Thursday, November 18, 2010

Catching Up

When I started this blog, I swore that I would post a blog at least once a month. Well, bless me Father, it’s been 7 months since my last blog (little bit of Catholic humor). It's been a busy 7 months for Those In Glass Houses… and myself.


April brought on another meaningful piece, “Butterfly & Daisy”. This 12” square piece was commissioned as a memorial to my client’s mother who passed away from cancer. Her mom loved daisies and butterflies.



May was “Rose & Daisy Intertwined”. This piece was commissioned by the mother and father of a soon to be married son. Their son loves roses and their soon to be daughter-in-law loves daisies. Because of them getting married, I intertwined the stems to show these two flowers joining together.


Another client, after seeing the picture of "Rose & Daisy Intertwined" ordered it to give to her mother as a 'just because' gift.


June was a piece I wanted to do for some time. “Butterfly with Geode Wings”, came to be because I too love butterflies and I love geode agate slices. So, it just seemed natural to add geode slices to the butterfly's wings.


July was “Baubles”. I had donated a 2-1/4 square foot custom stained glass window to the Chef’s for Kids Annual Dinner and Silent Auction Fundraiser. The very generous donor who won the bid wanted an abstract design that would fit into the décor of her home. She already had a lot of art that involved circles in colors of reds, turquoises, greens, and blues. Hung in front of her sheer curtains also added to the look of the glass and it's textures.


July also brought on my push to finish all of my geode pieces. First was, “Excavation of Geode 7” (pictured at right), followed by “Geode 20 in Medicine Wheel”. Both pieces, using glass in ambers, browns, gray, and golden colors to compliment the geode slices. Next came the “Disk Series”: “Geode in Three Quarter Disk”, “Geode in Half Disk”, and “Geode in Slipped Disk” (have to add a bit of humor from time to time). These were all done with in a clear glass to almost look like it was floating in the center of the circular pieces of dark blue and gray glass. You can see these on my website as well as in my Facebook Fan Geode Series photo album.

August was strictly a designing month. I was commissioned to come up with 5 “Rustic” designs for a lodge in Maine. My client and I discussed ideas and we decided that 4 of the pieces would have the same background, a pine tree edged lake looking towards Mount Katahdin. One window would have a loon floating gracefully along, another would have a moose taking a cool drink (design jpg to the left), another a bear looking for a fish for his dinner, and the last with a deer leisurely walking along the lake. The 5th window would be of two tall pine trees on the edge of the lake in the evening. These pieces are scheduled to be started in January so watch for photos. You can see the design jpegs for them on my Facebook Fan Page.


September was my month to create designs for the 15th Annual Pomegranate Festival that the Moapa Valley Art Guild puts on every November. After the Spring Art Show I knew that I needed more southwestern and mission designs. “Kokopelli” was the first southwestern design. Other designs such as "Dream Catcher", various pieces of pottery done in glass, and quilt patterns were to be displayed in my example book of design jpegs so that if a person wanted it, I could revise colors and sizes to suit them. You can see these design jpegs in my Facebook Fan Page photo album of Upcoming Designs.


October, I was busy with "Compass" and getting more southwestern and mission designs done for my example book. I was also organizing and planning out a stained glass demonstration that I was going to give at the Pomegranate Festival.





October also brought "Falling Autumn Leaf". It was commissioned as a birthday gift for a daughter born during the fall season.


November’s big thing was the Pomegranate Festival at the beginning of the month. I had pieces made, had my example book caught up and ready, had my demonstration planned out, and even had some polo shirts with my logo embroidered on them. But unfortunately I was not able to attend. My husband had neck surgery done and had 3 vertebrae fused. (I promise not to post pictures for those of you that are weak of heart). For the next month, I became his nurse and chauffeur, which unfortunately the Pomegranate Festival happened to fall towards the end of. I'm sorry for any problems that I may have caused at the Festival with canceling my demonstration. But on a good note, I’m ready for next years festival.

The end of November has had me busy. After a very hot, Las Vegas summer working in my “studio” which is located in my garage, my husband and I decided that it was time to convert our daughter’s old bedroom (she’s very happily married to a great guy and they recently celebrated their 4th anniversary) into my real glass studio. The carpet has been removed and a concrete stain done to the floor. This weekend, I will be bringing in my glass racks, my large drafting table, two stainless steel work tables, and all of my equipment. I'm very excited about this move "up". Who would have thought a year ago that I would have a real, inside glass studio??

Well that catches everyone up on the goings on of Those In Glass Houses… I promise to keep up on my blogging though I won’t promise a monthly blog. And there’s always my Facebook Fan Page. I'm better at updating that regularly. So, check it out from time to time for up to date projects and pictures. If you do not have a Facebook account, you can access my Facebook Fan Page through my website’s contact page. Just click on the “Facebook” button.

On that note, I hope that every one has a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season.