Winter

Winter

Photo credit ~ Daniel Krucoff

Another in my series of seasonal bowls. Shortly after I finished Autumn, I knew I needed to create a bowl with the shades of winter. I envisioned it to have whites, clears, and soft grays. As I discussed this with Dan, we frequently bounce our respective ideas off of each other, he said it needed to have some blues in it too. And now you can understand why Dan & I discuss our work with each other. If he hadn't suggested the use of blues to convey the coolness of winter, I don't think this bowl would look right. The minute he said blues, I felt like I had a Homer Simpson moment of "doh!".

Each one that comes out of my kiln, quickly becomes a favorite for me and I really, really like the turquoise blue in this piece as I think it emphasizes the chill of winter. Like those beautiful blue icebergs you see in Alaska. The darkest glass I used was a deep navy blue. I kept with the idea of clears and whites. Coupled with the blues, I feel this conveys a sense of the calm and stillness of a winter day.

Until next time, happy creating all. Aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

She loved it!

In my post on Monday of this week, I published a picture of Lexi's Dream, which is one of my fused bowls that Lexi described to me from a recent dream she had.

Last night, I presented the bowl to Lexi. She loved it! She said that it was even prettier than the one in her dream. It had more depth. The only thing it didn't have was real gold, which I truly don't know how to incorporate gold into glass...I can do silver or copper inclusions. And given the price of gold, that would be cost prohibitive. She saw how I worked at replicating the gold color she described with this lovely, almost lemon yellow transparent glass I used. I found it to be be awesome glass....as with most of my work, the Bullseye Glass palette works so well for me.

I also showed her Fallen Leaves, which she liked too. However, her favorite was the vision come to life, Lexi's Dream. As with all my work, I am truly happy when a piece finds its rightful home.

All that being said, I could tell how thrilled she was with this and how much she loved the colors of this bowl. It is my gift to her. It pales in comparison to all she has given to me as a mentor, friend, teacher, and sister.

Aspiring to be more as an artist and person. Happy creating all!

Fallen Leaves

Fallen Leaves
photo by Daniel Krucoff

I'm still amazed at times how ideas come to me for something. Do you ever find this happening with your creative process? I was working on Lexi's Dream mentioned in an earlier post. And as I was cutting the strips of glass that went into the construction of that bowl, I saw all these pointed pieces of glass that were discarded from the strips I used to make Lexi's Dream. They sort of called out to me and the more I looked at all those glass shards, I thought, a cluster of them would create a wonderful autumnal effect.

So this is the result of thought process on my part. Very abstract, but they remind me of fallen leaves along a hiking trail. The myriad of colors. All those sharp little pieces of glass fused so wonderfully and melded together to create this piece.

I'm going to share this one with Lexi too and see what she thinks of my 'detour' of sorts from her original dream.

I think Dan did such a great job capturing the beauty of this one with the light shining through it.

Aspiring to be more as an artist and person.....

Lexi's Dream

Lexi's Dream

Recently I hit "The Wall", you know, that period of creative block. My friend and mentor, Lexi Erickson, helped me to work through this block. One of the things that Lexi told me was that I needed to let go of some things in order to grow in other areas of my work. She felt one of the things I may need to let go of was some of my work as it relates to glass.

Now I truly love working with glass. Yet I knew deep down she was right and I have let go of some of my glass work. However, I feel that I will continue to create my fused glass bowls and the occasional stained glass window.

Here's the funny part....several nights after our discussion about needing to let go so I could grow in other areas of my work, Lexi had a dream. In this dream, I handed her a bowl I had made. She said it was glowing. And she said this bowl needed to be comprised of transparent glass instead of the mixture of transparent and opalescent glasses that I normally use. She was concerned that I would be upset about this dream after she had told me I needed to let go of some of my glass work. Quite the contrary, it just made me smile.

She described how the bowl looked to her in her dream. She said I needed to make this bowl. And I have. It's pictured above and I'm calling it Lexi's Dream. Now we shall see how closely it actually resembles the one she envisioned in her dream. I will be giving this to her later this week and I'll give you an update on her thoughts about it.

As a result of this work, I had an alternative idea for another bowl of transparents in the same color family as this bowl. It's currently in the kiln for its final firing and I will be posting a picture of it sometime this week.

Isn't interesting how ideas and life co-mingle at times, creating such fun twists and turns in our growth?

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

Featured Artist at Top Artists' Directory

I am so happy to announce that I have been chosen as the Featured Artist this week at Top Artists' Directory. I am truly honored.

Stay tuned, I am working on some new fused bowls and will be sharing pictures of them in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, please visit Top Artists' Directory as I think you will agree, there is a lot of talent there....consider joining too! Thanks.

Have a great week of creativity. Aspire to be more as an artist and person.

Artist Interview with Daniel Krucoff

I have some great news to share.... Dan is a Featured Artist at Whopple.com. You can read the interview here and see some of his latest photographs from our trip to Estes too. I think it provides some interesting insights into his approach to photography, along with his inspirations. Hope you enjoy.

Teaching My First Class

Last month, Lexi and Pat asked me to teach a class at Coyote Creek. They love my wire wrapping and wanted to offer an advanced wire wrapping class to those students who had taken the beginning wire wrapping class that Pat teaches. I agreed and this past weekend I had 5 students at the studio in Coyote Creek located in Fairplay, Colorado.

This was the first time I've ever taught a class and I wanted to provide some tips and tricks that you generally receive when you attend a class. For me, that is one of the real benefits of a class when the teacher shares things that you can't find in books or online. I believe I was able to accomplish that for this class. Some of what I shared were those lessons we learn when we make mistakes...hoping to help them avoid those!

The drive from Colorado Springs to Fairplay is a pretty one and one of my favorite parts was the crossing over Wilkerson Pass. The panorama of the mountains covered with snow as you come over that pass is stunning. It just takes my breath away. At one point there was a hot air balloon taking off and that made for a lovely scene. I only had my little digital camera with me and I just couldn't do justice to what I was seeing, so no pictures to post here.

We completed one pendant and there were a number of "Ah Ha" moments throughout the class. It ran longer than I anticipated and I feel bad about that. I underestimated a few things and if/when I teach another class, I know what I can do to prevent some of the "time eating" exercises. I guess that's somewhat normal, you learn what to do for class preparation and planning from each class you teach. The setting is dynamic and with this being my first time to teach, I didn't anticipate some of the situations that arose.

I put together my first step by step tutorial for them to follow as we completed the lesson. Dan took pictures of me putting together a piece and I wanted them to have something to refer back to after the class. Each pendant had the spin of the person completing it and they were a fun group.

While my focus isn't on wire wrapping as much any more, I am more than happy to share with others who want to learn. As I was leaving, one of them asked me to teach another class and I've heard some rumblings that others are interested too. We shall see. Given the approach of winter, I think a safer bet will be a class later in the spring months.

I learned something from them too and it was a worth while experience for me.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.