Ideas everywhere everyday

So, this week I needed to make a pair of cufflinks.

They are blue ribbed dichroic with black background fully fused onto black glass – the cufflinks were to be silver “findings”.

I needed to post them off to Harlington, Texas.

Where is that? What’s it like?  OK, so here are some answers:

Here’s Texas, USA:

And Harlingen is in Cameron Country which is the southernmost spot in Texas,  located in the center of the lush Rio Grande Valley, where two countries and two cultures meet.

The beautiful beaches of South Padre Island are seen above, and the whole place seems to ooze south Texas charm which is then further influenced by the traditions of nearby Mexico, of course.

So off to this gorgeous place I send my cufflinks.  (Just like the ones above). The nice man at my local Post Office is always interested to know where the next packet is headed.

So, I had out the blue dichroic glass, (I have written about this magical glass previously if you care to look around the blog), some black glass, dark purple (from making bracelets the day before), bright green (from making a new set of Sparkling Chlorophyll for a different order), pale turquoise as well – hmmm, an interesting palette to ponder.

Anyhow, part of the joy of what I do is suddenly getting inspired “out of the blue” if you’ll forgive the pun! When I was looking at the colour scheme of glass I had there I thought I’d play around with them and create a new plate entirely out of the tones of turquoise both pale and dark green, blue dichroic glass and purple.

Weird how the mind works: it instantly reminded me of the colours of Wimbledon.

 

So I decided to add green and purple together and so here we have a whole new plate series – the turquoise that I used isn’t included in the logo at all – so I’m looking for a new name for this bright work with just a touch of reeded blue dichroic in the centre.

I added just a few strands of grass green stringer to give some added dimension to the clear sections throughout the plate.  Glass stringers are small strands of glass which are available in lots of colours for glass artists to incorporate into their designs and they look like this …

I used moss green in this one.

And – ta da! – here is the finished work, after cold working and slumping into my favourite mold. I usually photograph my finished works with party poppers somewhere nearby because everybody knows how big/small party poppers are and you can easily see the dimensions of the work that I am displaying.

You know, I think I’ll call you this one Harlingen in honour of where my customer is from!
Can’t wait to make more transparent contrasts with just a touch of dichroic glass.

Fun, fun, fun!

You know, one of the things I like best about creating new glass works is looking at the shapes and tonal variation of the reflections on the white paper underneath the glass.

So there you are, a whole new series called Harlingen in honour of where my order came from!  It’s not even on my Etsy shop yet, but if you want one I’ll happily make it for you any size from 600mmx600mm down to 90mmx90mm. And hello to all my Texan friends – yes, Jamey Ember, this means you!

Talk again soon, everyone.

jenie

Tags: buritos Cameron County Coatings by Sandberg delphi Delphi glass Etsy Shop fused glass green green stringers Harlington Mexico modernism purple glass Sandberg Sth Padre Island stringer Texas tortilla turquoise