Red Sky At Morning

What a beautiful sky I awoke to the day before yesterday. The old sailors saying, "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning" couldn't have applied to the rest of that day. It was a calm day, but yesterday, on the other hand was wildly windy. I could hear trees cracking and falling in our forest and trees were down on our road. Thankfully, they were not blocking the road.

"FAITH is the SUBSTANCE of things UNSEEN"

I got a little work done before I had to go to town. One piece is a copper necklace that I have had the components of for several months, but just didn't take the time to assemble it until today. I've been having a little trouble getting inspired lately, and I thought if I finished those little unfinished projects lying around that it would free my mind to create.

The other is another of my fused glass pendants made into a beaded necklace.

Also, last night I watched "Craft In America" a three part series made for PBS about the artists, origins, and techniques of American crafts. It was a beautifully filmed, inspiring documentary. I think that watching this will kick start my creativity and make me more focused on craftsmanship. It is available through Netflix.

Eclectic Mix

Floral Dance

I just added some new pieces to my Etsy shop. They are kind of all over the place when it comes to style and materials. I just do what strikes my fancy at the moment.

Flying Dog

Linked Hearts
(Made from recycled electrical wire)

Vision (commission for Karen)

I also just discovered that Cynthia Korzekwa mentioned and linked to my Medals for Everyday People on her Art For Housewives blog. It is in her January 31 post. I think that she lives in Italy. Her site always has the most interesting plethora of links to art using recycled materials. I have been following her blog for several years. Thanks Cynthia!

Fresh Work

Here is some of my new work that is for sale along with many more today at Silo Studio's monthly Studio Thursday.

Melted Mondrian

Surrounding copper on this piece was gift from Steph (aka vladthebat)

More fused glass.

The leftovers will be posted on my Etsy

Cool New Tool

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful start to the New Year. My hubby and I got to spend the evening with one of our sons and his wife, and some other family and friends. We decided to leave before midnight because it was over and hour drive and made it home by 12:05, so we had to stop on the road and kiss and say Happy New Year. Thankfully, it was a deserted country road. The dog woke me up at 8:30 this morning wanting out, so I thought I'd take advantage of the quiet time and type this post.

I have been a very bad girl for the last few weeks when it comes to keeping my blog updated. Over the holidays, we had company for about 2 weeks straight...not the same ones the whole time. First visitors were some friends of ours that do music missions at different places around the world. Their home bases are in Wales and Israel. They kept us entertained and uplifted with beautiful music while they were here. Their website is Mishkanim and you can listen to some of their music there. This video is Howie playing his bouzouki (I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly.) He would get up every morning and sit down and start playing music. The video was taken with my digital camera and not a video camera, so the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired.




The rest of the guests were our kids coming and going throughout the holiday.

I did manage to get a little artwork done. My first inspiration was a new toy/tool that I discovered. It is a small kiln that you can use to fuse glass in your microwave. Can you imagine that! I just had to buy it. It takes just two to three minutes to melt the glass. After that, the most difficult part is having the patience to wait 30 minutes to open the lid. You have to let it cool gradually with the kiln closed. The kit came with everything I needed to make jewelry right when I got it home. It is called Fuseworks. This link is for the manufacturer that sells them only wholesale, but I bought mine at Hobby Lobby. Here is a necklace that I completed using a pendant that I made.Have a happy, healthy, prosperous, peaceful, and creative New Year.