whites, yellows, and oranges

So, my previous post, Spring Sprung, got published before I meant and so I reverted it to draft and then published it on Monday. Considering the few number of views, I guess my readers think that it still doesn't exist but it's there now! It's the prelude to this one and the next two so if you haven't looked at it, you might want to.

OK, on to whites, yellows, and oranges.

bulbine

bulbine

dewberry flower with dew

our dogwood tree produced 5 flowers this year. it's first time ever to bloom.

fleabane

mock dogwood

mock dogwood

red tip photinia

iris

gerber daisy and freesia at the base of a yellow bells that blooms in the summer.

next: pinks and reds

spring sprung

Despite all my moaning about the incredibly overcast and rainy winter and lackluster spring, the sun did finally come out for long enough for things to just explode into bloom even though it was overcast and misty Friday and rain was predicted for Saturday and today. It didn't rain Saturday but did early this morning and we were supposed to get more later. Of course, it did rain this morning because yesterday I finally got tired of waiting through supposed days of rain for it not to rain and got back up on the 12' ladder (I have to keep reminding myself of that lest I get careless) and worked on the roof of the shop more. I scraped down more sections and painted the rust inhibitor on 5 sections but I didn't want to do much more than that in case it did rain before today when I was going to do the tar on those sections. So, yes, of course it rained.

Ah well. Back to my original subject...

This time of year everything in the yard is blooming. Well, not everything, the summer bloomers are waiting for summer, but everywhere you look something is blooming.

There is so much and I took so many pictures that the next several posts are going to be devoted to pictures of what is blooming around me. First a few long shots. 

bluebonnets and roses; I've taken this picture over and over because they just don't do it justice. 

evening primrose and bluebonnets; we have two new bluebonnet patches established in the back and the evening primrose choose every year where they intend to bloom. We let them.

verbena and bulbine

larkspur and baby blue eyes; the larkspur are really just getting going. They also move at their whim.

roses and mock dogwood

evening primrose and baby blue eyes; the baby blue eyes are getting established in several locations.

one close up

climbing roses

next: whites, yellows and oranges

epic battle

As I mentioned, last Tuesday dawned foggy and drippy. At the far end of the barn, a spider had built a large web and it was festooned with pearls.

Later in the day I noticed that she had removed the web and this morning, while I was out surveying the Big Back Yard, I saw she had rebuilt her web in the same spot. When I got closer, this is what I saw.

I witnessed an epic battle between a wasp and a spider. A wasp was caught in the web and while the spider was trying valiantly to secure it, the wasp was trying desperately to sting the spider while struggling to get free. The wasp eventually broke free and flew over to the dewberry to rest and clean bits of sticky web from it's legs and antennae.

The spider climbed back up in the header of the barn door to wait for another chance at dinner.

foiled work and finish work

I was all set to start on the serious roof repair Tuesday instead of the poking around and 'let's see if this works' approach. I had the rust inhibitor, the expanding foam, the fibered tar, the aluminized paint, and a new battery operated Dirt Devil but the day dawned foggy and drippy and rain was predicted for Wednesday so I finally started on the cold work for the last seven Botanicas instead. As it turned out the rain actually passed us by.

The first thing I do is use the upright grinder to take off the excess glass from the casting that sticks out around the bottom. Then I use the diamond flat lap to smooth down the sides from coarse to fine and finally the composite disc which gives the sides a smooth satiny look and feel. I don't go to high polish because this work already takes so much time and besides, I don't care for shiny glass all that much. This takes longer than it should because all my discs are worn out but it is hundreds of dollars to replace them. I really need to get a new 60 grit plate at least.

I didn't get quite finished, still had four of the small ones to do on the composite but it was getting dark and my hands, thumb joints really, were screaming at me and my fingers were cramping up. This arthritis sucks.

Yesterday I got that part finished and then used the flex shaft grinder tool with my diamond bits and polishing points to work on the surfaces. All I need do now is go over each piece one more time with the fine polishing point

You might remember that one of the last two big ones has a crack which we are really at a loss to explain since the other three pieces came out just fine in the same firing. I've decided to go ahead and do the finish work and then reinvest it and re-fire it. Hopefully the crack will heal and disappear. Sometimes though, a crack will heal but it will leave a scar. We'll see what it looks like after and if I have to do another one, sobeit.

Once I get all the finish work done, I can get the frames made and then I will be done with this body of work and can start on some new things after I get these two etched glass commissions finished. I'll get the peach box finished and I might even start on the blue heron box.

more work from the Bayou City Art Festival

I don't wear scarves and I can't see myself in the diaphanous gorgeous hand painted silk clothing by Mary Sly but oh, so beautiful.

Brianna Martray works in resin clay and cast resin. This wall piece caught my eye.

I was totally entranced by C. J. Bradford's illustrations, hand colored (some) whimsical pen and ink drawings.

Mike Bose works in clay and creates these very cool 'territorial' pots and sculptures.

The handmade furniture by Thomas William was so elegant and beautiful.

The clay sculpture by Pat and Ken Larson drew me in. I particularly liked their raven pieces.

I was happy to see my friend Thomas Irven at the show. I have always loved his turned wood acorn boxes.

I really liked these great yard totems by Cliff Matyszczyk. He also does some kinetic art but I liked these better. I have no contact information for him as his truck had been broken into the night before and he did not have any business cards but my friend Kerry tells me that he does not ship and does not use the internet.

There were 25 glass artists at the show and most of the work was predictably the same but there were a few stand-outs...a large display of very Chihuly-like (and I'm sure they would be horrified to hear me describe their work as such) sea form compositions, another booth with a few exquisite torch work paperweights (wish I had gotten a picture of those and they aren't on his website), and then these little cast boxes by Amanda Walker and Tom Beach. I did not get a picture of their work at the show either so I have taken this off their website. She does the glass work and he does the woodwork. I didn't care for the plate glass top, though, and think it detracts from the piece.

These impossibly delicate and beautifully embroidered pieces by Yan Inlo were not small. She would not allow me to take a picture so I took this one off her website.

I also really like these etchings by Marina Terauds. Again, I did not get a picture at the show so this is off her website.

I hope you enjoyed the little tour of the show.

a day trip to the Bayou City Art Festival

It's been a long time since I was at a quality art and craft fair so Friday, my sister and I headed into the city for the first day of the Bayou City Art Festival. This year the show included 450 artists working in 19 different categories (photography and mixed media have 2 categories each, mixed media/3D is a separate category than sculpture/3D, and then one for functional art, and of course the traditional clay, glass, wood, metal, jewelry, etc.). I wonder with so many categories, how an artist selects one. Some would be easy like jewelry. But what if you do sculptures in wood or clay or metal? Or the three people who made musical instruments out of wood?

Anyway, it was a great show on a beautiful spring day and by going on a week day, there weren't so many people that you couldn't even get in the booths to see the work or lines so long at the concessions that you had to wait an impossibly long time just to get water. By the time we made it all the way around the loop we were just in overload. I quit looking at the jewelry about halfway through because I just don't wear jewelry and especially not expensive jewelry no matter how gorgeous it is. And I stopped looking at the painters and photographers works because most of it didn't appeal to me however well crafted and so many of the canvasses were huge with huge price tags. In fact, there was lots of very expensive art there.

I purposely left my camera in the car because I didn't want to have to carry it around all day. After asking my sister for the third time to take a picture of something for me, she handed over her iPhone for the duration. The quality of the pictures is not always great but these are some of the things that really caught my eye (all the artists' names link to their websites).

As soon as we entered, to the left, was a metal artist with a fun and quirky flair, Fred Conlon, and his work immediately drew me over. He must have had hundreds of pieces spread out under the trees there. It didn't take me long to find the one I wanted and then I dithered over spending my money on the very first thing that I saw before seeing anything else of the show. So, I just took a leap of faith and forked over my money. He held it for me til we left.

Venus flytrap with spark plug dragonfly

The man directly across, Andrew Carson, did kinetic sculpture out of metal and glass. You can't tell it from the photo but these were in constant motion.

Further in, I thought these strumsticks by Bob McNally were elegantly beautiful even though I don't play any musical instruments.

These gorgeous beaded 'heritage' purses by Jacqui Uza were stunning. They not only looked beautiful, they felt good in your hands and what is even more amazing is that they are knitted. The beads are knitted in as she goes and she knits them all of a piece. She showed me the one she was working on where she had already 'turned the corner' and was working back up the other side.

Brenda McMahon was showing these beautiful softly colored vessels with natural materials adorning the tops. She uses a saggar fire form of raku which produces the soft colors.

These baskets by Cindy Killgore (who, unfortunately, does not have a web site or FB page so I can't give you a link besides her email address) are woven using pine needles and raffia. She had a set of shallow round forms on a wall that were based on butterfly wing colors and patterns but apparently I didn't get a picture of those.

Another potter whose work caught my attention is Cathra-Anne Barker. Her vessels are highly decorated with wax resisted glazes that she makes herself.

These beautiful obsidian wind chimes are made by Deborah and Richard Bloom. The shards of obsidian have the sweetest tinkling sound and are ornamented with all sorts of natural materials...bits of wood, dried seed pods and berries, bone and thorns, antlers and shell.

I loved the sweet little watercolors of leaves and bugs and fungus and feathers and moths and so on by Katie Musolff.

The enormous metal sculptures of cactus and palm trees by Richard Turner were wonderful. We were a little amused when he told us he was from Kansas...because they have so many cactus in Kansas?

These very cool birdhouses by David Boone stopped us in our tracks.

More gorgeous stuff continued in the next post...