Lots of cool designs for my "Spirit of the West" gallery showing in April of 09.
All the pieces I have created so far. I am working on a female cowgirl as you can see from the blog entries. She will be added to this collection. Once they have light behind them, the colors will come alive.
Simple glass cut design to show Oklahoma landscape in February.
My Native American piece along side my Oklahoma landscape design.
Everywhere I looked in the month of February I saw the wheat fields. The trees had no leaves, so they looked grey, but the sky remains a beautiful blue. This will also be for sale in my show.
I started with this rough sketch.
The buffalo has already been listed on my blog...but it shows my Native American glass design in the window with the sunlight behind it.
The finished product.
He started like this...just a design I drew on paper. Then I began to choose colors and cut him out in glass.
I put all the cut pieces in a box where I take him inside from the studio and start to foil each piece. I used masking tape on his face because I was afraid the glass would move around on his face. Those pieces were really small. The brooch in the middle of his neck piece came from a friend who bought it at a thrift shop in Modesto, California. We were both working in that town and took a break looking through the shops. I have held onto this piece for three years....and finally found the place where it would fit.
This is all the cut pieces carefully placed within the design.
The finished product. He looks even better in the sunlight. His hair is wheat colored and his eyebrows are turqouise. Cool huh?
This is how they were cut - then taped together until they were eventually soldered together.
The feathers are all different. A broken rust colored ornament was soldered on five feathers in addition to pieces from a tan lamp shade that I had bought at an antique store. The lamp shade had ridges and lines in the design. I added beads of red and turquoise.
They were attached with leather strips, each feather hanging at a different level from a rusted cow collar. This will sell as one piece in my show, although I intend to keep making more feathers for individual purchase.
The whole piece hanging with the feathers. It can also be hung outside in a garden or porch area.
This picture shows the feathers in the light. Beautiful!
Cool design - I just love how it turned out.
Awesome design - see more pics of how this design evolved. I just had to capture an Oklahoma sunset within my "Spirit of the West" glass art show.
This shows the emtpy frame and all the glass pieces I had cut for this design.
This is how the sunset started. Golden wheat colors, magenta glass cut in slow long curves. The picture shown here was from a magazine which showed dark black trees with twisted branches. I used this for my glass trees that were cut and placed in the design. You can see below.
You can see the detail of the frame and how the geodes fit within this design.
In the evening during the summer months - the sky turns a bright magenta or burnt orange color. Swirls of orange, purple and blue radiate in the sky. Oklahoma sunsets are just beautiful. The black jack trees hold their silhouette against the colorful sky. The fields of golden wheat still glow at night.
The sunlight lights of the bright sky.
I wanted to add just a little blue at the base of the design. The colors are unique to the Oklahoma sunsets. The geodes came from my friend Jim. He found them in Missouri last spring. They are gray, black and creme colored. They fit well within the waves of this design. The oval frame had a mirror inside of it and came from Sarah, another artist in our gallery. This piece if three feet at its highest point and approx. two and a half feet wide. It will be on display in my SPIRIT OF THE WEST Art Show in April 09.
She stands out in this gallery show!
"Belle of the Ball" was purchased by Michi Susan, a talented artist herself. 
I really enjoyed making this doll. All I started with was her arms and her head. I built all of the rest of her and her dress in glass. 
I took a shot of this lamp with the candle inside. Can you see how the designs danced up on the wall behind it? 
These are pictures of the lamp in daylight. Scultped lamps take a lot of time and thought because you are designing and scultping at the same time. All the pieces must be placed in a way to create a unique design, yet give the lamp balance and weight in the right places.
This lamp would look beautiful on a desk in an office, or on a bookshelf. You can also put a string of clear lights up underneath (which I will do when it is displayed). This gives the piece more color, reflection and energy. 
These are close up sections of the frame that holds the buffalo design. I bought this frame in Scurry, Texas last year...
It holds this big, muscle bound buffalo perfectly...yet it is elegant.
The buffalo took me about a month to complete...from the original inspiration to the last glass gem that was soldered in. He is three feet long and two and a half feet wide. This piece weighs twenty one pounds!!! Can you see the horns, his nose, his one eye that shows is right under one of the horns. 
In relation to the chair...you can see how big he is. He will be in my show this coming April 09.
I decided I would drive to my job in La Cruces, New Mexico. I had not planned to go this way....but....
I did. I could blame this detour on my friend (you know who you are Linda!!!) but I can't do that because I choose to go down this road. You see.... I stopped in Santa Rosa to take a turn south on highway 54. She and I got to talking about a great church service she had just attended and I shared about a church service I was hearing on the radio. As we talked I kept driving south. She and I eventually lost phone service. When I couldn't see the correct road number I pulled over and looked at my map. I saw that this road still ran parallel to the road I was supposed to be on...so I took it.
The road headed south toward Roswell, New Mexico. Highways 20, then 285. 
Yep, thats right...it is a monument a son designed and had built in honor of his father who passed away in 2007. This man (the father) had started a pistachio farm many many years ago, it became the family business. I had to stop.....there was also a neat store nearby and inside was all different kinds of pistachio nuts, pistachio brittle, pistachio chocolate clusters...you name it, it was there. There was also a winery inside. They were about to close up, so I didn't stay long. I did buy some pistachios for a friend of mine. 
This is the evening sky as I was driving my way into my final destination, Las Cruces, New Mexico. I am so glad I got to witness this sunset...
Can you see the cross at the top of the hill?
It was beautiful country...clear sky, gorgeous day....
One of the prettiest parts of Lincoln National Forest...I saw parts of New Mexico I had not seen before...I was enjoying this adventure.
My "circle of friends" sculpture...frozen but they are still hanging together. I dedicate these wintery blog entries to my friend John, who lives in Alaska. I tell him we have cold weather here and he laughs....as daily he lives within temps of 30-40 degrees BELOW freezing. Where cars and trucks are plugged in with big electrical cords so their gas doesn't freeze. I have been to Alaska only once and will be back someday. So...John....you are probably getting a chuckle out of these photos...I know I am a lightweight...but snow is snow and it is beautiful anywhere!!!
This is the road I walked to get to my mailbox. Hide loved to run ahead of me. I have jogged up this road many a time in warmer days.
I made this mailbox flag last summer...looks like it is holding up just fine and shines bright.
This is the drive to my house. You can walk up this road and go out of my gate into an even bigger open space. It was a fun walk. Got my mail and headed back to my warm house.
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