Glass Flowers

A few weeks ago I got to try my hand at glass sculpting. I bought a coupon for a class at Tulsa Glassblowing Studio making glass flowers. After some minor delays in getting our class scheduled, my friend Amanda and I went and learned the basics of working with glass.

My flower, loved the colors.

Working with the liquid glass was interesting, you dip some out of a large kiln with a long metal rod. For the glass (which has the consistency of honey) to keep its shape you keep turning it and reheating it often since the glass tries to solidify as it cools.

With flowers you start out rolling the glass into a fat stem-like shape, although it looks more like a fat sausage at that point. The colored glass is a bunch of small shards in separate bins. You roll the glass in the color for the stem, add more glass from the kiln, then smash the new glass straight down into the color for the petals. After that you use a jack (like giant tweezers) to pull the glass out in the petal shapes. Our instructor finished the flowers by letting the stem stretch and twist before breaking the flower off the pole.

Amanda's flower, thought it would be perfect for her office.

The process was very cool, but I could tell it would take a lot of practice to be able to control how the piece turns out. Amanda and I chose different colors, but even the shapes turned out completely different. And looking at the flowers on display in the studio I didn't see any that were alike.

The studio does demonstrations during the monthly First Friday Art Crawl in the Tulsa Brady Arts District (where they are located), which is fascinating. When we went for our class Amanda and I convinced our instructor to show off a bit to give us an idea of how to use the tools we didn't need for glass flowers. He made a clear glass vase which was pretty cool. But during the First Friday demonstration I saw they were working on a couple of pieces that were a lot more complex, requiring multiple people to create. 

My flower on display.

In addition to glass flowers the studio offers other beginner classes where you can make anything from a paperweight to a Christmas ornament or flowers like we made. They also sell vases, bowls, jewelry and other items made in the studio.

I'd love to go back and make ornaments around Christmas time. I'm thinking about suggesting it as a group event to my book club, but I need to research the cost for a class without the coupon and see if there is a limit to how many people can come. My guess is that there is since the studio isn't large and they have to provide and instructor.

I managed to get a few pictures of us making our flowers. Check them out below!

Me watching the instructor stretch my flower's stem.

Heating the glass after adding color.

Rolling the stem in color.

We had to make a cut in the glass
for where the stem would break off the rod.

Using the jack to pull out petals.

Stretching the stem on Amanda's flower.
There's a very short window to do this before the glass hardens.

Our instructor making a vase.

Amanda checking out the shop items.

The Big Bad Pig Is Gone!

Well, the boar head that's hung in my spare room for ages is finally gone!

My brother Burns recently started a new job in Montana and is moving into his first place. He's been gathering all the things that you need when you start out on your own, including art and decorations. 

Since Spencer still isn't somewhere that he can hang art he told Burns he could have the boar temporarily for his new place.

I've been trying to get rid of that ugly thing for almost two years! Half the people who come over to stay are terrified of sleeping in the same room and although it didn't bother me it also wasn't the style I was going for.

Since my grandmother is going through her things and gradually getting rid of stuff I asked if I could take one of Granddaddy's paintings for my house. I hung the one I chose in the place where the boar head was previously.

My granddaddy painted for years, mostly with oils and we have a variety of landscapes and other paintings that he made. This one was a landscape he painted of West Texas.

Artist: B. Wallace McDowell

Rock Garden

I've shared before about the awesome fort I have in my backyard. Unfortunately there always seem to be weeds that grow underneath it in an area I can't get the mower. So I started brainstorming ways that I could utilize that space and prevent it from becoming overgrown. Since the whole area is shaded by trees and the fort only very hardy plants (like weeds) will grow, so it needed to be something I wouldn't need to try to keep alive. I settled on a rock garden.

Fun Fact: The year I moved in the uncle of one of my neighbor's kids offered to buy the fort from me. He would have come over to tear it down and moved it to their yard. I just wasn't sure how much to ask for it and couldn't decide if I wanted to lose my fort. This was right after he chased their pet rabbit through my and two other neighbors' yards.

The first step was to clear out all the weeds from beneath the fort. I did that and covered the whole area with landscape fabric to prevent them from growing back. Then I went shopping!

I chose to go to Lowe's to see what landscape rock they had available. My dad gave me a medium sized sandstone rock to put in the garden so I wanted something that would go well with sandstone. I had also purchased a ceramic owl from Pier One back in May for the project. Eventually I'll need to find other sculpture to add.

My dad has dozens of sandstone rocks of varying sizes. The day before my 16th birthday party we had someone out to work on the sewage system and they dug up almost the entire yard--unearthing tons of those sandstone rocks. We used a lot of them in the landscaping at Dad's, but he had plenty to spare.

I settled on lava rock (despite Dad saying he thinks lava rock looks awful). I felt it would go well with my yard since I have the red brick house and reddish stepping stones. My only other option in that color family was a pea gravel with mixed color stones.

I bought eight bags of lava rock, Lowe's had a few bags available at half price since the bags were busted. There was nothing wrong with the rock and I got a deal! I started dumping the rock into the wood frame of the fort and used a rake to distribute the rocks evenly. Despite using the rake I still managed to make a wreck of my fingernails during this process. If I had gone with the pea gravel it probably wouldn't have been a problem, but lava rocks are very rough.

Once I dumped all the bags in and raked them evenly I was pretty happy with the result! I will need to buy about four more bags to fill in that back section and maybe one more for the main section to fill it in a little more, but overall I think it looks great!

As I mentioned I'll need to find a few more sculpture items for the space, I'm considering getting a couple of those glass globes in fun colors and maybe something in iron that has a little height. I may also hang a bird feeder or something from the bottom of the fort's floor. I'm so excited about how much easier this will be to maintain though!

Just Hangin'

I've been trying to reorganize my cabinets so that I can make space for all the stuff I brought back from my gramma's house--mainly her standing mixer (circa 1970).

One of the things taking up a lot of cabinet space in my laundry room was the tabletop ironing board that I use once every five years or so. It is too wide to push flat against the back of the cabinets so it was hogging up half the space in the laundry room cabinets.

In a moment of brilliance I decided to hang it on the wall instead of storing it in the cabinet. Why not? The fabric cover has a pretty pattern and it isn't so heavy that it needs more than a couple nails. Plus it's more easily accessible on the wall than it was in the cabinet, who knows maybe I'll actually iron stuff more often now! Of course, I'll need to stick to clothing I don't care much about since I'm notoriously bad at ironing. I wouldn't want to burn a hole in anything like I did my high school graduation gown.

My laundry room has been one of those rooms that hasn't received much TLC since I moved in. I don't spend much time in there, but I'm trying to make it a more welcoming space. With that goal in mind I've been clearing out clutter, reorganizing storage and adding art to the walls.

I went to a painting class with my friend Karen recently and we painted owls (the theme for the night). I initially thought my sister might want the painting for her dorm room, but apparently owls are "creepy". So I hung it in my laundry room instead since I think my owls turned out pretty cute.

Here's a close up of my painting, it's hard to make out the detail in a photo. I used the paint to create a lot of texture.

I've considered painting the laundry room a brighter color, like a sunny yellow or soft orange. Of course, someday I would like to add a second bathroom to my house by moving the washer/dryer hookups to the opposite corner of the room and adding a toilet, sink and shower to the other half of the room (with a wall to divide the bathroom from the laundry). For now that project is out of my price range. And I'm not even sure if it is feasible space-wise.

In addition to sprucing up my laundry room I've been working on getting my spare bedroom fixed up. Since my brother moved out I haven't done much with it, but now I'd like to create a cohesive look for the room (without spending a fortune). I'll be sure to update you on my progress!

Photography: A Unique Display

The space needed art that was smaller and horizontal.

So I've focused several posts on my bathroom in the past few months. By now you are probably able to glance at the images with the green paint and automatically classify the posts as bathroom updates. Everything from an overview of the complete makeover to short updates. My latest update is something I'm so happy with.

Before

I've thought the space over the toilet needed some artwork for a while, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. Then I found a coupon on Living Social for Fracture. The coupon offered $40 credit on their website for only $20. Basically you choose any photo and upload it to their site, then you choose a size and whether you want a border. The image is printed directly on the glass and prepared to either hang or set on a table. Then they ship your order directly to you.

I'm thrilled with my purchase, I chose several floral images that my college roomie took and added a white border to unify the images. Then I hung them up in the space. Making sure they were hung evenly was probably the most difficult part. The only frustrating part is that you hang the images with a screw which tore larger holes in the wall than a nail would.

After

I have one more image that I ordered, I still need to decide where I'll hang it. But if you're looking for a creative way to display some of your photography you should check out Fracture!