New paintings and regular art updates.
Just delivered this to my friend. She is really happy with the necklace I made. The others have gone to the Waiting Room gallery in Longport, Stoke-on-Trent. They are having an open day on Saturday along with Cherished Chimneys across the road from there. I like the way it lies flat, the wire weaving looks really neat and the colours look good together.
I was so pleased to get these yesterday. My friend had got them before the pandemic but because of her work we could not see each other for months. Now each fused glass cabochon has a smart wire weave bale and chain.
I tried to get good photos of them although the light in our house isn’t good, perhaps I should get a light box? I think they work really well together.
Why is it
When you
Cross your
Eyes
You get
Double vision?
I see
Your face
In my
Glass
Don’t laugh
At my
Crossed
Eyes!
Is it
Double vision
Or a
Double cross…?
Forget when we went to a fused glass workshop at Spode but we both went to a workshop with a glass artist called Angela Ashton and made flat, square, fused glass bowls that were slumped over a mould. I’m showing you this because his design was much better than mine. I overdid it, too many patterns, he kept it simple and classic. I think I could learn a lesson from this.
(slumped clear glass with fused coloured glass and metal pieces including copper).
Drawing from August 2020? my reflection and my little sketchbook in the patterned swirls of glass in the back door. So often is it that I’m holding my phone that I thought that was what the black square was when I looked at it again. Black pen and coloured pencils to get the effect of glass. I have a lot of sketches from over the period of the pandemic. I was already drawing a lot before it arrived, but I hope my skills have improved over that time.
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On a cold sunny morning I like looking through the side windows of the house. This one is surrounded by orchids. Three plants live there, all different sizes. One recently stopped flowering after sending out a second flower spike. One keeps growing but hasn’t flowered again and the last was one we got in the summer and the flowers on it are fading. I think they all need repotting. They sit in clear pots as the roots like to get light to them, I have some orchid medium but last time I potted them on I think I used too much of it and crammed the roots of one of them in too tightly….
Theres a glass frog and another glass piece hanging from the curtain rail. Then the window glass is dusty and covered in cobwebs outside. It’s hard to clean as there is a large shrub in the way outside. Also there is a nesting box which families of Blue Tits use over the spring and summer. So it gets left, and the dappled light from the trees outside give it an atmospheric, olde worlde look. Which is why I like to take photos of it.
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Todays #bandofsketchers picture, watercolour sketch of my windowsill…
The cat has her own cat tree because the window sill is covered in glass, geodes, metal sculptural objects and more. I can’t show them all as the cat tree is in the way…. The cat loves sitting there as it’s right over the radiator. I think the diagonals sort of have a flattening, almost japanese woodblock effect? Anyway it was nice to do something in watercolours for a change. I just used a bit of metallic gold and silver marker pen to highlight some of the objects.
Varnish and stuff
An old bulb
Some pens
A ttube of salon?
Detritus in a glass
Collected then forgotten
Why don’t I throw you away
Why can’t I let go?
So you mean so much.
Should I keep you
Or let you vanish?
Ooo dear, suddenly buzzing round the front door was a huge wasp, it must have snuck in when I put the milk bottles out. It was big. A queen? I don’t know, perhaps my fear made it seem larger. Boy cat, in his cone of shame, was bouncing up and down by the door, reaching up to the letterbox. He looked very comical in his buster collar, but I was worried the wasp would get scooped up by it!
Then I saw it. It was up on the glass above the door. But I couldn’t reach it! My hubby took the glass I was holding and got a bit of paper, quickly covered the wasp and I opened the front door. Off it flew.
I can’t tell you what species of wasp it was. All I know is it seemed to have a large stinger. I hope it finds somewhere to go, but not in my home.
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A photo of a glass ornament of a cat with a gold fish modeled inside it. I grow lots of plants on our windowledges and also collect bottles so it’s a bit messy I know. The plant is a fern and now it’s getting cooler it’s dropped some of its leaves. I need to clean it up but it’s really huge and I don’t want to damage it. I also like the textures on the clear glass and blue glass bottles. I might paint a still life of it. I like the way the light is illuminating all the glass and the way the cats head is acting like a lens.
