Completed.....

Finally after a month of Monday nights, I finally finished restoring my tulip panel. Never again will I want to fix another piece, however if I have to I will. Repairing takes a lot more time, but it is interesting to see how everything is put together (either it is done well or badly). Apparently I put panels together very well. Yay!

Am I scared of repairs? Nope, not in the least. Am I scared of the time it takes? Sort of. All that time and anxiety made me upset because I wouldn't get to do other projects. It ate up my time and I haven't been able to really fire up the kiln as much as I would have liked. But hey, it got done. And now I can move on to new projects.

Now that I have finished it, I feel bad for the other projects ( lampshape and suncatcher) that never got "finished". Sure they are soldered but they do not have any patina on them. So that will be next once I get the darn black patina. And of course with the lampshade I will need to buy a lamp base. I don't even want to know how much that will cost.

Woven tea light holder....

Back to the glass working! Here is another weave I did with larger strips of glass. When I finished the weave, I realized the piece was a bit too big for the molds I had so I pulled out a floral former and draped over that.

The great part about the finished product is that you can see the light flicker through the holes in the weave and even though the glass is a bit dark, it still lights up nicely.

Crochet bookmark...

Finally took the plunge and tried my hand at using thread to crochet a pretty bookmark for a teacher gift. Seems a bit easier to use thread than yarn. Maybe I will see things differantly as I progress into doilies. We shall see....

Flapper hat and scarf with a glass button...

I was able to combined glass with fiber in one piece. Sure the stitch markers were one thing, but these are together!

I bought this beautifully soft yarn (50% wool/50% llama) at the lys. The yarn was made right here in NH on the seacoast. I believe it is called Seacoast Yarns. The color is Acorn. I started on Tuesday with rolling the yarn into a ball and then I found a pattern for a ruffley scarf. I finished the scarf and was about to start on mittens when I found a flapper hat pattern. So instead of mittens I went with the hat and of course I had leftover so I made a flower to go onto the hat. Still needed something extra....Ooooo, I glass button! Perfect!

Now who will this go to? I am thinking of making this a Christmas gift for a friend. She wears alot of these colors so this might just be the thing for her.

Flower dish..

A nice light taupe colored glass with blue and orange flowers. Everything is System 96. Nice and simple with a bright burst of colors. Still can't decide if I want to keep it or sell it at the craft fairs.

Maybe if it doesn't sell I will keep it? Hmmm, now that is a good plan. I rarely ever keep anything I make. I have the intention to keep it, but then someone will tell me that they want it and off it goes. I hate to tell someone "no you can't have it" when they are really into it.

Still working on it...

And I have about 8 pieces to replace. I work on it once a week (because it is for me - if I was getting paid, then it would everyday until done) for three hours. So far three pieces have been replaced and they are waiting to be soldered.

On a more exciting topic, I finally fired up the kiln today. Past few days were hotter then heck - I certainly don't need extra heat in the house. Poor central air unit was working over time, it didn't need to do any more than necessary! Picture will follow in a few days!

Repair time.....

Well, it has been awhile since I posted anything, but it doesn't mean I haven't been a busy person. I finally finished the stash of empty wine bottles. As of right now I have over 30 squished bottles waiting for decorations.

Now the big thing I have been dealing with. Earlier in May I hung up a beautiful panel of tulips. The edges are done with bevels, the tulips were a pretty orange/yellow/pink color. Two days later I hear a huge bang and look everywhere to see what the devil happened. It was my panel. The links broke on my chain and the whole piece came crashing down. It made a huge dent into the window sill. Well, since it cracked right in half and all the bevels are fine (thank goodness the bevels didn't crack) I figured after crying for an hour that I would have to fix it. So right now I am in the process of learning how to have paitence and how to fix a 16 inch by 20 inch panel. But if one more person in class comes over to me and says "Wow, that looks hard, are you sure you want to fix it?" I will run away screaming. :)