My Biggest Canvasses

White walls.
I would show you a picture of a white wall, but I don't have one!
When there is so much color and beauty in the world it's a shame that most walls are white or beige. A friend of mine says, "my walls aren't beige, they're doe skin". : ) I don't have the heart to tell her that "doe skin" is a fancy name for boring beige.
Our living room/sun room is a gorgeous green, the master bedroom is colonial blue with a gold stenciled decorative design, the dining room is squash with raised plaster stencil painted gold!, the kitchen is purple, the guest bedroom is blue with varnish stripes and the grandbabies' room is bright yellow! (You can see their room on an earlier post.) I hope these pictures will inspire all of you out there to pull out your paint brushes and work on your biggest canvasses.

Oh! And don't forget the ceiling! Our sun room is 25' x 25'. It took several days to paint the ceiling. People think it is wallpaper when they first see it. The deep purple stripe really sets it off.
Lyndel
http://www.bearhollowcreations.etsy.com/
Of course even decorated walls need art work. check out the Visual Arts Team Members for great artwork for your BEIGE walls. : ) http://vastgallery.blogspot.com/

The Grandbabies' Room

I have 4 grandbabies and I'm not even 50! Grani made some pillowcases out of really cute material that had bugs and frogs and the frogs were playing musical inistruments. I painted the walls and chest of drawers to match. There are stars on the ceiling that glow under a black light. There are three songs on the walls (just notes, no words): "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "I Love You a Bushel and a Peck" and Braham's "Lullaby".

Concept to Completion

I found a flickr painting group called "Concept to Completion". The pictures there show a painting during it's different stages. So I am taking pictures as I go along on my current painting.
The pictures here are of a painting I did earlier this year. I only have one early shot of this painting, but I'll put it here along with the finished painting. I think it's very informative and cool to watch a painting as it is painted. I hope you all do too.
Lyndel
http://www.bearhollowcreations.etsy.com/

EtsyLux

I'm a member of the EtsyLux Street Team

Here is an article I wrote for their blog along with a list of EtsyLux members.

CRAFT MASTERCLASS - LEADED GLASS

SOLDER JOINTSThe mark of a nice piece of leaded glass is the solder joints. They need to be smooth, even, and as small as possible. (They have to be big enough to cover the joint and hold the lead together, but small so they don't cover much of the lead.) The first thing you do is put flux on each joint. You take a small brush and dip it in the flux. Flux is a chemical that reacts to the lead so that the solder will adhere to it. If there is no flux the solder will roll right off of the lead.While fluxing you have your soldering iron heating up. Oh, by the way, you should wear eye protection and a mask over your mouth while you do all of this; soldering puts out fumes (don't know if they are toxic, but they sure aren't anything you'd breathe in an oxygen bar!) The eye protection is necessary because often when the hot solder hits the flux it splatters. Your opthomologist would not be happy if you came in with burns on your cornea!After you've fluxed all the joints and your iron is hot, you roll out some solder. Solder comes rolled up on a spool. It is made of tin and lead. You can get lead-free solder, but I don't think it works as well or looks as good. Touch the tip of your iron to the solder and it melts to make a small bead on the tip of your iron. Then it's straight down to the lead joint and straight back up. NO PAINTING. I've had students that like to paint with the solder. It looks terrible, with bumps and lines and smears. Straight down - straight up. Beautiful solder joint. Do this to every joint, then turn the piece over and do the other side. Here's a closeup of the leaves on my yellow tulips panel http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=613378 with some nice solder joints.

Etsylux Members
allstix
Amanda Williams Design
Bear Hollow Creations
Belle Noelle
cheekybird2
chimerablossom
clinkscalesarts
crrysstall
deandersendesigns
Experimental
jqjewelrydesigns
Kris Shanks Art
Little Red Pear
lucindac
Luxe Creations
maevew
Marc North
maxinedear
Metal Garden Factory
michela
Mona Song Designs
My Little Store
Nantuckets by Rita
Nina Klausen
orno
Pavoreal
Pebblestone Papery
rosez75
scarfitup
Shauno
sheddzar
Shy Violet
Simone Walsh
Unicorn
William Holt