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Posted on May 4, 2017 by claytonhill

Donuts, stacks, cane & squishy faces …

IT-donut-pendantsLife is good!  I finished up a few new pendants … I like them!  The mica base is colorful and fun … Plus – I have 6 more in the works!  

Meanwhile, I continue with my murrini/cane madness … We did our green pull tonight.  I’ve got our next few stacks cut and ready to go, too.  I’m covering all of the colors of the rainbow – which means I need to work my way through a red stack – and successfully fire that sucker without making yards of ‘mud-cane’ … Fingers crossed!

orange-brown-stackbeige-brown-stackorange-stack

Here’s a picture of our recent murrine/cane pulls, in a beautiful mosaic photo presentation!  Winking smile

rainbow-murrini-in-progress

And, top it all off – I have squishy-faced beauties full of puppy-breath to keep me smiling!!  The babies are 4 wks old now – they are so much fun to play with and snuggle!

tawny-female-5-17mahog-male-4-wksmah-male-5-17

Next up – grocery shopping (Ugggh!) and reverse enamel painting (YAY!!)!

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Posted on April 28, 2017 by claytonhill

This week in review …

I’m prepping photos for reverse enamel painting, as all of my supplies have arrived!  Here is Ceasar and an older photo of ‘The Mongrels” ready to try:

ceasar-enamel    mongrel-enamel-image

We had our blue (navy) vit pull – I like the results.  Tonight we’ll be trying a yellow/gold pull … so yeah, I’m shooting for maize and blue murrini!  Winking smile

blue-pull-murriniyellow-gold-stack

Had dinner with the high school girls.  Always a good time catching up(!), and I almost feel bad for the people sitting around us … Oh, the stories we tell! 

I cut circles!  18 of them … turned them into round black discs, so that I can make donut pendants.  Here is the first trial with a mica coating on top.  She’s in the kiln now, so … we’ll see!

cutting-circlesmica-donut-cabmica-donut-prefire

I also have night lights and spoon rests in the works, along with some component pieces for jewelry tiles.  But that will be next week.  Time to get back to that vit pull … Have a great weekend!

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Posted on April 22, 2017 by claytonhill

Oh My Goodness …

I did it again!  Chalk it up to this time of year; a knee-jerk response to a bit of family drama; too many learning opportunities – or just an internet-shopping glass junkie spree … But I got my fix!  MmHmm!!!

I watched a reverse enamel painting tutorial … so, I have a fine collection of Fuse Master enamels on the way (to add to my ever growing collection!).  I hate that the FM packages are sent in dusty, leaky [drug paraphernalia type] baggies, so I purchased some glass jars to store them, all neat and pretty – and spill proof!  Thank you Amazon!

FM-enamels  glass jars

As I had already viewed a ‘glass bubbles’ tutorial, I made certain I was well stocked up for that project, too! (photos 2 & 3 = not my images)

bubbles-glassline bubbles-tutorial color bubbles

There’s a new project video coming out – and I was able to decipher a few key ingredients from the preview photos … and someone had a sale.  I know, right – it’s like KARMA!

So, I tucked those bad boys in my shopping cart, while I added to my ever growing list of planned vit cane/murrini to make … (Currently, I’m planning on covering the following colors with pulls:  Navy, orange, gold, red, green, brown and aqua … oh, and I’m trying to work my way through a coral/melon idea!)  Here’s the navy stack, currently – along with a few bits cut up for the other pull colors …

cane-navy  cane-pull-colors

Yep – glass junkie, for sure.  Now I need to get some sleep/go to the ‘day job’ to supply my habit!  Doh!!! Winking smile

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Posted on April 19, 2017 by claytonhill

Wowzers …

Couple of crummy cases at work, mixed in with some great patients and holiday-weekend volume left me feeling road-weary Monday morning … Just Wow!!!

So, I crashed hardetsy-calendar.  Spent a fair amount of energy plotting out my listings for the shop … Maybe I’m making it more complicated but … Wow!

Today, I took the time to take photos and create listings and sit at the computer until my eyes couldn’t focus … But, yeah (umm …WOW) – some cool stuff coming up!

20170418_132344  20170418_165400  20170418_16174020170414_072439 20170419_000457 20170418_142702

And then I played with puppies, while we weighed, wormed and documented our growth.  Awww … So, wowza – I’m a lucky girl!  Just look at those faces!!!

20170418_220856nap-time20170418_221237

Hope to squeeze in a trip to my local glass supplier and a vit pull (or two???) … Winking smile

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Posted on April 15, 2017 by claytonhill

Good, Fat & Happy!

A good appointment with our tax man means CHS gets to keep making cool stuff!  [Well, yeah, sure – AFTER a weekend of ER nursing fun!]

Our pups are growing by the minute!  Momma Xena is eating like a champ and her fat ‘lil piglets will be opening their eyes soon!

fat-pups-sleeping

So, I’m happy!  Had a vit pull last night (after officially closing the books on ‘the books’) … Shooting for a white/purple, which I think we hit!  Now, I just need a green, gold and orange cane pull … Oh, and another cream/white and red pull.  Shoot – a blue cane would work nicely too!  Time to get busy!

purple-pull

And – I like my ‘impressionist’ poppies … Now to decide what to do with them.

crackle-poppies-fired crackle-poppies

I’m also working on a crackle/luminescent experiment.  Hmm … we’ll see. 

april-experiments

Overall, I’m a happy girl – and I’m going to take tonight off and enjoy it with DH and the gang!

ceasarchloe-likes-watervictor-toy

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Posted on April 9, 2017 by claytonhill

It’s not all tax prep …

While DH and I are pushing to meet the deadline, sifting through papers and tallying columns … we’ve done a few other things too.

I made a cute owl/crackle plate.  So now I have a poppy version in the works …

owl-cracklepoppie-crackle

And we have pups … adorable squishy-faced love.  Xena loves her babies … Victor thinks they’re pretty cool too!

xena-boys

xena-pupsVictor2

In between pup-sitting and working with numbers, I’m taking pictures (here’s one of our steam punk nightlights) …

steam punk night light

And, my pendants are all assembled!

4-17-pendants

Now, back to work!

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Posted on March 30, 2017 by claytonhill

[Whine!] … It’s that time of year!

cloud-cabs-cut-3-29Glass Expo is this week.  Nope, I still can’t go.  Dangit!  So – I’m staying busy …

It’s been several weeks in the making, but I wanted to make some ‘cloud tiles’ … So, I did.  And, tonight I cut those beauties up into future pendants:

cloud-cabs-close-up

Here are the tiles going in, mapped out for cutting, and cut:

5-cloud-tiles   prep-cutting-tilescloud-cabs-cut

A couple close-up photos:

cloud-cabs2-3-29 cloud-cabs-3-29

Why it took me so long … or what to do when you can’t go to Expo (year 4):  I started gathering [stock-piling] STUFF:  Murrini and every grade of frit (and, um … I spared you the photo of stringers … we’ve started playing with making our own) …

CHS-murriniBE-powdermed-BE-fritfine-med-BE-fritcoarse-BE-frit

It’s not all jewelry here though … I made a special request bird night light, too.  I like her!  And, I’m gathering supplies for another project or two …

custom-bird

Meanwhile, it is also TAX SEASON [Bum Bum Buhhhm!]!  So, DH says I have to stop playing and start ‘adulting’ … Grrr!

Through it all, Chloe is my napping watch-dog!  Winking smile

sleepy-Chloe

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Posted on March 23, 2017 by claytonhill

Worker Bee … that’s me!

This week, anyway … We did our first murrini slab.  Hmmm … next time I’ll make a round one for a kiln drop (imagine custom pendant-style light shades – for my studio!).

first-murrini-slab

components-3-18rust-brown-componentsAnd, I’m still making component parts for future tiles/jewelry:

I have a few ‘themed’ tiles in the works … rusty brown, ocean marina and purple cow!  

marina-components  purple-cow-components

Along with a couple of cloud tiles waiting for kiln time:

cloud-tiles-3-23-17

I prepped two vit stacks earlier this week – again working on color-scheme ideas.

oceans-stack    beige-stack

And we pulled the beige stack … I like it! Smile

beige-pull

All while my coffin kiln is slumping night lights, tea dishes and spoon rests (- here is a quick look at 700 degrees and cooling) …

3-23-coffin-loa

Next up – some quality kitchen time for a batch of potato soup!

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Posted on March 17, 2017 by claytonhill

I Caused a Stir …

I didn’t mean to – I was just asking questions on a chat board –  talking out loud, working through the process … But stuff got weird (picture THE most opinionated gathering of ER and  ICU nurses – ‘sharing ideas’ … Oh YEAH – this glass group has got nothing on them!  DOH!)  Half way through the flying posts, I looked over at Chloe … This was her take on all the shenanigans!  (She is compact, rotund and WISE beyond her years MONTHS!)

Chloe-razz

So, giving up on any sage advice – I started playing with our murrini … My first slab.  It’s up next for the kiln!

first-murrine-slab2 first-murrine-slab

I stumbled on a quick crockpot recipe.  So, you have to like mushrooms … but, if you do?!?  Oh My Goodness … YUM!  (Recipe specifies within the comments ‘one ounce of ranch mix and UNSALTED butter’ … which I did.)  DH wants these served at every meal!  Smile  [*Not my photo]

ranch mushrooms

And, leaving with a quick pic of the Princess Cowbell … who remains unimpressed!  The ‘Lil Snot!!! Happy St Patrick’s Day!!!

bulldogs-life

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Posted on March 16, 2017 by claytonhill

Still tinkering and cleaning …

I’m playing with a few color combinations for component pieces to use in future pendants.  Some great colors, some … not so much.  We are using stringers that we’re pulling from our vitrigraph kiln.  I love that!

more-components-3-17 new-components-3-17

And, I’m putting together a couple of tiles … just waiting on a few more jars of frit to arrive.  DOH!!!  (But that’s [mostly] our murrini in those future patties!)  Smile

new-tiles-3-17 red-tile-3-17

We tried the black & white vitrigraph pull again last night, this time using some recommended colors (french vanilla and midnight blue) … Better!

black-gray-take2

Since I have an order of frit jars to accommodate – I’m still cleaning/organizing the studio.  And, talking with DH about building an addition (to the man-cave and my studio)!  Uh Oh … Winking smile

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