Day 1, 2 & 3

Day 1 Create anything with your fingers- This was harder than I anticipated. I didn't think I had fat fingers until I worked with only my fingers on the 1st 4"x4" canvas. I covered the glass with fuchsia, butterscotch, orange and black powders, then used my finger to uncover the colors beneath. I attempted several designs with this one being final one for me so I can move on.

Day 1

Day 2 Create a tree-This was a bit easier using a card and my fingers. I just used black powder.

Day 2 

Day 3 Create a landscape- I created several messy design before I decided on creating a seascape instead. I used royal blue over the light blue and white powder for the birds..

Day 3

All three pieces are currently in the kiln programmed with a  high tack fuse.- Update:took the the pictures of the final fused pieces and am little disappointed in the way the birds turned out.

Day 2 Sgraffito challenge-not quite there yet

I turned the kiln on first thing this morning to full fuse my glass tiles.  As of right now 8:18 P.M the temperature is at 170 degrees and slowly cooling down. All I could do was sneak a peek into the kiln and snap a quick picture.as the temperature climbs down. I was hoping that I would be working on Day 1 and day 2 this evening, but I think it will need to wait until morning.

This is such a fun challenge and I really am glad that I decided to participate!

my palette of tiles

Sgraffito [skrah-fee-toh] Challenge Day 1

So as I entered day 1 of the 30 day sgraffito challenge (that I signed up for yesterday!) I first had to understand what sgraffito was to begin with, so of course I went to Google for the definition. 

noun, plural sgraffiti  [skrah-fee-tee; Italian zgrahf-fee-tee]

a technique of ornamentation in which a surface layer of paint, plaster,slip, etc., is incised to reveal a ground of contrasting color. (in our challenge we are using glass).

I am pretty familiar drawing with glass powders, but to uncover a color was a bit different for me and I didn't want to use just a solid color of glass as the base canvas.

So last night after the New Year celebration, I contemplated this challenge and came up with idea of creating 30, 4"x4" glass canvas's to "draw" on. 1 each day for 30 days.   So I cut up a sheet of Tekta, which is clear and decided to add a variety of colors to each piece, using the palette of glass powders I have on hand.  So now each little canvas will have a unique undertone to be revealed.  This process set me back a couple of days, because it was too late tonight  to turn on the kiln to fuse the colors into the glass (I don't like sleeping while the kiln is on, it's just a fear I have).  Anyway, in the morning I will turn the kiln on and if the glass has cooled down by a reasonable time I might be able to work on my first piece.

Day 1 Challenge: create a sketch using glass powders and our fingers. (I'm a bit behind)

 30 4"x4" cut glass canvas's 

opal glass powders applied to the clear glass.

(all 30 tile fit in the kiln! Yay!)

At work, but getting a little excited!

As I waited for a pile of documents to land on my desk, I decided to take a Facebook break. I ran across a glass sgraffito challenge by a fellow glass artist. How brilliant! A January challenge of 30 pieces in 30 days! I believe this post has been floating around for a while since there is more than 350 participants from around the world and today is New Years Eve, but I signed up for the challenge anyway!  I am getting excited!!!

Check out her Blog at Modern Ancient !

Happy New Year everyone!

Time for a change?

The holidays went beautifully.  I loved having all of my kids at home with us!  I cooked Christmas Eve dinner and had my some of my extended family to come join us.  We talked, we laughed we ate, and just enjoyed being together.

Now the new year is approaching and no matter how I fight the urge to set any resolutions, the wheels in my mind turn.  I am longing for a change. A change in where I live, a change of lifestyle, even a career change..... or not.   My spontaneous nature had been curbed the last 27 years due to my marriage and having children. My children are grown now, and fear of change has set in.  When I was young and spontaneous, I did get into some trouble, but I had fun. Now that I am older I would think I could do some living outside of the office and my home......

hating the suburbs and the cubicle today....

 

Grinches

This weeks been interesting.  I stayed off of Facebook for a whopping 3 days.  Do you know that when you don't log on Facebook they actually send a e-mail telling you have notifications.  I ignored the e-mail, stayed off of Face book until this happened.......

My husband bought a Christmas ball ornament and a small Snoopy decoration for a twig of a tree that we have in our front yard.  We thought it was cute.

Then one evening we noticed the Christmas ball was missing.  We thought it was strange that it was gone, and that that maybe the neighborhood kids may have taken it.  Well, we have cameras and my husband did a re-wind, and low and behold two grown ass women taking a walk through our neighborhood around 7:30 in the evening, cross the street to our house just to go into our yard and lift the Christmas ball.  That pissed me off. I had to do something......

I posted a sign in the yard...."Two girl Grinche's stole my Christmas tree ball.... Smile you are on Camera".

Since I believe these women our my neighbors, I am keeping it up  for a few more days until I replace the ornament.  I think they should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves.

So I thought this story was Facebook worthy..........

unplugged...just a little

I decided a couple of days ago that I was going to unplug from social media for a while,with the excpetion of this blog. I enjoy writing the occassional blog post and enjoy reading posts from blogs that I do follow. I am however overwhelmed by Facebook. I follow several art groups (with a few thousand members in each group) a few hundered facebook friends, and of course some close friends and family. My time slips away looking at pictures, projects and reading posts.  I need to regroup and use the minutes and hours of my life to living and creating.

I feel the need to take a walk on the beach..........