Enough of the grey days of winter

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.

I've got me a new kitty cat

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.

Cobalt Blue Window Panel with Bevels~~on sale now!

I need to make room for some new items!

On sale now is this cobalt blue stained glass window panel with bevels. It measures nearly 13" tall by 13" wide, actually 12 7/8" (33cm). Regularly priced at $85.00, I've dropped it down to $60.00

The center is a clear glass bevel surrounded by beautiful cobalt blue glue chip glass and two shades of blue Waterglass. The background is a pale textured blue surrounded by a 1 1/2" border using 4" and 1 1/2" clear glass bevels. Bevels are very prismatic and they add a shimmering touch to this panel.

This panel has loops soldered to the frame and chain included for hanging. Check out my Etsy store for more information on this eye catching stained glass panel.

I've got a new balloon!!

Yea! I got my balloon done today and even got it listed on my Etsy site. This really is a fun piece to make. I love using bold bright colors in my work.

Today was a very cloudy day but this piece really warmed up the room. It measures 10 3/4" tall by 7 3/4" wide. The type of glass I used for the balloon is called Waterglass manufactured by Spectrum Glass. Its one of my favorite types of stained glass to use since the colors are clear and the texture is lively.

Brand new design in my shop

~~Stained Glass Eastern Screech Owl Ornament~~

I am super excited about this new design I just added to my shop. I think I was waiting for pictures to upload to my Etsy site when I started doodling and owl. On paper it looked like it would be a really cool piece using the same techniques and stylized design as I use in my stained glass cat face ornaments.

So, the next morning I drew up my working pattern, choose the glass I wanted to use and got started. Saturday I cut all of the glass and Sunday I foiled all of the pieces. My original plan for Monday was to solder this owl along with another hot air balloon and then to finish the owl on Tuesday. Once I got started on the owl I knew I just had to get it done. That meant a late afternoon cup of coffee so now I'm all wound up!!

I've used four different shades, types and textures of amber stained glass along with amber glass glob eyes. I hand paint the pupils. When the sun comes through the eyes they just glow.

This piece measures 6 1/2" tall by 4 3/8" wide. Check out my Etsy site for more info.