Vermont Summer Life

So...glass or gardening? Kayaking or copper foiling? The temperatures are perfect and the outdoors seduces me.  New wild flowers appear and my vegetable garden needs constant nurturing. The chickens are loyal companions as we try to agree on where they can and cannot go. Chicken wire fences are appearing everywhere - prettier than dirt bath pits! Glass crafting often becomes a night time activity as I get into my zone, without any disturbances.

This recently completed custom piece depicts early fall on Lake Bomoseen, our local water playground, with a big view of some of the Taconic Mountains, particularly Bird Mountain. I used glass painting in the water, some of the tree and the sailboat bottom. The tree is fused.  

My experience is that when riding on a boat of any kind, with or without a motor, you are swept away to a place in the mind that feels like vacation.  That is why we came here!

Mums in the Garden

I have an idea:
If bulldozers continue to carve up the rural countryside and plant housing developments everywhere, why not bulldoze rotting buildings in the cities and farm it!
When I observed several years ago in Trenton an entire block in rubbles, I thought to myself, why not add some top soil and farm this area? But to my surprise, in a short time, the Sovereign Bank Arena appeared.

Recently I became aware of an opportunity to help see a little bit of this idea become a reality. Artworks of Trenton, http://www.artworkstrenton.com/ , is sponsoring a fund raiser for STARS, South Trenton Area Residents Society, http://www.trentonstars.org/ , to start a community urban garden project. There are several locations in Trenton where you can pick up a blank 9" heart to finish anyway you like. They have to be turned in by Feb. 20th, and then on Feb. 27th they will be displayed at Artworks and auctioned off, with bids starting at $5.



My heart is called "Mums in the Garden". There is a young mother standing outside, an old mother in the right window, and a mother cat in the left window, in addition to the obvious chrysanthemums. It is composed of glass pieces with a mosaic technique. Some of the pieces are fuse fired and some are fired again with painted details. Acrylic paint is applied with a palette knife in the sky area.

Forest Fantasy

This fall I had the opportunity to continue my theme based on my previous piece, "Dancing in the Forest". The finished piece, "Forest Fantasy", measured 21" X 43". I did a lot of painting and experimented with new leaf patterns and bark textures. Water and rocks offered some new effects.

The Great Botanical Commission

My client has patiently waited. In 2007 we started talking about this work, to be installed along the end wall along the roof line of his cathedral ceiling salt box addition. It is 87" high, above eye level, with actual vines that grow on the outside of the clear stationary windows. We agreed on a design with vivid colors to depict a garden feeling. The challenge for me was the fact that my customer, Dan, has degrees in Botany so details had to be artistic and accurate as well. I learned, for instance, that a morning glory and most of nature grows in a clock wise direction. So I actually re-fired fused buds on the flip side that were already done, just to correct that detail.

Significant delays were caused by the activities of my former business, Off the Wall Craft Gallery, at the old mill in Allentown, NJ, which closed about a year ago. But all the while a vision was starting in my head. Last December I started using a stained glass CAD program called Glass Eye 2000 http://www.dfly.com/ with which I can create designs and email them to customers. I also purchased a kiln and started learning fired glass painting, mentored by Stephen Byrne http://www.williamsandbyrne.com/ of the UK. In the spring I embarked on learning glass fusing with very specific results in mind for this work.

This winter the carpentry work was completed and the design was approved. Although Dan approved a very nice design, Shasta, my daughter and design mentor, sort of ripped it apart, so I made time consuming but very good changes to the approved draft. Dan was delighted with the improvements, but missed the irises that got cut, so I promised to include them in future sidelight panels. You can see the computer design in color on my blog on http://www.karendeets.com/.

I started cutting glass in late June, and it is getting closer to completion. Interruptions included a major cleaning out of my attic and Carriage House, with a big "Barn Sale". Last week we visited Vermont, and tomorrow we head south to the lovely beaches of Emerald Isle, NC.

Note:
A reminder to all who are mesmerized by stained glass and want to learn - classes begin on Aug. 19th. See details at http://www.karendeets.com/. I have room for a few more students.

Empty Nest Drama

One of the advantages to my chosen lifestyle involving working at home is to be involved with backyard nature. For several years now we have hosted families of barn swallows under the carriage house roof, just a few feet from my studio. They are interesting birds to observe in that there nesting is under our scrutiny, and they constantly fly around us in gliding circles, eating insects, and occasionally bombing cats and blue jays.

A few nights ago my husband Bill came out to visit me in the studio. He found a live baby bird had fallen 10 feet below the nest, so we set up a ladder and I put him back with his 2 siblings. We have observed many nestlings, and thought it unusual that these particular parents were not around. They were not on the nearby pipes, but the next morning they were flying around in eternal circles and feeding bugs to the babies.

Now the story gets more exciting. Yesterday morning was beautiful. Shasta was off from her job at Grounds for Sculpture, http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/ , so after our walk, we were having family breakfast and coffee on the patio, a rare pleasant moment, when Bill once again noticed the swallow parents extremely upset and circling very close to the nest. We all rushed over to the nest, and to my shock, there was a black snake draping across the nest!! I started screaming to Bill to get the ladder. Shasta just screamed hysterically. I grabbed my heavy kiln gloves and a garden shovel, flew up the ladder, and flipped the shy and embarrassed snake onto my husband's Honda where it landed with a thud and then disappeared under the fence and into my neighbor's yard. Then I surveyed the damages. I removed one tiny dead baby, then another larger one, and then found a squirming live and apparent healthy one that did not want to go back into that nest. He squirmed out and landed on the ground twice. Twice Shasta handed him up to me and I pushed him back into the nest, and gently stroked his tiny head and attempted to calm him down. He finally stayed put and the frantic parents came back.

Now we have a theory about this particular family. We think that they are an equivalent to irresponsible teen parents. About 10 years ago, when the swallows first came, they struggled with Bill to get permission to build a mud nest and keep it. If it was too close to one of our cars he removed it. He stapled old garden gloves over my parking space to discourage nesting and bird poop over my car. Eventually they came to an agreement, and the same nest has been reused for many years, seasons, and births. The previous parents hung out at night and daytime resting on the nearby ceiling pipes. They were always close by and parented satisfactorily. We loved looking at the babies as their eager heads and wide beaks awaited the constant feeding followed by the exciting day of flight school as they lined up on the pipes for take off. About 3 years ago their behavior changed, so we assumed that it was a new set of parents, and most likely the original parents had gotten old and died. But babies were born with no issues. We have observed a larger group of adults flying together occasionally. We think this year's parents have been hanging and partying with their friends at night.

All day yesterday junior stood up on the edge of the nest as though he did not want to be there, and could you blame him? His siblings were murdered on top of him earlier that day! The parents circled him closely and anxiously as they tried to get him to fly. It was very hard to concentrate on my glass with all the excitement. At 3 pm he was missing from the nest. Then around 4pm, Shasta and Bill observed from the house that he was on the ground. Unlike other birds, swallows NEVER have flight school from the ground!! By evening he was flying in low circles, and eventually found the cable wire to the studio to be a good perch for his frequently needed rest.

This morning he is circling around the back door. Hopefully he has learned to catch bugs on the fly! He just perched outside the kitchen window where Bill took his picture (above).

Exhale. Tomorrow Shasta moves into an apartment in Montclair. More "empty nest drama" is expected.