It's soooooooo cold outside!!!

This morning, it was MINUS 27 degrees with the windchill factor. But even without the chill....it was still MINUS FIVE degrees!!! Nothing should get that cold! A truly perfect day for me to stay inside and play! Oh - I do have fun!!!

These are snowflakes from Creative Impressions. One of my favorite Colorado companies. I just love them to pieces! And I love their products. So, I took 2 snowflakes and layered them inside glass, then soldered around the edges. Nope, no faux soldering here, this is the real thing.....and my first attempt, so not so bad!

And I don't think I did so bad adding jump rings either. Remember - this was my second one here!

and then I got really brave and used 3 snowflakes. A bit harder getting the copper tape to stick with that much space between the glass....but we did it!

So I'm thinking this might be a good technique to video, huh? But then I thought.....I have 7 of my 8 nights planned out....maybe I will leave night 8 up to you. What would you like a video of? Just post your thoughts in the comments to this blog. Look back at all the things I've done the past 2 years and let me know if there's something you'd like to see as a video. It might already be one of the 7 that I've picked.....but if it's not, I'll add the one I like the best!

And are you starting to see the Star of David in every snowflake there is? Just remember - snowflakes only have 6 points or 12 points. No 5, 7 or 8 points....they just aren't real!

the "other" Mrs. Gentry

My childhood was surrounded by a lot of really good people. Mrs. Bundy was my art teacher from Kindergarten to 8th grade. I took 4H starting in the 3rd grade and the "other" Mrs. Gentry was my craft leader.

Alice Gentry. She was wonderful! She had kilns! She taught us how to paint ceramics. I picked a square box with roses on the lid and I painted it turquoise. I was fascinated with the whole process...yet absolutely scared to death of the kilns!!! I thought for sure I was going to fall inside one and I was going to burn "in hell" forever!

OK....just tie a little of the preacher's Sunday morning sermon into my vivid imagination and take it from there!!!

Now, Karla is not my only childhood chum that I love to go visit when I go "home". Alice Gentry's daughter, Nola, was in my class from K - 8. This is her way back then:


and this is me....
Again, I don't think either one of us has changed much at all!!!

And this is Gregg Byers on the left. We got together at the little community center and spent a few hours just having the best time ever talking about our childhood days. Of course, the school has been town down.....

but I swear, when I'm with my friends...I can still see us running up the stairs, down the halls, out to play ball, into the gym, up on the stage, in our band uniforms......

isn't memory just a wonderful thing?

I am so blessed to have so many friends from my childhood still a huge part of my life today. And even though we live a thousand miles apart, with skype, facebook, blogging and the internet....it seems like all of them are just down the hall from me!

And while Nola's mom, the "other" Mrs. Gentry, has been gone for awhile.....I can still see all the wonderful painted ceramics that would come out of her kilns when we were kids. I think it's just amazing that I'm now taking classes in glass slumping and fusing, working with dichroic glass and firing metal clay in a kiln. I know that she would love it all!

So "thank you" to Mrs Alice Gentry and Mrs Mildred Gentry - for everything you taught me as a child. And thank you for your daughter and your daughter-in-law.....that 40 some years later we are all still great friends!!!

Art glass

I just love a happy ending! I picked up all my glass from my class this week....and totally love the results. I truly love slumping!

And my first piece turned out perfect!!!

I had no intention of using this glass frame as a base for the slumped piece...but it turned out to be the perfect size for that....so I doubt this gets used as a frame!

And this is not dichroic glass...but a dichroic water slide that was fired between 2 layers of glass. Sure looks like dichroic!

We made these by mixing water and powder together, placing that in a mold, freezing it, then putting it on a kiln shelf, letting it dry out, then firing it. A perfectly awesome technique!!! Wonderful shaped glass!

This is painted glass with dichroc slide and a black & white slide on layers. Just amazing what you can do with tiny 2" pieces of glass - make your own collage!

Did a pretty good job of replicating dichroic glass using dichroic slides. I'm going to have to try a few more ideas on this one!

This was done with layers of fiber paper and frit. Again - amazing technique!

My goal for next week is to get the basement back into some kind of order so I can find a path to the kilns and start firing glass here. Can hardly wait to play...but gotta clean up the mess first!

Back to school

Yep, I feel just like I was back in school today! Taking notes, asking questions, getting answers. But a much more interetsing topic....fusing glass. While I don't know what this will look like in the morning, I had fun using glass, noodles, stringers and stones. I learned how to cut a circle and straight pieces in a variety of sizes.

I tried out 2 different kinds of paint as well as dichroic water slide decals which I totally loved!

There were 8 in the class and we filled up 3 huge kilns with our designs.

Just another medium with endless designs and endless possibilities!

The instructor is excellent. The classes are at D&L Stained glass in Denver.
I'm set up and ready to return tomorow. We will start out by looking at what our glass did in the kiln overnight and then learn how to slump some of the pieces that we fused today.

I can hardly wait to look in that kiln! LOL!!! And I'm sitting here putting together my "shopping" list because I have to have this Morton cutting system. I've never cut glas so easy as this. And then there's a circle glass cutter I will need....oh the list is just endless! LOL!!!