Stained Glass Window for a Green House

birthday present stained glass panel

Not just any green house a lovely wooden bespoke Grow House for the surprise Birthday present of the client’s wife. I

Stained glass panel with tomato, aubergine and pepper

completed this stained glass commission several weeks ago now and I have just received the photos of it in its new home. Thankfully it fits perfectly and I think it looks very handsome!

The brief was to create a window full of vegetables and to include the words ‘Lisa’s Grow House’ and the piece was to have a fun light hearted feel. Hopefully I pulled it off and I used a mixture of Spectrum and mouth blown Polish glass. I painted in the details and wording with kiln fired glass paints and  it is constructed using traditional leading methods.

This was my first vegetable based piece; who knows if it will be my last!  Please watch the slide show below to watch it go from drawing to finished piece 

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Beautiful day for installing a wishing tree!

Installed my entry to this year’s TRAIL sculpture trail along the Teignmouth sea front in South Devon today. My children have helped me with it from the start and we have had great time making it from old chicken wire (a recycled previous sculpture), used wine corks, old material and jewellery recycled from  unsaleable donations to local charity shops. Many thanks to my friends and their families who have been saving me wine corks for months!

The idea behind the tree came from a real tree I saw whilst on honeymoon in Cyprus that was festooned with ribbons, rags, trinkets and tiny paper prayers which had been hung on the tree as prayers for the dead and sick.  The tree was striking, otherworldly and a bit magical and the image stayed with me and has finally bubbled out as a sculpture!

I invite passers by to come and collect a ribbon of material from the supply on the site and tie them to a tree whilst making a wish for someone or the future. I like the idea of the public being able to be involved with and to alter the sculpture, hopefully lots of them will want to join in! Lots of people got involved this morning while we were putting it up, I hope people enjoy it. Its in the shape of a palm tree as the local landmark tree is the Torquay Palm.

TRAIL is a free recycled sculpture trail that runs along Teignmouth Seafront for the summer holidays and the rule is that it must be made from recycled materials. All kinds of people take part from international artists to local schools and disabled groups. This may well be the last year of TRAIL as it has not received any funding this year and as it is a free walking trail there is no revenue unfortunately! My next post will be all about the other artists work, but its been a long day, so for now so long!

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Little me in a lovely big exhibition!

I dived into the private view of Gloss Gallery’s new exhibition Coast and Country as I am exhibiting with them! It was heaving with people, which was an excellent start to the show, thankfully a couple of my artist friends arrived so I had some friendly faces to talk to as I am an awful net worker! The gallery staff have done a really good job of curating it and its a great exhibition with loads of very diverse West Country talent, all of them far better known than me! Please pop in and have a look if you are passing that way.

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2 months is a long time in blog land!

Wow, my last post was 2 months ago! Where has the time gone?

Some of it has been taken up with joining the writing team at UKHandmade where I am now writing the craft profiles section, which is proving to be great fun, though I hope my outpourings wont be too sporadic for them!

I have also taken on another voluntary role, by joining the board of the Devon Artist Network and its great to be involved with an organisation

which has helped me so much in the last couple of years (I received a bursary from them last year).

Things in the world of glass have been moving on nicely too! I have been furiously making boat mobiles and my other recycled seaside wares for Inspirations in Salcombe and Atelier in Barnstaple, who have put in their big summer orders. Summer is a really busy time for me as so much of my work is in galleries by the sea and the summer holidays are galloping towards us now!

A gorgeous local chain of shops Insideout  came to see me and I am working towards a launch type event with them at the end of the month, including some new designs just for them!

All my plans and activity stopped last weekend, our eldest daughter had a virus which made her very poorly and she ended up in hospital, thankfully only for a day. This experience made me especially glad that my work is part of the Devon Artist Network’s  Art and Health Programme at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital . This initiative allows artists to display work to brighten up the corridors and waiting rooms of the local hospital, hopefully bringing a small distraction to the time spent waiting for appointments or news of loved ones.

Baby bird is recovering well and thankfully self employment means I could drop everything to be with my children….but if you dont work you dont get paid! So I have been doing what I can in the house whilst she sleeps and the younger monkey is at nursery and thankfully I managed to deliver all my planned pieces today (which really was the last minute) for  Gloss Gallery Summer Show: Coast and Country which opens Thursday 19th July. Phew!

Now its onto the next project, my submission for the annual recycled sculpture trail in Teignmouth which starts next week, but I have only just started constructing! I was lucky enough to win this a couple of years ago and its a highlight of my working year;  so I have been assembling junk to turn into my new sculpture….more on that soon but for now I need to get back to making it!