Monthly Archives: December 2020

1″x 2.5″, found objects

I’m hoping that the new year brings a new calm.  Most people can only feel serene in a clean, almost-empty space, but I only really feel at peace surrounded by stuff that I love.  I’m always working toward the perfect balance of full, colorful, meaningful and organized, adding things that are beautiful and taking away what makes a space feel too overstuffed.  The calm but observant expression on the golden face that I used in this pendant struck me.  I tried to create a setting for it that has the richness, texture, and variety that makes me feel calm, but with a limited palette to strike the ever-important balance between too little and too much.

1″ x 1″, mirrored glass

My grandmother moved into memory care yesterday and on the way she said “I don’t know when it was that I got to be so old and helpless”.  Some transitions, like the one from her old room to another room in another building in another city, are harsh and immediate, but others are gradual, so slow that they can’t even be pinpointed.  This pendant transitions from blues to greens gradually. You can see the borders but there’s no clear line to mark the change.

.75″ x .5″, glass

This week I made a micro-mosaic inside an old gear (from one of the first mills in Massachusetts). The gears that members of the New England Mosaic Society make will all be shown at the Charles River Museum of Industry and then sent down to be installed in Rachel Sager’s Ruins Project.  Inspired by Rachel’s filati work, I turned on my torch for the first time this year and pulled what I’d call messy cane and the mosaic world would apparently call filati. Turns out it’s lots of fun! This pendant, in a smaller bezel than usual, is made from sections of filati turned on their ends and  from the the smooth, curved sections of glass that came from where I grabbed the hot glass with my tweezers.

1″ diameter, found objects

Across Boston starting this evening, you can visit 8 light-filled installations by 8 different artists to celebrate the 8 days of Hanukkah. Organized by JArts, the exhibit is called Brighter Connected. (My piece of the exhibit, a series of collaborative stained glass windows about family traditions called “Looking In”, is at the Woburn Public Library.  Check it out!).  This pendant celebrates the truth of the concept that together we shine brighter and can accomplish more.

1″ x 1″ found objects

We took a hike on Friday near Ponakapoag Pond and as promised, it was magical.  Gnarly twigs, a deep bog, moss, carnivorous plants, and beautiful lichen covering the branches.  For this pendant I tried to capture the colors and textures of the lichen on branches in my own medium.  Metal with green patina, glass, and ceramic, all with the same amazing unexpected combinations that you can find outdoors.