Inspirational Flowers

I've been taking more flower photos on my vacation and enjoying every minute of it. This one above is so beautiful, Leucanthemum "Goldrausch" - Fringed Shasta Daisy.

A giant yellow Dahlia and a bud just getting ready to bloom below.

I was crawling around the ground for a lot of these shots, quite literally. The results were so much fun though, that I didn't mind at all. These Petunias are "Surfinia Yellow Bush".

View from the ground up, near a bed of Phlox.

I just loved this bed of gorgeous pink Petunias.

These are Phlox "Coral Reef ".

Phlox "Garden Leader Pink".

Sitting among the Snapdragons.

A beautiful yellow Holyhock in full bloom.

Up close and personal with a Sunflower and bud below.

I hope you've enjoyed the inspirational garden photos. I'll be back next week to show you some artwork that I finished right before my vacation. I've also got some very unusual miniatures to tell you about that give a whole new meaning to the word "mini".

Address Tiles

A very good customer of mine recently ordered some handpainted address tiles. I also painted a mailbox in the same design.

These are Texas Bluebonnets & Daisies , painted on 6" square ceramic tiles.

I used paints that I can put right in the oven. First I did the numbers and background and then baked the tiles once. I did this so I wouldn't have any problem with the background pulling up as I painted the design or if I made some mistakes on the design and needed to erase as I went along, I wouldn't have to worry about the background coming up with it. Once the tiles are baked in the oven, the design is bonded to the tiles and will not come off.

I enjoyed painting them so much that I think I will add them to my website sometime in the near future.

Daisy Pitcher & Iced Tea Glasses Set

Well, the weather it would seem is conspiring against me. I've been wanting to take photos of my new watercolor background I created and also, a custom sign I just finished and so far, all I've had, has been dark, dank and sunless days. So, I'll have to put that photo project off until the next sunny day, which I hope will really be soon.

In the meantime, I'm showing a few pieces I painted a couple of months ago for a customer of mine. I've been selling hand painted glassware for years but this particular customer wanted a glass and pitcher set. I was able to locate a source for the pitchers and have added the set options to my website as well as my ETSY site.

Glassware is actually a lot of fun to paint, it requires hardly any prep time - I literally just wash the pieces with soap and water and then give them a little rub with alcohol. Finishing is a breeze because unlike something like mailboxes, that my husband has to spray a protective sealant on, these I just bake in the oven at 325 degrees for 45 minutes and the non toxic acrylic paint is bonded right to the glass.

I have set designs that I work from or, customers can ask me to create something special for them, that they don't see on my website. Most of the time, I will enjoy taking on a new job, although, I did turn down the opportunity to paint Sponge Bob on glassware many months ago. That just didn't seem right to me. I didn't think that motif would fit into what I would like to consider my glass work being called, elegant. The glasses can also be tossed right into the dishwasher and there isn't a problem. It was nice to paint a couple of these sets....I hope to do more in the future.