10' TALL SUNFLOWERS TO BE PLANTED AT THE NORRIS COTTON CANCER CARE BOUTIQUE!

Rough concept of the final design choice.

I am delighted to announce that I have begun creating the mosaic mirror for installation in the new Circle of Care Boutique currently under construction at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center located on the campus of Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury, VT. The underlying theme and logo involves sunflowers and the mirror needs to accommodate people of all shapes and sizes, including those in wheel chairs, within a 46" wide space between two doors. Below are the 4 design options submitted to the board back in October and at left is the final choice. Materials used will include recycled dishware and china, tile, mirror, salvaged tempered glass and other bits and baubles that I can scrounge up. The project, spearheaded by the NVRH Auxilliary will be the only American Cancer Society designated facility in Northern New England to provide a range of supplies, services and support to cancer patients during treatment. While construction was delayed somewhat, everyone is hoping for a Grand Opening on Valentine's Day so I will be very busy for the next month!

But is it BIG enough...?! Checking out size, perspective and installation requirements at the construction site with mock-ups. The group of about 7 - 9 sunflowers will range from 16" - 24" in diameter, have leaves 9" - 12" long and sit atop stems up to 8' tall.

The four designs originally submitted to the planning board. Two in consideration of construction plans calling for a 20' tall ceiling and two for a 10' tall ceiling.

TIS THE SEASON — HOLIDAY OPEN STUDIO AND GALLERY SHOWING DEC. 17th & 18th

In the spirit of the season, Studio Fresca will be hosting a Holiday Open Studio & Gallery Showing from 11am until 4pm on both Saturday and Sunday, December 17th & 18th, so stop by for a visit to see the art and meet the artist! The studio will have works in progress and demonstrations of various mosaic techniques while upstairs the Gallery at Heart Winds House will have completed works, prints and cards, and the latest jewelry pieces on display. Enjoy complimentary hot beverages and holiday treats prepared by Chef Dave from Hearty's, which tied for first place winner at the 2011 Chowder Cook-Off Contest at Burke Mountain Resort, will also have hot, homemade soup and fresh bread on the menu if you're looking for something a little "heartier" to eat!


To find us, look for the Studio Fresca signs posted along the road ways, or call ahead at 802-626-5105, or check us out on google places and tweet @heartysvt to find out what the soup of the day is.


Wishing you all the special joys of the season and hope to see you soon!

FEELING FALL IN A BIG WAY...

12" x 36"; discarded dishware, salvaged tile bits and mirror scraps on leftover 1/4" Hardi-backer board with thinset and sanded grout. Prepped and sealed for outdoor use in temperatures above freezing. By R. F. De Lorme, ©2011 (click image to enlarge)

Fall is fabulous in Vermont, but all too short so I made a tall tree to celebrate the season. This piece stands 3' tall and the trunk makes use of the backs (with the manufacturers stamps) as well as the fronts, of various shades of white, cream and grey plates. The leaves are hand-cut rounds, to give the piece a sense of fullness and volume. There are also a few slivers and bits of mirror in the trunk to give it a bit of twinkle when the light catches it. This panel was created on hardi-backer board with thinset and specially sealed so that it can be displayed outdoors in temperatures above freezing — or in a shower stall — or as a kitchen backsplash.

EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY...

In recognition of Earth Day, a revisit of CHLOROPHYLIA, a piece created entirely from trash in celebration of chlorophyll — that magical, mystical material that works with sun, water and soil to make our planet green. Photosynthesis rocks my world!
CHLOROPHYLIA — Recycled slumped glass base with recovered dishware and vintage china with 22K gold trim; vintage recovered brooch; tempered glass salvaged from auto wrecking yard; fresh water pearls; iridescent glass paint; sanded and non-sanded grout.

My inspiration was the green vintage flower brooch on the corner, which was found in a bag of old jewelry. Using that as a beginning, I set out to make a piece that would convey the magic of chlorophyll as the life blood of green plants. The flowing tempered glass (from broken automobile windows) represents water flowing through the system and the dyed freshwater pearls (gathered from a broken necklace I found at a garage sale) are meant suggest chloroplasts, the cells responsible for photosynthesis. The vintage china with 22K gold trim is a reminder of the value of plants to keeping our environment "green".

There's No Tool Like an Old Tool

Work In Progress - FALLING TO PIECES IN VERMONT from the Vermont Place Settings Series - Pique Assiette mosaic from recycled dishware on "green" MDF board. Some of the tesserae (grass and tree leaves) have been cut, placed and glued. Still needs to be finished, grouted, sealed and framed.

I have a life long love affair with tools and technology. I grow truly excited by any and all contraptions — large and small, simple and complex, old and new, fancy or mundane — that promise to do something, (anything really!) that will make my work better, my day easier or my life simpler. And while I do find myself instantly attracted to tools and technology out of hope that they will deliver on the promises they make, honestly, I’m into them for the novelty, the curiosity and the wonder of it all.













A Few Good Tools - Cutting (rather than breaking) old dishes into tesserae requires (from right to left) gloves, goggles, tile nippers, my favorite leponittes and p-a-t-i-e-n-c-e. (Wearing shoes is always good, too!)

Whether it’s old tools at garage sales and flea markets that perform some function no longer a priority in today’s society, or old technology discovered in the back rooms of thrift stores and found discarded at the dumps because it has been replaced by something a million times faster, or the very newest, latest and hottest techno-tool trends, I want it — or at least the chance to play with it.

I find the tools and technology beautiful to behold, fascinating to contemplate and wondrous to feel in my hands. I not only want to own them all, I want to use them all; try them out, stretch their boundaries, take them apart and see how they work — then leave my husband to put the peices back together again... I derive hours of entertainment and frustration from this preoccupation because the reality is, that as fascinating as new technology is, I really do quite well with my work, and usually in my life, with what I already have — a few very simple tools that work remarkably well and some moderately current technology that, as it tends to find some balance point between causing me utter frustration and providing me with complete bliss, I continue to use rather than replace.

What I have always known about my work, regardless of the latest techno trends, is that my most useful tools are my hands. Simple, (and rather small in my case!), multi-jointed, five-fingered hands with clever little opposable thumbs and calluses tough enough to stop a leponitte blade. It’s true my hands are growing ever so slightly clumsier as I age, and lately I have noticed they are occasionally sore in the mornings after I’ve spent the previous day cutting up tiles and tesserae. However, they are the most amazing and fascinating piece of technology I have access to, as well as my most valued, most favored and most often used tool — and one look at them will prove it!


WORK IN PROGRESS - (detail) FALLING TO PIECES IN VERMONT from the Vermont Place Settings Series

Despite the fact that I have several pair of work gloves, various nippers, tweezers, probes, sponges, scrapers, etc. , and that I do actually understand all the safety ramifications, when it comes to getting my work just the way I want it, I seem to need to feel my way. So, I strip off my gloves, set aside the nippers, tweezers, probes and files, drop the sponges and dig right in with bare hands and naked fingers. This is, of course, why my hands look like they’ve been through several medieval wars. They are covered in scars, often full of glass chips (it’s hard to feel them with all those calluses) and the nail beds are perpetually stained by whatever color of grout I used on my last project. The point is, I have the tools, the technology and (presumably) the intelligence to use them safely, but I just don’t. I like the feel of my fingers on my art work and to me it's just not my art without that part.