Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

Blown Glass Reveal

I wrote in a post a couple of weeks ago about my adventures in glass blowing at the New Orleans Glassworks and Printmaking Studio. Well, yesterday the box of my projects arrived! I was so excited to see how these pieces turned out since when I last saw them, they were still glowing red from the heat of the fire. As soon as they were done, they were whisked into the annealing oven to cool down slowly.

Are you ready? I will give you a little narrative since you may not be able to guess exactly what they are. 🙂 The piece below is a paperweight. And let me tell you, this thing is HEAVY.  I love the aqua blue glass embedded inside. Not sure about the green stripes but I think this was more of an exercise in how the different effects are achieved than making a “pretty” paperweight. Overall the shape was pretty good so that means my twisting and twirling was satisfactory.

Next we did the vase. This involved blowing glass gathered on the end of a long hollow stick until a bubble formed and caused a hollow in the middle. Then we pulled it out and shaped it into a bowl. I like the colors and ripply edge. And I know it’s not perfect but I still am amazed that I made that (at least a good portion of it).
Then it was time for this octopus. It is ever heavier that the paperweight. I am considering putting it on my bedside nighttable. Not sure I could lift it to hurl at intruders though.
If you angle it just the right way, it seems that there’s a little fish hiding in the water complete with eye and everything… Can you see it?
Now for the tough question. Which of these two do you think I did? No question about it, mine is the stumpy little one. I was too slow and let the glass cool down so when I went to pull the stem into the nice curlicue shape that Drake had done, that stuff would not move for anything!
So what, I’m still happy I did this class and urge you to step out of your comfort zone once in a while and give a new craft a spin! It’s inspiring…

Mod Podge to the Rescue

I was at Office Depot last night buying labels and found the cutest thing. It’s a notepad in a plastic case and the pen is what holds it closed. It’s brilliant! I have a notebook in my purse now now but after a while it gets torn and messed up plus I have to search my bag for a pen because there’s no place on the notebook to hook a pen to… am I weird that this bothers me?
Anyway, I bought this little beauty for $1.99. Not feeling it’s too beautiful though…

So I decided to customize it with my logo and one of my favorite crafty products, Mod Podge!

It was so quick and easy- here’s how to do it:
You will need:
Mod Podge– I used the Glossy formula but any kind will work.
plastic object to work with
paper cut to size
brown ink for distressing
crystals for blinging (optional)
Instructions:
  1. Print out logo, image or desired text. (This would be cute with photos too, don’t you think?) Trim paper to fit the top of the box. (I cut mine just a tiny bit smaller)
  2. Ink edges of paper if you want a more distressed look. Once you start brushing the Mod Podge on though, this ink may move a little depending on what kind you used. I liked how mine turned out but you might want to seal the ink first with spray fixitive.
  3. Lay down a fairly thick coat of ModPodge on the top of the plastic case (following directions on bottle). I used a paintbrush to apply it because it was a small project but check to make sure there are no stray paintbrush hairs on your surface before it starts drying. Mine was shedding all over the place!
  4. Center and place paper image on top of box. Add another coat of Mod Podge on top of the paper. Let dry for 30 minutes or so. Layer on one or two more coats, allowing drying time in between.
  5. Add a crystal or two- this really makes the project! It can be glued or affixed with a heated tip tool.
  6. Hard to see in the photo but I also added a crystal to the end of the pen and colored it with a Copic marker to color coordinate! Love it!

This technique will work with any plastic container so feel free to start personalizing kid’s school items, household storage containers, craft totes, gift boxes, recycled Crystal Light containers or whatever you have around the house.

I am excited to have a personalized pen and pad right on hand and easy to grab when a creative inspiration hits me!

Designer Connection blog hop

Our theme for the Designer Connection June blog hop is “Patriotic”. And I can’t think of anyone more patriotic than military wives and moms!

To see more of the red white and blue, hop on over to my fellow designers’ blogs by clicking on the blue Designer Crafts Connection button on the sidebar. You will be taken around a fabulous hop. Make sure you find the blog with the great giveaway! Keep hopping 🙂

I started designing matted artwork about 20 years ago. Traditionally, in the army, a small gift (usually bearing some reference to the military or unit) is given to welcome a new spouse to the family support group. Items like this were hard to find so my good friend Kim and I started designing military wife pieces for this purpose and later expanded into baby items and everyday sayings, as well as creating custom farewell gifts, volunteer appreciation and other gifts for the commanders on post. I am happy to say these pieces continue to sell well for me on line, at craft shows and in military post gift shops and boutiques. I am happy to help support the units with donations to many worthy causes such as scholarships and organizations helping the military community. I loved our time in the military and am proud that our children have also chosen to serve.

This is a small sampling of some of the military wife specialty gifts I create and sell. If you are interested, see more on my website.

Happy Memorial Day!

Sending out a huge thank you to all who have served in the military. Having visited other countries, I sure appreciate living here and the freedoms we enjoy. The military life is not an easy one, but one I feel blessed to be part of because of all of the amazing people we met and still have as friends. You guys are my heroes (especially the one I married and two I gave birth to). Go Army and Coast Guard!

Here’s a Patriotic Banner I designed for the Buttons Galore and More blog. Hop on over to see how to make it.

Enjoy your day off. We’re celebrating with a cookout and some relaxing. It’s supposed to be 97 degrees… time for the AC.

A Glass Act

Just back from a trip to New Orleans… and boy is that place HOT! But also very cool. Because while I was there I took a class in glass blowing. This is something that always fascinated me but I never thought I’d have the opportunity to actually try it out. New Orleans Glassworks was right around the corner from our hotel so I went over to check it out and, after some deliberation, scheduled a two hour private class with a teacher. I was given a quick tour of the studio and advised to wear close toed shoes and sunglasses.

I arrived at 10 AM and it was already about 90 degrees. I met my instructor Drake. To be honest, he did most of the work… but I did pick the colors 🙂 The first thing we (he) did was use this long steel stick called a “punty” to gather the molten glass from the 2200 degree oven. (I’m sure you can understand why I was overjoyed that he took this job upon himself.) The punty always has to be twirling so that the melted glass doesn’t get off center and fall off. So that was lesson one… not too hard. Turns out I am a pretty good twirler. When you take it out of the oven, that’s when it’s the hottest so if you are going to add color, it happens then. I was allowed to pick from a bunch of Dixie cups holding crushed glass and larger chunks in all different colors. We rolled the hot glass in the “sprinkles” of color (all the while twirling away) and then shaped it into a smooth round knob using a cherry wood “block” which looked something like a ladle with one side off. The block had to be wet often so that the glass didn’t burn it- you could see sparks starting if it got dry.  After that was formed, another gather of glass was added on top of the first one. In order to keep the glass hot, there was another oven called the “Glory Hole” where you would “flash” the glass to heat it back to a workable temperature.

The first project I made was a paperweight which I think came out pretty cool. I never really got to see it because once you finish the piece, it has to go right into another oven where it is annealed. This oven slowly brings the temperature, starting at 900 degrees over a period of hours, down to room temp. If it is cooled too quickly, the glass will crack and be ruined.

The second piece we did started as a vase but kind of morphed into more of a bowl and actually involved blowing glass. I think I was most nervous of this and thought somehow I might inhale scorching air into my lungs and die. But luckily, it really was not possible to do that. I was surprised- the first bit of blowing took the most effort because the glass was relatively thick but once it thinned out, less pressure was required and it got easier.

I was especially interested in how the piece came off the punty. One of the last things you do when finishing a pieces is to take calipers (which look something like a large pair of tweezers) and score a line (twirling twirling) where you want to cut off your glass. Then you simply dip the calipers in water and press the point of them into the thinner (and weaker) scored area in 6-8 spots around the base of the piece. It is then placed it in the annealing oven over one of the shelves and given a couple of sharp whacks and off it falls! Then the oven door is quickly closed so the heat stays in.

Drake was drenched by the time we were finished and I was not much dryer even though I was not near the ovens half as much as he was. This NY girl was ready for a Big Gulp! I was very happy to hop on the streetcar after class and and cool down.

I am so glad I took this class. I now have some idea of the things that can be done with glass. I appreciate the talent and dedication of glass artists and would love to do more but it really takes some major equipment so doubt I’ll be switching careers. Also it’s just too hot for me. But I love it and can’t wait to see my five little glass babies when they arrive in the mail after they have safely cooled down. I encourage you to think about taking a class here and there- it’s super inspiring!

My trip to the National Stationery Show

Home at last! The past week has been a blur as we traveled to Longwood University to see our youngest daughter graduate from college on Saturday. Then it was a long dark rainy drive to NY to bring my parents back home and an early morning wake up call Monday morning to catch the train in to “The City”, as we referred to it growing up. Come on- is there really any other?

We arrived at the show right as it opened. I saw and talked to a LOT of people, one of them being Tim Holtz, fellow Sizzix designer and all-around cool dude, who graciously agreed to talk about his new product line in a video clip. I’ll be sharing this on a Craft Critique post so I’ll let you know when that’s going up. I also got to visit with Ken Oliver from UniBind– one of the most entertaining and talented designers I know. Stay tuned for more looks at what’s hot!