My Heart Belongs to........

Valentines Day is right around the corner, and to celebrate I made a few glass hearts as well as some Fine Silver heart charms. Clockwise to the right, an ivory and silver glass heart with a leaf spray, the silver glass has a metallic mirror finish. Center, a clear pink spiral stripe heart with wings and golden dots. Right, a different Silver Glass  enrobed in clear with center swirl.

 This red heart has silver glass scrollwork in creamy blues and greens.The Fine Silver charm has a raised smooth heart on a spiral background. And yet another kind of Silver glass, which has tones of red and blues with silver dots.

On the right is a clear glass heart with a silver glass twistie design. Another raised heart,on a swirled leafy background of Fine Silver. The last heart is a deep wine color with silver glass scrollwork in those creamy blues and greens.

Here are two Fine Silver hearts with a stamped design and my personal favorite, a silver glass heart, with fine silver mesh and wings. This is my favorite silver glass, it just behaves so well.

The last group has a clear heart with violet fire glass frit and silver leaf. The stamped heart silver charm also has 2 genuine ruby beads. The bottom heart in cobalt has silver leaf and glass shards with a green spiral Murrini. And the last heart has a base of clear with matte finish white glass shards and copper ruby glass frit. All the hearts and charms were made so you can add your own cord, chain or ribbon. They are all currently residing at Bassett Jewelers in Minocqua. Stop in and take a closer look . And by all means have a Happy Valentines Day!

Remember you can click on any photo for a larger image. 

Clean Studio cont......

Get a load of all that nice space for drawing up designs for flat glass work on my my antique drawing table.

And yes there is a Birch tree in my studio.This is actually the client friendly room where I can discuss possible commissions. 

 At this worktable, I work on flat glass....putting all the pieces together, using either copper foil or lead came. Right now there are a couple picture frames that I'm working on. If I like them , you'll probably see more later on.

And this is where the glass grinding takes place. All the pieces of the "puzzle" must have their edges fit together perfectly. A diamond wheel grinder helps makes that happen. Now .....to work!

Nothing Better than a Nice Clean Studio...

 Do you have the Moon and Stars and Trees  in your studio? I guess I'm lucky to have a little piece of each to surround and inspire me while I'm working. But the best thing right now is just having a clean place to work in and I'm glad to say that the annual studio cleaning is now officially over and new work has begun.

My glass rods are all sorted and back in their holders ready to be plucked out for a new series of beads.

I can now see the top of my bead table where all the constructing with finshed beads and silver parts takes place. (which would mean that before you couldn't) My torch and kiln area is ready to go with everything back in it's proper space.

This table gets a workout as many things happen here. Some days I'm cutting stained glass for windows, other days I'm working on Fine Silver projects. In the back I have a small torch for silver fusing, and in the foreground is the tumbler to put a shine on those silver projects. To the right is where freshly dipped mandrels dry before going over to the torching station. The next edition I'll show you the tree that holds up the ceiling in the middle of the room.

Beyond Books last meeting....

This photo is mainly for my mother since she is the one who taught me the joy of setting a pretty table. Our group read "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett, an excellent read if you are looking for something you can really curl up with. The discussion, and food that went along with the story flowed freely. Since the book was set in the south during the early sixties, fried chicken, sweet potato casserole, and chocolate pecan pie were on the menu. Needless to say I think a good time was had by all.