Class with Sara Sally Le Grand

Last week - and it's hard to believe it's been that long ago - I took a fantastic class with Sara Sally Le Grand.

I came away so inspired - more ideas than I can fabricate any time soon.

Sara is a wonderful instructor, full of information and more than willing to share with us. And the way her class was set up, we actually had time to work on making pieces. And she was available to help if you had a question or a problem.


I love her work - it's so organic not just the color but the shapes.

Here's the piece I bought from her -

There were so many wonderful pieces it was difficult to choose.  The title of this piece is
"Louie Batton". She made it in honor of a bat that was in the convention center in Louisville at the "ISGB Gathering "conference last year.

Too bad you can't see the bat wings in this picture.

In my next entry, I'll post my piece - maybe even PIECES!

New piece of work

I continue to explore working with my glass flowers, leaves and pods. Am taking a class with Sara Sally Le Grand this week and hope I have something worth showing from there. 

I am hoping it will allow me to "take off" in some different directions.

It takes time for lessons learned in a class to stop looking like you took so-and-so's class and the techniques become your own. I am looking forward to that journey.

But in the meantime, here is one of my "big honkin'"floral pieces.  It has a sunny feeling about it.

I was inspired by some of the gardens we would stumble upon while wandering the neighborhoods of Murano, Italy. 

Unfortunately, I can't find the picture I was looking for, but the garden was at the rear of the house and it faced the pathway we would sometimes take.

Since I couldn't find that picture, I am adding one of grapes growing outside of one of the glass studios we visited.

These colors inspired the piece in the post below which I refer to as "Autun>"


Both pieces are available at Lawrence Street Gallery, Ferndale, MI.

Happy Holidays!

Wow! Can't believe it's been over 2 months since posting!  New Year's Resolution is to do better at this.
It's been a great year.  I have learned so much and have several new things I look forward to exploring in the world of glass next year - and to see how these explorations will fit into what I like to do.

The Fire Foxes will not only be in Southfield, MI this spring but we're headed for BeadFest Santa Fe as well and we are excited! We won't have a big booth but we'll be loaded down with lots of goodies for sure. Even if we have to stuff our pockets and wear everything around our necks on the plane!

Happy New Year to everyone!

More Flower Jewelry

Am adding my favorite piece that I put into Our Town. I'm really getting into making flowers and jewelry from them.  It can be time consuming on both ends. But exploring colors and combinations has been a lot of fun.

I call this piece "Autumn"...

It's been too long...

Hard to believe it's been almost 3 months since I lasted posted. Since that time I went to the Gathering which is the ISGB's annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky - a great place to visit during July.

In August, Fire Foxes did our annual show, Beadfest Philadelphia - which I sat out.

And September I was gone 18 days to visit Barcelona, Spain for 4 nights followed by a wonderful 11 day cruise of the Mediterranean. We visited Sicily, Greece, Malta, Croatia and Italy.  We saw Olympia, birthplace of the Olympics, climbed the wall in Dubrovnik, Croatia and climbed Mt. Versuvius in Pompeii. (there was a lot of climbing involved in this trip - lots of walls too)

And this month, Bead Bonanza with the Foxes and "Our Town" which closes today, so I am very much behind in my blog.

But I will post some pictures of my newest work.

This set I call, "Summer Dreams " and it is the second set using my floral and leaf beads. This set is available for sale at Arts Afire, in Alexandria, VA.

Will do better at updating this blog. I missed it!

Cass Tech

Much to write about these days - but first I need to vent about my old high school.  This was my reunion weekend, dare I mention which one?  Cass Tech was a very special school. First it was 8 stories high and we had 4 large elevators.


We had 27 curriculum there from Chem-Bio to Heating and Cooling. My graduating class was about 1,100 students, about 100 were those who graduated in January (this is probably dating me right there!)

 The build has been empty for some time but I did not realize they had begun the demolition and was shocked to learn not only had they started but were at least 3/4 of the way to completion.

So here in Detroit we are losing another major landmark that should have been preserved and re-purposed.

The new Cass is doing well at producing high achieving students as well.  the current principal was there and announced that 98% of the graduating class of over 600 where headed to college and that 85% of the class had received scholarships.

The building is gone but the spirit lives on...

My 4th of July

My blog tends to go off in different directions - business but my travels as well.  I would like to think that my travels influence my work in some way or another.

But last week was spent with friends up north in Benzonia, MI - which is near Crystal Mountain, Crystal Mountain and about 25 minutes southwest of Traverse City.

One of the high lights of the trip was the Frankfort Parade - it was great! A true small town parade!

The state police on horse back, followed by one of the most important people, the lucky officer who gets to clean up the horse poop!  She deserves major pats on the back!

Several fire companies were in attendance and the one who got the most attention was this one. They would stop the truck and 2-3 men held up the ladder while another firefighter climbed up one side and down the other.

And the thing that was most touching to me
was to see the VFW members and the grand
marshal of the parade, another VFW member...

It was pretty cool to spend the 4th in Small Town, USA.