Living Glass Art

Golden amber leaves in stained glass

2012-01-11T20:28:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I got started on a suncatcher project for my Etsy shop in between some custom orders that I've been working on. This was a piece that I had done once before and loved it so much that I decided to create another.

Some months ago I had come across a fantastic deal on a lot of glass that someone was basically giving away. He had retired from the business and needed to get it moved off his property since the property was sold. Not having the heart to destroy all this glass, out of the blue he called me and asked if I might be interested. I simply could not resist.

Within this collection were some beautiful pieces that I'd never used before. One was this gorgeous dark amber glue chip glass. Glue chip is created when a layer of glue is spread over the sheet of glass, as it dries it pulls up parts of the surface in a random manner leaving behind an appearance of ferns perhaps, or a frosty look.

Another interesting piece was this deep dark brown glass with a granite texture that so reminded me of tree trunk. A color so rich and brown like the woods used in old German cuckoo clocks. These two colors paired with lighter amber I though would make an interesting combination.

For the center leaves I choose a medium and a pale amber colored glass, both in wavy Waterglass texture from the Spectrum Glass Company. Waterglass in all colors is probably my favorite glass to use. The colors are bold and true, the delicate texture lends itself well to so many different applications. Still photos don't do the glass justice as there is so much light play and a feeling of movement to it.

Reversing the textures of both the glue chip glass and the dark brown granite glass gives the piece additional interest once the sun goes down. Interior artificial light gently plays on the surfaces of these areas catching your eye as you walk past it.

This amber leaves suncatcher is now available in my Etsy shop. Measuring 13 3/4 inches diameter, 35cm. The design can easily be customized to colors of your choice.

Black Vulture~up close and personal

2012-01-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

Quite an exciting event a few days ago in that I got to get close to a Black Vulture and it didn't seem to mind having its photo taken.

The vulture population has always been strong in the neighborhood I live in. This area sits high on a hill top overlooking the Tennessee River. The topographic features attract vultures year round due to the thermal currents that form naturally. Vultures enjoy riding these thermal currents and can soar effortlessly for hours. The above photo was taken a few weeks ago in the early morning hours when I followed them to a clearing where they were already in action.

The trees directly across the street from my house have been a favored roosting area as well. Hundreds of them will settle down for the night in the tall trees there. Occasionally, I'll walk over to take photos of them or to simply observe their behavior. They are not vocal birds, but do make grunts and hissing sounds. The loudest sounds that come from them are when they are spooks and whole flocks leave the trees~I suppose its the motion of air beneath their long wings.

Lately, I've noticed that they are starting to come closer to my house. A few days ago I noticed a few sitting in tall trees behind my house and along with making themselves comfortable on my neighbor's roof.

I had stepped outside to take care of something or other when I noticed a Black Vulture sitting on my neighbor's back deck. What a great opportunity this would be, I thought...I'll just sneak quietly alongside their house and snap off a shot or two...all the while thinking that the bird will probably leave once it hears me approaching. I got lucky and it didn't.

So, I thought I might try sneaking around the other side of the house to their back yard and get some more shots. The bird did not seem to mind at all as I slowly crept up the stairs to the deck and stood about 5 feet from it for these photos. Its a much handsomer bird than I would have imagined~~never seeing them this close before, only through illustrations and photos in field guilds and such. Its feathers were clean and glossy and somewhat fluffy on its head. I enjoyed my time with it and left quietly leaving it alone to enjoy the sunny afternoon. It was a wonderful experience, I'll have to keep my eye out for it again...perhaps it would like additional photos taken of it.

I've got a set on my flickr photostream for more vulture photos I've taken over the years:

2011~The year of the turtle

2011-12-31T17:58:00.000-08:00

According to the Chinese zodiac the official animal for 2011 was the rabbit~but for me it was the year of the turtle. It seemed everywhere I went I'd have an encounter with one or more. Red-eared Sliders were found both close to water where they like to be but also one made its way through my yard which was a mystery as my yard is high on a hilltop. Eastern Box Turtles were found both in my backyard safe from vehicles, but a handful needed to be rescued out of the highways as well.

Here are some of my favorite turtle photos of 2011, I couldn't list them all as there were so very many. I hope you enjoy this collection.

Wishing all a very happy and healthy 2012. I'm very excited to find out what my animal for the coming year will be.

The black cat and the moon

2011-11-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

Last week, I started working on a new panel to add to my Etsy shop. The idea for this piece came about as a lot of projects do and that's by doing some simple sketches, doodling really, with no real intent of creating anything but somehow things just start to fall into place. The original sketch for this was on scrap paper at about 3 inches tall. After some thought and erasing and adding and white out I finally came up with the plan that I wanted to use. Next came choosing the glass for it.

The glass I chose for the background sky is an interesting color~some of the time it looks purple, some of the time it looks blue~its always changing with any light behind it. At first I thought to do all of the parts besides the sky and the moon in black to appear as silhouettes. But, black is black and I was afraid that it would not be the look I wanted. I decided to use a dark amber streaky type glass for the trees and another type of dark amber for the ground, glass that is more dense than the tree glass. Of course, the kitty is black. One of my black kitties loves to sit in the big oak tree in the backyard~~maybe I was thinking of him when I starting doodling for this piece.

A few days into the project and all the pieces were cut, fit and foiled. Since its a rectangular piece I used rigid zinc channel to frame it.

Once all the parts were reassembled back onto the pattern, I measured and cut the zinc. The ends were cut using a hacksaw and a miter box. You can see the open channel on the second piece up for the glass to set into.

Once completed, this Black Cat and Full Moon Panel measures at 15 3/8 inches tall by 14 inches wide, 39cm by 35.5cm. I've had a chance to study this piece for a few days now since its currently hanging in my living room with good southern exposure lighting coming through it. Sometimes I'm not sure if I've chosen the right glass to use for a project and with this piece the ambers were questionable. But, now I'm glad that I've used them in that when the moon glows the brightest and whitest with strong light behind it is when the trees and the ground glow the brightest as well~similar to the way an actual full moon lights up the ground beneath it.

I've brought the duck back

2011-10-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I met a most interesting duck at a local state park. I watched him as he would wait for fishing boats to be offloaded and then he would follow the boaters around the gentle cove but never venture out for to the main river. Around the cove he would swim, he was pretty fast about it. Finally, he came over to where I was at and I got to take a good look at him.

He's really a beauty--all black with feathers that are iridescent in the sun. His bill reminded me of a Mallard Duck, so I'm not sure if he's part domestic duck, part Mallard or what. There is a duck called an American Black Duck--but they don't look anything like this.

This duck got me thinking about bringing out an old pattern that I had done of a duck a few years back. I knew I wanted to make some changes to it before doing another. I played with the pattern a bit--made the cattails larger, changed the position of some of the grass and made those parts larger as well. One thing I wanted to do with the new duck was to use brighter colors for some of the features. The last duck I had done had darker colors which made it difficult to photograph.

The pattern I had developed was on a regular sized piece of paper-I enlarged it and got to making my copy. I thought it would be interesting to do something different with the eye. For that I chose to use a black glass glob, a/k/a glass gem, half marble. They are a bit larger than needed---I grinded the glob on all sides to fit and took a bit off the bottom of it as well so it wouldn't stick up way higher then the glass.

It was really very fun choosing all of the different colors for this piece. I thought also to use denser glass on the main features with the thought that this might be an interesting piece to hang on a wall since not everyone has big windows for big suncatchers.

After days of glass choosing, cutting, grinding the pieces and foiling them I was finally ready to solder everything together. This is an exciting time because once I have one side soldered I'll finally be able to pick the piece up and see what everything looks like together. The reverse side is then soldered and lead channel wrapped all the way around the piece.

I hung the duck up inside and thought it looked pretty good this way. It was then that I realized that I was not completely done~~~I still needed to hand paint some features onto the duck.

A little nostril and some lines by his webbed feet are what I added. I never realized how important this nostril is until I spent time watching that black duck. He seemed to blow air out of it when he had his bill in the water--kind of what people do when they swim.

I'm very happy with the outcome of this new Mallard Duck design, available for sale in my Etsy shop. This suncatcher panel measures 15 inches diameter, 38 cm.

I've been visited by royalty

2011-09-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

Royalty~~in the form of this fantastic Regal Moth caterpillar, Citheronia regalis (Fabricius). I've seen caterpillars that are stunning and some that are large--but I've never seen such a big beauty as this one. The outside cats had brought it to my attention~~well, not really, actually I check on them throughout the day to make sure that they are alright and haven't gotten themselves into any trouble. I peeked outside and could tell that they had something large, green and interesting. I was in for a real treat.

I'm not one that usually grabs a glove when something like this presents itself~~I've been known to handle frogs, toads, lizards, snails and even a slug or two without a problem~~but I could tell that this caterpillar was going to be quite strong in its gripping abilities. Of we went together into the backyard, me and the caterpillar minus any cats, where I could study it closer and take lots and lots of photos of it. I was truly amazed by its beauty--from the thorny horns on its head to the lovely marking on the sides of its body and everything in between.

This caterpillar is also known as the Hickory Horned Devil~~one of its host plants in the hickory tree. Oaks along with various hickories make up the backbone of the woodlands in this area. After nearly 12 years of living in these woods I'm surprised that this is my very first encounter with one. More great information about this caterpillar and the moths that they become is located here.
I knew I had a great moth caterpillar in my hand but was unsure which specie it was, I set it down for a minute and ran inside to get the field guide along with a ruler to measure it. By the time I had made it back the caterpillar had wondered off to isolate itself from this entire ordeal that it had been put through. Sad to see it go, I was thankful for the opportunity to have seen it firsthand.

The field guide that I own was able to show me exactly what type of caterpillar I had just encountered and also the moth that it will eventually become. Since I enjoy posting my photos to Flickr I thought that I would take a look and see what other photos of the moth I would find there. I was really delighted to find a wonderful photo of the moth. With permission from the photographer, Myeyeongaia I've posted two wonderful photos of this winged beauty. The above a lovely female and below a couple in the midst of continuing the cycle of life.

Stained Glass Rainbow Butterfly~~new and improved version

2011-08-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I had begun working on a new version of a Rainbow Butterfly in stained glass. I had come up with the original idea a couple of years ago and have done a few versions of it. For this new design I changed things up a bit by adding a lot more detail in the wings of the butterfly and also adding swirls and curves to the background--to give the piece more of a feeling of movement.

As in the previous butterflies I chose to use a textured glass made by the Spectrum Glass Company called Rough Rolled. It has a sparkly texture that really shimmers with sunlight or even objects behind it that reflect light. For the background pieces I was able to piroot through my leftover scrap box searching for odd parts to use~~as it turned out I was able to use seven different textures to surround the butterfly.

This was the very last rainbow butterfly that I had done before making the changes that I did. When working on the one above the thought came to me that I really wanted the colors to flow from the center outward--the only way to get that to work was to add more pieces to the project--which of course involves a lot more cuts and a lot of small pieces to wrap with foil. Also, even though I love the deep purple that I used its such a difficult color for me to photograph that I figured that I shouldn't use it again for a butterfly.

Shown here with all of the pieces for the project cut and about half way through the process of foiling. Even though some of the pieces were/are tiny this step seemed to move relatively quickly.

Here it was ready to be soldered together. When doing a piece like this with tiny parts its real easy to get globby and sloppy with the solder. Remember to bring your patience to the soldering party.

Completed this butterfly measures 12 inches wide by 10 1/2 inches tall, about 30.5cm by 26.5cm. Available for sale in my Etsy shop.

A little bit of time for some exploration

2011-08-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

With the record heat this summer, its sad to say but I have not had much desire to go out exploring. Sure, I think about it and that's as far as it gets. I know I have missed so many wonderful happenings out in nature. When I knocked off working this afternoon I was just itching to get out, even just for a few minutes. That's about all the time I got, soon after arriving at a local county park thunder was heard in the distance and rain started heading our way.
There were lots of lovely water lilies close to the shore. I was glad to see them--they have been doing an extensive 'clean up' of the brushy areas in the park--the places that I love to explore. Good to know they didn't touch the lotus.

I just can't help but think of ET whenever I see one of these seed heads from the American Lotus. From the looks of broken off stems, somebody must like them and have picked them to take home.

Lots and lots of dragonflies flying about this afternoon. These two stop to take a break and seem to be sizing each other up.

Butterflies and more butterflies. This Spicebush Butterfly has definitely seen better days. Huge chunks of its wings were missing, but it didn't seem to have a problem flying from one buttonbush bloom to the next.

Last year, they had cut back these lovely buttonbush plants to the ground. Thankfully, they had let them grow back for this year~~the butterflies were all over them. Here a Tiger Swallowtail feeds alone...not for long.

This second one thought that the first one had an extra special flower and wanted a taste of it as well.

Such a short visit today~as it was time to head out I spotted this Great Blue Heron feeding close to shore in the shallows--looking for a tasty meal~~~maybe a small fish, maybe a frog. It stayed in place for a while--but not long enough while I fumbled with the settings on the camera. Just as I was about to take a shot at it, it decided to take off--it ended up being a pretty cool shot anyway.

Something a bit different~Abstract Blue and White Suncatcher

2011-08-09T17:48:00.000-07:00

I've had the thought of trying this idea for a while--design something without the use of a pattern. Finally, I've gotten around to doing just that. I started this piece off by simply drawing a circle on a sheet of paper and then filling in the circle with various pieces of glass, mostly scrap pieces that were sitting in boxes. It was a bit harder then I thought it would be--but very fun anyway. Some of the pieces were just a touch short~~that's when I had the idea of putting a couple of glass globs in to fill in the voids.

One I had all the pieces foiled and started the solder process, I thought to pull an old trick out of my hat by adding this solder effect. When the solder is hot, a wet sponge is smashed onto the solder lines creating this crinkly effect.

Two shades of blue along with white glass, a dark blue gem, two light blue gems and one clear gem all together in this abstract suncatcher~~available for sale in my Etsy shop.
This one of a kind piece measures 8 3/4 inches diameter, just over 22cm.

Looks interesting hanging on a wall as well.

Why did the turtle cross the road?

2011-08-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

I would have to think he did because he wanted me to write about him. The other day I was leaving to run to town to take care of some errands and I've learned that its best to bring a camera along. This Eastern Box Turtle was starting to make its way across the road~~of course I had to pull over and take a look. It really did put a smile on my face when I realized it was so close to the speed limit sign. This will probably qualify as a turtle rescue--there have been a few this year--pulling turtles off of busy highways. And although its posted at 20 MPH not many people pay attention. Even the school bus driver thinks he's trying to qualify for a NASCAR race when he comes through.

The shells of these turtles are just so beautiful. Such wonderful color and design.

When I first took an interest in the workings of nature and bought loads of books to learn about the wonderful creatures around me, one of them was a book on reptiles and amphibians, their life histories and such. Unlike mammals and most birds, reptiles show little outward signs of their gender. With box turtles, eye color can sometimes be a determining factor along with the shape of the upper shell. If the tail is visible, the male's are usually longer and wider than the females--although it would be difficult to compare without multiple samples. Here's a way to distiguish the two sexes. The underside of the shell, known as the planstron will be concave in males and flat in females. So--this one looks to be a boy.

These turtles have another wonderful design and that they can completely close themselves into their shells in case of danger--the planstrom is hinged to allow this.

Time to let him go. After a few minutes I moved him over to the other side for some peace and quiet. When moving turtles out of harms way--most likely a roadway, its important to move them in the direction that they were travelling--not back where they were since they will set out again. There's a reason they were heading the way they were.

Stained Glass Oak Leaves Project~a woodland celebration

2011-07-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Stained Glass Oak Leaves project that I've been working on has finally been completed. I'm absolutely delighted with the outcome, especially considering that I did not know how the three shades of green glass that I used would 'work' together--they really did and I would use them together on other projects. Looks fantastic hanging in my workshop window, the leaves are very lively and seem to move due to the Waterglass that I used for them.

After the lead came frame was added, this piece measured at 13 3/4 inches diameter, right around 35cm.

I last posted about this piece a few days ago while I was half way through the process of foiling the pieces. Let's take a look at the remaining steps for this project.

All the pieces have been wrapped with copper foil, except for the outside edge which will be lead came framing a few steps from now. At this stage I'll pin the piece down with thumbtacks to keep it in place while the pieces are soldered together. I noticed that one piece of this puzzle was taking up a little bit more space then it was intended to have--it was taken out and a little bit of the glass removed so that it would fit better against the neighboring pieces.

Time to glue the puzzle together, or in this case its solder. A liquid chemical acid (left) will be brushed onto all the copper foiled edges. A lead/tin solder (right) will be what binds the pieces together and creates the joints.

Using a hot solder iron (right) that melts the solder to a high temperature, a bead is run over the copper foil joints that have been treated with the acid flux--by chemical reaction the solder is attracted only to the foil and the parts are then bound together.

Its important to keep the solder and the iron moving slowly yet continuously over the pieces as to avoid globs of solder which can occur easily especially where several pieces join together.

One side soldered completely. Lots and lots of crud left over from the solder process--this will be cleaned off thoroughly later, although a gentle wiping away of some of the gunk is in order. Now, the piece will be turned over and the back side will be completely soldered as well. BUT---this is the fun part~~~the piece can finally be picked up and looked at.

This will be the first time and I've seen what all of the hours of work have come to. Very very happy with things so far!

Back side soldered, the piece can now be cleaned thoroughly for the first time. Here, I'm using a powder called whiting, which is calcium carbonate. Brushed into the solder joints, it helps to absorb and residue leftover from the soldering process. It also cleans the glass as well.

Time to wrap it up. For the outer ring, I'm using what's called lead came--this is U shaped came as it resembles the letter "U". There's also "H" came that is used in leaded glass work--I don't use this in anything I do. There are a couple of different ways to purchase came, I've gone with the most economical method sold rolled onto a spool.

A measurement is taken of the circumference of the piece~~here right around 43 inches (just under 109cm) will be enough to wrap the outside. A length is cut off the roll of lead, laid out smooth and flat and cleaned off to remove any oxidation that might have formed.

There's a couple of different ways to approach wrapping the piece with the came. Mine is to face the U channel of the lead in an upward position and then to gently roll the center glass into the channel. Here, its been rolled and tacked down to a board using horse shoe nails to hold all in place for the next step.

Where the copper foiled joints of the glass meet the lead came outer ring I connect the two with solder to connect the ring and keep it in place. All of the joints are soldered this way on the backside only. On the front facing side I only solder the ring where the two ends have met and also where the rings that hold the piece will be put in place.

For smaller pieces its fine to attach a simple ring to for the purpose of hanging. For a larger and much heavier piece such as this I've created a ring with a 'tail'. The 'tail' end will be embedded with solder into the solder joint. This will create a hanging loop that is virtually impossible to remove short of cutting it off or reheating with an iron and removing.

Here the hanging loop his shown embedded into the solder joint.

To tone down the shiny silvery solder lines I've applied black patina to the metals. I've found that the easiest way to patina a piece is with a sponge dipped into the liquid patina then applied onto the solder lines and lead came. The excess is wiped away and the patina is allowed to set up for a short amount of time. To remove the residue from this step I'll wash the entire piece with soapy water, a sponge and a toothbrush run on all the solder joints paying special attention to heavily angled joints since this is where anything that doesn't belong tends to hide.

I let the cleaned patina'd piece set overnight, the next day I polished all the joints to protect them using a couple of different carnauba based waxes which also cleans and the glass and gives it a nice sparkle.

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I've got another leaf based design that I'll be starting on tomorrow. The leaves are much simpler in form and the overall size will be a bit smaller.

My name is Critter

2011-07-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be fun to interview one of the new additions to the cat world. He's not really all that new, he came to us about a year ago now. Meet Critter, a handsome Tabby cat who likes to talk a lot.

Q. Hello Critter, nice to meet you, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you come from?
A. Hi! My name is Critter, I know its a strange name. My human mom gave it to me. At first I didn't think I'd like it, but its really grown on me now. I was born a few houses away from here. I look a lot like my cat mom. She had a lot of boyfriends so I don't know what my cat dad looks like or anything about him. When I got older, the people where my cat mom lives tried to send me away to another house, but I didn't like it there. The man was real loud and smoked funny smelling cigars and the lady liked to clean the house all the time and chase me with the broom. I had to leave there but I didn't have anywhere to go. I thought I might go back to see my cat mom. While walking to my first home I saw a human sitting outside a friendly looking house--cat friendly, anyway, cause I saw a cat sitting in the window. She said something to me that sounded nice so I went to see her. She was really nice to me, she didn't yell or nothin and she patted me on my head. I was tired and she said I could take a nap if I wanted to. I kinda decided right away that I wanted to stay.

Q. What do you like most about where you live?
A. A lot! But, I have to say that I love cardboard! My human mom gave me a box when I first moved in and I just fell in love with it. It made me feel so cozy. I like hanging out on the front porch, too. Sometimes my human mom puts funny things on my head~~she does a lot of silly things. But, my human mom doesn't care if I sleep all day and I'm good with that. She calls me the 'shop supervisor' but I know she's just kidding.

And I've got plenty of food to eat. I even have a couple of brothers that I can play with, too. At night, my human mom lets me stay in the place where she makes stuff so I'm safe and don't have to worry about any other critters getting me.

It was nice getting to know a little bit about you, Critter. Its good to hear that you are happy with your home. I'm sure your human mom will be coming along shortly to give you big hugs and kisses.

Oak leaves project~~things are moving along

2011-07-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I got started on my oak leaves project. As of today, here's how things are looking--about half way through the foiling process. Once I got started, all of the pieces for the project were cut out by hand~~and some of the heavily curved pieces needed their curves cut on the ring saw as well. It was an all day event to make all that happen...with as hot as its been here I've been moving a little bit slower. The upside to it all is that glass is a lot easier to work with in warm weather as compared to cold. In the winter I need to warm the glass up before cutting it~~cold glass tends to break not where you really wanted it to.

One by one, the pieces started being fit against the original pattern. I met someone the other day who starts their projects from the bottom up~~I'm the type that always starts in the center and moves out.

After the pieces are cut out and in order to get them to sit next to their neighbors nicely they all get their rough bumpy edges smoothed out with the glass grinder. I wish smoothing people out could be so easy. For this project I've had to use both my grinders. The above fitted with a 3/4 inch grinder head and another grinder that has a much smaller 1/4 bit on it to get into the heavy curves where the regular bit won't fit.

Since I've taken on some workshop helpers I've got to cover anything I'm working on well--above a board placed over the project. I'm afraid that the cats would rearrange the glass pieces and I'd be really confused the next day. Or worse, they might feel the need to toss the pieces on the floor. Its hard to explain to them that glass doesn't bounce all that well. This is Critter, a wonderful Tabby that decided to move in with us last year. Apparently, he's planning on guarding the project overnight for me.

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An interesting visitor stopped in this afternoon. A beautiful moth with lovely patterned wings. Its about 2 1/2 inches long, about 6cm. I've yet to figure out what kind it is. Surprisingly, it stayed in place on the iris leaves while the cats played close by. Perhaps its good it didn't move, it might have been what saved it from attack.

Oak leaf project--finally underway

2011-07-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I came up with a new design that I'm finally getting started on. I've been a forest dweller for so long now, but I've not done much to celebrate the woodlands that I have come to love so much. Once completed, this will measure approximately 13 1/2 diameter, maybe a touch more.

The idea came to me while I was camping a few weeks ago. While taking lots and lots of photos I thought it would be interesting to arrange the leaves in an overlapping geometric fashion.

The colors that I've chosen for the leaves are from left to right: moss green, emerald green and hunter green. The leaves towards the center will be the lightest of the colors. I've never combined these colors, I'm really hoping that they harmonize even though they aren't shades within the same hue. The pieces towards the very center which make a star shape along with those at the very outer edge will be a lightly textured pale amber. I had debated if I should use a very pale blue~~to signify a blue sky, but my mind kept going back to the original thought of gold.
First day of actual production was today. All of the glass pieces~~all 128 of them~~have been cut by hand following the pattern. Each piece is numbered to correspond with the original plan. Tomorrow, Ill set about cutting most of these on a glass ring saw, then onto grinding them smooth and so forth.

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Early in the day I glanced out the workshop windows and saw that one of the kitties was playing with something--what I could not tell. Being that we are surrounded by so much wilderness it could have been anything. So, being as curious as they are I had to find out what all the excitement was about. Mr Meatball cat had himself a 5-lined skink shown here with its tail gone. It did have a beautiful blue tail at one time, but nature gave them the ability to detach their tail if necessary to create a distraction~~~their fallen off tail wiggles and draws the attention of their predator, meanwhile the skink is able to make a getaway. Apparently, a little wiggling tail was not enough to captivate Meatball's attention. Luckily, I was able to take the skink away and found him a safe place in the backyard beneath firewood stacked on wooden pallets~a place the kitties won't be able to reach him.

This afternoon's interesting yard visitor was this lovely adult Southeastern Lubber grasshopper. The cats seemed to be having a good time with this visitor as well~~of course until I came along and took it away. After several photos of it I returned it to the back woods, hoping that they won't bother it again. Who knows what creatures will come by tomorrow.

Hot summer sun

2011-06-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

It sure has been hot! Spring started off on the cool side here, it warmed up a bit and then it cooled back off again. That is until a couple of weeks ago. We went from relatively mild temperatures to the high 90s overnight. No complaints though, this ares was spared from the damaging tornado outbursts and flooding was minimal compared to the Mississippi River valley. I thought it was a good time to bring the sun back out-perhaps if I paid it a tribute it might ease off a bit--no luck yet.

I've done this design a couple of times before, but the balance of the completed piece wasn't quite right so I made a small modification. By scanning it and creating a mirror of the side I liked better I was able to join the two halves together--that's why the numbering system of the pieces above looks a bit strange. I also increased the size as well. Completed, this one measures at 10 1/4 inches diameter, about 26cm.

I chose to use dense yellow glass for the center of the sun along with the smaller yellow rays. The orange glass is called 'wispy', its more translucent with a little bit of white streaked into it. For the background, I chose a textured teal green colored glass that's really pretty sparkly when the sun or any background light hits it.

With the copper foil, or Tiffany method of stained glass work, all the pieces are wrapped with foil--that is except for the outer edge. Where the foiled pieces butt up to each other a bead of solder will be used to bond them together. Once one side has been soldered completely, the piece is flipped and the backside is soldered as well.

How do you measure the sun? With a tape measure, of course. Here I was measuring how much lead came, a type of lead framing I would need to wrap around the piece.

I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to finish the piece. I knew I didn't want to leave it natural with silver solder showing. And black patina applied to the metals wasn't what I wanted, either. I compromised and used both copper and black patinas. The black was applied to the lead came that wraps around the suncatcher along with the solder lines closest to the outer edge. The solder around the sun and the rays was treated with copper for a warm glow.

A wonderful day for some time away

2011-01-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was such a nice day to get outside for a little while and do some wintertime exploring. We've gotten lucky and have been blessed with some warmer weather (40 degrees!) and have been thawing out from our recent snow event in West Tennessee. I've gotten bored with checking out locations on my side of the Tennessee River and decided I need a change of scenery. I took a short journey of a few miles to the other side of the river to Mousetail Landing State Park, located on the banks of the Tennessee River.

As soon as we hopped out of the car we were treated to a wonderful natural phenomena. This is sun dog, formed by ice crystals that act like prisms and bend the light rays of the sun. It remained visible for quite some time, finally disappearing--time to start looking at other things.

We are gifted with so many different kinds of trees in this area. Above is a sweet gum tree with its seed pods hanging like holiday ornaments. The name for this tree originates from the resin like substance found under its bark which is scraped and gathered and in older times was used for its medicinal value as well as for a type of chewing gum.

A closer view of the sweet gum seed pods. Pretty little prickly things they are.

Another abundant tree found in this area is the sycamore. Its smooth light colored trunk makes it stand out among the hardwoods.

The fruit, or seed pod of the sycamore tree, another lovely ornament from nature.

Although quite and peaceful now, come summertime and this area will be bustling with activity. There's rustic campsites available here and these waters will be filled with all kind of watercraft from bass boats to floating party barge pontoons. Jet skiers can have fun out in the main channel of the Tennessee River, this area is a no wake zone.

The sky kept giving us wonderful clouds and the angle of the sun made the shore glow with color as well.

Like lightning bolts coming from above, these Hackberry branches still held some of their tasty berries. Also known as Sugarberry, I don't know how tasty they are...but they are a favorite of wintering birds. Mother Nature provides for its creatures.

Falling over due to shoreline erosion, come soon this tree will be in the water where it will provide cover for small fish and other aquatic creatures.

Here's a tree that if you bumped into it accidentally you would surely remember it. Its the thorny Honey Locust. I don't know if the thorns fall of the truck come spring but I know I've walked through this area a number of times in the summer and don't remember these being here. I'll have to check back in a few months and find out.

Looking like a squished black banana, this is the seed pod from the Honey Locust tree.

Standing out of the crowd with its wonderful green leaves is this American Holly. Providing winged creatures with cover during the cold months of winter makes this tree valuable in the natural landscape.

Lovely red berries from the holly had all fallen to the ground where they will still be consumed by wildlife.

We were just about ready to leave when I spotted this barge heading downriver in the main channel of the Tennessee. All of these sites made for a wonderful day out.

Happy Springtime

2010-03-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

Yea, spring is officially here! The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming and I even saw my first butterfly a week or so ago--a Mourning Cloak. It moved away much too quickly for me to get a picture of it, either that or I'm pretty rusty in the bug chasing department. Something I'll need to work on.

So, of course I had to put a butterfly together.

I was undecided on the colors that I wanted to use for this project. At first it was going to be a white/yellow daisy. I decided at the last minute to change the flower to more of a Black-eyed Susan type sunflower.
Spread out--the process of wrapping all the glass pieces with copper foil. At this point I was unsure of the colors--separately they were all pretty bright with the exception of the pale purple background. I was afraid that the end result would end up looking like a bag of fruity candy.
Pinned down and ready for solder. Once all the pieces have been handcut, grinded to fit, wrapped with foil the first side can be soldered together.

Flip it over and solder the backside

Black patina to change the bright shiny solder to a delicate calm dark grey

Soldered to the back is a single loop and a bit of chain for hanging. I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. If I were to do this again I would use a few different colors for the butterfly
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I also been wanting to do a project using purple glass. After some thought I decided that I had better do it now, before the leaves come in on the trees. I have a terribly hard time photographing purples and reds in the summer due to the green leaves distorting the color of the glass-they usually turn to mucky murky browns.

Even without leaves on the trees I've had a hard time getting pictures that I'm happy with of this new suncatcher. The center is a clear round faceted jewel surrounded by three shades of purple glass--all Waterglass from the Spectrum Glass Co. I've pulled the color samples right from their webside and posted them below.

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Its been an amazing week!

2010-03-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

Its been one of the best weeks ever! My good fortune started on the 4th, when I entered
Jen Maestre's 'guess how many pencils I've got' game on Etsy's Etc forum. I'm not normally a competitive person, but looking back at the thread I think I put in the most entries! The rules were to guess within 100 pencils, I guessed at 41,653 with the right number being 41,560. That's a serious amount of pencils!! I can't believe she counted them all~I think I would loose track at 28 and have to start over.
My winning prize is this wonderful leaf pendant made out of --what else--pencils!! Its fantastic and has now become my good luck charm.

If you are not familiar with Jen's work, she makes amazing sculptures and jewelry out of pencils. Her art is so wonderful and unique. Click here for a link to her personal website.
Jen also sent me a card featuring one of her pencil sculptures, 'Kraken', which will now join the 'Wall of Love' in my studio~kitty corner to the birthday card I won from Celtic Cat last year.

All this excitement made my outside kitty friend, Junior, so happy he wanted the world to see his beautiful white belly as he enjoyed rolling around in the leaves.
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My good fortune continued on the 9th when my Spring Pastels Window Panel was one of the featured items in Etsy Finds: Spring Ahead.
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To round out this incredible week, on the 11th my hummingbird suncatcher was a featured item in the ByHand spotlight.
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I'm feeling so lucky from this past week's good fortune you had better believe that I bought a ticket for tonight's Powerball game! If I should disappear, please know that I'm having a wonderful time but I'll be back to have a give away of my entire shop.

Hello, Yellow!

2010-03-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

They are popping now! After a few days of warmer that what we've had temperatures, the daffs in my yard are opening up like crazy. Such a welcome sign~~spring might finally be here. Last year, we had snow in March~~~this year we'll probably have snow in April.

This is probably my favorite clump. These are actually in my neighbor's paved driveway. They come up every year and they seem to say that there's just no stopping the beauty of nature.

This large clump is in my backyard~in a spot that gets a lot of sunshine. Its wonderful to look out my kitchen window and see all these bright happy faces outside.

There's few things that bring me more joy then witnessing the reawakening of Mother Earth.

New glass for this week--How about some red

2010-03-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to build something red for some time now, but I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do--if I wanted to recreate something I've already done or something brand new. Since I've got square geometric panels in my shop already I figured it would fun to put together something round.
This is a brand new design for my Etsy shop-- it started out as most of my creations do--scribbling and doodling, erasing and scribbling some more in a very small size and then recreating a pattern in a larger size.

Late last year, I ordered some beautiful glass teardrop jewels from the great folks over at
Harmony Glass. I've dealt with them for a few years now and they are just fantastic--super fast shipping and excellent customer service. So, the idea was to use the jewels and alternate them with bigger pieces of glass in the same shape as the jewels.

The center is a smooth round glass jewel surrounded by textured cherry red glass--textured side facing forward. I like this effect-it gives the finished piece some added interest when its hanging up, especially at night once the sun goes down and there's no light coming through it.

The alternating red glass pieces are wavy Waterglass with a gentle texture resembling slow moving water. I've also included 3 different textures of clear glass for this piece.

I've used the same textured side up effect on the border for the red glass, I've left the clear accents textured side down.

41 inches of lead? Even though this piece measures 13 1/4 inches diameter that's what it took to wrap this piece up. Once it was wrapped up with lead, I soldered two loops to the backside of the lead--one at 10 o'clock and one at 2 o'clock for the chain to attach to.
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While I had the red glass out I thought I would put together another diamond shaped beveled panel. These glass bevels are so lively, when you walk past this piece the bevels just shimmer and shine. The center is a 2 inch bevel surrounded by 1 inch bevels and cherry red glass cut to 1x2 inches. For the outer border I've used 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch bevels in the corners along with 4 x 1 1/2 bevels. I had this piece hanging inside my house for day and it was fun when the sun hit it just right--I had little rainbows all over the floor from the prismatic effect of the bevels.

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Spring is slowly starting to make its way here. Its been such a long cold winter but today we were finally able to open the house up for just a little while. Actually, just one window. Then it got too chilly and we had to light the woodstove back up! But, the kitties were very happy to fight over the window to get a sniff of the outdoors.

Wherever you are, have a safe and happy week. My daffodils are popping so I'll be taking some pics of them soon.

Sunny Yellow Daffodils~finally

2010-03-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

I hate to admit that I have done no gardening at this house in the three years that we've lived here. I'm super thankful that someone at sometime in the past planted loads and loads of daffodils all over. Finally, they are starting to open up.

I looked at last years pictures and they were all in full bloom by the middle of February. I guess this year's colder than normal temperatures have slowed them down a bit. There's only a few flowers so far that have bloomed.

But, there are lots and lots of buds all over waiting for the right time to pop and show their bright smiling faces to the world. I can't say that I blame them for waiting. I'm keeping my winter coat on for a bit longer, too.

Sunny but slightly froggy in the morning

2010-02-22T18:34:00.000-08:00

I've got a special affection for frogs and toads. It started when I was quite young, I'd always get excited when I would see one since I've always thought that they were cute. And I still get excited. We've got some toads that like to hang around the house, they should start coming out soon....In the meantime--I had to build one.
I recently added this Stained Glass Frog to my Etsy shop. This frog has appeared in a couple of different panels and suncatchers that I've built. The idea for a solitary frog in a small size came as a special requests from one of my Flickr friends. I'm always thankful for good ideas.

The glass that I used for the frog's body is Emerald Green Opal Mottled made by the Youghiogheny (YUCK-a-gane-ee) Glass Co. Its just perfect glass for a frog with the spots and all. And here is my model, a little resin frog I bought years ago. When I needed a model, I plucked him out of the garden where he was hanging out in the dirt. He's been promoted and now hangs out in the shop on the windowsill. The round black thing in the corner will become its eye.

For the eye I've used a black glass glob, or glass gem, half marble. I grind the glob down on all sides and on the bottom so it becomes more even with the level of the glass that surrounds it. What I like about this is that its a little bit more livelier that just using a flat piece of glass-the roundness of the glob shines and reflects a bit.

After soldering all these small pieces together I could see that there were some odd bumps that needed to be smoothed out. Left like this there would be some odd bumps that would show even with the lead wrapped around it.

So, gently these bumps were taken and smoothed down on the glass grinder.

Instead of using two pieces of glass for the web-like back foot, I've used one piece of glass and tack soldered a bit of wire from one joint to another.

A solder line here would be too bulky--this wire effect is much gentler.

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My orange tabby cat has been featured on Brazilian Canvas' blog post on Etsy feline finds. I am really honored, there are so many great cat finds on Etsy all the time.

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Spring is finally happening in this part of the country-slowly but surely. My daffodils are finally starting to pop open in the yard. Soon, the birds will be singing and the trees will be budding out and the wonderful smell of springtime will fill the air.

Wherever you are have a safe and happy week. And watch where you're stepping, there might be a frog wanting to cross your path.

Its almost time for hummingbirds

2010-02-18T18:38:00.000-08:00

Soon, the real ones will be coming back to North America. We usually don't see our first hummingbird until the first week of April in this part of West Tennessee and since I've been missing them since they left last October I thought it was time to make one. I started designing this pattern a few weeks ago and was finally happy with it and ready to start. Below are some highlights of how I put this hummingbird suncatcher together.

I've already cut all the glass pieces out by hand and I've started the process of fitting them together on the pattern. The glass that I chose for the belly is a pearly iridescent white glass with soft hues of pinks/yellows/greens. Iridescent glass is reflective, like a mirror and its really awesome at night when just a bit of artificial light hits it.

Each piece needs to fit pretty tight to its neighboring piece. To get this close, the pieces need to be grinded to remove any extra glass. I've also chosen to use dark green iridescent glass for the parts that are the bird's head, wings and tail. The clear glass in the wings are textured iridescent glass, too.

Here all the pieces have been fit and I'm ready to start the foiling process.

I've used 4 different copper foils for this project. 2 are black backed foils at different widths for the glass pieces that are more see through and 2 are copper backed foils for the glass that is more dense.

Ready for solder, all the pieces are tacked down. Left to right--flux, 60/40 lead tin solder, damp sponge for wiping the iron tip off, glimpse of the solder iron and a block of sal ammonaic. Even though the damp sponge helps to clean the solder iron tip off, sal ammonaic helps remove the oxidation that forms on the tips for better solder results.

Here, I've started the solder process on one side of the suncatcher.

Once the front side is done, the piece is flipped over and the back side is soldered also.

I've measured out how much lead came I need. Lead came is the outside metal framing that gets wrapped around this suncatcher.

Here's a view of one of the loops I've soldered to the back of the frame so this piece can hang by way of chain. This piece has two loops attached.

I needed to give this bird an eye. The eye is simply a ball of solder added to a solder line.

Black patina--a chemical--darkens the shiny silver solder to a rich dark grey color. Left on its own, the silver solder and lead will eventually turn a dark color on its own--we're just speeding up the process.

Done! I really had fun putting this piece together and I really like the bright bold colors that I picked for it. I'll be doing more of these in different colors soon and in different sizes. This piece measures 12 diameter, 30cm. Next time I'll probably do one at around 8 inches.

Spring is finally springing up here--one of my daffodils has started to open up just a bit. Can't wait for the wave of yellow happiness that these beautiful flowers create in the months ahead.

Wherever you are, have a safe and happy week. Look to the skies if you get a chance--you might be pleasantly surprised to see an awesome creature of nature.

Enough of the grey days of winter

2010-02-12T18:14:00.000-08:00

This winter has just seemed to go on and on and on... I'm ready for the bright bold colors of spring and summer! And even more, I'm ready for some warm temperatures. The stacks of wood that we use to heat the house are shrinking at a very fast rate and it looks like we might have to start dipping into the wood that is stored for next winter.

I thought I'd cheer myself up and create a few new flower pieces. Day lilies are one of my favorite summer flowers, they pop up all over the place around here. I don't know why I never thought to make one. I sat down one night and came up with the design and couldn't wait to get out to the shop and put it together.

This Orange Day Lily Suncatcher measures 7 inches diameter, about 18cm. I used a dense yellow glass in the center along with orange wispy glass for the petals. Wispy glass is translucent in places along with 'wisps' of white glass swirled into it. The little bit of white really makes this piece pop with just a bit of sun behind it, but its quite bold even on a cloudy day.

This is from a couple of weeks ago when we got dumped with a bunch of snow. The kids, and some grown ups in the neighborhood had a blast sledding down the hills-formerly known as roads.

The idea for these two glass glob suncatchers started like lots of my projects do, simply sketching ideas~sometimes the ideas work and sometimes they don't. The centers of both are large glass globs--each measure about 2 inches diameter. Glass glob-what a fun name. Some people call these glass gems, I like the word glob. For the Red and Orange Daisy, I used the same wispy type glass as the Day Lily, added green leaves and a purple background to see how these secondary colors would look together.

And for the Red and Yellow Daisy its the primary colors. Each measure 5 1/2 inches diameter, 14cm. The yellow glass is a little different, its a bit more dense than the orange glass.

What's coming up? There's a frog in my very near future--I pulled out a pattern that I designed last year and have been slowly getting things together for it. And a new hummingbird suncatcher idea~I'm just finishing up some details and should be starting on it in the next couple of days.

Hoping for some warm weather soon!! Enough is enough already. My luck, we'll be in the 90's by mid April and I'll be wishing it were winter again.

Yankeegirl creates beautiful works

2010-02-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

My friend and watercolor artist, yankeegirl, contacted me the other day to find out if I would mind if she created and listed one of her beautiful watercolor paintings based on a picture of a zinnia I had posted to my flickr account last year. I was so delighted!! I roam around the neighborhood~when the weather is much better~ taking pictures of things I see, mostly flowers in bloom and the creatures that feast on them.
The resulting painting is just gorgeous! I recognized this flower right away. Available for sale in her Etsy shop, Anna's Flower measures 11 x 14 inches, mat included.

She did a fantastic rendition! Here is the original photo I took last summer. Please stop by her Etsy shop and take a peek at her beautiful paintings and lovely photography.

Thank you, Yankeegirl! I'm sure your zinnia will bring joy and happiness to the place that it will call home.

Featured seller~wildsunart on Etsy

2010-01-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

I recently came across a very talented artist on Etsy. These are the works of wildsunart. She specializes in Australian wildlife art, but I was immediately drawn to her fun and spunky kitties. Above is Crafty, having fun with a ball of yarn. Wildsunart says that her kitty, Zoe, was her inspiration in these pieces.

This is What, another original ink drawing. Being a big time cat lover with my own household of feline friends, I can totally relate to the mischief that this little furbaby is up to.

This piece is called Seek. Quite appropriate! She has another called Hide. There's no way possible that I can pick a favorite--I just love them all!

Here's a wonderful example of her wildlife art, a Red-eyed Tree Frog done in watercolour and ink.

And just in time for Valentine's Day or any day, really~ these lovely Lovebirds, an original watercolour.

Stop by her shop and take a look around. I'm sure you'll find some wonderful art that you will fall in love with.

Spring is just around the corner...

2010-01-29T13:02:00.000-08:00

Spring, my favorite season is on its way. At least the calender says it is. I'm not so sure since we're in the middle of a major snow event here in West Tennessee. Check out the photos at the bottom of this post.
Here are a couple of new pieces I recently added to my Etsy shop.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love walking through the woods in the spring looking for wildflowers and any and all signs of life reawakening.
I've seen the Large-Flowered Trillium a few times in this area, they really are a beautiful wildflower. I decided that I wanted to make one out of glass.

This Large-Flowered Trillium Suncatcher measures 7 3/4 inches diameter, just over 19.5cm. I've never used the amber green glass that I selected for the background. It turned out to be a nice choice, reminding me of the colors of the woodland floor.

The Happy Dolphin suncatcher doesn't have anything to do with spring, but it was a cute fun project. This design started off as a tiny little sketch, suggested by a friend who wanted me to design a small dolphin piece that she could hang in her office. The dolphin measures 8 1/2 inches tall by 6 1/4 inches wide, 21.5cm by 16cm.

As promised, here are some pics of our snowfall. The snow started coming down at about 10 a.m. Friday and has not let up yet. This is a major event for us down here, I don't remember getting this much snow in such a short amount of time. This former Northerner doesn't have a clue of how to drive in this stuff anymore.

Here's the same clump of daffodils at various times throughout today. My next photo shoot of the outdoors is at 5 p.m., I'm sure this clump will be covered up completely.

8 a.m. January 29

11 a.m. January 29

2 p.m. January 29

At first it was predicted that we would have ice. Later it was changed to snow only. I'm very thankful for the change in the forecast.

Wherever you are, stay safe and warm. I'm gonna go make me a snowman.

A little bit of riverside exploration

2010-01-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

Today was just the perfect day to get out of the house for a little while and do some riverside exploration. I haven't been out and about since the beginning of November, so when the husband suggested it~I was all for it. There's a county park about a mile from my house that's right on the banks of the Tennessee River. All of the following photos were taken in an area about 40 feet square. My goal was to find many interesting things in a relatively small area.

As soon as we got to the park, I headed to my favorite place to explore-right along the shores of the river and the adjacent woodland. The level of the river today was low, some days this area is flooded. This shell caught my eye, its delicate blue color nestled among roots, grasses and fallen leaves.

Just a few feet from the shell, these little prints dotted the beach~river otter or beaver, I'm not quite sure.

Bits and pieces of natures handiwork, delicate designs that are easily overlooked

Natures carvers have been busy in the area. I found lots of beaver gnawings throughout the woodland area just a few feet from the river.

The river workers were out today, too. This is called a barge. The compartments (in red) are loaded with all sorts of commodities: coal, grain, gravel, sand and other stuff for transport up and down the river. This barge is heading upriver, probably to ports down in Alabama or beyond. He could get all the way to Knoxville on the Tennessee River on the other side of the state if he wanted to.

The boat that pushes the load is called a tow. I've never been on one of these, but I've heard that the accommodations are quite nice.

Enough of the man made stuff, we're here to check out mother nature.

Little pockets of ice remain near the backwaters, remnants of last week's cold, cold temperatures. In other years, the water back here would not freeze.

Twists and turns from vines that have intermingled. We find a lot of this kind of stuff around this area.

Fungus covers a fallen tree, delicate little wings full of detail and interesting color.

While I was looking down and taking pics, I almost missed this rainbow cloud up in the sky. I'd never seen anything like it! Bummer about the power lines being in this shot, but as soon as this cloud moved enough so the lines weren't visible, the rainbow wasn't either.

Hanging like an ornament, this is the seed pod from a Sweet Gum tree.

Even though things have not started to bloom yet, there's always plenty of interesting things to see in the natural world.

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of river exploration.

Have a safe and happy week.

I've got me a new kitty cat

2010-01-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Nah, not the real life kinds~I've got plenty of love kittens roaming around. In addition to the 7 permanent insiders, there's a family of 4 stray kitties that I've been caring for and trying to find homes for--without much luck.
I recently designed this new Orange Tabby stained cat suncatcher and added it to my Etsy shop. This piece came about really by accident. Call it the miracle of slow dial up~~while I patiently wait for pictures to upload I have nothing really to do put sit here and doodle. That's where the idea for this one started, just a little 2 inch sketch.

I don't remember what came first-the butterfly or the cat, but now it really doesn't matter. After I played with the sketch a little bit and enlarged it I could see that the piece really needed something more. That's where the little daisy flower came in. The piece then made perfect sense to me: Curious kitty finds a butterfly feeding on a flower, gently picks it up so he can get a better look at it.

Now, the possibilities are endless--will it be a grey tabby and an orange butterfly next time, or should I do a big black kitty and a blue butterfly? So many ideas.

Black patina~what is this stuff? I use a bit of it and in my descriptions I always add that the metals in this piece, the solder and the lead, have been darkened with black patina. The label says that it contains nitric acid and selenium compounds-and look, its also a poison. I wonder sometimes what kind of strange ailments I'll come down with in the future by working with all these chemicals and heavy metals...

Applied with a q-tip to the solder and lead, the lines become dark and the shinny solder turns a deep dark grey, accentuating the solder lines and directing your eye to the beauty of the glass instead.

The piece is then cleaned again to remove any patina residue.
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With the addition of the new suncatcher, I had to build another Orange and White Tabby Cat. Out of curiosity, the husband asked-"How many of this cats have you done, crazy cat lady?" I dunno, I really don't keep track, but then I got real curious. So, I sat down and counted all the ones I've sold online, offline, special orders, through my studio, one that I traded and one that I gave away on my blog last year. This kitty is number 77! Ha~I really couldn't believe it. When number 100 comes around it will have to be extra special. I guess I have a little bit of time to think of what it will be.

The weather here has gotten much better in West Tennessee. We are now out of the deep freeze of last week, the temps are in the 50's and spring is just around the corner. Little daffodil sprouts are starting to poke up through the earth, a welcome sign of the renewal of spring.

Wherever you are, I hope you have a safe and happy week.

I love pancakes!!

2010-01-14T14:47:00.000-08:00

But I really hate the mess of making them. Yeah, I know that sounds pretty lame, but I have a strange phobia of lots of dirty dishes hanging around the kitchen. And I get stuck with clean up duties along with the cooking. With just two people in the house, pancake making times are few and far between.

I came up with a solution. If the mess is gonna happen~make lots of pancakes all at once, have some right then and there and freeze the rest for rainy days. If the big corporations can do it, I can do it too.

Now, if I could only get my hands on a waffle maker...

Its a new balloon

2010-01-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe how time flies! Its already a new year and a new decade and its feels like forever since I've posted anything.
I recently added a new rainbow balloon suncatcher to my Etsy shop. Below are the steps that it takes to create one of these balloons.

First, I start with the original pattern, on the right. I make a carbon copy of the pattern on brown craft paper. All of the pattern pieces are numbered to correspond with the original. I cut the paper pattern apart and start selecting my glass.

For all of the balloons that I've ever made, I've always used Waterglass which is manufactured by the Spectrum glass company. There are a number of things that I like about this glass. Spectrum is pretty consistant in their glass making, especially their colors. That's to say, different glass lots can vary slightly and Spectrum is really good about keeping their colors true. The colors are bright and vibrant. Also, this glass cuts very easily. Finally, Waterglass has a slight texture resembling water gently rippling on the surface of a lake which gives it a gentle flow, very pleasing to the eye and good for a number of applications.
Above, I've taken the paper pattern that I've cut up and glued these pieces to the corresponding pieces of glass. Using this method, the pattern pieces stay in place throughout the glass cutting and grinding process.

Next, all of the glass pieces are 'cut'--kind of. Glass isn't cut, its scored. The glass cutter has a wheel that rides over the surface of the glass creating a break in the surface which allows the glass to then be broken off at the score line.

Once all of the glass pieces are cut, they still don't fit together as tight as they need to.

I'll use a glass grinder to smooth out any uneven edges on the sides of the glass pieces. The grinder head is coated with diamond bits that quickly removes any unwanted glass so the pieces can fit tightly together.

The glass pieces are placed back onto the original pattern and checked to make sure they fit tight.

Once all of the pieces have been fit together, the application of copper foil can begin. The little basket hangs separately from the balloon and will be assembled in a different manner.

In the copper foil, or Tiffany, method of stained glass the glass edges are wrapped with a self adhesive copper foil. For this balloon I'm using three different types of foil. One type is copper backed, as shown above. I use the copper backed foil for darker pieces of glass. For the lighter pieces like the yellow and orange, I use a black backed foil which creates a black shadow on the edges of the glass which can be seen once the suncatcher is completed. I'm also using a slightly narrower type foil for the glass pieces that are a little bit skinnier. With Waterglass, some of the glass pieces are a little bit thicker and some are a little bit skinnier. By using both wider and narrower foils, I can keep the solder lines looking consistant thoughout the piece. In other words, if I used a wider foil on a skinny piece of glass I'll end up with a wider solder line that will look fat and globby.

The glass pieces that are on inside of the suncatcher are wrapped entirely around with foil, the pieces that are on the outside edge are only wrapped on three sides. Here, a burnishing tool is used to smooth down the foil to the top surface of the glass. All three sides-top, edge and back are smoothed down to remove any air bubbles and to get the foil to stick to all of these surfaces.

Once all of the pieces have been foiled, I'll tack the suncatcher down to keep it in place using push pins.

Next, the soldering process can begin. Picured left to right, I've got my flux, 60/40 lead solder, a damp sponge to clean the tip of the solder iron off with and the solder iron. Soldering is an interesting process. A combination of copper foil along with chemical flux and hot melted solder creates a chemical reaction which bonds the pieces of glass together.

Here, one side of the suncatcher has been soldered. The piece is then flipped over and the backside is soldered also. The gunky junk leftover from the solder process will be cleaned off the glass.

Here's what the balloon looks like after both sides are soldered and the piece is cleaned for the first time. We're not done yet!

Let's assemble the basket. I save scrap pieces of lead came and use these pieces for the basket. Lead came, or lead framing-there are several different styles and thicknesses depending on the application needed. For suncatchers, I use 'U' channel came--it resembles the letter U and has an inside groove that fits around the edge of the glass.

I'll cut the bottom piece of came to fit and tack the bottom and two sides down to a board using horseshoe nails. These joints are then soldered together. A piece is cut to fit the top of the basket and this piece is then soldered in place.

Both sides of the basket-front and back- are soldered at the joints.

Excess came is then removed from the basket.

I've tried using real people to hold the basket for me when I solder a jump ring to the sides. The problem with using people is that they breath and when they breath they move and don't hold the basket perfectly steady. Then they get impatient which makes me impatient...its much easier for me to place the basket into a vise. The vise doesn't move and doesn't expect a great big thank you, either. Here, a jump ring is soldered to the side of the basket. The basket gets a jump ring on both sides. The basket is done for now and I'll set it aside.

Back to the balloon. Using scrap pieces just to get my measurement, I'll cut a piece of lead came to fit for the bottom of the balloon.

I'll measure the outside edge to find out how much lead came I will need for this project. Lead came is available in either 6 foot lengths in case quantities or it comes in a spool. I've bought both, the spooled lead is a bit more economical and shipping is a lot less expensive. For this project, I will need about 23 1/2 inches of lead came. I measure what I need, cut it off the spool and stretch the lead. The lead is very flexible and by stretching it, it straightens is and makes it not so flimsy.
I'll wrap the entire outside edge with the lead came, fit my bottom piece in and tack the entire suncatcher down to hold it in place. All of the joints are then soldered together using flux and solder. As in the basket, the excess came is removed using a lead cutter.

I make my own jump rings out of pretinned copper wire. Since no one is here to take any action camera shots for me, you've got to take my word that the next thing I'm doing is soldering the jump ring to the back of the suncatcher.

Again with the vise---I'll place the balloon into the vise to hold it while I solder a jump ring to each side of the balloon. After all of this, both the balloon and the basket are cleaned and polished and jack chain is used to attach the basket to the balloon. Then the real fun starts--trying to get good pictures so I can list this-most of the time its easier said then done!

I hope you enjoyed all of this fun stuff. I know I did. Speaking of fun stuff, the next project is a brand spankin new idea that I recently drew up. I'm very excited to get going on it. If you are a cat lover you'll get a kick out of this new suncatcher~think kitty cat, butterfly and a flower.

Until next time, stay warm. Its been an awefully cold winter here in West Tennessee. I can't wait for spring! Or at least a break in the deep freeze.

I am the crazy cat lady

2009-11-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

My husband has been calling me the crazy cat lady for years now. Honestly, I really like this title.
I had an idea a few weeks ago to try some new colors with my stained glass kitty cat faces. I thought they might be cool to build in pinks and greens and yellows-its not even winter here and I'm already thinking of spring colors. I told a friend about my idea and she suggested that I try patchwork kitties-mix the colors up a bit. So, I gave it a try. This is the second Pastel Patchwork kitty that I have built and I have added this one to my Etsy shop. I just love them and I'm thankful that she suggested the idea, they are so fun and bright.

This kitty has very pale green eyes. I have another patchwork kitty that I've cut up and will have finished in the next few days. The new kitty will have aqua blue eyes and aqua blue glass along with other springtime colors.

I've also added an Orange Tabby to my shop. This one is so bright with some sun behind it--its like its on fire! The eyes of this one are an emerald green.

And-I've finally completed my Snowy Owl suncatcher, now I just need to get it packaged to ship. The whites are actually very bright, it looks like I've got some shadows from my backyard trees cutting across parts of it here. I'm very excited about this piece and hopefully I'll be able to recreate this and add it to my Etsy shop.

Hoping everyone has a wonderful week. The weather has been absolutely wonderful here in Tennessee.

Crank up that woodstove, daddy-o!

2009-11-05T15:08:00.000-08:00

Yup, that's what the kitties say when it starts getting chilly outside. The very first winter that we spent in this house, we used this fireplace--well, as a fireplace. Its beautiful to look at a roaring fire but it would just burn up the wood without ever really warming up the house. Granted, we do have a central unit, but after receiving the first bill for heat we had to find another way to stay warm. For the second winter, the husband rigged up this idea--connect a woodburning stove to the chimney via stovepipe. This set up is pretty ugly, really, but it does warm the house and the kitties think that its the best thing ever. The empty fireplace hole becomes prime sleeping territory.

Out of the 7 insiders, there are only 4 that are true fans of the heat. Biggum (above) just loves it and winters are the only time that he really lets it all hang out.

Another big time fan of the heat is my Bubba. He likes to stretch out and take up the entire space.
Little Weetie really enjoys spending time in here in the evening--after she's wore out from harrasing the other cats all day long.

20 year old Granma is pretty dignified in her heat gathering activities. She's much to proper to sprawl out like the other heathen cats.

Its Vulture Time Again!!

2009-11-03T17:17:00.000-08:00

Every year in the fall, I get to witness a really cool natural phenomenon right from my front yard. These are all vultures--both Turkey and Black Vultures-in a gathering also known as a vulture kettle. Its not what you might be thinking-these birds aren't all out looking for dead things to eat. Instead, they have searched out special features of the natural landscape...
The neighborhood I live in sits on top of a hill overlooking the Tennessee River. The wind currents lift off of the hillside creating thermal currents-or rising columns of air. The vultures seek out these thermal currents which lifts their bodies and allows the birds to soar effortlessly for hours. In the times that I've watched them I've seen very few wing flaps.

As the birds start decending from the sky they take up roost for the overnight in trees across the street from me--very tall trees on a hillside not close to any homes.

These are all Turkey Vultures, easily distinguished from Black Vultures by their underside wing patterns. With a wingspan of 69 inches (175cm) its quite an impressive bird and also a very valuable member of the ecosystem since they are part of the clean up crew that feeds on animals that have died.

Its really a delight to see these birds flying about and doing their thing. The only one around here that gets freaked out about them is my dog--I guess she thinks they're out to get her.

Things that fly....and things that swim

2009-10-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

For the past week, I've been working on this custom order Snowy Owl suncatcher. I was on a role, half way through having all of the glass pieces foiled up when I realized that there were things about the face that I really didn't like, but I couldn't put my finger on what those things were. I left the project alone for a day or two while I went over the problems in my head and finally came up with a solution. So, back to work today--I fixed the problem pieces and I can continue onward.

Here's another custom project that I did a few years ago. I was contacted by someone interested in my work~they had seen a different Largemouth Bass glass panel that I had designed, created and listed on ebay at the time.
There were a couple of requirements by the buyer-first, they wanted this panel to be 1/3 sky and 2/3 water. Second, the bass needed to be in pursuit of a frog that had made its way onto a lily pad~with the question remaining of whether the frog made it or did the bass snag it off the pad. Third, they wanted the letters 'H' and 'L' built into the panel somehow~these initials signified the pond that was on their property. Forth, it need to be built to fit into an existing enclosure.
I set about including all of these elements into the design and would email sketches to the client for approval since they were out of state. Once I had the final 'cartoon' drawn up, I sent a carbon copy to the client for their final approval and to make sure that the measurements were correct. I'm so glad I did this since I was given the wrong measurements but could easily make the corrections before I started cutting the glass. Because of this I still remember the measurements off the top of my head--this piece measured 20 9/16" wide by 29 9/16" tall. By the way-in this large overview you can see the letters 'H' and 'L' worked into the design--to the right of the bass in the swaying grass.

The thing about this project that kind of bums me out is that I didn't take a whole lot of photos of it like I should have. Here's the bass with all the glass pieces cut. I've used a taxadermy glass eye--just like what would be used in a mounted trophy catch.

Here's the detail of the frog--before the poor guy was given an eye.

My husband has been trying to convince me to redo this panel for our front door. As soon as I can find 2 months of free time to spare I'll be right on it~in other words I would love to redo this but I doubt I'll ever find the time.

New glass in my shop-Cobalt Blue Star

2009-10-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

While I'm waiting on a glass shipment for a custom project that I'm building, I decided to create and add this Cobalt Blue Star Beveled Stained Glass Window Panel to my Etsy shop. This design is truly my favorite to create, I have yet to come up with another pattern that I enjoy building as much as this one.
Shortly after listing this piece, I was notified that it had been featured on the Etsy FDL team's blog post on jewel tones from various Etsy sellers. Wow, how exciting for me, I'm really flattered that my piece was chosen to be included.
The following pictures show some additional details on this piece.

The center focal point is a clear glass bevel. I've surrounded the bevel with textured cobalt blue glass with the textured side facing forward. I tend to do this with much of my work, I think it adds just a touch more sparkle to the piece. The center 'petals' are surrounded with a different textured glass both in cobalt blue and in clear called Waterglass. Waterglass has a flowing texture that resembles water on a lake's surface. I've also used a pale blue textured glass in the background and textured cobalt blue glass with clear glass bevels in the border.

Once all the glass pieces have been cut, fit and foiled I will cut my frame for this piece. For square/rectangular panels I use rigid zinc came or frame.
This is cross section of the zinc came showing the 'U' channel. The outer edges of the panel fit inside of this channel.
I measure my came and hand cut the pieces using a hacksaw and a mitre box.
Here is the piece tacked down to a board using horseshoe nails along with the items needed to solder this panel front and back. From left to right: solder, flux, solder iron and a damp sponge to wipe the tip off during the process. Once soldered the panel is cleaned and polished and stored in my workshop while it awaits to be shipped to a new home (hopefully).

Asters~Its what's for dinner

2009-10-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I set out to do a little bit of exploring and see what was new in the wild kingdom. I went to two of my local favorite 'hot spots', areas that in the past have always had good things to see. At the first stop, a wild, overgrown area near a stream just a 3 minute drive from my house, I found the first of several Monarch butterflies I was to see on this day. What a complete surprise it was to see this beautiful butterfly on such a cloudy, dreary day.

In both places that I visited, there were wild asters in bloom all over the place. Part of the sunflower family, these blooms were being enjoyed by a number of different species.

The bees were also enjoying the small white and yellow blooms. Once these flowers dry they will provide winter seed for small wintering songbirds.

Ooops, I caught these two in the act! I saw them fly passed me together but didn't attempt to follow them. Just by coincidence I found the flower on which they landed.

The black-eyed Susans are fading away but are still adding some bright sunny color to the natural landscape. Another member of the sunflower family, these happy blooms have provided food for butterflies and bees and other insects while in bloom and will again sustain life once their seed heads dry and are munched up by songbirds.

Here is another interesting wildflower/shrub. Its a Heart's-a-bustin', or Strawberry Bush. Looks like they have busted alright. These seeds are eaten by browsing deed during the winter months.

SALE!! I've put quite a few items on sale in my Etsy shop until the end of October. All of my stained glass owl ornaments have been marked down along with all rainbow colored items including stained glass pieces signs, hot air balloon and small rainbow suncatchers.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Wings and things

2009-10-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

I've tried for many, many years to get photos of hummingbirds, but they always move much to fast for me or leave the feeder just when I'm ready to get a shot of them. A few weeks ago, I got lucky. Right before I was to take this feeder down and switch it with a clean one, I took a break on my front porch-camera in hand. On this evening the activity at the feeder was pretty good. Here are just two of the half dozen that were flying around the front feeder~the activity at the back feeder was also good.

These are juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, the most commonly seen hummingbird east of the Mississippi River. They come to North America for their breeding cycle and I've been lucky enough to find one of their tiny little nest a few years back. The adult males with their shimmering red throats have already made their journey south to their wintering grounds. I'm jealous of the folks out West, they get a wider variety of hummingbirds. Strictly a "New World" bird, its always a pleasure to see these flying jewels. But these cute little jewels have an aggressive side to them and are extremely territorial.

The hummer on the left kept trying to get a drink of the sugar water mix~meanwhile the one that's in midair kept trying to get it to leave. A few times the midair hummer would actually try and land on the other's head to get it to go away.

After a little while things seemed to settle down and they realized that they could enjoy some 'juice' together.
As of today, we still have a few of these juveniles hanging around the yard. Soon, they too will be gone for the season. For the 10 years that I have been tracking their arrival and departure dates from three different locations in Middle and West Tennessee, the second week of October is when they usually leave for good.

Speaking of birds, here is my next project that I need to get started on. Its a Snowy Owl suncatcher and a custom order. Once its completed, it will measure nearly 14" diameter. The owl will be sitting on a snow covered log with snow on the ground around it. The background will be a deep cobalt blue with a full moon split in half by the trunk of a tree. I've been excited about building this piece for some time~but my customer requested that they did not want it until November at the earliest. I can't wait until its done, depending on how things work out I might build one for my Etsy shop.

Wishing everyone a wonderful, peaceful Sunday.

I love black cats

2009-10-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, I do-I love black cats~but then again, I love all cats!! I just added three new black cat ornaments to my Etsy shop. The first two are the fat face style-they are 5" wide. One has glowing amber eyes. The eyes are glass globs and after I get them soldered I hand paint the pupils so each is a little bit different. The amber eyed cat has the look in its eyes like my cat gets when there's no food in the bowl.

Here is the green eyed kitty. These glass globs are really light in color~almost a pale lime green.

And the last kitty has really cool blue eyes. I've never seen a blue eyed black cat in person, but I know they exist. For this cat, I narrowed the face a bit. I really like the shape of this one. I had another kitty~a blue eyed grey and white kitty all handcut, but I needed to order some replacement parts for my glass saw before I can go any further with getting that one done.

And here's some real black cat love~two of my black girls loving up to each other.

Its time for pears!!

2009-10-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my husband came home with a box of locally grown pears. He had stopped to help a man resecure the load on this truck and in return the man gave up these pears from his Granny's tree. Well, honestly, I don't have a clue of what to do with them all--I don't can and there is just my husband and myself--the kitties don't want anything to do with them. Except to maybe roll them around the floor. So, I thought to find some suggestions on Etsy's Etc forum. It seemed like the logical place to ask for all kinds of advice.

I got lots of great suggestions and links to recipes that looked super yummy--but I'm really lazy in the kitchen. I really don't like to be there very long, except in the winter. I enjoy cooking in the winter. Its still too nice outside for cooking.

The first suggestion that caught my eye was to bake some like apples. Great! I got the crockpot recipe book out and followed the instructions for baked apples:

2 Tbsp raisins

1/4 cup sugar

6-8 medium apples, washed and cored

1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp butter

Mix raisins and sugar (I used brown sugar) fill center of apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon and dot with butter. Put in crock pot, add 1/2 cup water. Cover, cook on low 7-9 hours or high 2 1/2-3 1/2 hours. These turned out really good.

The next pear treat I tried was Pear Crisp. HeatherScent suggested this recipe and honestly, I just love the way that she shared it~it just made me want to try it. So, with her permission, here it is:

Oh, I suppose you want the recipe!

Wash, peel and cut up a bunch of pears, enough to cover the bottom of a 9" square baking pan. Grease the pan first. Use REAL butter, please, not cooking spray or margarine or any of that funny business. Butter is the right thing to do.

In a bowl, mix 3/4 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cups rolled oats, 1/3 cup softened butter and 1/3 cup of flour.

By the way, I'm guessing at all of these measurements, since I don't actually measure when I cook. But even if thy are off, how wrong can it be? It's sugar and butter, that always works out nicely.

Mix that up nice and then dump it on top of the pears. Sprinkle with a whole bunch o cinnamon, and a little nutmeg too, if you're a nutmeg kinda gal. I'm not.

Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes (Oops, you should have pre-heated the oven. I forgot to tell you that). Serve it with real ice cream, for goodness sakes. Don't even think about putting Cool Whip on it.

This was really good! Hubby and I both enjoyed it, it was quick and easy and tasty.

We've gone through this box of pears, there is only about 6 left and they are now soft enough for table use. I really need to send him out again and see what other kind of fruits he might be able to bring home.

What's new in blue

2009-09-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

It continues to rain here in West Tennessee, so I haven't had much of a chance to get out and see what's happening with Mother Nature, which is good because it has kept me busy in the shop. I've finally listed my new cobalt blue stained glass panel~Sapphire Star~with special thanks to the great folks at Harmony Glass. This piece measures 11 1/4 inches square--28.5cm and uses two shades and textures of cobalt blue glass along with one clear glass gem, four sapphire teardrop glass gems and clear glass bevels. Once the sun finally does decide to come out, I'll have to spend some time rephotographing this piece.

I've also been busy cutting and grinding all the pieces for this second cobalt blue panel. The center of this piece is a 30mm clear glass faceted jewel surrounded by 4 different textures of clear iridescent glass with textured cobalt blue glass and 24mm x 40mm clear teardrop shaped faceted jewels. Once completed this piece will measure approximately 12 1/4" square (31cm). With good luck and no mishaps, I should have this piece listed on my Etsy site early next week.

Iridescent glass is highly reflective, especially at night with just a bit of artificial light hitting it. In the day, it seems to give off soft hues of pink-yellow-green. A very pretty glass.

This is the 30mm center jewel for this panel~just under 1 1/2" diameter.

And this is the 24mm x 40mm teardrop shaped jewel-approximately 1" x 1 1/2".

One more project that I've got going on is this small sized frog suncatcher. I was contacted after posting my other frog suncatcher with a request to do one in a smaller size~this one will measure about 6 1/2" diameter. I'm really looking forward to completing this piece and if I can find the time I will do another to add to my Etsy inventory.

Looking forward to some sunny weather in the upcoming week. Hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

What's next in the shop

2009-09-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

With all the beautiful sapphire items for September being featured on Etsy lately, I thought I should put a new design together using some rich cobalt glass. I sketched up this new design recently~while waiting for pictures to upload. I originally wanted to build this piece much larger then what I'm building this one at~maybe I'll wait and see if there is a positive response to this piece first. Once completed, the above panel will measure approximately 11 1/4" square (28.5cm)

I ordered these lovely teardrop shaped smooth glass jewels. Once I started working on this panel I noticed that one out of the four is a lighter color then the rest and would really stand out once this piece is completed. I contacted the company and they will be sending an additional darker gem so I'll be able to continue working on the panel.

I finally completed my frog/dragonfly suncatcher~unfortunately, it has been cloudy or rainy every day since so I haven't been able to get really good photos.

My owl suncatchers are on sale until September 23 marked down to $35 each~here is the latest owl to be added to my Etsy store. You can see more pictures of it here.
I also have a Dark Streaky Brown Owl, a Grey Hoot Owl and a Snowy Owl.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy weekend!!

Butterflies on a Sunday afternoon

2009-09-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

I've been trying so hard to stay focused and stay in my shop and continue working on my frog and not wander the countryside looking for nature's beauties. It worked for awhile, but Sunday afternoon this lovely blue butterfly landed in my yard and I knew that it was all over. I put my stuff away, grabbed the camera and headed to a local county park to see what was happening. I admit I have a problem~I'm a nature junkie and have to get my fix but I really don't think I need help...sometimes my husband thinks I do...
By the way, the above butterfly is called a Red-spotted Purple. Its considered a mimic butterfly~~it mimics the coloring and markings of a similar butterfly called a Pipevine Swallowtail. The Pipevine is toxic so by mimicking it the Red-spotted Purple avoids being eaten up by birds.

Here's an update on the frog suncatcher taken Monday afternoon. All of the pieces have been foiled and with any luck I'll have this piece soldered on Tuesday--if I feel up to it.

Back to the Sunday butterflies. This butterfly is the Pipevine Swallowtail. I caught up with it on the shores of the Tennessee River probing the sand for mineral salts. This is a common activity in butterflies. Unfortunately, this one wouldn't open its wings so I could show the similarities to the above Red-spotted Purple. The undersides are just gorgeous. This butterfly looks pretty fresh like its just come out of its cocoon recently.

Another flying beauty found probing for salts is what I think is a Tawny Emperor. Their markings can vary somewhat within the specie. The patterning and coloring are just gorgeous.

Similar to the bold orange and black Monarch~this is another mimic butterfly. This is a Viceroy butterfly. Monarch butterflies are distasteful to birds, so again by mimicking the colorings and markings of another specie this butterfly avoids becoming lunch.

While checking the shoreline of a smaller river that feeds into the Tennessee River, I spotted this beautiful American Lotus. Funny, I have never ever seen this lovely flower up close and personal and just by coincidence I'm working on the frog suncatcher that has a yellow water lily as part of the background. These types of coincidences happen fairly often to me. A few years ago, I was working on a different dragonfly project. The day that I started cutting the glass pieces a very large dragonfly flew into my shop~this is before I put a screen door up. Hummingbirds have made their way into my shop also~around the time I was working on hummingbirds. Good thing I have the screen door up now--I'm going to be working on a bigger owl project soon.

Another lovely find for the day was this Cardinal Flower in bloom. This wildflower is a favorite of hummingbirds~insects find it difficult to get at the nectar in this long narrow tube like flower. Nice to see this flower in bloom, hummingbirds are starting their southward migration and by having little pit stops like these flowers, those amazing flying jewels stand a better chance at reaching their wintering destinations.

Its been kinda froggy for the past few days

2009-09-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to redo this frog/dragonfly suncatcher for the longest time. I designed it last year and built just one of them, but there were things about the pattern that I wanted to make changes to before I'd build another. Finally, I sat down and figured out what was bothering me and got things straightened out.
A few days ago, I got started on the process. I made my carbon copy of the original and started picking out glass. Right about this time, my neighbor came over to drop off a loaf of bread his wife had made. He saw what I was working on and bought it for her as a surprise Christmas gift. Wonderful for me, I won't have to take a million and one photos to get five right like I would if I posted this suncatcher to my Etsy site.

These are most all of the glass pieces that are going into the suncatcher. I've glued down the paper pattern pieces to the glass. I'll save the pieces that are cut off and sort them by color. One of these days I'm going to give mosaics a try.

The pieces have been thinned down a bit--here's how they look after I've cut them by hand with a glass cutter. Some of the angles of these pieces are a bit tight and the type of glass is not all that easy to cut by hand~I'll leave these for the glass saw. Since I don't have any extra of some of this glass I don't want to take the chance of trying to cut it by hand and having it break in the wrong place.

Here are the glass pieces cleaned up a bit more with the glass saw. Its a wonderful tool~I use it quite often. A must have in my shop.

I started grinding the pieces for the frog first. The eye is a black glass glob that I've grinded down on both sides and also the bottom to make it a bit shorter so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. I like the idea of using a glob--or glass gem, since its round it has a certain amount of reflectivity in that it catched the light and reflects it. This spotted glass is wonderful for frogs. I'm so glad I came across a piece of it years ago in the scrap bin of the stained glass shop that I took my one and only class at.

Here's the detail of the dragonfly. I've used a light green glass glob for its head. This one I couldn't grind the bottom of since it will show--it will look all scratched up and dull. So, this will stick up above the rest of the glass pieces a bit. The wings are an iridescent textured glass with the textured side up and the body is 7 individual pieces in light green.

Here's how things look as of this afternoon. Next, I'll wrap all of the pieces with copper foil, solder the front and the back and wrap lead came around the entire piece. I'll solder two loops near the top of the piece for a chain to be attached and I'll darken all of the solder lines and lead with black patina.
I'm always excited to get a project like this done. I'll post photos again as the process continues.

A little bit of time on the river

2009-09-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

In the middle of last week, to celebrate our anniversary, my husband and I paid a visit to the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge-Busseltown Unit~just a couple of miles away from where we live. The river is pretty peaceful and quiet during the week, I'm sure it was pretty packed for Labor Day weekend-boats of all kinds, jet skis and people enjoying the last holiday of summer. Sometimes, we get lucky enough to see a big barge moving product up and down the river.
Looking south and looking upriver. Sounds funny, doesn't it? Rivers in North America are supposed to flow south-this one doesn't. The Tennessee River flows southwest out of the Knoxville area, west across northern Alabama, then takes a turn north and flows through West Tennessee until it dumps into the Ohio which eventually empties into the Mississippi. We've spent some time swimming in this river, but its not all that clean. You come out of the water feeling that you need a shower.

Lovely golden yellow wildflowers are in bloom all over this area.

Across the river are some nice looking bluffs. The water reaches pretty good depths near these bluffs, usually 50-60 feet deep. The Tennessee River splits the state of Tennessee into three sections- East, Middle and West. We're on the West Tennessee side looking east at Middle Tennessee.

A good find for the day included this White Tail Dragonfly. It was patrolling a small area looking for prey. I got to watch this one as it munched down whatever it had caught. After its meal it was off again looking for another victim.

The purples of autumn are starting to bloom. I'm not sure of what these are but they are very pretty. I was kind of bummed out--when we visited about a month ago there was lots more interesting things in bloom. A lot of it got mowed down, probably in anticipation of all the weekend visitors that were going to use this area for their good times.

Here's an interesting wildflower~Heart's-a-bustin, or Strawberry Bush. These haven't busted yet, but when they do the seed head opens to reveal purple insides and bright orange seeds. I'll have to remember to come back and get a shot of these once they pop.

Off to work I go..

2009-08-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

After many, many great big cups of coffee in the morning, I open this door from my kitchen and step into my workshop. I built these 3 panels to replace the regular glass that was in the door--a few too many drinks one night and I put my hand through one of the panes. I gave up drinking--it never agreed with me anyway. But, its great to have the kitchen right close by--coffee and snacks all day long.

This was a carport when we bought this house a few years ago, actually more like a garage that never had a door. My husband and I went window shopping and began enclosing the front. We found these two large windows from a local window business for a pretty fair price--the owner ordered the wrong color (they were supposed to be tinted) for a bank job. But, man--they were really heavy. We had a local boxer who was working nearby come and help set them in place. The windows are great, they let in so much light and I can always look out to see if anything interesting is going on out there--things like butterflies and birds...

Here's how things look on any given day. I thought I would clean things up before I took pictures, but then I would be lost. I figure January will be a good time to clean up. There's some glass stored against the wall, some tools and my glass grinder.

This used to be our dining table--haha! Its just too big to be inside the house, so I got it as a work table. I used to feel bad everytime I'd build a box and scratch up the surface with a razor knife--not anymore. There's some more glass stored under the table along with different size shipping boxes.

This side door doesn't open anymore, we sealed it shut--but its still nice to have more light come inside. I'm sharing this area over here with hubby and some of his stuff.

I had a call from a local business last week to come pick up some goodies. I'm lucky that they save their packaging materials for me--its like a goldmine, really and saves on the environment, also.
The kitties aren't allowed out here--its much too dangerous for them with bits of glass all around and nasty chemicals and such. But, when I feel the need I can sneak back inside and give them all kisses.

Day of the Dragonfly and other curiosities

2009-08-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

Thursday afternoon, I decided to get out of the house for a few and take a short ride down to the Tennessee River to see if there was anything interesting going on. After about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, my workshop just gets a bit too warm and uncomfortable to work in. The first stop was a local boat launch area with lots of native vegetation. This big beautiful dragonfly caught my eye and I headed on over to see if I couldn't get a shot of it.

This dragonfly turned out to be the most cooperative dragonfly I've ever come across. It must have been in need of a rest since it let me photograph it from all angles while fumbling with the settings on my camera. I'm not sure what kind it is~my field guide lists a few that are similar to this one but the descriptions don't match 100%.

The closeup of the wings shows a little bit of wear and tear around the edges.

I like this shot from the back end~it reminds me of an airplane ready to take off into the wild blue yonder.

After about 5 minutes it was tired of me bothering it and it took off to find some peace and quiet.

The second stop along the Tennessee River was a local county park. This passionflower and many more like it was found in an area allowed to grow wild~my favorite kind of place to explore because you never know what kind of interesting flora or fauna will be found. According to the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, "The name relates to the resemblance of the floral parts to aspects of the crucifixion story. The 10 petal-like parts represent the disciples, excluding Peter and Judas, the 5 stamens the wounds Jesus received, the knob-like stigmas the nails, the fringe the crown of thorns." A very interesting bloom, indeed. Another interesting fact about this vine is that its a host plant for fritillary butterfly caterpillars.

This is the fruit of the passionflower, a passion fruit. Its an edible fruit, this one needs to ripen a bit more. I can't recall if I've ever tried one--there were plenty of these fruits hanging around, hopefully this year I'll get my hands on one and give it a try.

My love melons~~the unplanned fruit

2009-08-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

This year, we were not going to have a garden. The 'dirt' in the best place for a garden in my tiny yard was so poor that it really needed some help before a garden would be possible. Our neighbor gave us a few loads of nice looking topsoil and my husband and I thought that we would spend some time amending the soil this year and we would be ready next spring. We started saving all of our kitchen scraps to mix into the soil for the summer and fall and we'd let it overwinter for next spring. Included in one of the buckets of kitchen scraps were a bunch of seeds from a melon we had bought. I never thought the seeds would germinate-hoping maybe the birds would find them and eat them up.

After a week or two a bunch of little plants started popping up--I recognized what they were--little melon sprouts. I didn't have the heart to pull them up-let them live! I did thin them out a little bit~by the looks of things now I should have thinned them out a little bit more. The melon in the first image I knew about, I've been taking pictures of it as its been developing. Its the melon in the second image that was well hidden beneath the leaves the I just discovered today.

Here's a little bee doing its job. They have been quite faithful to all the blooms and I've got lots of little melons everywhere.

With any luck, fall will be warm and these melons can keep on growing. I can't wait to be able to sample one of these~I just haven't got a clue on when I need to pull them off the vine! Talk about a bumbling farmer.

Let the wild places be wild

2009-08-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

There's a little side road not far from my house that I've been meaning to check out for the longest time. When I travel the highway and look over at this spot, there's a riot of yellow, so I knew that there must be some good stuff down this way. Wow, I was not disappointed. There's a small stream that flows threw this area and the native vegetation was in full bloom. There were lots of butterflies and dragonflies in the area, along with a couple of hummingbirds and other songbirds calling from the trees along the stream bank.

The riot of yellow was actually all these small sunflowers. What a great food source right now for the butterflies and bees. Later, when these dry they will be a valuable winter food source for the native songbirds that call this area home along with our visiting winter migrants.

These ripening elderberries with help nourish our native songbirds and will provide fuel for those that migrate South for the winter.

Found along the banks of the small stream was large patches of Jewelweed, or Spotted Touch-Me-Not. There was a hummingbird feeding on one of these blooms, but I wasn't quick enough to capture it.

Really an interesting plant, I love the orange yellow color of these flowers.

There were also a dozen or so Bull Thistles in bloom. The flowers look quite puffy and soft, but the stems and leaves are quite thorny. I don't what the 'value' of these are, but I'm sure that the seeds are consumed by songbirds in the winter months.

This is definately an area that I'm going to have to come back to very soon.

Its been a wonderful week indeed

2009-08-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

I was the lucky winner in Celticcatphotos' recent blog giveaway. It was an extra special giveaway, really, since there were two prizes. First, she was kind enough to feature me on her blog. Second, I could choose one of the photo note cards from her Etsy shop. I chose her Birthday Cat card. I've always adored this photo~its the one that's in her avatar. Its her kitty Hamlet on his first birthday. So sweet. Check out her lovely photography which includes a wide range of subjects from kitty cats to lighthouses and classic cars.

I'm not a person that can stay still for very long and I really want to enjoy this cute photo often~so, I've decided to post it on one of the walls in my workshop. This is a place that I spend a good deal of my time and I've already hung up a few of my favorite kitty cats here. Here's Hamlet in a special spot between Puffy the message therapist and my name in the form of a black cat.

Today, I found out that my rainbow peace sign was was featured on another blog. ARTISANNE posted a some lovely works inspired by Woodstock's 40th anniversary. She makes awesome sea glass jewelry from glass she collects on the beaches near her home in Scotland.

The heat has still not let up in Tennessee--the dog days are here, for sure. I wanted to start work on a frog/lily pad/dragonfly suncatcher, but I'm still working on the pattern~its the frog's feet that slowed me down. As soon as I get them figured out I'll get started. In the meantime, I've been working on a couple of smaller hanging panels. Both are the same pattern~three red cherries with two leaves and a small section of branch. Once completed they will measure a little over 8" square, 20.5cm--a nice size for a kitchen window.

For this piece I've used more dense glass. The background is an ivory white~reminds me of a country kitchen look.

In this panel I've used more translucent stained glass with glass bevels in the corners. Hopefully, I'll get these done in the next few days. I really shouldn't work on fruity things~I've been craving cherry pie ever since I started working these.

Have a wonderful day wherever you are and I hope you have had a wonderful week, too.

Come meet the family! The furry ones anyway.

2009-08-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

I love my babies, all 8 of them. Here's most of them all together having a special treat. Honestly, I never though I would be the momma to so many critters, but we have plenty of room in our home for all of them and most importantly lots more room in our hearts. Here's a little peek at all of them.

Granma, a/k/a Granny, formerly known as Baby. Age: 19. Hometown: Port Charlotte, FL. Granma's the only furbaby that's not really a rescue. We got Granma from a little girl whose kitty cat had kittens. Granma's travelled with us when we moved from Florida to Colorado then to Michagan and finally Tennessee. Granny says that she's glad our travelling days are done. She's still going strong but getting a little strange in her behavior. I guess I would be too if I were her age.

The King, formerly known as Boy. Age: 11. Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI. Hubby brought home this stinky little kitten from an apartment complex that he used to work at. He'd been trying to capture this kitty for some time, without much luck. He'd see the kitty hanging around under a dumpster and finally cornered him one day at the bottom of a stairwall much against the kitty's will. This kitty was a total surprise. I came home one day and there he was, still in the cage with hubby's warning that he was wild. I gladly reached my hand in the cage, brought him out, cuddled him up and we've been best pals ever since. He's earned the name 'The King' since he rules all the other cats and will break up fights between them. Terrified of people, he'll hide in the basement until company leaves.

Bubba, formerly known as Hobbs, since he hobbles. Age: 9. Hometown: Summertown, TN. Bubba is my special rescue kitty. I found him on the side of a highway when he was about 6 weeks of age with a broken leg. The vet tried to save the leg, it didn't work. Bubba's back leg was removed at the hip. No problem for Bubba. He's very energetic when he's not napping and will get on anything and everything.

Biggum, formerly known as Mister. Age: unknown-adult rescue. Hometown: Columbia, TN. Biggum was hanging around across the street from the warehouse I used to work at, trying to get the attention of the workers out there on break. No one wanted anything to do with him. I called him over to my building. He was the friendliest cat ever. He hung around all day, I fed him since I kept cat food at work in case a stray would happen to come along and he even took a nap in the flower beds out front. Later in the afternoon, he went hunting in the field and brought back a mouse and ate it in front of me. That's it, I decided right then and there that he was coming home with me. At the end of the day I packed him up in a cardboard box, taped it up and brought him home. He's a real people lover and just adores it when we have company.

Angel~la, formerly known as Angel Face. Age: unknown-adult rescue. Hometown: Perry County, TN. Angel~la was found hanging around a bunch of logging trucks parked alongside the highway. I saw her, stopped to visit her and gave her something to eat. Since we already had 4 kitties the thought never crossed my mind to bring her home. Told hubby about her and the next day he went out to the spot, found her and brought her home. She's an excellent traveller. I used to bring her to work with me and she'd sleep on the front seat for the 45 minute trip one way. She loves the boy kitties and will snuggle with Bubba and Biggum. The King wants nothing to do with this little hussy.

Weetie, a/k/a Sweetie, Biscuit, Love Muffin, Sweet Girl. Age: unknown-adult rescue. Hometown: Perry County, TN. Weetie found our house out in the middle of nowhere when she was starving and quite ill. Hubby said he had seen her pass by the house a few times so he knew about her already. One day when he had just gotten out of the shower, she made her way across our front porch screaming the whole time. He described it as a death rattle. Good thing no neighbors could see our house way up on a hill because he tried following her through the woods to catch her in only his rubber boots and undies, leaving a trail of food for her to find. Later that night she made her way back to the front porch. We threw some food at her and while she was busy eating we grabbed her and put her in our shed until we could get her to the vet. The smallest of all of them, she was the hardest to introduce to the household. She came out of her cage like the Tasmanian devil and lashed out at all of them. Some of the others are still leery of her and will keep their distance. She's a sweetheart to the humans and she'll even get up from her nap to greet me when I come in from working out in the shop.

Maggie, a/k/a Big Maggie, Maggie Moo. Age: unknown-adult rescue. Hometown: Perry County, TN. Maggie Moo was another starving kitty find. We found her at a gravel pit on the banks of the Tennessee River, just skin and bones. Good thing we usually have food with us-we had just got back from a week long trip on our house boat and the cooler was full of good kitty treats. First, some ham for this black beauty then a big hunk of cheese. Once she bit onto the cheese we grabbed her and put her in the back of the truck and brought her home. She was the last kitty added and the easiest to introduce. Everyone liked Maggie right away.

Let's not forget about Suzie. Age:unknown-adult rescue. Hometown: Lewis County, TN. Hubby found Suzie one day near our house out in a field with 4 puppies. He brought them all home and when the puppies were old enough we found homes for all of them. Suzie is a sweet dog, a German Shepard mix of some kind. When Bubba came home from surgery they became quick friends and would spend the nights together snuggled up in the garage-this is before Bubba was introduced inside. Here she is with her special log dog house hubby built. She has the run of the backyard with lots of shade trees and plenty of room to roll around.

Well, that's all of the permanent members. Thanks so much for checking them out. I'm thankful that we've been able to help these special angels out-they've all been a blessing to us and hubby and I wouldn't know what to do without them.

I've been featured...and I've got a new kitty!

2009-08-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! One of my cat face ornaments has been featured with some other lovely kitty items on Mouchois' Saturday Shopping Blog. Stop by and see sweet Melvin on the blog here along with Mouchois' Etsy shop for wonderful kitty toys!

Here's the newest kitty in my Etsy shop. I try to make one at least once a month, soon I'll have to plan a week or two of kitty cat making. This latest kitty is grey and white with a pink nose pad and aqua blue eyes.

Here's the kitty that inspired me to start making these kitty faces. He's a stray that stays on the back porch of a house across the street from me and I've been caring for him for the past two years. He's kind of a rough wild kitty--likes to attack and to this day I wear leather gloves when I hand him his meal. He's scratched me more than once, but everyday when he sees me coming over to see him he gets all excited. Honestly, I look forward to seeing him every day, too.
One day while I dropped off his breakfast, it dawned on me that I had some glass globs that were the same stunning blue color as his eyes. I went back home and drew up the very first kitty face and put it together that day. Below are the basic steps involved in creating a cat face.

This is the basic pattern that I use. I've choosen two carribean blue glass globs for this kitty.

Here all of the different colored glass pieces have been cut out and fit together like a puzzle.

All of the glass pieces have been wrapped with copper foil, except for the outside edge.

First, one side is soldered together. The piece is then turned over and the back side is soldered.

Lead came is wrapped around the entire bottom of the kitty's face. A separate piece of lead came it fit over the top of the head and ears and these to pieces are then soldered together.

Black patina is applied to all the solder lines and lead. Next, I've painted the pupils onto the glass globs.

A small loop is soldered to the back of the piece and the kitty is ready to hang up.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Coming up shortly~I'm hoping to start work soon on a frog/lilypad/water lily/dragonfly suncatcher and I'll be posting all the steps involved here.

Snowy Owl Stained Glass Suncatcher

2009-07-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

I love owls, I really do. Birds of all kinds fascinate me. I got interested in birds about 10 years ago and have traveled to both ends of the State of Tennessee to see various species~a real bird freak. I've been lucky enough to see a few owls out in the wild, but I've never seen a Snowy Owl. They usually don't make their way this far south but there was one that showed up last winter in Spring Hill, Tennessee, just a few hours away. I kick myself now for not making the effort to go see it.
Here is a new owl that I just added to my Etsy shop. Below are are steps involved in creating this piece.
I use the same pattern that I use for my other owls minus the ear tufts. The paper pattern is cut out and glued to the glass. Then the glass pieces are hand cut following the paper pattern outline. I've selected 3 different types of opal white glass along with black glass for the bill and lemon yellow glass globs for the eyes. Two glass globs of similar shape and size are selected making each owl and cat ornament unique.
Next, the glass pieces are grinded down to size to fit together like a puzzle. The bill will be tacked on later.
Each piece of glass is then wrapped with copper foil except for the outside edges.
After all the pieces are foiled, the entire owl is tacked down and its time for solder.
First, one side is soldered then the piece is turned over and the backside gets soldered also.
The entire owl is then wrapped with a "U" shaped lead came for strength and stability.
A single loop is soldered to the back of the owl for hanging.
Black patina is applied darkening the shiny solder and lead came to a rich dark gray.
The black bill is tinned with solder and tacked to the body of the owl. The bill is then treated with black patina.
Next comes the paint. Both pupils are hand painted~not an easy thing to do on the curved surface of a glass glob. The trick is to get both pupils similar. Now, the little guy can see.
I attach about 4 inches of black jack chain to the loop so the owl can hang. Additional chain is available upon request and at a minimal cost. Time to take a boat load of pictures and get this guy listed for sale.

A good week for some big beautiful bugs

2009-07-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

This past week has been a wonderful week to find some big beautiful bugs around the neighborhood. Sunday started with the visit of this amazing Monarch butterfly. I was so excited to see it! Its seen here feeding on a plant called porterweed, an annual in Tennessee. It seems to be a favorite of butterflies.

I found this wonderful colorful grasshopper a few days later. He's quite large, probably 2-3 inches long. I don't know the name of this guy, but I like him anyway. Great color combination of red and yellow with black. It almost looks like he's been lacquered.

The neighbor's garden has bloomed some wonderful mammoth sunflowers. Some big bees were enjoying the tiny blooms of this beautiful happy flower.

Friday's beautiful bug was a Green Clearwing dragonfly happily resting on some iris leaves. I love dragonflies but they always seem to get away from me as soon as I try to photo them. Luck was with me when this guy stuck around for a bit of relaxation.

Barn Swallow Colony

2009-07-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

There's a culvert right smack in the middle of town that I've been wanting to check out for a while. From the activity on the outside of the culvert I knew that there must have been some good things happening down below. Hundreds of swallows would be flying around on the outside of the culvert and then flying to the inside. Sure sign of an active Barn Swallow colony.
So, I brought my camera with me when I had to run some errands and I was not disappointed with what I found. Above is a view of the outside of the culvert with lots of tall grasses and other native vegetation that acts like a giant magnet for the flying insects that make up the diet of swallows. The name swallow is interesting and pretty descriptive. These birds fly and catch their meals on the wing-that is while they are flying and swallow them. Sorry that I don't have any pics of the adults in action-they are much too quick for me.

Above is a view looking out from the culvert. I'm quite happy that the city has left all of this to grow wild and not sprayed it down with poisonous chemicals to kill it all off.

Here is a view of the inside of the colony, half of it anyway. Both sides are lined with nests. These birds are pretty social in the fact that they build their nest relatively close to their neighbors. The nests are located about 6 feet apart from each other-the brown spots up in the corner that run the length of the wall. There's also evidence of nests that have fallen off the wall, but on the day I visited I couldn't see that any newer nests had fallen to the ground.

I've come to the conclusion that these birds are pretty darn smart in nest building habits. First, these nests are protected from the elements~no heavy rains beating down on the nests, the hot summer sun not broiling the babies, no high winds to shake the nests loose from tree branches. Second, nest predators like snakes and squirrels would have a hard time scaling the smooth concrete walls to get at an easy meal.

The nests are built from mud and grasses that the nesting pair collects with their little beaks then attached to the wall. Hundreds of trips are made to collect the mud and shape the nest and when they are finally finished they let the mud dry for days to harden like a brick. Then, they will line the nest with soft grasses and any other soft materials that they find, like the molted feathers of other birds to make a soft cushion for their eggs.

Its learning about stuff like this that has made me a true freak of nature.

The things we do for love

2009-07-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Kitty love, that is. Anyone with indoor kitties knows how much they enjoy looking out the window and ours are welcome to use almost all the windows in the house for viewing. All but the kitchen window, but there's not much to see out of it anyway.

My husband decided that he would build them a window perch in the basement that would be all theirs. It turned out to be a great success. The setup includes a ramp with treads for them to walk up to their observation platform safely.

The platform seats 3 pretty comfortably. On this day there must have been something in the backyard that was interesting. There's lots of trees out back with plenty of birds, squirrels and and occasional lizard that sits on the other side of the window.

The platform has sides so that they can sleep comfortably without falling off. Here's Big Maggie lounging~its her favorite spot to hang out.

Here's two of my girls, Angel and Maggie taking an afternoon snooze. Snooze away kitties, you know you are so good at it!

New glass for the coming week

2009-07-04T17:46:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of projects I've been working on and hope to have them completed by Monday. The rainbow stained glass peace sign will measure around 9 1/2 inches when completed. The glass I've used for this peace sign is called Waterglass and it has a wavy texture to it.
This stained glass hummingbird will measure around 7 3/4. I've used iridescent glass for the head, belly and wings and the eye will be a solder ball. The pale blue background glass is called Baroque and its full of random swirls. I've got both pieces ready to be soldered tomorrow. I've also started a second peace sign using cobalt blue glass. I'll post a picture of that one soon.

DarkHorseStore on Etsy

2009-07-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

Jeanie from DarkHorseStore on Etsy contacted me to let me know that she had included my yin yang dolphins on her blog. I thought that was really cool so I decided to check out her Etsy shop. She's got some really cool handpainted ceramic works like this awesome gecko and this beautiful bronze dolphin.

These chili pepper salt and pepper shakers are hot! She's got some really cute bunnies, howling coyotes and beautiful elephants. Check out her shop full of cute gift ideas for yourself or for someone you love and stop by her blog and say hi.

My garden wish list

2009-07-04T14:57:00.000-07:00

When my husband and I bought the house that we live in a couple of years ago it really needed so much work that any thought of landscaping and gardening was put to the wayside. Now that we are pretty much caught up with house things I've been thinking about what plants I would like to have on this little plot of land of ours. So, I've been walking around the neighborhood checking out what other people have planted and have come up with my own garden wish list.

These orange tiger lilies have just fascinated me and I just can't get enough of them. Every chance I get I head out with the camera to get shots of them.

Another must have are these gorgeous purple cone flowers. They have always been one of my favorites and the bees and butterflies are attracted to them also. These are a win-win flower both for me and the flying creatures that I love.

For more warm color I'd like to have some butterfly weed. I've seen some large patches of these around here and they are just lovely.

Four o'clocks for color and lovely fragrance. I've got some wonderful seeds that I brought from our last house~yellow's streaked with red, reds streaked with yellow. I can hardly wait to get the seeds started.

I've also chosen Black-eyed Susans for their smiley happy faces and for the seeds that they produce for my bird friends. Other plants that I don't have photos of but are on the list include Red-hot Poker for the hummingbirds and passionflower as a host plant for frittilary butterflies. I'm sure I'll find more flowers that I'll have to have before its all said and done.

Spinach Lasagna in a crock pot

2009-06-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

I will admit that I am one lazy cook. Its hard to imagine that I used to cook for a living, but that was a looong time ago. I started looking around online for a lasagna recipe that could be done in a crock pot~my favorite way to cook. I found a recipe that looked pretty good, but it was a meat recipe. I really wanted a meatless lasagna, so after a few tries tweaking the original recipe I came up with this one. You might need to tweak this recipe a couple of times to get it right for you. The noodles do not get cooked for this recipe, the crock pot doesn't heat up the house (nice during the summertime swelter of Tennessee) and there are leftovers for the next day or two. Three things that make this recipe one of my favorites.

Here's my way and what you need:

~About 40 ounces of spaghetti sauce. I found a sauce I like in a 27 ounce can and I use 1 1/2 cans per lasagna, freezing the other half can for the next batch. I like a saucy lasagna...
~1/3 cup water
~8 uncooked lasagna noodles
~15 ounce container ricotta cheese, whole or low fat, doesn't matter
~2 eggs lightly beaten
~4 cups mozzarella (at least 4 cups, add more if you'd like)
~1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
~10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach-thawed and squeezed of all water

Combine sauce and water, set aside

Cheese mixture: combine ricotta cheese, beaten eggs, 3 cups mozzarella, 1/4 cup Parmesan and spinach, mix well.

Lightly oil bottom and sides of crockpot. Spread about 3/4 cup sauce in bottom of pot. Take 4 lasagna noodles and break into 2-3 inch pieces. Place noodles on sauce layer.

Spread all of the cheese mixture on top of the first layer of noodles. Spread another 3/4 cup of sauce on top of cheese mixture.

Break the remaining 4 noodles into pieces and layer on top of the second sauce layer. Dump the remainder of the sauce on top of the second noodle layer. Top with the remaining cup of mozzarella and 1/4 cup of Parmesan.

Turn crock pot to high for 1 hour.
After one hour turn crock pot to low for an additional 2 1/2-3 hours-depending on how fast your pot cooks. After cooking complete, allow to sit an additional 1/2 hour covered before serving. This 1/2 hour allows the lasagna to set up a little bit better. Enjoy!

Purple Passion

2009-06-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

I've done it again. I've taken my favorite design and this time I've created it using 4 shades of purple. The center is an amethyst colored faceted glass jewel surrounded by a darker purple textured glass called English Muffle. Two more shades of purple are used in the body of the panel along with a textured clear glass. The 1" border is a deep dark purple textured glass with clear glass bevels used as accents in the corners and within the border.
Overall measurement of this piece is 10" or 25.5cm. This piece can either hang as a square as shown above or it can hang as a diamond. Available now in my Etsy shop. Colors not right for you? Custom orders for this design are gladly accepted.

Here you can see more of the different textured used in this piece.

Since glass is so tricky to photograph (at least I think it is) here I've shown 3 of the colors used-these are images directly from the manufacturer's website (Spectrum Glass). The first two samples are what I've used in the body of the panel. I couldn't find a good image of the glass that surrounds the center jewel, but it is a shade darker then the second image. The bottom image is the type that I've used for the border of this piece.

Sweet Mellie

2009-06-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Being commissioned for a project is such a wonderful feeling. Someone has trusted you to make something special for them. Sometimes those projects really have extra special meaning. This is the case with Sweet Mellie.

Last year, one of my flickr friends, Peggy Vandevier, asked if I could create stained glass cat face ornaments of her kitties. She's got some beautiful cats, but due to limitations of glass colors available I really couldn't make them to look right. Except for Mellie, I thought that I would be able to make her. Peggy then informed me that Mellie is a one-eyed kitty, perhaps I could leave that side of her face black. Honestly, I didn't know even though I had been looking at her kitties for a few months by then. I thought that the fur on this side of her face was so dark that the eye just didn't show. We both agreed that Mellie should be realistic and we agreed that the missing eye would be shut, as if Mellie were winking.
That's when Peggy told me about Mellie's rescue. Peggy's husband, Kurt, had found a little badly injured kitten beside his truck near a busy highway and brought it home to Peggy. Immediately, this little calico bundle was taken to the vet's. Upon examination it was found that this little kitten had a broken hind leg, internal injuries, a broken tail (it eventually fell off), one eye, she was malnourished and might not survive. But she did! With lots of love and care here's Mellie 9 years later.

Peggy says that Mellie is the sweetest cat ever, the smartest cat that she's ever had, she's cute and funny and very healthy. I think that Mellie is absolutely adorable. I always enjoy seeing Peggy's kitties on her photostream.

Here's Mellie and Ozzy another of Peggy's kitties getting ready to play. Being a big time cat lover with 7 rescued kitties myself, I'm so thankful that little Mellie was lucky enough to find such a loving home as this one.

Its a feast!

2009-06-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

In my wanderings around the neighborhood I came across this smooth sumac tree in full bloom with tiny little flowers. There were hundreds of bees all over these blooms, but just one butterfly-an American Painted Lady. None of these critters paid any attention to me as I watched them and took their photos-they were all quite content to gorge themselves on the nectar these blooms are producing.

I still haven't found what I'm looking for

2009-06-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to find two things lately without much luck. One is a bird's nest, any kind of bird really and the other is a butterfly cocoon. Again it doesn't matter what kind of butterfly.

So, I set out yesterday in search of these two items. I found neither. I did find these lovely peony blooms in a neighbor's yard.

I made a new friend. This lovely kitty belongs to a couple down the street, he's really a nice cat.

Hiding out in this day lily was this little guy.

And on these Virginia Creeper leaves I found a katydid.

This half of an egg shell was found on this oak sapling. Parent birds will remove the egg shell from the nest and drop it wherever. Here's where it landed.

I love the color of this fern.

This is a mayapple, or maypop. This fruit is edible and is used in making jellies. I've not tried this yet.
As I was heading home I found this Blue Jay feather.

Flowers at night

2009-06-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

I like taking pictures of things and sometimes I get lucky and get a good one. I found the orange day lilies above in a shaded woodland area that was just dark enough to set off the camera's flash. The effect was quite stunning I thought with the black background. Day lily blooms last just one day so they are probably all wilted by the time night rolls around. The day lily pics got me thinking about trying to capture these newly blooming mimosa at night. So, I waited until the sun went down and headed up the road with the camera. Wow, these came out really good too and I'm quite happy with all of these photos. No photo editing has been done to any of these pics besides cropping and sharpening.

New Dolphin Project in the Works

2009-06-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a new project that I've been working on for the past few days. I don't remember where the idea for this suncatcher came from, some times these things just kind of pop into my head then I start working the idea on paper. Shown above is as far as I've gotten on the suncatcher as of Friday afternoon~all the glass pieces have been cut and I'm ready to start wrapping all of the pieces with copper foil. Shown below is what this suncatcher will look like once its completed--kind of...

For the one I'm working on right now, I've increased the body size of the two dolphins. The eye of both will be a solder ball as in the one below. Once the lead came frame is added at the end of the solder process, the overall measurement will be around 13 3/4 diameter, about 35cm. In the future, I'd like to develop a pattern similar to this using the idea of the yin yang with two orcas, two sleeping cats and who knows what else I might think of. Of course, I'm totally open to suggestions...

Orange everywhere

2009-06-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

Right before the rains came yesterday, I took a walk around the neighborhood to see what might be in bloom. What I found were some fantastic orange lilies and daylilies. These seemed to have popped overnight, either that or I just didn't notice them a few days before when I made my rounds. Either way, they are gorgeous.

They're back!

2009-06-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

Last year, I wrote about these ugly concrete parking barriers my husband installed in front of my workshop. His idea for this year was to pound steel stakes into the holes to keep the parking barriers from moving around. "Nope, can't do it. My toads will be coming back to use these, so don't interfere with them." Within minutes of my telling him this, a little toad poked his head out to say hello.
Here are some of today's toad observation. This one poked its head out pretty early in the morning and lingered around the hole most of the day. Later in the afternoon he came out to hang around by the downspout of the rain gutter.

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly

2009-05-28T19:57:00.001-07:00

Of all the swallowtail butterflies that call the state of Tennessee home, this one has eluded me for the past 10 years that I've taken an active interest in the natural world. That is until a few days ago.
I was lucky enough to capture these images while the butterfly was feasting on clover. It didn't seem to mind that I followed it as it moved from flower to flower, amazed at how beautiful it is up close (look at the stripes on its little body!). All the while I was hoping that the batteries in my camera would hold up just a little bit longer...then suddenly it flew off into the woods. A totally magical few minutes of my life! Thank you my stripped little flying friend. I'll remember you forever.