me this reply:

“Thanks glasswench. You probably have a similar pattern but not the same one. This one is my own design that I created about a year ago. There is one like it out there, but with simpler fish, fewer fish, and no dragonfly. At any rate thanks for the kind words.”

huh. this confounded me cuz i thought the pattern i have is pretty similar. so i hunted it up.

She is right in that there are fewer fish and no dragonfly in the pattern I have. but otherwise… it is the same pattern!! the fish are exactly the same, look at the tail f the one going out of the frame. it is the same! the water lines are exactly the same. the placement of the fish is different and there certainly are more fish in her panel, but come on!! that is totally splitting hairs, and disingenuous. she altered the shape of the heads slightly, but it’s the same pattern, and she only  expanded on it. oh, and I have had this pattern since the first year I was working glass, 2005. it is one of the first patterns I was really excited about. i think i was distracted by my first Ganesha window, and that is why i never did it.

for some reason this really fries my ass. i wish wish wish i knew where i got the original piece. I call *bullshit* on your sistah!

Posted in Inspiration, Patterns
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Peace & Quiet

•July 15, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Natural light above, with diffuser background below.

 

she picks it up in a couple of hours. very stoked. today is a day of finsihing, the sod is in as well.

what in the world am i going to do with myself now? lol.

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soldering iron saga, continued

•July 11, 2012 • 1 Comment

still having trouble with the soldering iron. I have gone back and forth with the manufactureer of my iron, Hakko, and I think i have gotten the problem ironed out (pun intended), lol.

I never took chemistry in HS so I might be a bit fuzzy on the details, but… it seems to be oxidation. And there is a high probability that my flux is crap. the flux is crazy old, so not shocking that it might be contaminated or no longer effective. I have no idea if flux has a shelf life. All the articles I have read suggest that you “try several and find which one works best for you”. I LOVE this piece of advice because it seems to be helpful when in fact, it says absolutely nothing!

apparently Lead-free solder is all the rage. All PC and stuff. Whatever. I use the leaded stuff. Lead- free seems to be a pain in the butt. I might have a completely differrent attitude when I am 75 and I cannot remember my name form all the lead I ihaled or was absorbed through my skin… but that is 30 yrs from now and I’ll deal with it then. or not, as the case may be. I use a respirator rated for lead, and I use gloves when I handle the lead.

OK, just wanted to post that, and a cool link I found. Didn’t read all of it, but will later. Gotta get in the shower and go to work, be a responsible adult…

and thanks, Daniel, for linking to my blog. I’ll link to yours int he next post. That way we can pat each other on the back =)

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