Polar bear

I made a polar bear wall hanging for Peter and Jenny as a wedding present. 

The bear would never have been finished without the help of Helen, Bob and Sheree at Townsville Stained glass.  The bear was copper foiled and then Bob cut the glass background.  I soldered lead around the edge of the circle but unfortunately I dropped solder on the lead.  Luckily Bob did a really neat job of removing the solder and blackening the lead.  The bear was then glued to the glass.

Both the bear and the background were made from textured glass to represent the fur and a snowy background.  As we know nothing about snow in North Queensland I hope it all looks pretty realistic.  

My clock

Finally the clock is finished.  It has taken me a little over three months to finish.  Although I have taken a photo of the whole clock it is a bit hard to take it all in so I have also taken smaller photos.  It is a very eclectic design and it contains shells; nuggets; new and recycled glass; a thimble; bevels; a button; 2 crystal dishes; numerous pieces of costume jewellery; and a good luck charm.

Heart mirror

My latest creation is going to be a gift.  I got the pattern from Pinterest.  The pattern was for a suncatcher.  I have increased the size of the pattern and  inserted a mirror.  The heart itself is a very simple (4) four piece pattern.  My stained glass teacher suggested the 3D rosettes.

I will post another photo when it is finished.

Lyn's house number

For my sister's birthday I made her a house number mosaic.  Unfortunately the only thing I had at the time was an MDF plaque for the background.  She will have to be sure that she doesn't hang it where it can be damaged by the weather. 

Lyn's Lamp shade

When I thought of making a lamp for my sister I planned to made a different pattern.  Most of the items I had made required straight cutting and the new lamp pattern was full of curves.  I had just enough glass to make the pattern but after I stuffed up the first four cuts I decided I needed a new pattern.  I used the pattern I had chosen for Mum's lamp shade.  

My sister was happy with it, so that is all that matters.

Entertainment Unit doors

I made these doors some time ago.  You may recognise the pattern from the first panel I made.  (See simple panel - second post.)

As usual there is a story about these doors.  The story is that we cut down an old fashioned unit.  The TV used to sit inside on a shelf but the new plazma TV it did not fit so we had to make alterations.  Kent did a great job on the unit but the doors needed to be cut down as well.  We got 'Locky', our local carpenter, to resize the doors and then I made lead light doors to match.  

The green and clear glass match the french doors which are next to the entertainment unit in the lounge room.

Current project

I am currently working on a mosaic house number.  I am experimenting with gluing the mosaic tiles on to a tile as the number will be on the outside of the house.

This is it so far.  I still have to glue the white mosaic pieces in the middle on the plaque.  Then I have to grout it.  I am also waiting for my man to make a wooden frame so that I can grout the frame to the tile as well.  Hopefully I will get it finished one day.

Liam's paver

This is a paver that Liam started to make but had trouble finishing.  We did have plans to make 3 more pavers to match, but this probably won't happen. 

PJ the fox terrior

PJ was a very smart little dog.  He always had to be the centre of attention and unfortunately that was his down fall in the end.  PJ had my undivided attention until I had my son.  

One night I was late feeding PJ because I was late bathing and feeding my son.  PJ had not had much attention that day so he decided to bite on a cane toad.  PJ had bitten toads before so I wasn't really worried as I had a tried and true plan that had worked previously.  I would just wait for the poison to slow him down so that I could catch him.  Then I would shove the hose down his neck and he would throw up the poison.  Unfortunately on this last night I was taking care of the baby and I waited too long to hose out his mouth.  That was the last toad that PJ ever ate. 

This paver is in memory to a very smart little dog with an attention complex. 

This is a PJ look alike as I don't have any digital photos of the real PJ. 

Benji the very naughty beagle

Benji was the first animal to get a paver.  He was the dog you loved to hate.  We got Benji from an ad in the paper.  The previous owners warned me about his bad behaviour but I was mesmorised by his beautiful pale brown eyes and I thought I could change him. 

Benji liked to sleep up high and the roof or bonnet of my car became his favourite place to nap.  I got sick of having my car scratched to we built lattice frames around the garage so he couldn't get to the car.  

Being a beagle, his nose and stomach ruled his life.  He was always searching for that next meal and he became a real escape artist. We finally got rid of Benji because he found that there was always a meal at the local council office and it was costing us a lot of money to get him back each time.  Benji was a tri-colour beagle hence the white, bronze and black tiles. 

Marvin the cat

The first pet we ever had at this house was Marvin the $5 cat.  Marvin did not get on with our very naughty beagle called Benji,more about Benji later.  Marvin decided to move next door because Benji would not make friends.  Marvin still lives with my neighbour and has no intention of moving home again.  My neighbour is not an animal lover and Marvin is not all that keen on people so they are a match made in heaven.

As you can see this tile is still waiting to be grouted, but I think you get the idea.

Because Marvin is a ginger cat I used brown and red.  M is obviously the first letter in his name.

This is Marvin begrudging a pat.

Now the mosaic pavers

I am in the process of creating a paved area underneath my back steps.  This area will be partly for storage and I also hope to house a worm farm under there as well.  As I had already created this glass paver at a beginners mosaic course,  I thought I would make a paver for each of the pets that have lived in this house.  I have lived here for 16 years and we have been through 4 pets so far.

 I like yellow flowers so I made this sunflower.

Double heart mosaic

The double heart mosaic is going to hang on my bedroom door when I finally get around to hanging it.  I like the effect of mirror in mosaics because the mirror always catches you eye.  I think the red and orange were a good colour combination.  I got the pattern idea for this off the internet and then drew my own hearts which was really easy. 

Loo sign

I made this door plaque for the toilet out of left over glass from the Christmas Tree (see previous blog).  I was a bit apprehensive about hanging the plaque on a door because there is a lot of movement with a door.  I eventually decided to use Command Damage -Free Hanging strips.  These strips hold like glue and have so far proved to be great.

Unfortunately there is not enough contrast between the mirror and the light green glass so the word 'LOO' does not stand out really well.

Copper foil lamp shade

The lampshade took me ages to finish because it stuffed up when I cut the glass and each panel was too wide.  I got a lot of practice at trimming millimeters of already cut glass.  I gave this lampshade to Mum.

French doors

With so many glass projects already under my belt I became very adventurous and decided to make lead light panels for my front doors.  I cautiously drew up the pattern myself and chose a very conservative pattern to fit in with my 1970's vintage house.  I didn't particularly want anything very ornate as I didn't think it would suit the house.  

I now regret not being more creative with the design.  It still looks better than the clear glass that was there before. 

First independent attempt at mosaic

By this stage I was starting to collect a lot of left over glass.  I decided to make a mosaic door plaque and pencil holder for my son.  These are both craft wood items that I purchased from Spotlight - our major craft store.

Mirror for my son

The next thing I made was a mirror for my son.  Once again there were a few problems with this project. 

I dropped the box containing the first piece of mirror when I tried to stop our very naughty beagle from running out of the gate as I opened it.  I then bought another piece of mirror with a slight mark on it.  There was plenty of room to cut a clean bit of mirror but as you might guess I cut the mirror in a rush and forgot all about the mark.  Subsequently the mirror had the mark on it.  The third piece of mirror was unmarked and unbroken and this is the finished product. 

3D Christmas Tree

As Christmas was fast approaching I signed up for the Christmas workshop and made a 3D Christmas tree.  This is the only 3D item I have made so far.  I think it worked out quite well, although I did made a few mistakes along the way.  The first mistake was putting Patina on the solder.  Patina turns solder black.   I originally intended to leave the solder silver but I put on Patina instead of polish.  That will teach me to read the instructions on the bottle.  By the time I realised what I had done it was too late.  A few of my fellow students left their solder silver and it has apparently tarnished so they are now in the process of applying Patina to blacken it.  I suppose I did the right thing after all.

The other problem I had with making the tree was that I left the soldering iron on the mirror for too long and I cracked the mirror on the base.  You can't really see it so it is ok. 

The only other problem with the tree is that I can't find a box to store it in so it stays on display on top on the china cabinet/hutch all year round.  I suppose you could say it is Christmas all year round at my place. 

The tree has 4 sides and is approx 50 cm tall. 

Patchwork mirror

After the leadlight panel, I learnt how to make a mirror using copper foil.  This mirror appealed to me because the pattern did not have any curves or circles.  Curves and circles are a bit tricky when you are learning to cut glass.  The patchwork pattern also allowed me a lot of freedom as the pieces can be arranged in any way as long as they fit firmly against the other pieces of glass and the mirror.  

This is a good pattern if you want to use up glass you have left over from other projects.  I had enough red, orange and yellow glass to made an identical mirror for my Mum.  In her mirror I used the coloured glass all the way around the border instead of the mirror / glass pattern on this one.  The stronger colour around the border was much more effective in my opinion. 

(The black rectangle in the bottom left hand side of the photo is my phone and below that you can see part of my hair.)   I will have to improve my photography skills.

Simple leadlight panel

This is the first leadlight panel I completed as part of my course.  The panel is made of recycled glass.  I love working with recycled glass because as I am working with the glass I wonder about the history of the glass and who might also have looked through the glass before me. 

I am hoping that one day this panel will form part of a screen to display it in my garden.  At the moment the panel is sitting in a sliding glass window track in my dining room.

Introduction to the site

Welcome to my blog.  On this site I intend to display my glass and mosaic creations.  I enjoy creating stained glass and copper foil items.  I either keep the creations myself or give them to family and friends.  

One of the main reasons for keeping this blog is so that I can keep a record of the creations I have made.  Hopefully I will be able to see improvement in my skills over time. 

The other reason I have started this blog is so that I can share my pieces on Pinterest.  I have so much fun looking at the work that everyone completes and collects I thought someone might enjoy looking at what I have made.

Here goes!