YARD, GARDEN & PATIO SHOW 2010

Well, the weekend was intense, and tiring, but a good time was had by all. Plus which, I managed not to buy out every nursery in the place, contenting myself with just eight bulbs, passing up even the yellow pine and the hellebores. Let me tell you, that was the hardest part of the entire show. (Well, except for the pieces of art I coveted, not least the creations of my booth mate!)

Here are photos of our booth:





What I want: The stained glass streamers, the bowling ball with the wire and bead "fountain" (which sold, but Megan Klepp, the artist, says I know where to find her), and that orange swirly bowling ball seen in the last photo. And yes, I did say bowling ball, although I don't think I'd score very high using it! But I smile just at the thought of its sparkling out in the yard.

I do wish I'd gotten a better picture of Megan's bird bath. It is the Taj Mahal of its kind, and 100% awesome and wonderful.

Going to Mama's in the morning, and to bed now!

CHINA BLOSSOMS IN JANUARY

It's very early in the year for me to be making China Blossoms, but there are two new, early, shows for me this year. So here I am, making them inside, whereas normally I'd be making them outside. It's a bit different, and my living room floor has a brand new look.

Not sure what the dog thinks of it all, except that she normally sits on that bit of rug you see in the corner. The big front window comes all the way to the floor, and she watches all the neighborhood goings-on from there.

Here's an unusual one, made special for the Say it with heART! Show:


You probably didn't notice one way or the other, but the China Blossoms in that top photo are sitting flat on the floor. That's because they're in the first stage, where I glue the pretty parts together.

While they dry, I cut the copper tubing, mash one end of it, and then weld the tube to big fender washers. I got sixty-five of those done this afternoon, and thought they looked really cool all lined up:



After that step, they go to the wire wheel, and get buffed up a bit, and then they're glued to the backs of the China Blossoms. That's done, too, so I'm feeling very productive right about now.

MORE BLOSSOMS, & A NEW LANDSCAPE

I have been working my everlovin' butt off (you should pardon the expression), but to good effect. DH has, too. There's something oddly cozy about knowing we're both toiling away, both at home, albeit in different locations, me out front, and Bob in the central yard. (Should I explain that? Our "back" yard is actually shared by four homes, so we think of it as the central yard.)

Bob has been wanting to level the yard ever since we bought this place, nine years ago. It's lumpy, and has a downward slope from west to east. He decided this was the year to finally undertake the project.

He started by building a low wall, and putting in a sort of entry, comprised of two pedestals. He's ready now to till up the existing grass, put in fill dirt, and then sod the lawn. Turns out sodding it will not be nearly as expensive as we'd expected, and his past experience with seeding a new lawn has left him reluctant to go that route again--whole lotta weeds, and a splatter of spindly, sickly grass seems to have been the result of that effort.

Pictures of the project in process:





In the meantime, I've been making Mega- and China- Blossoms in the carport out front. It started out looking like this:

Of course, making the Blossoms actually entails bringing out every single piece of glass I've collected over the weeks and months, because as simple as they appear to be, each of them seems to require more experimentation and arranging than you'd ever imagine, especially with the Mega Blossoms. With those, proportion is as much in play as color, or even more so, and while I might think I have exactly the right piece to go with another one, more often than not, it doesn't look quite right and I have to try something else.



But oh, I do love that moment when I look at a glass composition and it's Perfect, so perfect that nothing else even comes close.

Below are a few of the China Blossoms I got done, or almost done, anyway. I still have to do the back pieces for them. Trip to the hardware store tomorrow, to buy a coil of copper, then.




I'm a little surprised not to have photos in the camera of the new Mega Blossoms. That's another task for tomorrow.

In the recent past, as in over the weekend: Two shows, and a class reunion. I was so tired last night, I hit the mattress at the unheard of hour of 7:30, and didn't get up until nearly twelve hours later!
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WHAT (SOME OF) MY WORKSPACE LOOKS LIKE

Someone on Etsy posted a Forums thread asking to see people's workspaces. Well, she inspired me to do an actual blog about it.

Before I post the photos, though, I have to say they show only two spots I'm known to use. To my husbands continual dismay, I am almost literally everywhere with my work. The only rooms I haven't used yet are the bathroom and utility room. I'm working on trying to contain myself, but sometimes I just think it's hopeless. I mean, I can't sew in my shop, and the dining room's the logical spot for packaging, and that ping pong table in my offfice is such a nice, big, flat surface....

And I'm ADD. I don't know why, but it seems to mean I get way too spread out, and my work areas get more and more cluttered. sigh.




My Official Shop





Drill, baby, drill!





China Blossoms in the yard

TOOL HEAVEN

I'm having a hard time deciding which of my two new tools has me more blissed out. One of them is new only in the sense that it now "lives" in my shop. The other is going to be old news to a lot of people, but my oh my, do I love it!

Here's the first:



Spot Welder

Now, is that sweet sweet sweet, or what?!

Yeah. I know. That probably isn't a reaction I'm going to get, but this is what I use to weld the backs of my China Blossoms, and for years the spot welder has been located about five miles from home, in the garage of a friend. If I wanted to make the China Blossom backs, I had to make sure my friend was home, and drive over, and sometimes inconvenience him.

It is sheer, pure, bliss to know I can walk out to my shop and throw together fifty, or ten, or a hundred backs, or even just one, anytime the notion takes me. If you were here right now, you'd be hearing a very happy sigh.

Probably, more people will be able to identify with me on the second tool. It's one I noticed several years ago, but I'd look at it and think, That couldn't possibly work as well as the package says it will. pfft. Scissors have been around for hundreds of years, and everybody knows they work just fine.

Well, I was wandering around Joann Fabrics the other day with a 40% off coupon in my hand, and no pressing need for anything to spend it on, sooooo...I bought this:



Rotary Cutting Kit

I brought it home and set it in a chair by the dining table, and left it there for a couple of days. After all, it wasn't going to work worth beans, right? I don't know why I even bought that, I'd think. But after a couple of days, curiosity got the best of me and I opened the package.
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Blatant digression: I just realized "curiosity" is a word made by adding "sity" to "curio". Huh. Had never looked at it like that before. And now that I do, DH thinks I'm a tad crazy.
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So anyway, I opened the package, put the cutting mat on the floor, read the directions on the cutter, which were easy as falling asleep after Thanksgiving dinner, picked up a fabric scrap, and...

It worked! It really worked!

What a great tool this is:



The Dritz rotary cutter itself, and a pinking blade from Olfa

By the way, this is what happens when you get your photos from the net, instead of taking them yourself. The blade does not, in fact, dwarf the cutting tool. They're, like, out of proportion, you know?

I got the pinking blade at Michael's the next day. The cutter is a Dritz, and the blade is an Olfa, but the manufacturers seem to have done the intelligent thing and standardized the blades, so you can mix and match.

A couple of details now: There's a safety feature on the cutter, a cover that keeps the blade's edge so it isn't exposed until you press the cover's rim against something solid. Also, when you aren't using the tool, you can lock the cover, so you don't accidentally press it, and the now-exposed blade against something you'll regret, like maybe your hand.

Using it is as easy as it looks. Place the fabric on the mat and smooth it down. For a good, straight, cut put the ruler on top and just draw or push the wheel along it's edge.

Wow. This is going to make creating my new fabric gift bags so much easier!

Funny, too. I was enthusing to my Mom about the cutter, and she said, "Yeah. That's what your Aunt Jewel used, to cut the strips for those rugs she made. Your Uncle Walt would sit at the table with the cutter and cut all the strips Jewel needed." And I never knew that. It gives me a fresh, cozy image of Uncle Walt and Auntie Jewel, two people I already adored.

Coming soon: Actual photos of the new gift bags. I'm really proud and excited about them.

TODAY'S MEGA BLOSSOMS

Do you ever just have to make something, in spite of the fact that you're supposed to be doing chores and errands and other mundane things? I plead guilty. I was busy with other things, but dang! The china and glass on that table next to the deck just kept calling my name. Every time I walked by, there it was, sparkling in the sunlight, gleaming with color or crystal clarity.

And on top of that, it's been raining at night the past few nights, taking me by surprise. Now those dishes needed to be rinsed, and what better way to do that than by turning on the hose and splashing them with cold sprays, and oh, just incidentally, cooling my feet, and stealth watering just a little patch of grass?

So I did a few, just a few, and now I'm posting pictures of two or three of them. Observe:




































None of them are shown on their stems because I haven't attached the stem holder assembly yet. Tomorrow, and then they're completely finished.

MAKING CHINA BLOSSOMS

I made a bunch of China Blossoms the other day, and it hit me that I'd never taken any pictures of the process, so this time I did.

The procedure is this:

Cover whatever large surface is available with as many saucers or other small dishes or glassware as it will hold.
Bring out the votive holders, ashtrays, little dishes, small glasses, little bud vases, etc., that have been gathered over the past weeks or months, and put one, or sometimes two, in the center of each dish.

Change your mind eight times about which center piece goes with which saucer.

Then change it again.

When you've finally got it figured out (whew!) glue the pieces down.



Two tables full


On this day, I worked outside. It was pleasant to be in the yard, and the warmth of the sun made the glue I use set up faster. That's good, because this step also entails coming back to the table every few minutes to see what has slid off-center, and sliding it back into place.

The glue is not secret. I use E6000, which is the best I've found, after many trials, but takes quite a while to set up. You don't have a reliable bond for at least 24 hours, but once you've got it, there doesn't appear to be anything that will separate your glued pieces from each other.




Showing some of them close-up


Even when you think you're done with this part, you might not be. I added to some of the ones shown above, a colorful flat marble here and there, or some other oddment, often completes the flower.




Couple of Favorites



While the China Blossoms were drying, I took myself into my shop and set up my itty bitty chop saw, to cut the copper tubing. It gets cut into lengths, crimped flat on one end, and then I take it to a friend's house, where I do a combination of welding and soldering to complete the back assembly. We're working on getting the spot welder set up at my place, so I don't have to go away from home to do this.





Set up to cut the tubing




A completed back, which holds the China Blossom stem



The last step happens the next day (remember the 24 hour glue set-up time). I turn the China Blossoms on their faces, and glue the backs on. Some of them have to be set on bowls, because they aren't flat on the front. Sometimes the center piece has managed to slide off-center, in spite of my vigilance. Those I hold up and turn until they look like the piece is centered, then place the back accordingly. It's an optical illusion thing. After that, it's just a matter of sliding the stem holders back into place when they slide away from where I've put them. (I have a mechanical engineer friend who says they slide because, basically, a glob of glue constitutes a little hill. Anything set atop that hill is going to slide down it, until either the glue is sticky enough to hold it in place, or the hills has flattened itself out. Knowing that, I now aim for a flatter hill to begin with!)



And that's how you make a China Blossom!

NEW FROM THE CHINA BLOSSOM GARDEN

It's amazing to me how many people will walk up to this


China Blossoms

and say, "Oh, look! She makes those little cup and saucer bird feeders." That just kind of leaves me shaking my head, because a: There aren't any cups, and b: These are flowers, held vertically on a stem, and won't hold anything. How is that going to work?

But I also began to think, Well, maybe they're seeing bird feeders because they want bird feeders, and not just because they expect them.

That kind of thinking can be dangerous, because it can lead to new ideas and then you have to act on them, and before you know it you're out in your shop making something you've never made before. Like flowers that can convert to bird feeders:


China Birdfeeders

Now, there are good reasons not to make the little bird feeders. First of all, around here it rains a lot, and these don't have covers, so after a rain shower, the bird seed can be kind of nasty. Second, if you're making a bird feeder, you have to use something in the center of the saucer that will actually hold something, and I like to mix it up, creating flowers of whatever looks good and ignoring functionality. Third, we also get freezing weather here, and any time you have an item made of layers of glass, it's going to hold rainwater, possibly in little crevices between the pieces. When the water freezes, it will expand, and if it's in one of those crevices, your garden art will be a shattered piece of garden junk.

This permutation, I think, takes care of all of that. I'll keep making China Blossoms that aren't anything else, and add these. In the summer, they can be set horizontally and hold water or seed for birds, or a votive candle to make a little fairy light outside. In the winter, when you still want to see something pretty in the garden, but don't want to risk breakage, you can leave them out, but set them on their stems vertically, so they won't hold water.

I'm pretty pleased with myself. And watching my little puppy sniff at the dress that just came from eBay. I'm curious, too: Will it fit? It came just in time for the 94 degree weather we're expecting this weekend, short, sleeveless, and black and white polka dots. Yay!