Full Plate on a Full Moon

 

Blown glass black cat and bright orange pumpkins created in the Studio.

Last evening as I walked outside with our dogs, I was privy to watch a very full moon rise on the horizon. I was wishing I had something other than my phone to take a clear picture of the bright round lunar mass. It literally lit up the whole sky. And on Halloween eve, it couldn't set the mood any better. I was out late in the evening after a very long day in the Studio, with a full plate of tasks to accomplish for the two of us.

A very full October moon last night on my walk with the dogs.

In between the many holiday orders already piling up, we managed to harvest the last of our garden goodies. The cantaloupes were nice and sweet this year, although on the small side.  We will be carving the pumpkins later today, just for tradition's sake. (And because the garden was so generous with the pumpkin patch this year.)

Last of the harvest from our garden, delicious, succulent canteloupes.

Russ spent many hours planning and working on the wall art project pictured below, trying to get it just right for our son and daughter-in-law. The colors were tough to choose, and many different styles were created before he felt good about the latest creation. It is all hand sculpted, blown glass. He also created the copper "stems" and painted them a matte black to compliment the decor in the bathroom area where it would be placed. It was a long time in the making, and given as a late house warming gift for their beautiful new home.

Up close picture of the latest wall art work. 

Cheery and bright blue floral art.

A nice addition to a beautiful bathroom. 

Now it is on to creating many different ornaments like the mountain goat pictured below, and the holiday rush that always happens in our Studio this time of year. It seems like we are getting many more online orders this year. Probably because more people feel more comfortable shopping in their home because of that dreadful Covid19. It is certainly keeping us hopping, even with months to go.

Mountain Goat Ornament

So I'm keeping the blog short and sweet, so I can get back at it. Many orders to ship, and pumpkins to carve. Happy Halloween! 

Our pumpkin patch gave us many "Great Pumpkins" this year. 

February was Fierce

February started out nice enough....we had quite a few snowstorms this month and played outside in the white powder with our furry friends. We also celebrated a couple of birthdays in the family, including our youngest grandson turning 1 earlier this month. But midway through the month we both came down hard with the Crud! It hit us something fierce! It especially hit Russ hard, so our annual Valentine rosebud lessons had to be rearranged until he got to feeling better. Today is the last day of the month and he's still not quite 100 percent. This is the first year I can remember whole school districts shutting down because of that nasty bug spreading all throughout our valley. I'm glad we are on the mend now.

Our 5th grandchild turned 1 year old this month.

 Before Russ got sick, he had time to create a few new fused projects, including the wall art below...a callalily scene for our daughter-in-law, who celebrated the big 30 year mark this month. He used stand-offs to hang it in her home. It took multiple firings in the big kiln.

Fused Callalilies ready to fire again in the big kiln.

Finished art work

A large order of blown glass hearts and many roses were also worked on and shipped out this month, in between each of us dealing with fevers and coughs and sniffles.

Another fused scene (pictured below) completed this month represented the many chickadees that come to our property in winter in search of food. It can also be used as wall art and is for sale in our Studio. 

 We had a request at the end of the month for these medallions to go along with a book that a local author had written. We were barely able to squeeze this order in, after dealing with the sickies for weeks on end!

A custom order of Star and Heart blown glass medallions

 Now that we have just about conquered the Crud, we are really looking forward to warmer weather and Spring flowers blooming, akin to our glass tulips pictured below. Believe me, we are so done with "Cabin Fever"!

Our Year's End

Visiting our family's old cabin in the mountains of Idaho.

Time for the last blog entry of 2017, as we are coming up to the last hours of the year. Always a time for reflection of what was. After all the chaos of the busy season in our Studio, our family ended the year right with a family vacation in and around Yellowstone Park. We enjoyed spending the last week of the year with our 4 sons and their families. During that time, so many memories came flooding back as we rode our snowmobiles past Russ' parent's old cabin nestled up in the mountains. It has long since been sold to someone outside of the family, but the happy times we shared in this magical place years ago, will live on in our hearts and minds forever. Sweet memories of the joy Russ' Mom spread around to each of us when we came to visit. It's been a hard year, having lost the lovely Matriarch of our family this past July. I was reminded of her lovely spirit as we passed by the cabin. I only hope to become half the woman she was, full of humility and unconditional love. We were lucky to include this quick jaunt down Memory Lane during our short vacation.

Meanwhile, during the month of December, we have been lucky to witness our mighty Buck returning from the nearby mountains to our very own Backyard again. He must know he has found safe haven here. Not much gets done when he wonders onto the property, as our eyes are transfixed on this majestic animal.

Our Buck has returned to our neighborhood again this year.

But we managed to redirect our focus to the tasks at hand in the Studio this month, and some of the results are pictured below. I hand engraved some slumped bottles, along with firing some decals on them with festive holiday designs and sayings. They were on display during our annual Open House the first part of December.

Up-cycled bottles display festive holiday themes.

Russ created some new wall art shown below, using a combination of float and soft glass. The moon and grass reeds were cut out of float glass, then slumped in the kiln. The frog and dragonflies were cut and pieced together, along with some glass saw work, then slumped and fused in multiple kiln firings. 

Slumped and fused Pondscape

Customers that came to our Open House requested new projects,  many of them shown below. We really enjoy new challenges poised to us by customers, they keep the creative juices flowing.

Marvin the Martian was made out of soft COE 90 glass, with enamel paint accents.

Soft and hard glass were combined for these names.

Cinderella's glass slipper ornament

A special request was made for this Lilac-Breasted Roller

Another customer requested one of these popular fused scenes on Birch wood.

We make a new glass ornament for our grand kids every year.

Float glass was cut and slumped into a fun snowman mold, then I applied enamel paint and baked them on in the kiln for the cookie tray pictured below. 

Snowman-themed cookie tray

And during our Open House earlier this month Jack Frost was on full display all throughout our neighborhood. We couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of  the stunning results of Nature's works. 

Jack Frost worked his magic in our yard, earlier in December.

And so ends another year of our own productive works. As one year closes and another is just about to begin, we hope you will stay tuned for the latest in our ever-evolving world of glass: Handcrafted and blown in our Idaho Studio. We want to thank all our customers once again, for your support. Many of you are responsible for us achieving another banner year of sales and success. Wishing you and yours all the best for 2018.