Sunshine!

Dang, that ol' alarm clock rang way too soon this morning, but wait.....what is THAT?  I don't believe it!  It's early morning sunshine, streaming through our windows. 

Now for some of you, this may seem like no big deal, right?  For us, living right on the coast, we often get heavy marine layer all through May and June, and sometimes most of the summer.  We call it "May Gray" and "June Gloom."  Well, it had even been extending into July....until this morning.  Ah, it was glorious!

Unfortunately, I had to go to work and be indoors.  But as soon as my work day ended, I drove home, got my daughter, and we headed to the local garden center and picked out some plants for the new planter my hubby made over the weekend.

Zinnias

White Impatience and Lobelia

See the little wooden snake?

Under the Avo tree

There's just something about waking up to sunshine that motivates me!  I hope our summer has officially begun, and that we get a lot more sunny days, than not.

My Little Chickadee....

I was so happy to be doing glass again. I'd found a sweet little pattern of a chickadee on a branch, with a few flowers and leaves. It was a small pattern, roughly 8-inches diameter, and I'd had it for a long time, I'd just never seen it in the same light before. Patterns are like that for me, and I almost always have to change them up a bit. But this one, it didn't need any enhancing in my opinion.

Picking out the glass took longer than it should have, but I finally found the perfect colors. I barely had enough of the color I wanted for the flower petals, but managed to squeak them all out. I was so happy with it, all cut out on my light-box. I got all the pieces wrapped with the copper foil, then covered it with Saran-wrap, since I didn't want it laying out in the open to oxidize, and God only knows when I'd get the opportunity to solder it.

Life is just busier for me now -- I swear I could use at least three of me to do all that I want to do in a week. Anyway, day after day, weekend after weekend passed, and my poor little chickadee just laid there, waiting to be brought to life.

One day, after working all day at my day job, I came home, determined to solder the little bird together. Gathered all the materials, heated up the soldering iron, got all the pieces secured together with push-pins so as not to move during the process. Got a few tack welds in place, then the phone rang......then it rang again.....ok, just stop answering the phone for a while. FINALLY, I held the piece up to the light and I swear..... that little bird chirped at me! Tomorrow, I would get the outer lead around it and give it the finishing touches.

Well, I didn't have the kind of lead I wanted to use, so daughter , who was going to be in the area of the stained-glass store, agreed to stop in and get me some. She brought home exactly what I thought I wanted, but it was a little larger/thicker than I'd used before, especially on a piece that small. Got it measured out and from the first tack solder, it went down-hill from there. Don't ask me why, but it was as if I couldn't do anything right. I ended up with a huge mess! I turned off the iron, washed it thoroughly to remove the flux, etc, and turned out the light. Grrr.....that was a complete waste of time, not to mention materials.

The next time I ventured in there, it was simply to remove the outer lead. However, since I had soldered it to the piece pretty thoroughly, it was NOT easy, and I broke two pieces in the process. I was about ready to see how well the little Chickadee could fly, but honestly, I had already bonded with him. I gently and lovingly removed the broken pieces, cleaned the surrounding edges of glass so I could re-foil them, cleaned all the remaining glass very carefully, and I am now ready to re-cut and make it right.

This is the original piece before being soldered and destroyed, ha ha.

Stay tuned for the finished product, which, when ready, I will upload a picture to ETSY. Well....providing I can part with him, that is.

It's Official

Wow, I can now claim to be an Etsy Seller! Out of the blue came an e-mail from Etsy that I had sold a piece, my little sunflower sun-catcher. You see, I uploaded my three items to Etsy back in mid-September, and if you are familiar with how Etsy does it, when you first up-load, your pieces are at the beginning of the listings. Then as others upload pictures of their items, yours gets bumped further and further back into the lists. This was roughly three months ago that I had uploaded, so imagine how far back my little sunflower was! My buyer must have been specifically looking for a sunflower for her to find it.

Since it was my first sale, I was rather nervous to ensure that my pay-pal account had indeed received the funds. After double checking everything, including what I had stated under my terms of the sale, I proceeded to get it ready for shipping. It was to be a Christmas gift, so I did not want to delay.

OK, I do tend to be a perfectionist, I'll admit. Hmmm...that solder line could be a tad-bit smoother, and the copper-patina could be a bit brighter, so of course I had to do ALL that before it met with my satisfaction. Did the final polishing, had my husband snap a quick picture, and wrapped it so thoroughly an elephant could probably step on the package and have it hold up. :)

Even so, I sent it insured, just in case.

I tell you, when it was all said and done, I may have profited a whopping few bucks. But hey, that's really OK, because after all, I now have a "sale" on my Etsy page. Here's hoping to have much more time this coming new year to really work at this art that I absolutely love.