Green Craft Fair This Saturday

My recycled wine bottle serving trays and I will be at the Watkins Nature Center in Upper Marlboro, MD this Saturday, November 14th, for a fun new show in its first year! The Nature Center is encouraging a more eco approach to the gift-giving holidays by gathering artists who use recycled, natural and sustainable materials in their work. I'll be bringing some new etched designs that aren't yet available online, so be sure to stop by if you're in the area!

Watkins Nature Center
301 Watkins Park Drive, Upper Marlboro 20774
10 am - 4 pm

In addition to the craft fair, the center will be accepting clothing donations for Planet Aide and hosting a book exchange!

Saying goodbye to a favorite necklace

My favorites tend to sell quickly. I'm not complaining, of course, but I do love to have them around where I can look at them. I kept the Orange Squash Blossom Turquoise and Thai Fine Silver Necklace out on a necklace bust in my living room where it would brighten and cheer me every time I went past.



Enjoy your new home!

The rest of my treasures and I are off to Hampdenfest in Baltimore tomorrow! I've never been to this show, and the neighborhood is very vibrant and eclectic, so I expect that I'll be shopping for myself as well as selling!

Here are a few new pieces I'm taking that I haven't had a chance to list in my online store yet.

 

Greenwala Choose to Reuse Contest

Greenwala is a new social network promoting environmentally-friendly products and practices. They host contests that highlight green ingenuity.

I've entered my recycled wine serving tray in their Choose to Reuse contest. I'd love it if you'd support me and the concept of recycling into art by voting for my tray on Greenwala's website.

Also worth voting for is the Recycled Circuit Board Menorah, created by Debby Arem, another Maryland artist who specializes in recycled materials.

You can purchase my recycled wine bottle serving tray, which comes with your choice of handmade stainless steel cheese spreader or an embroidered gift bag, from my website.

The Modern Mint Dining Set is born!

In my last installment, I showed you the last in-progress photo my green and chocolate oval platter, shaped into a graceful oval but still flat. The platter and its square friends have now made their way to a delighted bride and groom! I'm quite pleased with them as well, so I'm going to offer them as a regular product line!

Modern Mint Dining Set

A mod progression of milk chocolate and minty green stripes is accented with silver dichroic glass. The oval platter is 12 inches long and 6.5 inches wide, and the matching plates are 8.25 inches square.

I cut each fragment of glass by hand, piecing my plates and vessels together like quilts. In my home studio, I fire them to a full fuse, shape them on a diamond lap grinder, then fire them again into their final shape. Each takes hours to lovingly cut, piece and grind, and spends a full day in the kiln.

Your fused glass serving piece is completely food safe, and hand washing is recommended.

Mod Serving Dish Saga III

In Stage 3 of the Serving Dish Saga (you missed Stage 2, unfortunately -- I didn't photograph the fused blank before I ground it), our jagged hero has been fully fused, then abraded with a disc coated with diamonds rotating at high speed to make crisp, square edges that will gloss up to a beautiful gleam in his second trip through the kiln! He is presently in line behind the fourth of a set of square dinner plates in the same pattern which was slumped today and is presently cooling in the kiln.

Just a typical Friday night

My dish drainer bristles with wine bottles -- I've just finished scrubbing the labels off, and now they're dripping dry. Many will require a second treatment with a de-gooing agent to remove all of the adhesive from the labels, then a second washing. You can see a few of my glass blossom candleholders off to the left -- I'm very behind in photographing them!

I've just put the last piece of a custom dining set into the kiln for its first firing. I designed four bright, modern, geometric dinner plates and a matching oval serving platter based on the recipient's love of green and the 1970s. After their first 18-hour trip through the kiln, I grind the rounded edges off to create a crisp, square edge on a diamond lap wheel. If there's a lot of extra glass around the edges -- for example, if I measured the mold wrong! -- I might use a tile saw first. Once I'm satisfied with the size and shape of the flat fused pieces, they go into the kiln again to drape into a mold to create a lip.

I'm off to make earrings now -- I'm gearing up for my first craft show of the season, next Saturday, April 25th, in Crofton, MD. If you're in the area, I'd love to see you! It's at the Crofton Country Club from 10am to 4pm. You can find details and directions on my show list.

Prehistory Chunky Stone Necklace

We have favorites. I'll admit it. I made one Saturday night. I came home from my glass jewelry workshop, and instead of doing responsible household things or things that other people wanted, I made jewelry.

Ha! Take that, world!

This is my favorite kind of necklace to design -- multiple strands of contrasting shapes, colors and materials! This one-of-a-kind treasure is composed of picture jasper, tiny fossil rounds, and polyhedrons of green apple turquoise capped with shells. Only the bold need apply! Visit Jellybug Artworks to make it yours.