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.

Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year! It's been a very busy month, and I've been neglecting my blog. My first resolution in 2013 is to update my blog more often! I have still been working on a mosaic a week and, in fact, have made many more than four in December.

But back to my mosaics...my show is going well at Good Cup Downtown. One of the mosaics I made this month was a Christmas tree which I loved. Someone else loved it too and bought it.

I also made another mirror to hang over the fireplace after I sold the English transferware mirror. So that's all for now. I have a persistent cat on my lap wanting attention so I'll give in and pet him.

Transferware Mirror

News - Good and Bad

The good news is that I hung my ongoing show at the Good Cup Downtown. For the month of December, I have both sides of the fireplace. In January another artist will use the space on the right side of the fireplace. The owners of the Good Cup on the mesa bought this coffee house in downtown Santa Barbara. It's located right next to the Fiesta Theater. It was a bit hard to have enough small items that would fit in the shelves but I think it looks pretty good and hopefully the mosaics will sell.


The bad news is that the Poria incrassata - house-eating fungus - has returned to the studio. It was just two years ago that my wonderful carpenter Jim replaced the whole left side and the back wall. Now hopefully we've caught it early and will only need to replace the left side of the door.

The first clue that it's in the wall is in late November or very early December -when this pretty mushroom-like bloom shows up between the seams of the wood. Then it's time to start removing wood to see how much the fungus has eaten. It feeds on wet wood (my fault, no doubt) and turns it to mush.

One good note about the studio is that I have it set up inside with all my tools and a large work table. I should have taken pictures before we started tearing out the walls but I'm sure Jim will once again fix it and I'll post new pictures.

Kitties and Mosaics

Here is the cutest thing happening right now. The little black and white boys asleep together on the couch. And see all the mosaics hanging on the wall. There was supposed to be a Holiday Boutique last Saturday but we were rained out. I believe it will be rescheduled for this Saturday. So I have a few new items. There's a mirror below with stained glass and ball chain. I love the way ball chain can outline areas of glass.

On the left is a Christmas mirror with a cute kitty wooden ornament. I used Martha Stewart's glitter paints to brighten up the grout on the green glass and the red glass. 

And on the right is a spiral using plates and optic drops to define the spiral.

The studio is just about ready for outdoor mosaicing in the winter. I have a nice oil-filled heater and my great handyman, Jim, installed the fluorescent light fixture over the work table. I'm moved a lot of my tools, saws, drills and cutting devices out there so now I just need to start working! I'll send a picture soon.

Grouting mishaps

Robin grouts herself.

Skull finished!

Very hard to grout. I think I'll stick to 2D mosaics.

Hacienda Mosaico

I'm here in puerto Vallarta at laurel Skye's workshop on skulls. Fabulous!

Kitties in the Window

I'm working on a mosaic of two kitties sitting in a window looking out. I'm still not sure about the background and sky. Are there hills? Is it night or day? Should there be a sun instead of stars? I'm using Mexican smalti. I cut the two kitties out of a trivet with my ring saw. And I like the millefiori flowers in the grass.

We'll see what happens next!