New Creations

Here's a new twist on my button hair ties--I added a felt flower and not to be super-cheesy, but I really do think they're cute as a button. Come and get yours at the Zonta Holiday Marketplace this weekend- they'll make perfect stocking stuffers!

Here are a few more pretty little things, fresh from the studio. This first image is of a pendant made from a Mexican blue-glass pitcher someone gave us for our wedding. Rowan accidentally broke it last year, and I tumbled the shards to give them new life as jewelry! Also, beach stones collected on MDI and made into earrings, brown Islesboro sea glass earrings, and some white sea glass earrings with Christmas flair.

 I've been having fun making mini-paintings lately too. This is my collection so far- I'm in the process of trying to use resin to attach them to glass to make ornaments and I may make some into magnets...not sure what the best thing is to do with them, but they are quick and fun to make.

My other fun side project has been making a set of paper dolls for Rowan for Christmas. They are of her and all of her favorite toys and pets. I'm going to attach magnets to the back so she can play with them on a magnetic white board and we can draw different backgrounds.

New Recycled Glass Earrings

My grandparents loved to make stained glass lamps and window panels in the 1970's. I was lucky enough to  inherit a big box of leftover glass scraps from my grandfather a few years back. Other people have since given me boxes of colored sheet glass but they've all just been collecting dust in my garage. The other night Aaron decided to score and cut up some of the glass and then tumble it for a week or so to see how it came out. I was really happy with the results, and like the wider range of colors!

 

  

 

Busy Bee

After a VERY long hiatus from my blog I finally have some new pictures to post! A lot has been happening here in Belmont-- on the art front I've been taking an adult ed watercolor class which has been great for getting me back into drawing and painting. It's been nice to have a group of people to sit and paint with each week, and to have a whole 3 hours to just sit and do nothing focus on being creative and learning new things.

Here's the one painting I've actually finished so far and my favorite from the class--painted from autumn leaves collected up at my parents camp.

 

Here's a peek at some of the others in progress-- each week we'd start a new painting but I rarely finished them in one sitting. Below is a cardinal, but he still needs a colored beak and some feet.

This one was from a lesson on how to paint water, but again, I'm still working on getting the water part finished as well as the sky and other details.

And here's a hollyhock that is almost finished as well--

We also messed around with various techniques to get interesting effects from the paint. Here's what happens when you drop alcohol onto wet watercolors:

Here's salt sprinkled on the paint:

Impressions made with bubble wrap:

And impressions made with plastic wrap:

You can also make scratches into the wet paper to create white accent lines-- I thought these gave this painting the appearance of a stand of trees ablaze with fall colors:

I'm also in the midst of the busy holiday craft show season, so I've been making lots of earrings and Aaron has been a helpful elf, spending his evenings tumbling and drilling glass for me out in the garage.  He scored and cut up a bunch of cathedral glass or stained glass (not sure what the appropriate name for it is) the other night and tumbled it--it turned out great and made some really nice recycled glass for my earrings. I'll post pictures of the new jewelry in the next day or so. Check out my "Upcoming Shows and Events" tab to see where I'll be in the coming weeks!