A proud mamma...

For all you kids out there, nothing makes us parents happier than having our children ASK to do something special with us.  I'm a glass artist - my son asked to make something out of stained glass.  It's the perfect recipe for happiness!

And I'm proud of him - he did a great job.  We were short on time so I helped out, but he gets a lot of credit, especially for initiative.  If you're interested in seeing step-by-step photos of the project with captions, visit my professional site (link on the right).

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's that time of year again - just as I start to slim down, it's time to get fat again... or at least, to enjoy a LOT of turkey.  Well, I'm happy to show off a turkey that I made that isn't at all fattening, just lots of fun to make and a pretty addition to our traditional holiday table!

I'm so excited....

Hi there!  Everything seems to be taking off at once - new students, new writing, lots of sales and, best of all, new friends!  This Saturday I'll be hosting Yael from PazzaPazza, a wonderfully talented textile artist from "up north." Of course, almost everywhere in Israel is UP NORTH from us, since we're near Beer Sheva.  I'm really looking forward to her visit.

Are you an artist in Israel? An artist from somewhere else but visiting in Israel?  Let's do some networking - email me at cec235@hotmail.com and let's make a date!  Romantics need not apply (I'm taken, taken, taken!!) but creatives who love to shmooz about materials, techniques, supplies, inspiration are very welcome. 

Eternal Flame

I'm showing off my newest commission for a synagogue in Nahariya, which is on the northern border of Israel.

This is a NER TAMID, or Eternal Flame, which will "burn" (with the help of a small light bulb) in their temple in memory of family and friends who have passed away. The finished lamp is 20 cms tall by 15 cms wide and square. The back and sides are made with mirror, slightly angled to increase the light shining through the stained glass flame, which will face the worshipers.

Thank you, Sue, for ordering this!

Magical Stained Glass Carpet?

You can't walk on it - and it doesn't fly - but it does make a nice hanging. Here is my latest project, which we installed in the home of a very nice family in Jerusalem yesterday. (and yes, I would think they were nice even if they didn't like glass art!)

The combination of 3 panels has more than 300 pieces, about 260 of which are in the outer border. The center panels have a lot of mirror which reflects the family portraits displayed on the opposite wall.

The piece was created specifically for this niche and the design was a joint effort between myself and the client (posing below with her new glass art). The design details were all worked out by email (lots of email), and I hope that the home owners are as pleased with the results as I am!

A special thanks to David, my beloved, for not only driving me back and forth but for standing on the ladder and holding everything in place - exactly in place - as I added the clips and screws that hold this wonder to the wall. Transporting it was nerve-wracking because of the shape (very breakable) .

And Delphi makes 5

I've done it, what I said I wouldn't do again - I've opened another store on the Internet. What's really different about this one is that you can list things that you don't want to sell. Things that you just want to show off.


My new shop - http://www.delphiglass.com/store/glassandlight


If you sign up for Delphi (which is a great glass supply store, by the way....) you can vote for your favorite creations. I don't know that winning means anything, or even if they'll let us know if anyone voted for us. I think that most of the people who visit the site are still glass artists. But for those of you who are not glass artists but love glass art, now is the time to visit!

Old Copper Foil - can it be saved?

A fellow artist recently queried me on how long I keep copper foil, specifically, if old copper foil be used. It seems her supplier had told her that after a certain period it should be thrown out.


This got me thinking about how many strange things people - people who should know better - tell us glass artists. I don't think they deliberately mislead us, I think they are passing on to us what they heard, and didn't question. Kinda like the average internet myth. My first instructor told me that to apply patina, I should leave my piece soaking in a bucket of patina over night. (Correct use: wipe it on with a cotton ball, let it sit for 10-20 minutes, and then wash it off.) My neighbor's teacher forgot to tell her that when planning her window insert, she should include a margin for the lead border. When her insert didn't fit, she was told that there was no way to repair it without completely dismantling it. She took it apart, and lost heart in her project. 2 years later, she still has no window insert. (Correct info: even after you have soldered it together, you can remove the lead border on one side, carefully measure and cut the piece, and reapply the lead border.)

So, in respose to the question about copper foil, I don't throw out old copper foil. I even save all the little bits left over from rolls, sometimes using them years later. If there are spots that have green fuzzy stuff growing on them, I throw that part out. But if it's just tarnished, the flux should clean it up as you prepare your work. To give your copper foil a longer life (and prevent those darling green fuzzys) keep it in a plastic bag like a ziplock. And don't handle your foil when your hands are wet or might have chemicals, like flux on them.

Do you have a question? I might be able to help - email me!

My New Website!!

I'm so excited - I'm moving my website to a new platform and it is READY. You can visit it at http://www.glassandlight.blogspot.com/

The lines are much cleaner than my previous site, and it will be easier to update. I'll post news about my new items there while still keeping THIS blog up-close-and-personal, the real, weird me!!

Shop Israel, shop... me?

Thank you, Made for You, for adding me as featured artist in your blog!

http://madeforyoublog.blogspot.com/ - click on Shop Israel in the menu on the left.

For those of you unfamiliar with Made for You's blog, the moderator picks out artists and puts in a bit of a bio + items from their Etsy stores. I'm honored to be there, and I'm happy to recommend to my visitors to view her eclectic yet charming collection of artists from around the world!

The Color of Prayer

In the western world we're used to the idea of seeing stained glass in churches. People even sing about them. But in Israel, for many generations, most synagogues were small, poor and without much decoration. Fortunately, glass art, particularly stained glass, is becoming more popular and I've been privileged to create glass art for 2 synagogues.

My first commission was for a family who wanted matching, but not identical, panels to commemorate 2 family members who had fallen in the wars. (One panel is shown above). I'm not sure there was any aspect of this project that wasn't challenging! They were - and remain - the largest pieces I have ever made, each about 2 meters across. Designing them was tricky - the client had a very definite idea of what he wanted - and changed his mind 4 times. In the middle of the project he changed the size, which required that I recut some of the pieces. I didn't have any place to easily store the larger pieces, and once accidentally stabbed myself in the leg with a particularly pointy piece. (I still have a scar). I didn't have a work table large enough so pieced and soldered the panels on the floor of my display room, with the door locked so that no one could enter and trip over me or step on my work-in-progress. Transporting them was the worst - we had to find a vehicle with a long cab and I prayed all the way to the framer that we wouldn't hit a pothole. Prayer was probably appropriate since they were eventually hung on a synagogue wall.

The second synagogue commission couldn't have been more different. The clients wanted windows depicting the Jewish holidays and holy days, gave me bare bones of design requirements and left the rest up to me. They ordered the windows in sets, as they gathered donations, and over the course of 2 years ordered 12 windows. The biggest challenge was creating so many windows over such a long period that looked as if they belonged together.

There is something undeniably pleasurable for me in making windows and then seeing them installed with the light streaming through, be it for private homes or public places. From design to installation, I think the toughest part is always delivering the windows. I'm always terrified that they will somehow be broken on the trip (they never are.) I'm afraid the clients won't like them (they always do). And I always wonder if I'll see them again, and if their new owners will enjoy having them as much as I enjoyed making them.

It's so easy to.... break the law!

Curiosity - that was my main feeling when I opened up one of my emails today. I wasn't even sure it was a real email but it didn't look suspicious, just odd.

Curiosity was swiftly followed by incredulity, that OMG feeling. I was reading a notice that I had broken Swiss law. Fortunately, it didn't look like anyone was on their way to arrest me.

So how did I, a basically law-abiding citizen (hey, I don't even download music!) become an international criminal?

Background
I'm in Israel. Some of my products are stained glass and fused glass pendants. I string them on a simple silver chain that I purchase from someone else. She doesn't make them, she purchases huge quantities from someone else. It's a regular food chain, and we're all happy.

Recently a very nice woman from Switzerland purchased one of my stained glass pendants from JesterJewelry, one of my Etsy stores. I shipped it to her in a small jewelry box, in a small bubble mailer, with a receipt inside. Apparently this packet was stopped in customs. The chain, just for the record, is worth about $2.

The Problem
As I learned today, imports of anything made from precious metal are restricted in Switzerland. The pendant wasn't a problem. The value wasn't a problem. The $2 chain was a BIG problem. Because I didn't have a clear RM - Responsibility Mark, the equivalent of a precious metal import permit, I think - I broke the law. It doesn't matter that it was just a chain, or that I didn't make the chain, or even that this was the very first time I've had a sale to Switzerland.

The Customs lawyer sent me a longish manual for using RM's (it's not enough just to have an RM, you have to apply other notifications to it, depending on what you are sending) and encouraged me to apply for a permit or face having all future "shipments" rejected if they contain a chain. I don't know if it's hard, or expensive, to receive an RM, but I can tell you that fulfilling the requirements for marking up the items is very complicated. I know, because I read the manual.

The Lesson
I see myself with several choices - I can apply for an RM that I might never need, I can send the pendants without chains or with leather cord replacements, or I can refuse to sell to clients in Switzerland. No matter how I look at it, it's a pain in the butt.

Afternote
I wrote up the story with a bit more technical detail for the Etsy business forum. Fellow sellers are very sympathetic, and I do appreciate that. It doesn't help me regarding the business at hand, but it's nice to know that other artists stand by me. And that they didn't know about the Swiss law, because I would have felt really dumb if everyone knew about it but me.

Do you need a copy of the Swiss import specifications for precious metals? If so, contact me through the blog with your email and I'll post it to you.

Ammonite Madness

Ammonites were sea creatures that floated in our world's oceans about 75 million years ago, give or take 25 million years. They were mostly around during the Jurassic period, along with good ol' T-Rex.

Today ammonite fossils can be found in many countries. Some have set them aside as a protected resource (for example, Israel) while others allow them to be harvested and sold (for example, Madagascar).

I love putting ammonites into my work for a very showy accent. I buy them halved and polished to show off their chambers. You can use ammonites, too, if you remember some simple guidelines:


Tips for glass artists

Be sure to buy from a respectable seller, or you might be buying something that was illegally harvested. You don't want to encourage crime.

If you're planning on edging your fossil with copper foil, use raw or polished ammonites. All the opalescent ammonites I purchased cracked when I applied solder.

• When planning your design, remember that you'll want to put the ammonite in from the back, flat side down, so it will be flush with the front of your work.

Fishy, Fishy, in the Sea....

I love making glass fish. And I'm happy to say that they are easier to make than one would think (am I giving away a craft secret here?), at least the simple ones. I base my design on the important, evolutionary premise that

FISH DON'T HAVE LIPS

Yes, for all you fish bead lovers out there, those cute little fishes with the gorgeous fins, the bright colors, and the LIPS... they're not anatomically correct. They are cute, I agree.

And I'm not saying that my fish are perfectly shaped, either. My colors certainly are not like the real thing. But I have a problem with fish lips.

Tips for glass artists:

• Glass fish beads are useful for more than necklaces - you can string a copper or silver wire through them and solder the beads into your stained glass work. They also make nice dangles or decorative tails for suncatchers.


• If you're creating a glass fish and you want it (him, her?) to have a decorative tail, decorate half the bead before you start sculpting it. One of the first steps in making a fish is flattening your round bead, which is done after this decoration. Just be sure to flatten the bead so that the flattened part on the left side of the mandrel is plain, and the flattened part of the right side of the mandrel is decorated. You'll pull that decorated side into a tail, and shape the plain side into the fish head.
  
• If you start with a hollow bead, your fish will be a bit lighter.

The Golden Glow of Dichro

Us fusers love using glass with dichroic coating (commonly known as dichro). Dichro is created by bombarding plates of glass with metal ions until an ultra-thin layer of metal is created on the glass surface. (Don't try this at home, folks). When the glass is moved, the angle of light changes, and the color shifts. We're not talking about dark blue to light blue, but orange to purple, blue to gold, etc. Dramatic color shifts.

Specialists who create dichro ramble on about reflected light and absorbed light. That's more technical than I can understand. I do know that when I fuse the glass, the metal melts and cools at a different rate than the glass, so the metal spreads out a bit and stands up, giving my piece the amazing illusion of 3D depth. It also heightens the color shifts.

Dichro can also be used "as-is"in stained glass, as in the panel on the right, Leaves in Her Hair. In this case there is no melting so no depth, but the color shifts are still very dramatic (as you can see) and there is an interesting metallic sheen on the glass pieces.

Tips for glass artists:

• always cut dichroic from the back. Even so, when you grind, expect some chipping of the dichro layer, so be gentle with the grinder!
• If you want to use dichro in lampworking, cut your scraps into thin strips and handle the with tweezers. Heat them slowly in the coolest part of the flame and do your best not to put the flame directly on the dichro coating, only on the back!
• an excellent source of scrap dichro: http://www.dichro-wonderglass.com/ . When you buy scraps you let them know if you need thick or thin (buy thick for stained glass, thin for fusing and lampworking), black or clear back, or specific COE's. These guys give great service!

Let you hair down... or pin it up, as you prefer!

Hair clips - can you really ever have enough? Well, I suppose if you are as bald as Yule Brenner, even one is too much.

But for those of us with long locks, barrettes can be a fashion statement, even for the over-5 set. (That's over 5 years old, not over 5 feet tall.) I might not notice if my tennis shoes have small holes in the toes (I'll probably notice but not worry too much about it - after all, are you looking at my feet? No! Don't look!) but I'll take some time to pick out a clip that looks good with my clothes. I think that's what girls with fashion sense are supposed to do. My fashion sense is that inner voice that says "put on clean underwear in case you're hit by a truck!" and "don't wear that, it's missing too many buttons." Other than that, I'm a pretty casual dresser - and these clips look great with casual clothes.

I create all my hair clips using metal clips and art glass. Sometimes I thrown in other goodies like precious stones or crystal dangles. Then I post them in Jester Jewelry for sale.

Are you holding on to some glass with sentimental value? I bet you're wondering what do with it. You're in luck! You can commission a hair clip with it from me, too, like Penny from UK did. She collects sea glass and had me put some into a clip for her. You don't need much for a clip, and it's a lovely and original way to wear your special glass. (Photo is not of Penny's clip, sorry)

Seeing Stars....

Yes, I do windows. And that's not my response to the Global Recession (better known as GR..., brought to us by way of that big state of Texas...). I hate cleaning windows. I love making windows.

For a while I was a full time artist, but with this GR thing I've gone back to working for someone else at least part time. (Yes, boss, I love you and I appreciate my job. I promise).

So today I'm bringing you one of my new window panels. These are installed in my house, in the entrance. Unfortunately it's not a place that gets a lot of light but they are colorful and I love them. Like all my glass art, these are OOAK (that's one-of-a-kind for you non-eBAY folks) and eventually there will be 6. Currently, top panel is a Star of David and the second panel is our house number (no, I'm not dsylexic - you're seeing it from the inside).

The next panel made will be a GOAT, in honor of our love of goats and my eldest son's job as a goatherd.

Wa-wa-wee-wah - What a FIND!

My glass addiction sends me outdoors compulsively searching for little bits of Roman glass - glass that some poor fool dropped 2,000 years ago and never bothered to clean up. At least, that's how I imagine some of it gets there. I never collect from archaeological sites but you can hike fields and hills and forests in Israel and often just find this stuff laying around. Which is unbelievable. (Hint - walk into the sun and look for something shiny). What is really unbelievable is that I can infect other people with this compulsion and we all clamber over rocks and through gullies with our eyes glued to the ground as if we are contemplating a major concern of the planet. Or as if we've lost a contact lens. It's a miracle that we haven't walked into trees or off cliffs while doing this.

So there we were, David and I, having a nice conversation while returning from such a hike, (OK, he was trying to convince me to take on a huge project that would gobble up my life for the next 20 years; it's the kind of project you could only consider for love, and could only take on if you are independently wealthy, which I'm not) and I, while walking down the perimeter road of our village - the one that 2 joggers had just run down and that I had walked up with David just that morning - I noticed THIS!!!

Since it's only about 1/2 inch in diameter, and I'm over 5 feet tall and don't have the eyes of an eagle, I didn't actually see it the way you're seeing it now. But I did see that it didn't look natural. I spend a lot of time picking at things that don't look natural but are natural, as you might guess. I once even picked up some squished deer poo, which is pretty natural from close up. And the first thing I noticed about this is that it wasn't glass. But I was only dissapointed for a second - I think the entire region must have heard my screech. I think David may have feared for a moment that I'd stepped on a snake....

I've sent photos of this for identification but my best guess at the moment is Roman. A lot of those guys and gals posed for their portrait coins with decorative hair pieces and togas, while facing to the right. Although I've searched, I haven't found anything like the back of the coin (not posted here), so I'm not sure exactly what I've got but, by golly, I AM EXCITED!!

Sunny Days in Israel

While we do need the rain - desperately - we're having glorious sunny days here in Israel and I'm enjoying them. To help you all enjoy your sun (and I hope you have a least some sun every day) I'm posting a new suncatcher or two in my Etsy store - and a photo here in my blog.

This particular suncatcher has a piece of raw rose quartz in the center. For those of you who follow crystals, I've heard that rose quartz promotes love and harmony in the home.

Wishing us all pleasant, sunny days and rainy nights - we do need that rain - I"m heading out to the garden.....

I promised, and here it is!

Yesterday I wrote all about my new box - I photographed it this morning and am posting a photo of it. Read yesterday's blog for the description!

A word about boxes.... glass boxes, of course!

I love making stained glass boxes, and just finished up a new one today. I don't have photos of it yet so I'm posting photos of a boxes from last year that I also love. Every box I make is special - they're often created as personal commissions, with a unique design based on input from my clients. Sometimes people have me sandwich invitations, photos or poems between glass in the lid or base.

The box I finished today has a wooden floor, cut from a wine crate, clear sides and tops and a really cool design in the lid with a lot of smooth curves. The lid has 2 doors that open from the center. I did it in clear glass so we can see the winery's logo burned into the wood. I treated it all with a nice copper patina.

After I finish a box, I shred the pattern in my handy-dandy office shredder. Not only does this guarantee that I'll never make an identical box but it also provides me with filler when I package my art for shipping!