What started as a "Garden in a Bag"

My friend Dhvani turned me onto a great vegetable garden idea for those who don't have good soil or much space.  (I have plenty of space, but after 4 tries in 12 years, it's clear that the soil in my yard does not work well for vegetables!)  So, I thought I'd try a garden in a bag -- which is just what it sounds like: you put down bags of organic soil, cut the tops out, put drainage holes in the bottom, pop in your plants of choice and, Voila!, a garden.  
Well, I have never done any garden project in a small way, but I was determined not to tear up the yard for a fifth time.  Really, I was!  But once I dug up the sod to make a place for the bags, it seemed a shame to leave all that plastic from the bags.  So, here's what I have today:

 I'm crossing all digits that this time I'll have success -- and then maybe I can expand next year!


And, just for fun, here are a few more shots of all that's growing in the flower beds:

The Rugosa is blooming -- and oh, what a heavenly scent!

The Poppies are ready to burst;

The divine Valerian are perfuming the air;

And the three Peonies are sitting straight up in their chairs, just ready to show off their petals.  Meanwhile, on the shady side of the yard:

The Bachelor Buttons are complimenting the Viburnum;

The Rhododendron is strutting her stuff; 

The Babtisia is nodding to the big Hosta;

The Guacamole Hosta and the Rhodie flowers are showing off the lasting color of the worn out chairs;

And the blue bench is spending its feeble last season leaning against the railing.

Happy Spring, Everyone!

Happy Mother's Day from my garden

After the Rain

The rain stopped today.  I took advantage of a relatively sunny moment and went out to check on the garden.  Everything was freshly washed and reaching for the sun.  The leaves were heavy with rain, but the flowers were undaunted:

The fish and "fowl" were out, and the frog was playing hide and seek in the foliage:

The semester is finally coming to an end -- soon I will again have time for playing with glass!!

Mosaic Inspiration

I can't begin to capture the feelings I had when I entered Isiah Zagar's Magic Gardens in Philadelphia yesterday afternoon.  It was as a spiritual experience for me.  Really!  
I felt my pulse racing; 
I felt like sobbing; 
I felt out of breath.  
As a result of my state of mind, when I ran into the artist early in my wandering through his gardens I was nearly speechless -- I did manage to grab his hand (you know I'm a toucher!) and say "Thank you" repeatedly.  I'd say that he went off thinking me "mad," but I bet he's used to people rendered speechless.  
What are the Magic Gardens, you ask?
The gardens take up half a city block on South Street in Philadelphia.  But this is no ordinary garden:  enter a mosaic-covered building and find yourself inside an entirely mosaicked space; that's right, entirely!  Walls, floor, ceiling -- no surface is untouched.  Wander into mosaic rooms, an interior courtyard, and enchanting "gardens" -- complete with grottos, arches, stairways, and nooks -- all created by a combination of sculpture and mosaic (the arches, grottos, stairs, and walls were clearly not there to begin with!).  
Here are a few photos that I took with my trusty iphone, but if you want more images check out the website for this remarkable place.

An interior room -- no space uncovered!

Wall and roof-line mosaics draw the eyes up to the sky.

A stairway in the outdoor garden also draws the eyes up to the amazing creations that adorn the garden walls and the roof of the building.

An enchanted grotto.

A poet's wall?

  

More wonderful arches, creating a private room within this very intimate corner of the garden. 

The garden walls are constructed of everything you could possibly imagine, but a sizable amount of the armature is provided by bicycle wheels that offer glimpses into yet other spaces in the garden.

And here is one of the many glass tiles embedded in the wall, letting light in and revealing a mosaicked wall beyond.

Looking through spokes into a lower "room" in the garden.

A harmony of green mugs and an old bicycle wheel capture my eye. 

With ART above my shoulder and magic all around, I can't wipe the smile from my face!

Really, a "retrospective" after just one year?? YEP.

Let me begin with an alert:  aside from the first image, there will be nothing new to see in this post.  


It has been a year since I started applying my mosaic designs to glass, so I'm interested in seeing them all together at once (or at least most of them). "What better place than this blog?" I ask myself.  If you are only interested in new work, here's what I've just finished:

This is an experiment with a lovely art deco/nouveau design that my wonderful colleague Shelley Barish has come up with for the department's next theatre production.  Sadly, I do not think that I have been able to capture it in glass.

Now, in roughly chronologically order from the first piece I made last winter/spring to the most recent, here's the "oeuvre" to date:

This was the very first -- and the picture is pretty poor quality.

                                                                                           

                   

                               

Well, save a few that I neglected to photograph, there we have it:  a year of glass on glass.  Every piece is an education, so I'm very curious to see what the next year will bring!