Garden delights

Spring has eased into summer and the garden is in bloom and producing a few edibles.  The steady supply of strawberries are yielding to raspberries.

The bead studio has been cleaned and activated, but only a few sessions have resulted so far.  As usual, it is blues and greens that are chosen first for warming up.

The cats and spring flowers are featured here.

salt and pepper cats outside the kitchen

volunteer flowers springing from the walk

Mo guarding the porch

I noticed one shrub had badly eaten leaves, the poor plant looked like Swiss cheese.  While examining the plant I saw a leaf cutter bee in action.  They are solitary bees so I hope with plenty of water and fertilizer the plant can stay ahead of the bee.  Check the above link to Wikipedia for an article on the bees with a photo.

leaf cutter bee damage

Snuggly cats

What a yawn!

The cats are enjoying the lovely spring weather we are having and have been extra affectionate and snuggle up with me every chance they get.  Here is Mo caught in the middle of a yawn and the pair of them snoozing by a shady window.

Double snooze by the window

The spring flowers are blooming, the vegetable garden has a good start; altogether it’s a wonderful time of year.

Mo looked pretty surprised when he saw me evicting a stray tomcat, but we will all appreciate having that foul smelling, bad tempered freeloader gone for good.

Playing with fire

Bead making season is underway at last.  The optimum temperature range for  lamp working glass is between 65 and 80 degrees F, below that range and the glass is too chilled to melt properly, and above that range the artist tends to melt.

Spring and warmer weather arrived long ago but playing in the garden won out, the lawn needed mowing and the vegetable garden had to be planted.  Now with summer here I can finally make time for playing with fire.

Below are a few photos of bead making in progress:  you wrap an initial core of glass onto the steel rod and marver that into a cylinder, then add additional colors on top.  Here I am using a technique to capture a small bubble of air by making a dent in the glass with a sharp steel tool, and then covering the dent with clear glass.

Seattle has a new glass museum, the Chihuly Glasshouse and garden will be an inspiring place to visit.

adding molten glass to the bead

poking dents into the glass

cooling the bead away from the flame

Blue with hints of spring green

Seafoam blues with hints of green

The Vernal Equinox arrives, and today’s creation features three Aura Sun Arts beads strung with a range of blues and hints of green.

The handmade beads feature my favorite blue and gold glimmers, and tiny air bubbles encased in clear glass.  I add the air bubbles by making a mesh of glass strings and encasing over that.  Many glass artists view air bubbles as mistakes, but I find them to be really fun.  When you spin the bead the bubbles look like tiny planets in orbit.

Click on the photo for a closer look.  This one is 24 inches and needs no clasp.  It has already gone to a good home, but a similar creation might cost $95.00.