Kline Art Studio

Kelly and I had an adventure Friday. We headed east to Skokie to visit the Stained Glass Emporium. Wow! What a store. I'm not really into new age-y things, but I have to say that the energy of this store was amazing. We were greeted by the two happiest employees I have ever encountered!

The store is filled with glass--both raw and finished pieces. There are glass accessories as well as already-made home accessories. I spent more money than I intended but it was worth it. I left there so inspired my head has been spinning ever since!

The greatest inspiration was Judy Cueno. She's a mosaic artist who has been feature on the HGTV show Extreme Homes. Here's a link to the information and it includes a video of her house. Judy was charming and extremely helpful. She demo'd a glass nipper that really works. So I bought it. She brainstormed some mosaic ideas to do with my kids. She pulled out books for inspiration. It was obvious that Judy Cueno is someone who LOVES what she does!

I've got a box prepped for my first mosaic piece but cannot come up with a final design idea! I have so many that my mind is spinning non-stop. I think mosaic will be a great way to use up the scraps of glass I have from fusing and that I am accumulating at the stained glass class I am taking at the moment.

Stained glass has also started my mind racing. I can't help but try to pull together stained glass and jewelry. Ok, mosaics and jewelry are also percolating in my mind. Here's a prototype piece combining my loves of glass+jewelry+digital scrapbooking.

I need to figure out how to easily attach the jumpring. I fumbled and bungled and just know there is an easier way!!

Wouldn't you love to have a personalized pendant like this?!

Posted by susiekline at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Do you ever think about the color choices you make? Or why you like the colors you do?

Color preference is a serious thing. For me, I prefer blues, purples, most greens. I'm not so wild about orange, brown and olive green. I'm wild about pink and red, but can take a pass on mustard and rust.

Living through another Illinois winter has me thinking about color a lot. Mostly because of the lack of color at this time. The sky is gray, white snow eventually turns gray from the dirt and litter, trees are gray. On days with a sunny sky, the world seems to open up. Makes me smile everytime.

As an artist, I find myself drawn to the same colors over and over. I love putting them into different combinations. I think about moving out of my comfort zone and trying the OTHER colors, but really haven't. Beyond playing with orange frit on white beads this fall, that is.

When I started making jewelry with my lampwork beads, I worried about having to go buy many new glass beads to use. Silly me! Because every crystal, every glass bead I have in my collection matches the glass rods I use most for my beads.

When a friend saw The Studio and my collection of glass she declared it very me-like. Probably because I also wear clothes in the colors of all my glass. My art is Me because of the colors I choose!

My latest artistic venture has been into the world of stained glass. In our first class we made this small piece. I loved it. Selecting the glass, cutting the glass, foiling, fidding (that's not a typo--that's what I call burnishing the foil with the fid!) and especially soldering. Someone lesser might have been turned off by soldering by the massive burn on their finger from grabbing it in the wrong place. But not me! I want to conquer the hot tool!

Today, in the third class, I finished cutting all my pieces and grinding them to fit together properly. Next week I'll finish grinding the sharp edges off my pieces and start the foiling and fidding. Man, I can't wait to solder!

Posted by susiekline at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)