Lucketts 2016

We had a great adventure last weekend...

I had the pleasure of spending the day with my daughter and 2 best friends...

We drove to Leesburg, Virginia for the Lucketts Spring Market.

The weather was wet and overcast but there was still so much to see.

My daughter and I loved this new vendor.

She upholsters vintage chairs with everything from vintage fabric to leather and cowhides....

Mmmmmm....We loved her style.

I am gearing up at home for a studio makeover and a chair like this is on my wish list....

The leather and cowhide is probably my favorite but it was so hard to pick one.

They were all fabulous!

This fun garden art is on my radar for a few windows I have laying around...

 This tepee is always somewhere in the market....

Maybe this year I will make my own version...

There is just so much good stuff we could have taken thousands of pictures...

My daughter and I were in love with those bottles...

They are covered in barnacles...

Old ladders and tin ceiling tiles turned into a screen caught our eye and imaginations...

And check out that cool chandelier at the base of the ladder...

We found what had to be the prettiest cookies ever at this booth....

Sky's the Limit is her company name.

We each got a camper cookie and they tasted as good as they looked.

More amazing tin tiles....

I have to make something like this great pallet display.

How awesome would that be outside the studio/shed?

It was a wet, chilly but fun day.

There is always so much to see.

I always leave with my head swimming with ideas.

I will have to share my finds later.  

Sadly, they cancelled the second day of the show due to wet and muddy conditions.

I am so glad we got there to enjoy it when we did...

Thanks for stopping by....

New Toy... and Melting Bottles With it...

Like many artists, I am forever on the quest to try new tools, toys and techniques.

This fall I made a long-time dream come true and bought myself a kiln.

I got a Delphi EZ Pro from a friend.

He is a gifted glass artist and wanted to upgrade to a larger kiln.

It will fire glass, ceramic clay and metal clays.

And it does not need 220.

Perfect for me.

So the fall has been a series of adventures in glass melting.

Most of what we have done have been experiments with scrap glass.

Today I wanted to share some of our bottle experiments.

I have 2 bottle molds and have tried slumping, tacking and full fusing a variety of bottles.

This is an example of a slump in a mold.

I added some fun little hardware bits.

There are a few air bubbles around them.

This does not bother me. 

 The metal holds the heat and cools at a different rate than the glass.

This was done in a bottle mold on the slump setting.

These can be used as trays for crackers, fruit, cheese, etc.

Many people on our gift list this Christmas got one of these.

This little brown bottle was a vintage bottle.

I melted it on full fuse just on the shelf.

I love the look the vintage glass has.

 What a sweet little resting spot this will be for a spoon or teabag.

This bottle was a little too big for the mold.

You can see how it melted over the edge a bit.

I also filled this one with marbles and glass gems. 

 I loved the look inside the bottle.

My mother in law grabbed this one and uses it as a spoon rest and loves it.

The glass within the bottle cracks and has bubbles and such.

I like the unique look of it.

This was a little pink mason jar cup from the thrift store.

It was slumped right on the shelf, no mold.

The pink color was just painted on so it completely burned off during firing.

This is a Frappachino bottle done on the shelf, no mold, full fuse.

The last one to show you today was a little bottle with a bee and honey design.

I slumped it and you can still see the designs in the glass.

This will be a great gift for a tea drinker.

I will be sharing many more of my experiments.

Some have been successes and some have been failures.

What is new in your studio?

Thanks for stopping by....

Hometalk Board

I am so excited!

I was asked by Hometalk to curate a board on Windchimes.

There were so many great ones to choose from.

I chose just a few favorites.

Here is what it looks like....

And here is a link to the board.

You can find me on Hometalk here.

If you are not familiar with Hometalk, check it out.

They are a very friendly bunch and the ideas are amazing.

I really love how you can ask questions and get answers. 

 I think that makes them special.

A lot of your favorite bloggers may be on Hometalk as well.

Head on over and snoop around a bit.

I bet you will become a Hometalker too....

Thanks for stopping by...

More garden Mosaics....

I shared with you that my daughter and I continued to mosaic after our last creative workshop.

We got a little obsessed with it for a few days.

I wanted to show you what we worked on.

I finished my satellite dish transformation.

Remember how it started here.

Now it is almost completely covered.

Since it is not perfectly round, there are a few spaces that did not get covered.

This was a wooden box.

I covered the lid and will paint and spruce up the inside.

This is one of my favorite projects.

Old bottles from the recycling bin.

Covered in marbles.

A marble to seal the top so water won't get in if they are left outside.

Remember, nothing is grouted yet.

More bottles.

Each bottle has a strip left bare down the back.

When I grout, I am going to add a little something.  

You will see.

One bottle covered in buttons.

One of my favorite bottles...

Here are most of the bottles.

This plastic charger from the thrift store was transformed too.

My daughter's idea actually.

After it is grouted, it will have another step before it's new life.

Don't worry.

I will show you.

My daughter made more coasters.

Which are your favorites?

Mine are the keyboard keys.

They are so cool.

What words can you find?

My husband could not tell what this was.

Can you?

It is a bird.

Some eggs....

I think they will be fun in the garden.

Last, but not least, my friend left this little gazing ball and stand.  

I covered it in seashells.

Next I will show you how the grouting went.

We have lots of tips and tricks.

We had some issues but lots of success.

Thanks for stopping by....

Find out who we are linked with here.