SO proud!

It seems like I have been underground lately, but geez, I have been busy. For the past two weeks, I have been doing another artist-in-residence thing at Juniata High School. In short, that means that I worked with 76 kids and their teacher to create a 3 foot x 7 foot glass mosaic in 10 fast days. Of the 4 hours we worked each day, at least a half hour was spent getting things out and putting them away!

The vision was for the work to say "pride." Each student got a 6 inch by 6 inch square to do whatever they wanted as long as they incorporated their portion of the letter into the design. Half of the students made a fused glass tile while the rest used traditional mosaic methods. For a week and a half we worked blind to what our end results would be. We had no idea if the kids would match their letter patterns close enough to produce a legible word. With 76 kids and many absences, there was no guarantee of how many squares would get lost. I made a map of the kids' squares so that they could see who was adjacent to them in case they wanted to collaborate with one another to create a work larger than 6 x 6 inches within the entire mosaic. We had as many as four working on one section that features a mermaid.

We had butterflies and flowers, buildings and guitars, landscapes and eyes, sports and a cheerleader, PIZZA, a gold cross, and a family crest. I mean, what didn't we have? It was cool that themes that were duplicated were done so- quite unknowingly. Interestingly, the results were that each repeat was so different than the other that it just emphasized our diversity, something we are awfully proud of. So the day before we had to adhere the tiles, the last section was fit in 8 minutes before the bell rang. Nothing needed cut or ground to fit (a feat by itself) and you could read the word loud and clear. These kids have pride in what they are as well they SHOULD. They also have pride in what they have created as do I. So after getting paid to play with kids all day for two weeks, I have to get back to work. Oh wait... that is playing all day too! May the rest of 2012 be this wonderful!

ArtFlow has been brought to the school by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Perry County Council of the Arts and the Juniata County Cultural Arts Committee.

yeah, my kids are weird

So about three weeks before Christmas, Shaundi says to me that she would like a purple and green fairy coat. What 25 year old woman asks for this? Are you kidding me? Three weeks before Christmas? Like that can happen. I'll just go down to the purple and green fairy coat store because I bet they have a large selection. Obviously, it is a safe bet to say that I cannot find those colors in a fairy coat even on Etsy and I doubt I could order and have it shipped in time. I told her there was no way it could happen but two weeks later I was still trying to figure out if I could work out her only Christmas request. A week before D Day, I start buying the sweaters and jackets to cut up and reassemble on a machine that is two breaths away from a sewing machine graveyard. This machine was not built to sew these heavy, stretchy fabrics even when it was new. In the end, I got it done about a day before Christmas Eve, complete with sparkly glass star on the tip of the pointy fairy hood. When I added the buttons, my husband says, "You know there is a point where it is too much." I say, "Not when it comes to Shaundi!" THAT'S my daughter.

finally!

All right, it's not the FINAL final picture. It may be January or February till it is done and I can get a finished photo on my site! I can't wait so for now, this is what I got. You can see this will be fantastic when it is done. My part is finished though. The flanking columns will probably be a dark gold. A travertine overhang on top of it will have water raining a curtain of droplets about an inch away from the mosaic. I think I should try to have a boat included in every photograph from now on, right? I hope I can do work like this till I drop.

my happy dance for the week

Well, I just got some more dance inducing news. Harrisburg Area Community College ( Lebanon campus ) has just purchased three of my works for their permanent collection. Like seriously? For real? Hell yeah! Linda Billet work in HACC's perm collection! Twinkle, He Loves Me and Lime Fizz. Woot WOOT! Now I gotta tell you what is so crazy good about this. When they purchased these works, they were not aware of the fact that HACC IS WHERE I STARTED GLASS! I didn't even know how to CUT glass before I started there! Lebanon today...... tomorrow the world.

no, I haven't been a slug!

This is ONE of the two projects I am working on. That rainbow of glass I showed you in last post? Here is where it went. There are a few changes that have been made on this already and it is a fast dirty photo but you get the idea. The tasty parts are done. Now for the mind-numbing part......the white background. The fun is over but what will keep me going is to see this DONE and grouted. Ten feet of sparkling glass- aaahhhhhh. Love, love LOVE it. There is no way to tell you how exciting that is. Oh yeah, to help you envision this finished.....Picture water in front of it, palm trees behind it. Squeal!

The other project is smaller but JUST as exciting. Fused glass tiles in the colors that I MOST want to work in. Hope to have photos soon after I get back from Baltimore. There's a great show at the aquarium Sat 17th and Sun 18th. Come see me if you can!

what a ride!

While it is true that this IS a tough economy with a lot of uncertainty, I have tons to be grateful for. The reason I have not blogged lately is because I have been WAY busy. I call that a good thing. While most people just had a three day holiday weekend, I put in six long days last week. This is not a complaint since almost everyday is a holiday in my "job." Look at this photo. Tell me that doesn't look like FUN! I spent Labor Day weekend working with pink glass, Youghiogheny's "bubble gum" and Spectrum's "cotton candy" among many others. What's not to love? I have two mosaic projects I am working on that are so much fun that I will actually be changing up my future work to incorporate mosaic into most everything I do. I often say that I cannot decide which I like more, fusing or mosaic. So why choose? I've done a few mosaics with some fused components and I love them. Why not do both in the same piece ALL the time?.

So I am trying to get all that done and have not blogged but what prompted me to get on my keyboard is some crazy good news that I had to share. Last night I found out that I got into Disney's Festival of the Masters. I have to tell you that Rob and I are HUGE Disney fans. This is SO exciting. Without thinking about logistics, I just wrote my check for my space and will MAKE it all happen. For now, I gotta get busy. As soon as I can, I'll show you what happens to that rainbow of glass.

see what I mean?

In my April 29th post, I wrote about a piece that got into an auction held by Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. I ended the post saying that this COULD lead to my best news ever. Well, it did. When I opened their catalog link, I saw on page 35, my work is featured with Dale Chihuly and a lot of other artists that I respect....the big guys. Now you may wonder why I think this is such a big deal but think about this. A little over 5 years ago, I could not have imagined this. Sometimes I grumble that things aren't working out because I know I will go to bed tonight and I will not have all of my dreams sewn up YET. But if I really look, I see that things are happening quite fast for an artist who is brandy new. I am def not where I want to be, but the journey to that place is pretty sweet. Keep believing in YOU.

If you friended me on FaceBook, you've already gotten this news. I've been a little behind with K's wedding and then we were on vacation. This mantis is what I finished right before I left for Florida. He's 16 x 23. Museum of Glass has a link to their catalog on their site.