The Wedding Gift

I have started a new project -- a rather traditional type panel as a wedding gift.  I poured through all my pattern books, which is quite typical of me.  My daughter likes to tease me about this quirk of mine..... I have a need to look through every single pattern book I own before I can decide. Yes, it hit me when I saw it, that it was just what I was looking for!  It's a pattern by Ed Sibbett, Jr., from his Ornamental Flower Stained Glass Pattern Book.  Both my daughter and my daughter-in-law told me, at different times mind you, that it reminded them of the Beauty And The Beast rose.  It wasn't planned, but yes the bride is a real beauty. Her husband-to-be, though, is not beastly by any means, lol, but I hope they will like it. 

The design is a single stemmed rose with leaves, inside a heart, which is framed by smaller squares, which make up a 14" square.   Hard to describe -- you'll just have to have a look for yourself!

 Of course, I also had to research the meanings of every rose color known to man!  Hmmm....a white rose signifies purity and honor, so much a part of wedding cermonies, and red roses, well, we all know they signify  l-o-v-e and p-a-s-s-i-o-n!!  Well, love & passion won, so I've chosen two reds for the flower, but I am just not certain how it will look once the light shines through it.  One is a deep, translucent, darker shade of Spectrum's red Artique.  I LOVE this type of glass, the way the little variances in it catch the light.  The other is a red wispy, also by Spectrum, but it has a look of light falling onto the petals, although it's a bit heavier looking.  I've been mindful of how a real rose might look, with a bit of sun-light on it.  I will need to lay it all out on my light-box to see if the two shades work together ok.

I've chosen single glue-chip for the glass surrounding the rose that forms the heart-shape.  This will help the rose stand out more, but will perhaps give it a somewhat more romantic, old-fashioned look.  This glass is usually good for backgrounds, and what I really like is that it is very pretty, and super easy to cut! 

For the square shapes surrounding the heart, I remain undecided.  Tentatively, I have pulled out some clear textured iridescent glass from my stock that would give a little sparkle to it, but I am just not sure.  I may want something a bit heavier, with more color here.  I think a trip to the glass shop this Friday is in order.  Plus, I only have one shade of green for the leaves, and I always like to mix my greens when possible. As you can see, I really don't need much of an excuse to visit the glass shop!!

The funny thing about all this is, I have glass on order (also expected to be delivered on Friday)  for this very project, but I just decided to begin with what I had on hand to see if I might like it.  So far, I do!  The glass I have on order that I originally envisioned for the rose is Peppermint Pink Baroque, which is a very beautiful, textured, swirly glass, with lots of movement.  I admit, I wanted to try and combine the red & white color meanings of the roses.  ♥

Unless I am totally thrilled with the first one, I may build two of these, both different, and give the one I like best as the wedding gift.  Perhaps the other will end up in my ETSY shop.  I'll be sure and post pics when I have them ready.

Red Dragon....Fly

I had a lot of fun with this project.  It's very simple, not too many pieces, and I had it cut out rather quickly.  The only problem was trying to decide the colors!

I knew I wanted to use a glass nugget for the head, so that, of course, narrowed it down to the colors I had on hand.  Red was the last one I considered, and when I placed it next to the other colors, I loved it!

But a RED dragonfly?

Why not?

I cut the wings out first, and barely, just barely had enough of the wing glass.  These pictures don't do it justice, but the wings are iridescent.



The background glass is blue/green water glass, one of my favorites!

I had it ready for soldering for some time, then finally got that done, and it took me another couple of weeks to get the border around it.  Thank goodness for colder, windy days, like today.

Delirious.....Not!

I've been battling a flu-bug for the past five days, three of which I was pretty much out for the count.  I didn't set foot out of my house for the first two days, and on the third, I only ventured out to the mail box and even that tuckered me out. You know, the stuffy nose, headache, fever, and chills kind of flu, where you're best off just going to bed, which I had to.  What was kind of strange, it seemed, is that the weather kind of reflected the way I felt.  Cold and shivery, gray, gloomy, thunder, torrential rain at times, and hail!  It was quite violent at times, raging, just like my fever, at 102.2!

This morning, day five, I stumbled out of bed, bleary-eyed, and made my way into the bathroom.  Imagine my delight as I squinted, yes, squinted out the window and saw the bright, brilliant sunlight, blue sky, and SNOW on the hills behind our little coastal town.   No, I wasn't delirious....Wow!  What a sight.

Husband Rey had already been up for a while and had a fresh pot of coffee waiting.  After I finished running around and gawking out every window that faced the hills, I settled down to enjoy a cup, and we decided that, yes, we were both feeling well enough (he'd also been a victim of that flu-bug) to take the dogs out for a much needed walk. 

We got ourselves ready and there was no way I was going to leave the house without my camera.  I changed out my usual lens for my zoom lens and polarizing filter.  The dogs were so excited to be going, and my poor Hannah kept having to wait for me to capture one shot after another..... 

We headed out for the walk we call our Short Loop, heading down our main street here in town, past the local State Park, toward the beach, go several blocks over, then back up another, cross the railroad tracks, then home.  We varied a bit from that today, we were so drawn to the beauty of it all.

Every time we get a good storm, there is a little drainage area that fills up and flows through the park, and the birds usually all flock to it, hungry for all that it offers them.

The ocean is just over that sand berm.  They build these up to protect the apartments and nearby housing from the high surf this time of year.  Lessons learned from the past...

Hannah, Blue, and Rey were very patient with me today......♥

As we walked the beach toward the point, I found this unexpected treasure, just waiting to be photographed.  I don't usually see them on the beach like this unbroken.  I left it there, for the next person who would hopefully enjoy it's beauty.

The water just sparkled with all the beautiful sun light!

It was a beautiful walk, but we both realized it was probably too far too soon.  We are both still recovering after all..... but it was just so rejuvenating, making me feel much more alive than I'd felt in days, maybe even weeks!  Before I got sick, I had been using the treadmill instead of getting outside to enjoy it all.

Heading home, we noticed even the dogs were panting and tired, but had that fulfilled look on their faces.

There is nothing like a walk in all this beauty to remind me of all I have to be thankful for. And now that I am on the mend, perhaps I can get out there that much more! 

I like nothing about being sick, but I do love a good storm, providing it doesn't wear out it's welcome!  This one left a nice, beautiful reason to get out and enjoy nature at it's best.

♥