lampworking final

The basis for our final assignment in Lampworking was "Dreaming of Reality and the Reality of Dreams." Basically, we could make whatever we wanted as long as we could speak well enough to convince Emilio that it was something from a dream. I created a mobile of knitted and glass birds, with a couple that were transitioning between the two materials.
There was a nest on the floor, and the birds spiraled up and away from it on the mobile, with the knitted birds closest to the nest and the glass birds farthest away. I remember having dreams as a child where my toys would come to life and become fantastical, only to wake up and find that they were still just inanimate objects. I thought of this piece in that way. As you spiraled down to the nest, you moved deeper in to sleep, but spiraling upwards was waking up, only to find that these soft and colorful birds were really clear, cold glass.
Ultimately, I think it was a really fun and cute project, and I am going to hang it over Henry's play area in the living room for now, and one day in his bedroom.
Check out some pictures taken while it was hanging at critique today:

terrariums

For my lampworking midterm, I decided to make glass mushrooms and "plant" them in terrariums that I made from thrifted containers and moss harvested from my parents' yard. It was a relatively easy and inexpensive project, and it got a good response. Several people are interested in buying them from me, so I'm pretty excited about that. I think they are adorable, and it's cool that the moss will keep living and growing in there forever if you take care of it. I also made a whole army of terrariums from baby food jars that I saved, and I'm hoping to make some tiny mushrooms for those soon. If I get around to that, the small baby terrariums will probably make an appearance on Etsy. Check them out:

lately

So much, so much, so much. I haven't blogged (on my personal blog) in so long it's ridiculous. I've been so super busy going to class and blogging for class, and being a mom, and knitting a blanket(!), that I haven't had time. And some of the motivation is gone since Mom is here every week and she doesn't rely on the blog to keep up with Henry anymore. But anyway. . . You can see what I've been blogging about and what I'm working on for my Senior Portfolio class here.

So, I'm posting some random recent pictures below. You can see how long Henry's hair has gotten, see us playing at the park, check out what the dining room looks like these days, and look at a couple of things I've made recently. I decided to tear my duvet cover up into strips, stain them with tea, and tie them together to make fabric yarn. Crazy, I know. I'm knitting/crocheting tote bags out of it now. They are extremely sturdy, and I think I'm going to be able to get several out of it. I will probably keep one and the others will appear in the Etsy shop soon (I hope.) I've also been taking a lampworking class, and I've posted a picture of my first attempts at glass beads below. It's an awesome class - the teacher is Emilio Santini, straight from Murano, Italy, no less. I hope to be at least decent at making beads by the end of the semester. . . and maybe some other cool things. We'll see. Oh and - insert drumroll here - mom reupholstered the loveseat! If you never saw it before, it was black plaid with holes in it. NOT attractive at all. Now it's a gorgeous green for only $9 and hours of work. Thanks mom! Enjoy the photos. Hopefully I'll post again soon!

stamps

I've been browsing quite a few antique stores lately, and at the Covesville Store, I found these really cool stamps from an old printing press. So of course I bought some. I got my initials, a fancy lady, and Henry's name spelled out in various fonts. I played around with them today, and decided to use my initials for my store. I want to stamp something for Henry, and probably put the letters themselves in a shadowbox for him. Here are some photos of my test stamping:

so many things

So much to blog about, and I'm too tired. I haven't posted in a while for a lot of reasons. Finals, etc, and my computer has a virus! It's terrible. I probably shouldn't be online right now, I should be trying to fix my computer or going to bed like I said I was instead, but I can't stay away from the internet for too long. Anyway. . .
I started a garden. Since I don't have a yard, or even a balcony, it's all in pots in my living room. We get great light in the apartment, so I can grow pretty much anything.

A few of my planters (this isn't even a fraction of the plants I have in the living room, but these have the cutest containers):

Mexican Heather:

My precious mini succulents:

And, of course, a photo of the prettiest thing I've ever grown:

Like I mentioned before, I've had finals lately. I still have one project to hand in next week, and then I'm done. On Monday, I had to turn in a book of a project I'd been working on for a month. It got ruined by my cat that morning. It's a long story, she spilled a glass of water on it, but I scrambled to get it reprinted in time to hand it in. Here's the soggy one (my teacher still has the good one, but you can get the idea from this one):

When you turn the transparent page, there's a ghost of the same picture printed on card stock behind it:

Finally, me. Sami gave me a henna sunflower on the back of my calf. It's probably going to be there for a couple of weeks. I love it, think it's beautiful, and wish it would stick around longer. Look:

Below, one of my regular camera self portraits, and a recent version of "early morning mommy," both taken before a shower, real clothes, and makeup, of course. In the last one, I think I'm wondering if all the brownies I've been eating lately have shown up yet. I don't think so. Do you?

This is all (for the moment.) Goodnight!

the fan

Sounds like I'm talking about my neighborhood, but I'm not. The fan I'm referring to is the one I made as a Christmas gift for Arlie, featured in the photos here. Above is a detail of the feathers used. They were primarily peacock, but there were some pheasant feathers around the lower parts.

The back:

The blown-glass bead:

Feather detail:

The fan in all its glory:

This took me a few hours to make. I started with a base I thrifted that was roughly the shape of the fan. I attached a 3-ply jute to the back in a spiral. I also glued the jute along the edges, and attached the bead to the bottom edge with it. On the front, I layered feathers upon feathers upon feathers. I wish I had taken progress/process pictures, but I was too busy trying to fight the cats off the feathers and finish while the baby was happy and/or asleep.

The best part about this gift was the wrapping. I didn't have/couldn't find a box or bag big enough to put it in, so I thought I'd sandwich it between two large pieces of cardboard to protect it, tape them together, and then wrap it. I didn't have any cardboard on hand (I threw out the huge box from the high chair I had just gotten the day before like an idiot) so I ventured out to the Dollar Tree. There I found some Nascar posters, backed by cardboard and wrapped in plastic. I bought them, intending to throw the posters out and only use the cardboard. Instead, I left the posters on, facing outwards, with the fan hidden between them. The look on Arlie's face when she tore back the wrapping to find Jeff Gordan and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was priceless. The obvious relief she felt when seeing the fan was even better. Merry Christmas, Arlie!