Christmas Ceramic and Wooden Sled Paint Parties

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After a five year hiatus, The Moon and the Monocle is back! This fun and quirky shop is back just in time for the holidays – and I’m doing not one, but TWO PAINT PARTIES in the next few days!

The first is a 3-D Wooden Sled Door Hanger. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10th, 1pm-3pm.
It’s actually five pieces of wood, but the sled itself will be assembled before the class so it’s ready to paint! It’s about 16″ long x 8″ wide.
You’ll paint your Santa Gnome and background from the template I’ll provide OR go rogue and create your own!
Class is $45 and includes all materials. You’ll go home with a finished sled to give to a loved one or display on your own home. Tickets on Eventbrite.

The next class is DECEMBER 15th, 6pm-8pm, with your choice of ceramic item to paint with acylics and take home that night. Prices range from $30 – $50, depending on the item. The small truck and tree, the tree gnome and the santa gnome are $30 each. The light up using your choice of battery operated candle OR fairy light (included with class).
The snowman, large truck are $45 each and Christmas trees are $50 each. These three styles have plug-in cord and nightlight bulb (included with class). Tickets are available on Eventbrite.

Paint Kits for Kids and Adults

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Paint Kits for Kids and Adults

I’ve gotten up the first of many art kits on my new website, ArtNites.com. I will have ceramic items as well as paint kits, hopefully all going up this week. I have a ton of orders on Etsy right now (marketing works!) so I have to get those going first.

But here’s a kit that’s ready to ship! It’s a unicorn, perfect for any age child. It comes with clear glitter paint that can be used on the entire painting after it’s dry! Who doesn’t love a little sparkle! It’s available for $15 for pickup, $25 to ship in the continental US.

The kits will come with a link for a private FB group (or choose the private YouTube video) to follow along with me, step-by-step! Each kit comes with an added gift: the above comes with a wooden butterfly magnet and some candy!

Online Classes & Kits – Painting, Ceramics & More!

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Since Covid-19, I’ve put off doing classes this year, and I’ve been focused on my Etsy store, selling through groups and marketplace on Facebook and building up my Facebook pages:
Fantasy Stained Glass: dragons, dragonflies, fairies, butterflies and steampunk!
Stained Glass Invitation Boxes: My large boxes for weddings, Bat Mitzvahs and my smaller pressed flower boxes and suncatchers.
Art Nites: Big News! I’ve finally decided to dive in and teach online classes! The first one will be on Zoom, October 14th, for subscribers of the Ashford Arts Council. More details will be coming soon on the AAC website and their FB page. We’ll be starting off with Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. But not to worry; even beginners can make this turn out awesome as I’ll teach it step-by-step. See pics from in-person classes!

Painting Kits: I’ll be putting together painting kits with my favorite brushes and my favorite canvas size for classes: 11×14. These will be available for pickup or can be mailed anywhere in the US.
Ceramics Kits: I’ll have ones for adults and kids. Pickup trucks, Light Up Christmas Trees, Unicorns and more. These will also come with acrylic paints. My current glass kilns are too small/short for all but the unicorn, so that one will come with a choice of paints or glazes.
Mosaics on Wood: I plan on bringing my ever-so-popular mermaid back with her pretty glass tail, stones and shells. Each kit will come with the wooden panel, mosaic pieces and paint.
Wooden Projects are also in the works: holiday themed hangers for your door, wooden panels to lean against your house and fun ideas. I’ll post them here and on Facebook when they’re available.

Sunflowers and Sandblasting

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It’s been quite a year for 2020, and a crazy year for me since last September. I broke my leg while setting up for a craft show and had to have surgery to repin it. Yup, leave it to me! I’m still dealing with a torn MCL that they didn’t find prior to surgery so I still have trouble bending my leg (although the break itself has long since healed). The first week of February my husband and I decided that since the virus wasn’t on the east coast anywhere yet, we’d head down to Atlanta and then on to Orlando. Lucky me, I came down with a very mild case of Covid-19- I’ve since heard of people who had it in November-January – all on the east coast of the USA. Later I had a tear on my muscles up under my ribs, giving me a scare about my heart. Whew! What a year – and we’re only part-way through!

Enough about all that, though. I’ve been in my studio designing up new things. One of which is sandblasting! I design in Illustrator, cut the image in vinyl with my Cricut, then place that onto the glass. Then it’s sandblasting with a 220 carbide grit. The fun part it peeling away the vinyl to see the image in glass! Then I break out my paints or alcohol inks and dye it so it’s extra special. That’s how I did the words, ABBY and the date, above.

Three More Weekends at CT Renaissance Faire

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You might have noticed that I don’t have too many items on my Etsy store at the moment. I’m in the midst of six weekends of shows. I’ve done two weekends at the CT Renaissance Faire  followed by a Saturday at Roseland Cottage for the Compass Rose Steampunk Show. Now, I’m back to the Lebanon fairgrounds for three more weekends of Renaissance!

I’ll be doing three shows in December:

  • Dragonfly stained glass box
  • Dragonfly Stained Glass Art
  • dragonfly stained glass ring box
  • purple stained glass dragonfly ring box

Gorgeous Dragonfly Glass Box

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  • Dragonfly stained glass box
  • Dragonfly Stained Glass Art
  • dragonfly stained glass ring box
  • purple stained glass dragonfly ring box

I’ve been making the purple ring box with the dragonfly for a few years and occasionally have gotten requests for other colors. Here’s a few recent ones! They can be ordered from my Etsy site, just put in the color choice in the personalization section.

Romantic Necklace with Stamped Molten Solder

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molten stamped stained glass necklace

I’m finally, finally getting around to adding my jewelry to my Etsy page! I made these in early Fall, then didn’t put them up for the holidays. Partly because I ended up getting swamped with orders (most were non Christmas orders but at Christmas time!) and partly because I’ve had foot surgery – on BOTH feet! First the right foot a week before Thanksgiving, the left foot two days after Christmas. I’m still on crutches and hopping around with two damaged feet.

So… my jewelry! I’ve been dabbling with my lead-free stained glass solder, stamping it with rubber crafting stamps while the solder is fully molten. It’s a quick process and so rewarding! If you try it, use the red, rubber stamps not the clear silicone ones. For this necklace, I’ve used printed images from John Waterhouse and it reverses to a gorgeous piece of stained glass – it can be worn either way! I’ve added real amethyst beads and a pewter plated chain. It’s for sale on Etsy. I’ve others with broken pottery bits mixed with some steampunk gears.

Glass Suncatchers with Press Flowers

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stained glass floral suncatchers

For almost 30 years (yikes!) I’ve been making small stained glass suncatchers with pressed flowers. These have always been very popular in the stores and craft shows I’ve sold at. Yet for some reason I’ve never put them up on Etsy – until now 🙂

They are made with a 2″ square clear beveled glass with a piece of pretty colored stained glass behind it. The real pressed flowers are arranged between the two layers of glass and fully soldered around the edges. I choose a variety of flowers which are thin but pretty: larkspur, delphinium, verbena, baby’s breath, baby marigold and a few others that give my work color and texture.

Years ago I made 80 of these for my own wedding favors; all last minute of course, staying up until 2 am two nights before my wedding to get them all done! It was worth it as everyone enjoyed them so much. In fact, I’ll visit people’s homes and still see them hanging in their house and looking great – 22 years later!

Yes, real flowers do fade over time but it seems to add to their vintage look and doesn’t detract from their beauty.

If you’d like to check them out, click here to view. I’m selling them either individually ($10 with free shipping) or in groups of three ($25 with free shipping). If you’d like a particular combination of flower and color I can do that for you!  You can contact me through my contact page or via Etsy. Thanks and Enjoy!