Art in the garden - glass totem

I've seen many of these glass garden sculptures or "garden totems" as they are called in local art fairs and I just had to create one of my own. Decided on a blue and green glass color scheme (favorite of mine).  A cobalt blue glass vase that I've had for years was the starting point.  

 

 

Some family and friends would be surprised to learn that I used some of my Coca-Cola glasses.  The bottle green color of the glasses works great with the overall piece.  

I purchased two small glass saucers and a green wine glass from a local thrift store (Goodwill) for under $2.00 total (gotta love that).  Thrift stores are great places to shop for glass sculptures like this.  All other items, including the glass gems and beads, I had around the house and/or studio.  

 

I used a tube Loctite clear silicone waterproof sealant to glue all of the glass pieces together.  I did this in stages in order to keep it stable.  Started by gluing the cobalt vase to a glass plate and let it dry overnight.  Then each day I added another piece ending up with a wineglass at top.

I really like the strands of glass beads and glass gems for extra bling.  

 Once it was done I let it set for 4 days to completely cure before I brought it outside.  I love how the sun sparkles on the glass.  The sculpture has becomes a focal point in the space.

 

Art in the garden - glass flower

I love how glass art looks in the garden.  I've seen these glass flowers at art shows and thought I'd try my hand at making some.  My tiny garden really doesn't have much room for more garden art but I thought I'd squeeze in another piece (or two) of garden art.

 

First I searched for small bowls or plates that could be stacked together to create a pleasing arrangement.  All of these pieces have similar color tones.   Most of these pieces came from my husbands grandparents.  The small glass cup is too small for a wine glass...maybe it was used for Sherry? I think the bowl on the bottom is actually an old glass cigarette dish!

I glued the pieces together using Loctite clear silicone waterproof sealant. This type of sealant comes in a small tube and must be used in a well ventilated area.  Open up those windows!

 

After the pieces were glued together I took an old spoon, flattened it, bent it, and then glued it to the back of the stack of dishes.

 

The flower part is done.  Now to work on the stem and leaves.  Fortunately my hubby doesn't mind shopping for art supplies IF it's at a hardware store.  He picked up a small piece of copper pipe and flexible copper tubing.   I bent the copper tubing into leaf shapes and my husband used a rivet gun to attach them to the copper pipe. We also crimped one end of the pipe to hold the flower.

 

After I put the newly created flower stem and leaves into the ground I just slipped the end of the spoon into the crimped end of the pipe.

 

Voila! My glass flower is now blooming in the garden

This is a great project to reuse old glass dishes that hold a special memory... or maybe didn't sell at that last rummage sale (lol).  I am working on another glass garden art project.  Stay tuned!



summer dreams...

our dreary weather lately sure has me craving for some sun and warm temps.  So I decided to take a break from my gardening work and retreat to the studio to see if I could infuse some summer into my day with some summer themed cards.

First I went through all my paper scraps and picked ones that make me think of summer.  I also grabbed some rubber stamps with a tropical/nautical theme. I rummaged thru many art supplies and picked out a few I haven't used in quite awhile: vellum paper, eyelets, and my crop-o-dile tool (for setting the eyelets).

I stamped the beach scene stamp on vellum using Archival black ink.  Then I turned it over and colored in the image using copic markers.

The copic markers flowed over the vellum paper and gave it a watercolored look (kinda hard to see in the photo).  Using eyelets, I adhered the vellum piece to a white piece of cardstock (which really made the image stand out) and then on colored cardstock and finally glued to a folded card base.

added some lettering and the card is finished.  I did the same thing with a lighthouse rubber stamp.

When coloring the sky I left blank areas as clouds. Everything was colored in on the back of the vellum.

I used eyelets and layered this image onto cardstock and then onto a folded card. 

So even though it's cool, cloudy (and starting to rain again) I have a bit of the tropics in my studio.  And I know a few people who will appreciate getting these summer inspired cards.