It's April!

And today is my birthday so I HAD to post something. So what's new on the art front?

Walls at Salon Patine

Well, Gary and I hung our show at Salon Patine. It was a lot of work. They have half the hanging system. The top part is there, but you have to fashion your own hanging piece from fish line! And they have so many large walls that the pieces look tiny. That round mirror on the white wall is 20" across. Gary hung 10 beautiful fused glass plates. I hung 36 mosaics. And there is still room for more.

Next Sunday, April 21st, is our reception from 1-4 pm. If you're in the neighborhood, please stop by.

Gary's Fused Glass Plate

The plate on the right is Gary's "Iridized Zebra Stripes" at Salon Patine. It is stunning! And below is another piece of mine. I cut the rose center with my ring saw from a beautiful English plate. Some would cry "sacrilege" but the plate was purchased at a thrift store for less than $10. I had no choice but to buy it and incorporate it into a mosaic!

I'm going to stop now because I also have a Begonia meeting here on Sunday. So far we have 45 people attending, and I have work to do in the garden.

See you next time!

March 2013 - In like a Lion, Out like a Lamb

Or in my case, a squirrel. We don't have a lot of squirrels here in Santa Barbara, but this little fellow found the "sit in" bird feeder and stayed for a meal. Several meals, in fact. He likes to taunt the kitties while jumping around in the trees. He's very cute!

Today Gary Hunt and I are hanging our show at Salon Patine. Gary has beautiful fused glass plates, and I have, well, all kinds of stuff. Please stop by and see our art. And we're having a reception on April 21st, 1-4 pm. Stop by for some wine and cheese and convivial fun with other artists.

Here are a few of the pieces you'll see in the show.

It's Almost April!

Where did the month go? I haven't posted since the beginning of March, and many things have happened since then. But if I try to tell you about everything, I'll never finish this so I'll do one thing at a time.

I attended Laurie Mika's polymer clay class at Tami Macala's Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art. It was wonderful! My friend Nancy had signed up for the class and then wasn't able to attend so she offered her space in the class to me. Thank you, Nancy!





Laurie is a wonderful teacher and artist. She has written a book entitled Mixed Media Mosaics. I read it over and over and learn something new every time. And by attending the class, I saw some of her techniques first hand and am amazed again. I just wish I could remember how to do them all.

In the class we all made triptyches (works of art divided into three sections) using polymer clay. I am really in awe of the talent I saw around me. As I've said before, I need to actually look at something to give me an idea of what to do, but these women just got started and knocked out incredible pieces.

More later on the rest of the month!

Aged Transfers

Laurie Mika

Finished Triptyches

My triptych - not yet finished

March Blog Update

Well, once again I made a big mistake and had to find a way to cover it up. This frame is a cupboard door from my neighbors who own a kitchen design store. They give me the doors when the patterns are no longer for sale and I make them into mosaics. Now many of the doors have an inner raised area rather than just an inset where I can put the mosaic.

I loved the color on this one so I fiddled around and put Italian marble in the recessed area and thought it looked pretty good. I made some fused glass pieces in the shape of a wine glass and a wine bottle. I was liking it more and more! Then I filled in the rest of the background with an outdoor scene. I was quite pleased with my work!!

The Goleta Valley Art Association had an ingathering last Friday so I got out the drill to make holes for the hanging hardware in the back. And I drilled one of the holes through to the front! I couldn't believe my stupidity. Or carelessness!

So I remembered some little stars I had and used one to cover the hole! I put a few more to make it believable. And I think it still looks pretty good.

Sometimes I think I have too many geegaws but then something like this happens and I'm glad I have them.






I've been working hard to create new mosaics for my upcoming show in April. And I finished one of the two cat mosaics a friend has commissioned of her cats. I struggle mightily with these cat portraits. This is Charlie with Biscotti giving it a final rub. My friend was very patient with me but once I finish her second cat, I think it will be the last cat mosaic I make. At least for other people. I like the ones I've done of my Orange Boy and Patches. But making a mosaic really look like a photo isn't easy for me. I'm happier with a blue Patches!

Patches

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.