Back to playing with my sea glass. Creating more fun cards.

#mansbestfriend #doglovers #foreverfriends #girlfriends #seaglasscards #myrockpaperart #seaglassart #cheersgirlfriend ​

My latest endeavor was to try to create bowls using the sea shells I have found on the beach. I've made 2 so far and am very pleased with the results. The first one I made I used all the flat pieces of shells I have collected and an oyster shell for the base with the outside of the shell on the inside bottom of the bowl. I had to put the bottom this way to create a stable base to the bowl. The shell itself is much prettier on the inside but that was also the most level surface so it had to be on the down side.

Then I went one step further and decided to make a bowl using shells that I have found that are not broken. I have a lot of beautiful fully shaped shells. Since I'm building these over an inverted bowl to help keep the shape it's more difficult with entire shells as there is no flat area to go against the bowl so getting a perfectly rounded bowl is much less likely to happen. But really that's okay because it creates more character to the bowl. It's also tricky to get the right shells side by side so there is a contact point where I can glue them all together. The full shell bowl turned out very well but was interesting to create. I had enough clam shaped shells and some other spiral type shells then I had to find a bottom for it. I remembered that I'd found this big shard from a conch shell but it was larger than I thought I would need. However when I tried it, it worked quite well. There were only 3 touch points to the shells on the sides of the bowl so I glued those into place and then I worked from the inside and fitted some smaller shells into the bowl to create more touch points to glue everything together.

My brilliant husband took one look at my bowls and said you should turn them over and put a light inside of them! I instantly grabbed my twinkle lights to try it and I love the results!!  

So whether you're looking for a unique bowl for your small keepsakes, for a conversation piece on your table or you want an interesting light feature, these bowls can fit the bill.

​I took some time off over the holidays but I think I'm about to get back to it. I haven't been feeling the urge to do any art which is very unlike me. I usually have some art happening every day! I know I need to replenish my supply of sea glass cards and I need to get some Valentine's Day cards ready but knowing it and doing seem to be 2 different things for me lately.

However I have had this idea floating around in my head and today seems to be the day I'm going to try it. Any of you that follow my art endevours know that I recently started making sea glass bowls. It was a fun project and people seem to like them so I decided to take that idea one step further. I have lots of interesting shells, some whole and some just pieces so I'm going to try to make a sea shell bowl. I might even do 2 as I have these pieces pictured here which are small to medium sizes which are what I'm going to start with. But then I also have some really small ones, mostly entire shells and I think they would make a really cool bowl I'm just not sure I will have enough of them. After my first bowl I'll spread out my smaller shells and see if I have enough for a bowl. Watch for a future blog with the results of my attempt.

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​I am a firm believer in asking for what I need. How can anyone know that you are in need if you don't say anything? I also taught my kids from a young age to ask for what they needed because you never know. The worst case is that they would get told NO but what if they actually got a YES. You just don't know what the answer will be until you ask the question or make the request.

With the continued construction and popularity of the sea glass Christmas trees I make I found myself running out of sea glass. So with that principal in mind I decided to have a container at my market display with a sign saying sea glass donations gratefully accepted.  Many of my friends around the village brought me sea glass, some as few as just a couple pieces from their walk that day; others with bags of sea glass they had collected but never got creative with.  I happily sorted all that glass and began to see my containers become full once again. I recently received this big donation of sea glass so today will be a day of sorting it into the respective containers.

I am most grateful to everyone who supports me in my artistic endeavors.

The rush for the annual Craft fair in La Manzanilla is over and I've done my last Friday market before Christmas. Time to relax and enjoy the season for a while. 

I've made a few observations during the year with my displays. I've learned that the art work I do with sea glass is my most popular item - be it cards, trees, wall art or bowls. I worked hard since the beginning of the year to have sea glass Christmas trees available for  the markets and the craft fair. I figured if I started in January by the time the market season came along I would be in good shape. Well the idea was a good one but I was very surprised to see how many I sold during the year even without the market. The word has gotten out about my trees - so much so that I've actually run out of the size of glass for my usual design so I had to put on my thinking cap and come up with a more simplistic style. I was happy to see that these were also well received.

My sea glass cards are the next item that I'm being challenged to keep in stock. I've started to come up with a few new designs but it's still a bit of a challenge. I don't think people really understand the work involved in these cards. It's not just a matter of grabbing a piece of glass and gluing it on the card. It's so much more involved; I spend a lot of time sorting through my glass to find just the right shape for that dog or cat head, tail, body; the right number of the same shaped pieces for flower petals; the perfect "purse" pieces; shapes that with some imagination I can turn into birds - you get the idea. And then there's the writing I do on some of the cards. I am NOT a very neat writer so I pull up my word program and all my fancy fonts, then I type whatever I'm wanting to put on the card - happy birthday, Feliz Navidad etc. Then I decide which style looks right for the card I'm working on and basically look at the font and draw it in pencil on the card, erasing and redoing until it's centered and looks good. Then I write over it with a marker. It's a lot of work but I get a lot of pleasure out of my creations. 

The other thing I've come to realize this year is that less is more. When I set up my display I have a book that I write my inventory in so I can keep track of my sales. This year I took a moment to count and I was displaying 17 types of art work.  I added a few things, like framing my mandala drawings and displaying them and my addition of beach treasure mobiles. I came to the conclusion that the display looked quite busy and people just didn't know where to look and were often missing things. I also made note of the art work that drew the most interest. At my last market I removed a couple items from my display. It made for a quicker, simpler setup and I think it looks much better now, allowing people to look without feeling overwhelmed by everything. Although I enjoy doing my watercolor painting and mandala artwork I don't think I will display them on a regular basis in the future. Given that I live in a beach community and people enjoy my sea glass art work and mobiles I will focus on those in my display and just occasionally display some of my many other types of art work.

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​I've been making a lot of this design lately. I think it's because of where I live.

There are people who have been coming here annually for 20 plus years and have created lasting friendships. They live thousands of miles apart at home but here they've made strong bonds that have lasted over the years. It's so fun to watch the village fill up with all the regulars and their joyous reunions. It's the only time that a lot of them see each other so there's lots of catching up that goes on.

My collection of cone shaped trees is growing once again, it feels like a Christmas tree farm LOL. It's like taking one step forward then two back. Every time I get a few trees in stock they're sold at the market. I know it's a good problem to have but I have one more market on Friday and then the big annual craft fair on Sunday and I'm HOPING I will still have a few trees available by then. I'm busy trying to make more this week but it's a bit of a challenge when I also have friends visiting us for a week and we're trying to show them around our neck of the woods. I'm managing to balance art time and friend time so everyone's happy.

It's quite the process to make these trees and not as simple as it looks. I have a piece of cardboard that I've drawn the outline on and I cover that with plastic wrap. Then I find the pieces to fit into the shape; it's like working on a jigsaw puzzle. I have learned that because of wrapping the cone once it's drier it's better to have more vertical pieces or if they are not too wide they can be squarer or rounder pieces. I am also trying to make them fit tight together without a lot of gaps between. I find each piece, add a bit of glue and put it in place. It takes about 3 hours just to lay out a tree. Then I smother it in a layer of glue and let it dry for a few hours until the glue starts to turn clear. At this point it's still flexible enough that I can remove it with it's plastic wrap backing from the cardboard and I wrap it around the cardboard cone I have made to help it hold its form while it dries completely. 

The next day I put another thick layer of glue on the seam and lay it down to dry so the glue will stay in the seam rather than running down if I stand it up to dry. After the seam dries I remove the cone form from within and add one more layer of glue to the whole thing and it's done.  Ready for you to add lights and have a lovely addition to your home. The images below are the same 2 trees with LED tea lights in the left image and twinkle lights in the the right image.

​Friends come in many shapes and sizes but the most important thing is their loyalty and devotion to us. I've been having lots of fun with these new designs. It's kind of tricky to find the right shapes for the dogs but I lucked out with these ones. Sometimes I'll have to use pieces that will cause us to think a little outside the box to see the dogs but hopefully I will still find enough pieces to continue to make these fun cards.

​I’ve been making a lot of sea glass trees, bowls and cards lately. No surprise that my supply of glass has been GREATLY diminished.
 
I cut the tops off of 2 liter pop bottles to sort and store my glass in. At one point I had 12 of these containers with various colors of glass and now I’m down to 5 partial containers with the colors I find – dark green, light green, white/clear, brown and blue.
 
I decided to take the advice that I always gave to my kids as they were growing up, and that was to ask for what you want or need – the worse that can happen is being told NO – but what if you got a YES. You’ll never know if you don’t ask.
 
I put a container at my market display with a sign that said Sea Glass Donations Gratefully Accepted.
 
I’d like to thank the people who stopped by and gave me sea glass. My containers are beginning to fill up again – so thank you for supporting my art through your donations.