Glass Studio

Yesterday I cleaned up the entire (almost) glass studio and thought this would be a good time to take some pictures. First I want to show you my constant pesky companions. Both boys delight in jumping up on whatever I'm working on, tail in my face. On the left is Biscotti, and on the right is his brother Prancer Dancer. It's hard to tell them apart unless you're their mommy. After that you'll see the studio as it will never look for at least another year when I get around to cleaning it again.

Also blogspot has its own mind with the pictures so if they are oddly positioned on the page, they didn't start that way.

Biscotti

Prancer Dancer
The table he's sitting on is a very nice oak table
I bought from a fellow on the street. The top was
marred so mosaicing it with Mexican tiles
worked out very well.

Usually I stand at this table but sometimes I'll sit on the
mosaiced kitty stool. 

Outside

This is the view looking in the front  door. There is also
another door in the back. The grinders and ring saws
are outside. I need a bigger studio.

Ipod, and storage for glass and molds.
I need more of these nice cubbies
my handyman made for me.

Non-fusible glass. I do my best to keep them separate
but since mosaics need small pieces,
I often bring them out here to cut on the Beetle Bits system.

My Paragon Caldera kiln on the left and the Paragon
Trio on the right. I have a Paragon Fusion 16 on
order! Since I only have juice enough for two
kilns, I'll move the small one into another area.

Beetle Bits system. It may not be called exactly that but I couldn't
do without it. 

Right side in closet. The molds on the
lower shelf are too big for the other holders. 

Left side of the closet. I buy these white glass holders
at Michaels. They are perfect for holding and making the glass
easy to see. 

An iridized glass plate right out of the kiln this morning. 

Studio update

Well, it's about time I posted to my blog. It's been a very busy month of January and so far February! My show at the Good Cup Downtown is going well, and I invite you all to stop by for coffee. It's right next to the Fiesta theater, 918 State St.

I have applied for membership the Santa Barbara Studio Artists group, and one of the criteria was to send pictures of my studio. So I tidied it up a bit and took some pictures. I have a kiln now and, even though I'm a complete novice, I've been having fun testing and fusing. I bought the Paragon Caldera XL kiln which has three shelves that are 7" x 7" each. I've rounded some millefiori and fused some little bottles.

Picture and text placement is having its own way so I'm just going to leave everything as is. Over on the right is a wonderful rotating cabinet that I believe was made for CD cases. It is perfect for all my glass beads! Below are various views of the studio. I dare not move too much because then all the pictures will rearrange themselves so I'm going to post this for now and then tell you more about what's up in the next post. See you soon!

Biscotti watches the upheaval

Glass storage in indoor studio

Millefiori too close together in the kiln!

Here is the little kiln. I also plan to do some jewelry in it. Before I knew better, I tried firing some millefiori in a non-stainless steel bezel. That didn't work very well.

Exciting Happenings

Here is the back room at Max's Cucina where Marie Arnold (collage), Jacqueline Vanderlaan (oil) and I have our show this month and next. The show started last week and we had a very lovely reception on Monday evening. The picture on the left has two of my mosaics on either side of the big mirror and one of Marie's collages on the breakfront.

Below is another mosaic of mine at the show. It's made of Italian smalti and ball chain.

So far three of my pieces have sold.

On the right is a hen I'm working on as a thank-you for friends of mine who put on a fabulous party last weekend. They have a very upscale chicken coop with several handsome chickens. The mosaic on the right is being modeled after a photo my friend Gary took of one of the hens.










And finally we have a picture of Prancer Dancer Valentine Vanderwilt looking rakish with an eye patch. Unfortunately he never backs away from a fight, and yesterday I noticed that his left eye wasn't opening completely. I could see he had swelling over his eye so I took him to the vet and she operated this morning. Not only was there the bite over his eye but you can just see the red string on his side where there was another abscess. The vet found bite wounds from all four teeth there! So his roaming is curtailed for a few days until I pull out the drains.

Paradise in Eugene, Oregon

I just returned from Eugene, Oregon where I took a three-day mosaic class from Chris Emmert of chrisemmert.com. I had the best time and learned soooo much from her. First we stopped at the rock store and looked at all the kinds of rock that would make good mosaic pieces. Then I learned about gluing techniques, supplies to use, how to use epoxy grout and so many other techniques that will help me with my mosaic adventures. She is an excellent teacher, a lot of fun and very, very creative and prolific at making all sorts of mosaics.

And...Chris made us sangria with gin. My kind of teacher! Above I am showing off all the pieces I made; a cat face, two hearts, a red flower on a tiny rock and a three dimensional piece with electronic parts or gizmos as she calls them. Below is the cat face grouted.

Here is Chris Emmert working on a rock during our workshop. On the right is a beautiful stone with her house numbers. It will go out in the front of the house after she finishes some other mosaic work on her porch. I highly recommend her classes to anyone who wants to learn about mosaics.

Chris' House Number

Chris Emmert

House Number

Here is the house number Christmas gift in place. Isn't this the most beautiful setting?

A Nice Day to Grout

I did some grouting this morning. I wanted to do them all in charcoal grout so I mixed up a batch, went outside to my grouting table on the lawn and started in.

The first was the mosaic of the Calla Lilies. I think the charcoal grout looks good. And I like the way it makes the black arch area all black.

Next I did the odd-looking Rex Begonia mosaic. It still doesn't look like Begonia leaves but the grout did tie it all together. I like the way the charcoal looks in the green border. It actually looks like a pink and green bird in flight. Perhaps I'll rename it!

Finally I did four light switch covers that I glued with glitter tiles. As I mentioned one other time, the glitter makes the picture look kind of fuzzy, but once more, I like the way the charcoal grout makes them pop. I may keep one for myself!

Mosaic Landscape and Cute Cats

I seem to really like sunbursts. This mosaic has no real goal other than I cut the beautiful red circle out with my circle cutter and then thought I should make a sun to go with it.

I also bought some rock slices at the SAMA convention and have been wanting to use them in a mosaic. So here was a good opportunity. I added them along with a tree with millefiori pieces to look like apples or flowers. Below the piece is starting to come together.

When I went outside to take a picture, Biscotti and Prancer hopped up on the table with me and posed adorably.

Biscotti and Prancer

Mosaics and a Dog!

It was hot all the holiday weekend here in Santa Barbara, so the cats and I stayed inside and did some mosaicing. This doggy is owned by a friend of a friend of mine. Her name is Maggie, and she is very sweet. I thought I'd do a mosaic of her but as you see, I've done the easier parts, the area around Maggie, first. I cut pieces of blue stained glass for her eyes and then used a Sharpie to put in the pupil because I always struggle with pet eyes, and I've been told that is one of the most important parts of the mosaic.

Gary's Crows

My dear friend Gary is celebrating his birthday this week, and we had a surprise birthday party for him at his house last evening! His blog is http://birdcamoncheltenham.blogspot.com/ where he posts pictures of all the birds and wildlife that venture in front of his live camera.

Last week he posted this picture of a crow that had been eating (too much) bird seed at his platform feeder. So I made him a birthday rock with a crow in his favorite colors; blue and green. A black crow mosaic would have been pretty boring.

Check out his blog of really great pictures of birds, rabbits, coyotes, skunks and much more.

New Watering Can Commission

I have another commission from my client who has already purchased five watering cans. This one will be a gift for his landscaper. She picked this can out of several I had because she liked the yellow spout. But she likes more cottage garden colors (the client tells me) so I'm thinking dark blue on the bottom and then gradually working through lighter blue, turquoise, lavender and finally a lavender/yellow color that will tie in with the spout. Well, that's my initial thought but who knows what it will become. I'll post work-in-progress photos.