Bits & Pieces: glass

Showing posts with label glass. Show all posts

December 13, 2011

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!

April 22, 2011

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".

April 6, 2011

BIDDING TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER

The International Auction of Mosaic Art to Benefit Doctors Without borders / Médecins Sans Frontières is currently underway! View 127 amazing and diverse works of art created and donated by more than 100 mosaic artists from around the world. DWB/MSF is a truly remarkable organization and well deserving of our support so if you love art, this is a great opportunity to own an original piece and "do good". Click here to go directly to the auction site and behold all the wonderful works created in honor of the wonderful work that DWB/MSF does. Thank you and happy bidding!

A TREE FOR ALL SEASONS - my donation to the International Auction to Benefit Doctors Without Borders. For more details on the materials and meaning behind the design, please click here.

September 14, 2008

Fascination With Flatware Fast Becoming a Fetish...

Work in Progess - ENCHANTED FOREST - "Owed" to Surrealism created from scrap stained glass, salvaged stainless steel knife handles, ball chain, millefiore, on 1/2" environmental MDF

While trolling through the trash, digging deep in dumpsters and rummaging around in recycle yards, I encounter an amazing array of discarded items. Some are definitely one-of-a-kind, while others are one, or two — or ten — among millions. Stainless steel flatware pieces are among the latter.

Glass, china and tile have always had an allure for me, but in recent years I have developed an affinity for flatware. It comes in such a diversity of shapes, sizes, patterns and finishes that I take true delight in discovering the "new" and finding a few more of the familiar to carry back to my studio. To me, each of these pieces of sturdy stainless steel is a small work of art in and of itself and representative of a certain time and period in our cultural heritage. That's why I love to incorporate them into my work.

I also like they way they feel in my hands when I am cutting, buffing, bending and polishing them — they are smooth, solid and balanced. Metal feels different than glass, tile, stone and china and I like the contrast it brings to my work. I also like to think I am preserving a little something while giving these beautiful and once utilitarian discards new life as I send them dancing through a millefiore forest, tuck them into a snowy china field and suspend them in a misty glass night. And, it's a great way to feed my flatware fetish!

August 7, 2008

SEABA Art Hop in Burlington, Vermont on September 5th & 6th - The Little State of Vermont's BIG visual Arts Festival and Celebration!

An official Juror's Selection at the SEABA Art Hop Juried Show:

STEELING A WINTER'S NIGHT - From the Vermont Place Settings Series - Pique Assiette and Mixed Media Mosaic Landscape (direct method) created from salvaged boken ceramic pieces, hand cut dishware, scrap stained glass, rescued stainless steel flatware knife handle and soup spoon, discarded broken drinking glass with iridiscent coating; framed in salvaged aluminum channel and scrap wood molding

CHLOROPHYLIA - A Green Piece (Shown here as a Work In Progress)
Pique Assiette, Tempered Glass and Mixed Media Mosaic Vessel (direct method, glass on glass) created from recycled slumped glass; tempered glass from car windshield salvaged at auto wrecking yard; reclaimed vintage dishware, rescued broken antique china with 22K gold trim; scrap stained glass; found vintage jewelry brooch; freshwater pearls; iridized glass paint; sanded and non-sanded grout

THIS ART IS TRASH!

When I'm not delving into dumpsters or scavenging around salvage yards, I create Mixed-Media Mosaic Art using primarily recycled, salvaged and reclaimed materials — and I love the entire process. The art and craft of making mosaics is totally engrossing to me because it involves the heart in the passion of creation, the head in fitting together all the elements of the puzzle, and the hands in fine craftsmanship. For me, art is both interaction and expression; an exploration of discovery that perfectly weds the mind, the soul and the body in an ongoing, thought-provoking, and always entertaining, dialog...with myself, with the world around me — and with ALL the stuff, both physical and metaphysical, of life — so this blog is simply an outlet for me to share a dose of that dialog and a measure of my musings as I look at, and work with, all the bits and pieces that come my way in life!

The Story of Stuff

Stuff...? Yeah, we got LOTS of that! In fact, we're just about stuffed with stuff and this imaginative, informative and cleverly told little on-line tale tells it like it is so that the problem with stuff becomes clear to everybody. It also exlains how easy it is for each one of us to solve our problems with stuff in terms that are so simple and straightforward, you will wonder why you haven't been taking care of stuff already. To watch this short video clip, click on the The Story of Stuff in the Favorite Links section above. And it you like it, pass it on!

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ALOHA!

Customized mosaic for my favorite coffee growers at Blair Estate where growing coffee is an art and a lifestyle. Keeping to their organic committment, they use sheep as lawn mowers...once, during a livestock emergency, they actually made me MILK a sheep. Check out their chocolate covered macadamia nuts! Everyone on the mainland begs me to bring them some of these treats — and being the chocolate addict that I am, if I don't pack them away in my suitcase I end up eating them all on the plane. Click on the Coffee Times link in Galleries & Venues above to try some for yourself and take an on-line tour of this unique organic coffee plantation on the island of Kauai.

TRASH IS TREASURE IN PARADISE

Kaua'i Recyling for the Arts is a non-profit art and educational organization created by a group of local Kaua’i artists, educators, business owners and environmentalists. The goals of the collective are to provide art, education and environmental awareness to residents and visitors to the island of Kauai. The collective maintains a studio in Lihue with furnaces fueled by Bio-Diesel where glass bottles diverted from the landfill are used to create art of all kinds. They also offer classes, demonstrations of hot glass work and have a small onsite gallery. It's located between the airport and the dump, so it's definitely one of my favorite places to hang out and so convenient to tourists if you happen to be visiting the island! You can get more info about this worthy organization by clicking on the link in Galleries & Venues above.