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.

Kaleo and Erin

Wow, this is so hard to imagine. My little boy got married! I mean, it shouldn't come as a shock. They have lived together for a year and a half. They announced their intent to marry a year ago but it still is hard for me to wrap my brain around this. Look at that photo. Kaleo is a man. How did that happen so fast? How did it happen at all? Here are a few things I know. While raising Kaleo, Rob and I def made mistakes as we all do. In the case of this particular boy (who has been a man for quite a while) we can honestly say we gave it 100%. We did the best we could with the experience we had and the situations we were in. Looking back we have a different knowledge. For all the mistakes we made, I wouldn't change a thing because it brought this man to where he is right now......a real good place. Everything unfolds as it should.

Now, that we have done the best we could we can just sit back to watch the rest unfold. My son and his wife will not be doing things our way. They will be making a life that works with how THEY see the world-and believe me, it's a lot different than how we see it. Neither way is better, they are just different. Rob and I grumbled about the wedding being so late. People traveling would be inconvenienced, blah, blah, blah. Kaleo argued that they love sunsets. They were smart enough to listen and start a bit earlier. More importantly, they were smart enough to stick to their guns and have the evening wedding which you can see was the perfect choice- FOR THEM! I will never stop GIVING this man advice as long as he wants it. I will also never stop TAKING advice from him as well. He is one of the people who are helping me along on my journey. Maktub. With their advice I will make decisions that work well for me and respect that they will do the same for themselves. Congratulations, Erin and Kaleo. I love you both.

Bethany

I am a scuba diver, not a surfer and I don't really think about being one. So why do I subscribe to a surf mag (it used to be two surf mags!)?? Well, I just love the photos of waves! I mean I just LOVE the ocean. I love making waves out of glass. I love water period!

I'm not sure where I first heard about the Bethany Hamilton story, but I remember driving past a billboard with a motivational message and photo of her standing by her board. When I was up late one night watching Tavis Smiley, he interviewed her for the movie "Soul Surfer." Of course, after seeing the interview and the movie I was so inspired. Even before I saw the movie I figured I would make a wave with Bethany. When I want to complain about something, I stop and think that I really don't have anything to complain ABOUT!