Portland en Bleu

I haven't posted any new work lately, but this one made me really happy, so I am bothering. Glass scraps from a friend's fused glass class, windshield glass, errant jewelry, broken chandelier bits on silver pigment painted found wood. This one is on display@ my work, as someone bought it, and I wanted time with is before she comes to pick it up.

Pâte de Verre Skull

I took a class to make a glass sugar skull, using the pâte de verre technique: packing molds with frit, kiln fired. I didn't particularly enjoy the rushed class, and it was after a particularly arduous work day, but I love the final product. This is not a found art piece.

These were to be Dia de los Muertos painted sugar skulls, but they didn't give us much time, nor the greatest of tools, to do the detail work. Alas, especially in painting, I am a perfectionist, so, after washing my mold out twice, I chose to use a color instead of white. Cotton candy pink, of course. The teeth don't show in the photos, but are there. See the side view to note how thin this is, the lacy edge, the nearly transparent eye sockets.
It was fun to try something different, and I really enjoyed magpie-ing the scraps outside, which have already made an appearance in the last piece I posted. The color in the 2nd and 3rd photo are almost exact.

This will become a larger piece, in memory of my sister, who died when we were children.

"C'est seulement pour toujours, peu de temps du tout"

"It's only forever
Not long at all"-- Bowie/Labyrinth

Glass. Plastic.Gold/silver/electric blue/Black and white cocktail dish from the '50s
the close up silver field has gold backed glass and blue windshield glass breaking it up, single cube style.

24" x 24"
(originally added wrong image)

Tattooed by Life

The FuturePast style. Is it old? Is it new? Is it sacred? (yes)

Copper foil accented with gold pigment painted glass. I like the juxtaposition of the shine/matte.
Sculpy Scarab in Art-Deco style @ center with halo of vintage and fresh water pearls. On found, round wood piece.

I changed my mind (a mermaid piece)

I changed my mind. I made this for the newly married couple, and it belongs to them. I will get to spend a long weekend staring at it, and give it to them on Tuesday. (*if you are reading this for the first time, I originally called this post 'conundrum', and was being selfish and wanted to keep this for myself.)

Shells, white coral, freshwater seed/rice/round pearls, a few vintage faux pearls,  pre-ban antique red coral, windshield glass, silver foil on gold painted found wood piece. 5" x 8"

Butterfly

Just a blue sky with a butterfly.
Found wood with gouges. Blue windshield glass gilded with silver/gold foil. Monet gold tone/rhinestone butterfly brooch (broken).

Thanks to whomever thought this pretty enough to post on FB; hello strangers: look around-- there is lots of great found glass collage work here.

Roses, because it is (almost) winter

Cigar box. Paper roses on outside and inside of lid, inside" collage of glass, broken jewelry, metal,  wood, buttons, keys, chandelier bits and other found objects inside.

The oxidation of foil on glass is fascinating-- lower left rectangular chandelier piece: a Blue Valentine in my rose garden.

Future Past Series #1

Silver foil gilded blue windshield glass, silver filigree skeleton key, on silver pigment painted found wood.
Simplicity can be so wonderfully intricate and intense.

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."--Oscar Wilde

Between the Bars

Josephine Apartment series with mesh, broken jewelery, glass of all sorts (found), metal, plastic. The gold pigment, which the wood is painted with, is closer to the outside photos than the indoor. Some repairs had to be made, so the pieces do differ, slightly, from indoor to outdoor.

coup de grâce

Final finished piece from the "Josephine Apartments" series. There are at least 2 more part of this series, one begun before leaving, one created post. At least 2 are not yet on the blog, so, a total of 11 pieces.

Blue Note Cigar box

Cigar box with many items.

Hope/Promise

It's the hope/promise of the first flower to poke its brave head through the snow.

12" x 12"
frosted pink scalloped Tiffany depression glass
Bus shelter glass
safety glass
stained glass scraps
silver foil

Watchworks

New work with metal mesh, clock bits, butterfly looking glass, trimet bus shelter glass, windshield glass, silver and gold foiled, silver pigment, chandelier bits, broken jewelry.

mirror mirror

Home with dear C.

Somewhere in Time (2013)

Glass/watch parts/skeletal brooch, wire, foil in a cigar box.

The queen aint no bitch...

Mixed glass, mixed foils, some plastic bits, and a queen from a glass chess set. I like this.
* the title is taken from this scene from The Wire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S1HUlTKvDUI

Documentation: thanks for the information

A piece being documented during creation; "...if it's worth the going, it's worth the ride". Roughly 7.5 inches x 10 inch wood, painted red w acrylic, painted with gilding adhesive:

Once this dries,  a layer of silver foil over the adhesive. Pieces of glass, as well as garnets from a broken bracelet and pieces from a ca 1920s chandelier painted with adhesive and foiled.

Glass from trimet bus shelters, windows, etc, painted with adhesive and gilded in silver:

Pieces begin to go together:

(turns out this is upside down, but I did not realize it until later)

up close, turned right side up, just the silver part- red is still exposed @ edges.

mores pieces added. Still a lot of work left.

*******************************************************8

Started working with long, 1mm sticks of glass, making radiant lines and adding a different type of movement.

Now, it is finished, save repainting the red border. I never would have guessed I would have kept the red border, but I was taking the color on as an issue. The border is wider, but the glue and foil residue are really irritating me, so I cropped them out. The final piece will be photographed and posted. Documenting my process is really tiresome; no wonder I have never bothered!  These photos also prove that my work just does not photograph well--the depth and the facets are lost, and it seems to capture anything negative and magnifies.

Noble Rot building piece

This piece is on the corner of SE 11th and Burnside. 6ft tall x 4.5 ft wide. Gilded glass on wood painted with gold pigment.

almost

I am not sure if this is finished, but I like the monochromatic industrial look of it right now. At first, I was concerned by my subdued palette, but I ended up really loving it.

The close up shots are of a plate that was my paternal great grandmother's. During the original Great Depression, plates and cups were given away with oatmeal. Beautiful white glass, opaque in places, raised floral designs, see through lines. So elegant to the modern eye, but considered a "freebie" at the time. Alas, they are also very fragile, and this one did not make a move. With gold leaf gilding it, the reaction behind the glass reminds me of moss.

Also contains a large metal nut, found outside of my work on a walk to get away, glass from bus shelters, silver foil, some beads, and a 1930s faux ivory piece. Various metal bits, chandelier glass, buttons, pearls, rhinestones. On found wood from one of the dozen or so cookie cutter apartment buildings going up on my street. One, I found out with this morning, blocks out most of my
ability to see the mountains and sunsets from my front yard. Ah, gentrification!

in medias res

This piece is going to take a while. The centre is a piece of wrought iron fence I found on one of my walks. Curving out from the metal is blue windshield glass gilded in silver, opaque white glass, pearls (vintage and fresh water), gold pigment and gold foiled clear glass. This, of course, is unfinished, but feels special enough to share.