Post Heat Wave Harvest

Oh no! I let some of my okra get too big! But it's pretty understandable considering that we just got our first 2 okra of the summer last week. Our poor plants manged to survive the 70 days of triple digit temperatures this summer, but not to produce fruit once the heat from Hades settled in. I'm just not used to checking for vegetables in the garden, only checking for dry soil.

There are two overgrown yellow squash lurking in there. We started harvesting squash about a week and a half ago.

Even the peppers had a hard time in the heat. I only had one smallish red bell pepper and a very few jalapenos, then one of our two jalapeno plants wilted and died. Now, the bell has blooms and little green peppers all over it.
The only things that kept on going through the summer were the chard, most of the herbs, and weirdly...

...the arugula.
Which we've really been enjoying in various salads, tossed on hot-from-the-oven pizza, and as an important part of our onionless tabbouleh.

Everything looks happier now, and we even got a good rain Friday evening. Now maybe we will actually get some tomatoes!

Mixed Media Collage on Wood...Time for Another Arts Goggle

My table covered in art supplies
and new and in progress small works on wood panels

With my daughter back in school and while waiting to hear back from the Arts Goggle folks, I have brought out the art stuff and started painting, cutting and pasting again.

In the process I discovered a great blog, The Graphics Fairy, with thousands of royalty free, and free free, vintage images. Karen posts a new image or images every day, like these cute French chairs which she is offering in several different colors.

One of them is sitting in the far left in my photo above, with the cushion hand-colored, just waiting for the right inspiration to become one of the fun little collage pieces.

Fall Arts Goggle will be Saturday, October 8th from 4-10pm in Fort Worth's near south neighborhood.

Get Creative! Get Bling!

A month or so ago some friends and I were brainstorming and researching possibilities for Girls' Night Out activities. Some ideas were country and western dance lessons at Billy Bob's (which we tried, with mixed results) and pottery classes (which we haven't yet). Then I had the thought: Aha! Jewelry Making Classes/Parties! I could do that!

So, after a lot of web surfing on the subject, note taking and thought thinking, I came up with this:

Treat yourself and your friends to a

Home Jewelry Making Party

For:

• Girls Night Out
• Bridal Shower or Bachelorette Party
• Birthday Party for Children or Teens
• Corporate or Woman’s Group
• Couples Party

Anywhere in the Fort Worth, Texas area.
Your party is also a class and will include:

• instruction from an experienced jewelry designer in your home or office
• a large assortment of beautiful beads to choose from
• all materials and tools for your project
• hands on assistance when needed (especially for the littler jewelry makers)
• a fun activity for your guests (as well as a great ice breaker activity in a work or social group environment)
• a lovely fabric gift bag to carry home your own original handmade piece of jewelry.

Classes available

Select the jewelry technique you would like to learn and the project you want to make:
Necklace Party Choose from a large selection of glass, metal and shell beads to design and make your necklace. You will learn basic stringing and crimping to finish your necklace. 20. per person
This class/party is perfect for a teen or child’s birthday party, Mother-Daughter party or summer activity with friends.
Deluxe Necklace Party with the addition of semi-precious stones, gemstone beads, fresh water pearls and glass focal beads for you to choose from. 24. pp
Bracelet Party or Deluxe Bracelet Party The same instruction and choices of beautiful elements as the necklace parties. You will finish your bracelet with a decorative toggle clasp. 18. and 20. pp
The ideal amount of beading for the youngest children. (But great for grown ups too!) If you are not having a “Girls Only” party, I have a selection of wooden beads that might appeal to the boys, or they can opt to make a beaded bookmark.
The Ultimate Bracelet Party Choosing from our compete selection of beads, create a double strand bracelet that includes bead dangles on each end. As well as the stringing technique, we will also teach a simple wire wrapping technique to create the dangles. 24. pp
Wine Glass Charms Shindig Not really a class, as there is not much of a technique to master, just a fun activity with your friends. Great for a couples party or girls night out! Choosing from glass beads and a lot of fun charms, each person will make 4 wine glass markers. 18. pp
All Earrings Event Get your girlfriends together to learn the basic wire wrapping technique for making simple dangle earrings. Only Sterling Silver earwires (hooks) are used. For adults or teens. Each person will go home with two pairs of handmade earrings. 20. pp
Make the perfect earrings to match your new necklace or bracelet. Add an earring lesson to any necklace or bracelet party. 12. pp

Then I sat down with Edward, and he created a new page for my website: http://13moonsgrove.com/jewelryparty/ He even sat up a Google calendar on the site for scheduling and keeping track of appointments.

My oldest son Damon is working on a brochure. (I am really lucky to have all these intelligent, talented people to help me!)

And I got to shop for lots of extra beads and supplies. :-)

 

I've linked here.

Hot Texas Garden

Sam Marzano tomato seeds from Seeds From Italy

102. Yes, that's the predicted temperature for this afternoon. It's been a hot, dry, windy June, and it's not even summer yet. We have been watering a lot, and even so the eggplant and peppers look wilted in the middle of the afternoon. Today I planted seeds for San Marzano Redorta, an Italian plum tomato that is great for sauce as well as for fresh eating. It is a big, wild, sprawling plant that should do great in the hot weather and give us a jungle of tomatoes all over the garden into late fall.

One of our few grape clusters, but a really big one

This is a grapevine growing in our side yard. I'm pretty sure the variety is Flame. I don't know how vineyards go out and harvest all of one variety of grapes in the field at one time. We picked our first cluster of grapes over a week ago, a couple more have ripened just now.

And speaking of vineyards, this was one of our stops last Saturday during our Dr Pepper 120th birthday trip.

Looking from the deck of the Bluff Dale Winery
across the vineyard, near Granbury

Wood and Glass - Getting Ready for Arts Goggle Show

Wood panels ready to be primed

I have been busy for the last week or two getting ready to show my art and jewelry at Arts Goggle, a fun one day event in Fort Worth's near southside neighborhood that is like Gallery Night and a street fair and art festival combined. This is such a lovely area, centered around Magnolia, where the old buildings are being renovated and great new restaurants and other businesses have moved in. The twice a year art festival includes local artists and musicians almost exclusively and has a very nice neighborhood feel.

I cut and sanded the squares of wood in the top picture last week, and several of them became canvases for small mixed media works.

Also last week, I was very happy to (finally!) get the replacement top (the main part with all the elements) for my kiln. I have been on a cutting, stacking and cooking glass spree ever since. I'm going to have to tear myself away from the kiln and get all my pricing, tagging and packing done!

Fused glass pendants, mostly with dichroic glass - the small teardrops on the right were my first experiments with fusing in a mold. It's been a bit trial and error and most of the ones I like needed a 2nd firing with some glass and glass frit added.

Arts Goggle is Saturday May 14 4-10 pm. I will be at 209 South Main in the back room (it has a separate back entrance) of the Robert Kelly Architect building.

Finding Cool Art at Main Street

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Fort Worth Main Street Arts Festival. Actually, I went twice. Blocks and blocks of downtown Fort Worth are shut down for the weekend for "(t)he Southwest's largest, four-day visual arts and entertainment festival, four days of fine art, food, fun and festivities! Rated as the Number 1 Arts Festival in Texas and the 3rd largest Arts Festival in the country as rated by the Harris List and the Art Fair SourceBook."


An amazing variety of works were represented, but of course, a few artists stood out.





2011 Commemorative Poster
by artist Richard Curtner


I was really taken by the serene beauty of Molly Barnes' blown glass vessels. In fact there were a couple I really wanted to take home with me, one in particular that I recalled with longing and regret on Sunday evening.

Ms. Barnes chatted with us for a while, explaining her glass blowing process, in particular the way she creates the ribbons of translucent color with streamers of molten glass.










Chuck Kaiser's mixed media works are both intricate and intriguing and definitely deserving of a closer look. He works with wax in a batik like process, as well as with paints, ink and pieces of text, often on surfaces like newspaper.

This artist was also kind enough to take the time to discuss and explain his work.












As we went past the lovely silver and gemstone jewelry display of Ashka Dymel , I asked Edward if he saw anything that looked familiar. For Valentine's this year, he had given me a pair of labradorite and garnet earrings by this designer, purchased at Uncommon Angles in Montgomery Plaza in Fort Worth.

(I recognized her work immediately, but I'm afraid Edward had to be reminded ... He does have excellent taste though.)







At the end of the day on Sunday, we
discovered this Arlington, Texas artist in the Emerging Artist area. Anne Cubbage carves books. I had never seen anything like it, and I wish you could get a better sense of the depth and detail from the pictures here.

The old books that she uses, as well as the illustrations and the bits of text that are highlighted all connect and have special meaning, sometimes decipherable by the viewer and sometimes just to the artist.



This is obviously just a taste of the art on display this year, but through the link at the top to the Main Street Arts page, you can see a few works by each of the participating artists.

Next year's festival is April 19-22. I'm going to put it on my calendar right now.

Wine Glass Painting Experiment #1

Instead of just settling for dinner and a video for our weekly girls' night, when Edward is off at band practice, last night my youngest daughter and I decided to try our hands at glass painting.

Pebeo Vitrea brand supplies from Michaels

My glass, done almost completely with the markers

They were a little too transparent for the clear glass, in my opinion. The paint was also slightly transparent unless applied thickly. Note to myself for next time: It might turn out better if I have a design in mind before sitting down with a brush in my hand.

R's glass, in progress

My daughter worked very diligently on her glass with the white paint and a small brush. At the end she added a couple of green dots with a marker, but requested that I get some of the metallic gold highlighting paint. It comes in a tube, kind of like gel icing; I assume it comes out thicker and is more opaque than the markers.

After my glass, I painted a white ceramic mug. The Vitreo markers showed up well on the white.

I like the little dots best.

This evening after my Italian class, we will heat set the glass and mug by placing them in a cool oven, heating to 325 for 40 minutes, then turning off and letting set a while longer while the oven cools. After that they will be good to wash and, most importantly, drink out of.

There is a lot of information about painting wineglasses on the internet, including several videos on youtube. Today I did some research, and we will be trying this again with some enamel craft paints for glass. I read somewhere that you should never mix the different brands of glass paints, but I saw a blog post about a wine glass painting party for a bridal shower (great idea!), and they used 3 different paints, evidently with no problem. I would love to be able to paint with the opaque paints, then use the markers for embellishments and lettering.