How it came to be... Starving Artist Blog

Or why I NOW work with glass... I started life as a Geologist....


There's lots of directions that I could head off in with that statement... very little that I do with glass was premeditated... I took my first flat glass class because a friend of a friend canceled and didn't want to loose her money... so I stepped in.... My first big panel was a bathroom window for my sister, the second one was the panel that Noreen... the friend that talked me into taking my first flat glass class started in that class... she bit off way more than she could chew! But that panel was finished 6 or 7 years later and installed in her parents front hall.... IN between about all I did was attempt a 6 panel faux tiffany lamp... I finished one panel in the class... cut out all the rest and had the pieces unlabeled on top of the drier in the basement... My 2 year old went down stairs and transferred all the neat piles of unlabeled glass into a bucket.... they stayed there unsorted for about 8 years.... The lamp then spent 11 years in my dining room in SK and has been hanging in 'Rapunzels' tower in NB for the last 3 years!



My foray into glass beads was because I saw and bought a hot head because it was in a wholesale catalogue and in those days there weren't a lot of new toys available so when there was something ... I got it!

Bounce forward another 6 years to my move to NewBrunswick in Sept of 2001... gone is my 1200 sq ft commercial studio... I have an unheated, uninsulated garage to make beads in or a dungeon with water up to my knees whenever it rains to do stained glass in.... What a choice!


Dungeon still has almost no heat but the river is gone.....

Now I have a heated bead studio and a sump pump in the dungeon.... I'll take the bead studio with the windows facing the government wharf... who wouldn't prefer to cuddle over a warm flame and watch fishing boats come and go, then work on a muddy concrete floor ....

View through the screen and my messy workbench!

For the last 11 years I have also run a seasonal gallery featuring work done by Canadian Women... but that's a whole nother story!


Other artists participating in this month blog

Sylvia from Galadryl


Bonnie from The FamiLee Jewels


Julie from Northern Girl Jewelry

ABS carnival bloggers ... Celebration

Celebration

1. The formal performance of a solemn rite, such as Christian sacrament
2. The observance of a holiday or feast day, as by solemnities
3. The act, process of showing appreciation, gratitude and/or remembrance, notably as a social event.
4. A social gathering for entertainment and fun; a party.

I just noticed when I was posting my remembrance link that the November carnival blog is BOTH groups.. well Wikepedia doesn’t define Celebration… those are the definitions from Wiktionary… but what does all that mean to me and my life as a glass artist in New Brunswick.

My husband celebrates the day that Money Pit his sail boat goes in the water,

but for me that is almost the same time that I open my gallery for the summer... I'm more likely to celebrate closing for the season, this year I was open 98 days straight... That's a long time to smile and be nice on a daily basis!


Money Pit is now back on land but not before non-Tropical Storm 'no na-mee' hit on Friday the 15... and broke the mooring line. The boat literally ended up - 'up the creek' which was better than 'out to sea'! She got scratched and no longer has a mooring ball but is still floating!




We all celebrate different things in different ways..., but, I guess from a bead point of view I celebrate every time I open the kiln and find a bead that I like!

And finally... yesterday the last piece of pink vinyl siding was removed from this house.... Now that's something to celebrate!

Garbage and more garbage....

Well I'm home from operation clean sweep... think I wore the whorls off of my fingers packing and pitching... I found cupboards in that house I didn't know existed! You would not believe all the treasures that can be accumualted in 60 years... I have very good intentions to do some purging here after that trip... Will I ...Stay tuned, but don't hold your breath!


Pretty bad when the only pictures I took of the house were the piles of garbage the last day I was there. (that's 5 days of garbage and recycle) Actually the nearly empty house was too depressing.... AND that snow was totally unnecessary!

Mom & Dad have moved into a Seniors condo complex in Edmonton close to where my sister lives. Even with the piles of 'treasures' left behind they moved for too many things for the 980 sq ft space they now inhabit... but by the time I left you could actually see the floor in all the rooms!

Fins Go Better with Coke

This is the painting that I donated to the Guess Who Mystery Art Auction that was held last weekend in St Andrews. It was a fund Raiser for Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature centre. There were 103; 8 * 6 inch paintings.

The audience picked numbers as they arrived, then the numbers were drawn. If your number was drawn you got to pick which painting you wanted to buy., all the paintings cost $90. This one was picked about 50th... half way through.

There was a number of well known artists contributing including Robert Bateman... still don't know which painting was his!

My number was the 75th number drawn... there was actually still one painting left that we liked so we bought it and ran ... we were down to 5 minutes or spending the night on the main land... , at least that's what we thought, turned out that they were holding the ferry on Deer Island for an ambulance so we could have spent another 30 minutes at the 'auction'. However since there was nothing left that we wanted there was really no point hanging around other than to see who took what. And maybe wait for the great reveal....