On making things and memories...

Making stained glass mosaics has taught me something interesting about how my brain works:  I often work on mosaics in my study with the door open in the evenings while David and Griff watch TV or a movie.  I can hear what they're watching, and sometimes I even follow the narrative, but I can't see the screen. Often, I don't really pay attention and the voices just wash over and around me as I work.  I have discovered that days later when I set about grouting the piece I had been working on in the evenings, the story or plot of the TV show comes back in detail, as if I had been sitting in the room with the guys while it was on.  So curious!  I should have known that I was so impressionable.


And, speaking of remembering while making mosaics....

I made this window (inspired by California poppies and lupines) for my friend Lissa, whom I have been lucky to have in my life for the last 40 years.  We met in the fourth grade and spent much of our free time horse-back riding and roaming in the beautiful fields and forests of Northern California.   As I worked on this design, I kept flashing on detailed memories of acacia blooming in february, of the cement ship at Seascape, of poppies and lupine blooming in the spring, of La Selva beach and the Santa Margarita trestle, of riding bareback in the fields above the Bayview hotel, and so much more.  Ah, what a beautiful place to grow up!

New work

My sabbatical is fast drawing to a close.  This makes me feel frantic to finish some of my projects, get my office organized, and prep for classes -- so, I'm not sleeping too well these days.  There have been a few late nights playing with glass.  Here are some of the results:

I had to try another window with the flame shapes that I showed in my last posting -- I love the lively quality of these shapes!

I'm working on another transom window here --left a lot of grout in the textured clear glass because I love the graphic effect when the light shines through it.

This is just a small piece I'd done a while back, but my dad made a frame and my mom antiqued it (unfortunately none of that shows in this picture -- grrr!)  How lucky am I to have such helpful parents?!!

I also decided that the floor cloth/rug in my kitchen needed a little pick-me-up (I'd painted it a couple of years ago with a floral pattern that had been dulled by regular wear and wash).  So, here's the new rug -- the design is entirely different from the "original" -- but I have no "before" pictures :^(

It looks small, but it's actually 5'by 8' -- so it took the whole weekend.

Just two weeks before I start teaching -- I suspect many of my days next week will be spent in the office at work.

A New Year

Here's a new window for a new year:

This window went through a lot of stages -- and the final result is nothing like the design I started with.


Happy 2012, all!