Susan's Seahorse

My dear friend  Susan, from New Jersey made me this wonderful seahorse. What a beautiful gift this is, and it brightens my day ~ each and every one of them.
I've never seen anything packed so intricately, but this is such a wonderful work of sea glass art, to take less care in the packing may not have helped it on it's travels!

Here he is, all strapped into his seat for the flight over!

When I unpacked him, I was stunned at the shape!! Truly beautiful! Streamlined and graceful and so true to form!

What a beauty!! I just loved him ~ and still do!! What a gorgeous nose! Just perfect!

I love the way she's made him using seaglass from her area, and one piece of English glass from our friend, Rob, for the heart. It's between the large bottle bottom and the blue fin in this photo.
He spends his seahorsey days hanging from my kitchen window, and as I don't have a dishwasher, I spend a lot of time with him! We keep each other company quite a bit!!
To make this lovely seahorse, Susan used copper wire, and stripped it herself! What a wonderful friend!

Thank you so much Susan!! I love him dearly!

Autumn In My Garden!

Autumn in Australia is a beautiful time. When the heat begins to wane and we have the relief of cooler temperatures at night ... heaven!

It's April, and while the leaves have yet to turn red and gold, then to crunchy brown, we still have flowers, insects frogs and more blooming in ways that would be foreign in most parts of the world.

 

Over Easter, butterflies were everywhere, three, four, sometimes more, winging around and through the garden, but hard to pin down [bad use of words!!] . Finally I managed a few shots.



And up in the tadpole pond, noone has told the resident frogs winter is on its way. If we go on previous years though, all will be well, and these young ones will spend  winter in the pond, not growing much till next Spring.
We have large green frogs and small Eastern Brown Striped Frogs in our yard. These tadpoles are the Eastern Stripeds.

Our ginger plants have flowered well this year, huge and fragrant, I was surprised to see a few blooms even as late as last week. I think this will be the last!

The hibiscus too, are having a last hoorah!

And the ivy geranium ....

A few last tiny tomatoes ripening on the vines ...

But Autumn is creeping softly into the yard during the cool nights, and tinging the leaves with colour.



Murano Seaglass

Another beautiful Ebay win ~ seaglass from Murano Italy. This time, "Flames"!

Beautiful Murano Sea Glass.

These are now pretty common on both Sea Glass sites I belong to, but each one is different and they deserve their own images.


Not such a great photo!



Really big, a lovely handful of glorious colour!

There don't seem to be any around at the moment for sale, but hopefully they will be back when more can be wrested from the sands around Murano.



Surprise!!!!

This week I bought some Seaglass marbles and an end piece ~ the piece they scrape off the glassblower's rod after the completion of the main piece, which could have been something useful, decorative  ... say a bowl, vase, paperweight ...
Anyway, these pieces didn't look much in the Ebay photos, which was good for me, [but of course, not so great for the poor seller!] as noone else bid on them.
What a surprise when they arrived. Old, crusty marbles turned into wonderful treasures with just a little water added. Colours popped and slicked out of the surface, and yielded so many wonderful surprises!

Just waste glass! Well, WASTE NOT WANT NOT!!!!!!

 What a gorgeous thing this is ... mauve and clear, a touch of pink ... beautiful!

This one is really beautiful. Opaque glass, no nicks or deep wounds.

Very dark, just the slightest hint of colour in with the black.

A little Earth from Space!

 Subtle dark green swirls against the black.


Called by the seller ... "Coffee Swirls", it took blowing this beauty up till I could see just how many different layers of colour there were.

I was so happy with these great marbles. Who knows when they were 'born'! But they have a very famous history ~ all were discovered while snorkelling the waters around Murano Island, in Venice! Nowhere is more famous as a glass centre, not even the north-east of England!

I feel so lucky to have acquired these. Some will soon be on their way as Christmas gifts though ... however will I choose?!!!



What Makes Black Glass Black?

Well, I'm darned if I know! Is it the density of pigment? Is there any pigment in glass? Beats me!
But this is one of the wonders of the current world that absolutely drives me nuts. How can something be black, but all the while be blue? ... or green? ... or red?

A dear friend from England ~ home of the world's best glass! A fact accepted by all except a few lucky Californians!!! ~ sent me the most wonderful and generous gift of glass yesterday, and in this wonderful package were several pieces of the most fantastic black glass.

Gorgeous shapes, just in that one facet of their being. Shape!  But so much more is hidden away in these thick, frosty, black-as-pitch treasures!

With the help of the Sun, early this morning I set about cracking the mysteries that were hidden within!

Some were easier than others, and one is holding firm to its secrets even as I write.

Wanting to take some 'artistic' shots, I set up as the sun breached the eastern sky and let loose with the Nikon.

Here they are ~ What beauties! Black beauties from the stony shores of Seaham Beach!! Tossed and tumbled for decades, maybe even centuries, rounded and smoothed, caressed and pounded, by the cold, relentless waves of the North Sea.

And every one a perfect shape, no nicks or chips! He only picked the best to send me! What a kind person he is!

Now, to get inside one of these black treasures you have to be a bit of a contortionist! Aim and shoot, just doesn't work!

Aim, jiggle, focus, twist, side-step ... maybe ... because somewhere around that waiting glass will be "The Perfect Spot" where the light will flash through and all is revealed.

Some revealed themselves as SideLights! and that was what I called the photos when I posted them on Seaglasslovers.ning and SeaglassArtistsandCollectors.ning!



A dazzling flash of colour appears down one side ~ all you have to do is capture it!

Surprises in RED!

Yes, as incredible as it would seem, this glass without the aid of sunlight light, is black!    

And this is my Hold Out! I think it's green but it won't tell me!

What a generous gift this is! He tells me to use it, and make jewellery with it, but somehow I can't.

Not yet!

Maybe some day .......

Spring in Australia

Well, it beats me how, for someone with so much to say, everywhere, continually, how I can forget to sign in to my own blog and write a new one! I totally forgot August.
And now here we are, Winter has faded, bar the strong August winds hanging around like an uninvited visitor.
Spring is here.
About a month ago I saw these swans on a farm dam not far from home. Next day, when I took my camera, they were gone. Weekend after, on another dam. A few days later ... gone. Oh well, it served me right for not gluing my camera to my hand!
 But earlier this week here they were again, back on the original dam, with some lovely little surprises.


Isn't this the most delightful little fluffy being?

Mum, dad and the kids were resting on the grass when I arrived, and despite being quite a distance away, they took themselves off to the farm dam.

The water seems dirty, but they were happy to swim, roll, ooze themselves in ecstasy across and through it.

They didn't seem too worried, but I didn't want to harrass them. Thank you Nikon, for my gorgeous 55mm - 300mm lens!

 

Four wonderful Spring babies and two loving parents! What a wonderful start to Spring.

Adding Photos ...

Can I?

Yes!!! I CAN!!

But things are different now, and the message that the image isn't able to download is obviously wrong. Maybe Picasa wasn't to blame at all. I'm so glad, as  loved the collage function.