Trickle Down Creativity

Or is it bubbling up? I'm not sure, I just know that it's back... let's see if I can hold on to it.

First of all, there was this glass fusing class that I signed my whole family up for. Susan Murphy was teaching her new glass fusing technique, along with another teacher, Brian, at Cascade Glass Art Center in Redmond, WA.

We learned how to decorate glass with powders and paints and stencils and a whole new world of possibilities opened up for me. I have to admit that I've always been a little snobby about stencils, except maybe for hand-made ones... but I now see the error of my ways. Stencils are my new best friend.

These photos show the pieces after the first day of class:





And here are the (mostly) finished pieces. I can still add more, and I might.







Interesting, right? So I debated and debated... do I want to get into something completely new, with all new supplies and materials? Finally it came down to this: This is something I can do with my son - he thinks his art passion is glass fusing. So I ordered hundreds of dollars worth of supplies. I guess I should show you what he made in class, check it out:









And then there's Frank's pieces - I really love this dodo bird with the flying eyeball and tiny wing. Frank's got some buried creativity in him too, just waiting to come out.



So... now we wait. There are a couple of slumped pieces that need to be picked up still. And paints and powders and stencils should be arriving any day now. But the muse had ideas and wanted to try them. SO I pulled out my acrylics and an old tree painting that I never felt was done, and a couple of stencils from Ben Franklin's... and started playing. And it was fun. Paint on canvas is much more instantly gratifying than glass, no kiln time... you see what you have withing minutes rather than hours or days.

Here is the tree painting I was never very happy with:



And what it looks like after messing around with it:







Let's see where this takes me...

New Beads and That Tree

First, the tree, it's almost done. It needs one more leaf for sure (I didn't see it until I took the photo - funny how that works!) and maybe or maybe not something else.



And then some new beads. The birds are from working with Kerri Fuhr's Raven Tutorial. I adore her beads... mine are no where close, but I like them anyway. And then some Peace beads, one is a heart, and then an ancient scrolly thing that is part fossil and part cave drawings... you'll see what I mean. All are up on Etsy today.

Painting Today...

So here I am, painting, when I have all these glass ideas floating around in my head... I don't know why I do this! I've been dreaming of melting glass since before Christmas, and then I get a chance and what do I do? Paint. It must be some sort of self-sabotage thing. Or maybe I just needed a tree to get grounded with. Whatever, I'm just going with it... the leaves aren't gelled down yet... and I think it's still missing something, but I don't know what. And now I'm going to go melt some glass and think about what this thing needs...

Paintings

I've been painting this week as I try (ever-so-patiently) to wait for my glass studio to be finished... it's more fun than cleaning the house or doing yardwork, that's for sure, though there's a small part of me that keeps thinking I should make some jewelry or at the very least get going on the taxes... but no, painting it is. And coughing... it's going on week 2 of this flu thing that has been going around. Luke and Frank seem to be almost over it so I should be soon too, since I was the last to get it.

So I've been painting girls of all sorts. Fat mermaids, expecting ladies, and this face that was not supposed to be as realistic as it is... nor as cartoonish as it is... but it is what it is. Luke says she's me, but she's not really.