Pacific Market Center

Seattle Gift Show!

It's the place to be this week!

Come See What the Northwest Creates!

See you in Seattle!



Seattle Gift Show ~

It's time for the Seattle Gift Show!

Please visit me at the

Tuura Artists/Taku Graphics Showroom.

Pacific Market Center #147

6100 4th Avenue South

Seattle, Washington.

I'll be hanging out with the fabulous

 Kathy Tuura who rep's my work in Seattle & the Pacific Northwest.

I have some new work, old favorites & samples to sell.

I've created a new series of sushi platters

that highlight popular sites.

~ Anchorage ~

~ Denali National Park ~

~ Seattle Skyline ~

This is an iron oxide process on white & clear art glass.

It's a cool process that can be transferred with almost any image.

It's honey bee harvest time so I'm thinking next up is

a few fall images with my beloved honey bees.



Exploring Seward Alaska ~

Last week we had family visiting so we took a little trip to Seward, Alaska.

We stayed at Miller's Landing which is at the end of the road,

past the downtown area, right on the beach.

We rented this little cabin for the family &

we stayed in next door in our Aliner.

Love our little cozy Aliner!

My Sweet William at the harbor.

Playing with the kelp on the beach!

Beautiful Resurrection Bay.

My sister & I.  Can you tell we're related?

Polymer Clay Artist ~ Karen Ottenbreit

A month ago while participating at the

Alaska Bead & Gem Show

my booth was next to artist Karen Ottenbreit.

She's an amazing polymer clay artist!

At the end of the show she gifted me one of these beautiful glasses.

It's a generous sized glass with polymer clay embellishments

& swarovski crystals.

It looks too pretty to use however

 Karen said they are very durable~

even dishwasher safe!

I had a little dinner party & the guest of honor

was served iced tea in this glass.

Everyone loved it  & wanted to use the special, sparkly, glass!

I guess I know what to get friends for holiday gifts!

 Check out her web site & blog!

www.http://fishlipsandbirdteeth.com/

Glass Boxes ~!

Another class I was able to participate in while at the

Glass Expo  in Vegas was "Making Glass Boxes" with

Karen Carey of Custom Stained Glass.

Karen & her husband, Tim, own a glass shop

in Southgate, Michigan.

They offer a full range of glass, supplies & classes.

They are very popular teachers at the Glass Expo

& the first offering of this class filled up immediately!!

I was on the wait list & emailed the organizer & said

I'd take a class anytime if they were willing to teach 

a second class.

Because they are such generous souls

(and probably had the screws put to them by the promoter)

they did offer another class & I was lucky enough to participate.

Karen is the originator of this technique.

It's beautiful, unusual & the possibilities are endless.

These boxes are made with stained glass.

The only color that Karen said doesn't work well is green.

Notice what color I picked!?!?

I can't help myself ~ green is one of my favorite colors.

If they'd had orange glass I'd have picked that color ~ it's my favorite over green.

Orange probably explodes.

For whatever reason, green glass doesn't adhere.

I was slowest in the class because I was

literally watching the glue dry!

I'm very curious about that so next time I'm laying on the beach

& have nothing to do I'm going to goggle it & do some research.

Anyway...what do you think about my first

"Glass Box" ala Karen Carney design?

Thank you Karen & Tim!!

I loved the class & hope to see you at the next Expo!

Equipment & Strippers ~

While at the Glass Expo in Vegas

I bought some new equipment.

One of the things I have wanted for years is a

really good quality circle cutter.

I have a couple of small lens cutters but they only

expand to about 6 inches & the cutting is so-so.

Monorail makes a beautiful circle cutter!

I'm a bit of a tool junkie, I admit it & I've looked at this

particular tool in past years but had a hard time justifying the >$200 price tag.

This year, I decided to treat myself ~

plus it was free shipping!!

My husband thinks I'm one of few woman who

love to get tools for gifts ~

Nice drill with extra batteries ~ love it!

Carharts for the shop ~ love it!

New set of socket wrenches ~ love it!

Saw blades ~ love it!

(Sorry this picture is sideways ~ I formatted the correct orientation & when it uploads it turns vertical.  UGH!)

So, this long narrow box arrives in the mail.

I like to play a little game where I guess what's in the box

before I open it so I glanced at the return address & saw the word

STRIPPERS.....

UHHHHH?????  What??

Even my postal carrier was intrigued & asked me what I ordered?

She had a little smirk on her face & I knew she was thinking it

was something of a personal nature.

But......you were wrong "Queen."

Yes, my mail carriers name is "Queen."

Anyway, it was my new circle cutter from MONORAIL ~
The full company name is DK MONORAIL STRIPPERS?

WHO KNEW?

Here it is all assembled!

I'm loving my new deluxe tool!

Heavy weight, well made & sure to last a lifetime!

Thanks Monorail!

Peter McGrain ~ Glass Artist & Accordion Player

One of the classes I participated in while at the

Glass Expo was a glass painting class with Peter McGrain.

This is technique is described as

Vitri-fus'alle: a word made-up by Peter.

This technique incorporates fusing with traditional

glass painting used to embellish stained glass.

Think of the beautiful stained glass in European churches

and that's the influence & look created...with a modern twist!

(here are Peter's hands working on the light table.  I have more

pictures of him but he didn't answer my email for permission

to show them here so it's only his hands for now....)

Traditional glass painting uses the methods of

tracing and matting.  These are layers upon layers of

painted tints that are built up & then removed to create the

shading & highlights in the figures.

Here's my humble study via Peter McGrain.

Peter recommends using System 96 glass ~

I've been considering switching over to 96 vs 90 due to a variety

of issues so maybe this will clinch my decision.

I'm excited to play with this technique & see

where it goes.  Have lots of ideas rumbling around in my head.

Thanks Peter for an inspiring & fun class!

During the class I also found out that Peter is an accordion player!
I knew I liked him!