at least for now

Thanks so much to everybody who was saving bottles for me but you can STOP. I am so done with wine bottles. I had finished some fun mosaics that included wine bottles. The latest is pictured in the Aug 16th post. I'm hoping to also finish a recycled wreath for a donation. The plan was to come up with something fused. I realize that you generally make a lot of crap before you come up with something good. I did the crap part. I will NOT be showing photos. My patience and passion have petered. And I just cannot bring myself to do that flat bottle thing either. I am now falling back on the normal way of recycling. All the stuff I made, the cases of bottles not pictured, and these few left here.....are all going in the recycling bin. We'll have room to walk again!

more months like this, please!

Yeah, I know you saw this before but I have gotten so much mileage out of her this month. She deserves another post. In the last post I mentioned that Not So Pretty Now was featured in Harrisburg mag. Well today, Alyson Stanfield featured it in her newsletter. Yeah, that goes out to ton-0-people. Woot woot! Stanfield is the art business coach that I keep telling my artist friends to subscribe to! AND the youtube counter for this work is over 4G with about 50 views daily during the end of October!

What a banner month. I won't even remember all the good stuff that came my way in October. I got a feature in Central Penn Arts Guide, an on-line mag. I just got a new canopy for shows. I know, right? That is not what makes normal people happy, but it floats MY boat. The Bethesda show was wonderful. All good in October. I am telling you, November already looks just as rosy. I am going to be starting on two installations that are the kind of thing I dream about. One fused, one mosaic. Ahhhh......loving this life.

more good stuff

Now how did I manage THAT??!! I was asked to submit a photo for possible inclusion in an article that would run in the October issue of Harrisburg Magazine. Well since it was going to be an October issue, I thought I could increase my odds by making the photo Halloween-ish! And there you go! Not So Pretty Now in all its glory. The article is about the Yellow Breeches Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild, of which I am a proud member.

Not only that, about a month after I got my work home from Brooklyn, I found out that my work was voted "People's Choice" in their show! No kidding. Out of hundreds of artists that showed, I tied with another guy for fave! Woop Woop! Hope people feel that way in Bethesda, Maryland this weekend!

been a bit busy

Yeah, its been crazy here but I love it. We had out-of-state fam here for a few weeks and then vacation. All good stuff. Ooh, yeah, I had a birthday in there also. So while all this is going on, I haven't blogged. Haven't made too much art either but there are a few little things that I thought were cool. For starters, somebody read my previous blog post and contacted me through my site. He said he is an artist that is also in Art Glass Today. He is a professor in Hungary and was still waiting on his book to arrive in the mail. He asked if I would email him photos of his pages in the book so he could see them. I just thought that it was really fun to be connected with somebody in Hungary!

Someone from Messiah College asked if they could interview me for a school project. Pretty cool that a stranger would want to interview me. I was really honored. She had some really insightful questions so I hope she will email me the resulting paper. Just curious.

I got to work with my niece, Kanoe, in my shop for a few hours. Seriously fun. She had fun too. Her one year old son, Kaliko is pictured here. Wicked cute. Eternal eyelashes! A few other good things....my studio was featured on the Pennsylvania Guild's blog- Just google pa crafts blog if you're interested. I can't copy and paste in here so......sorry. I also had a little feature in the Rt 15's first newsletter. AND I am just about to start the planning stage for another fireplace. Good stuff!

no FREAKIN way!

This is unreal! I have been waiting for this for over a year now and I finally have it in my hot little hands. I was asked to submit photos to an editor for a book about contemporary glass. They told me they would publish 5 of the 10 photos that I submitted. So yesterday I finally got the book and I am just in awe. I am so unbelievably grateful and happy to be included in this book.

Let me explain it to you like this.....Back when I was at HACC taking the glass blowing class, I was surfing around the web and found Martin Kremer's web page. OK, that is probably where I was hooked by fusing. I had his web page as my home page for quite a while. So now I am in the same freaking book as him and some MORE of my idols! Are you serious??!! Artists from Hungary, Canada, UK, Italy, a lot from Poland....yeah and Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. Woot WOOT!

The book is called Art Glass Today by Jeffrey B. Snyder.

busy with blue bottles

I had wanted to have some recycled glass for the Mount Gretna Art Festival this weekend, 21st and 22nd..... Last blog I wrote took a week to import to FaceBook so I hope you read this PRIOR to Gretna........Any whooo, I sawed up a bunch of blue bottles and melted them. The result is the blue rings. Cutting the little circles of mirrored texture to fit in the holes was a pain but the rest was fun. The entire mosaic is 23 x 16. Pretty sure I will take it to Gretna. I think they are still saying great weather. Fingers crossed!

snagged a spot for First Friday!

Woot Woot! This is so cool. The Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen has retail space right on gallery row in Lancaster..... 252 N Prince St. They rent it out and it is spoken for till 2012. SO! There was a cancellation and I jumped. I will be there August 6th from about 4p-8p. Joining me will be two of my friends. Christine Goldbeck is a photographer/painter who owns and runs her own studio, Arts on Union in Middletown. Roxan O'Brein makes jewelry and does beading that is unbelievable. We'll be there with other members of the PAGuild. First Friday in Lancaster is hoppin'. There is so much that you cannot see everything at each open gallery in one night.

And yeah, the commission that I finished is where it belongs now so here are two photos of it.