Okay - back to daylilies . . .

I can't help myself. They're here for such a short time and so beautiful when they bloom that I just get all drooly.

So here you are - Real Wind, Pink Sparkler and Hot Toddy.

A break from daylilies . . .

I've gotten into this riveting thing lately and can't seem to stop. Something about being able to set a gemstone bead without a bezel and to be able to see the top of the stone instead of stringing wire and crimp beads, perhaps?

The technique is simple enough but I've found that it really takes a torch with a tiny tip and a super-hot flame. And if I showed you how to do it, you'd be doing it to absolutely every gemstone bead in your collection. Forget the crimping and stringing!

These are a few of my popular pieces and right now, I'm completely and totally in love with chalcedony - so that's what you'll see in my shop and the galleries where I sell my work locally.

I try to stay with the cool colors for summer like icy blue and prehnite pale green and clear crystal but these will soon give 'way to the reds and golds and rich browns for Fall. But for now, coolness reigns.

. . . I can't help myself . . .

Prairie Blue Eyes

Little Wart

Puddin

Antique Ruffled Lavender

Tee Tiny

. . . and more . . .

I just can't get enough. The trick is to plant them in full sun, not too deep, ignore and wait.

Fires of Fuji double

Marse Connell spider

Flaming Poppa

Daylilies in bloom . . .

I wait all year for my dozens of daylilies to bloom and it's over 'way, 'way too quickly. Since the blooms only last for one day I find myself scheduling trips so I won't miss them in bloom. A terrible addiction, I know, but their fleeting beauty is something I can't risk not seeing. There are worse addictions.

I begged Pat Underwood at Sam Hill Gardens for Sugar Candy and boy! was it worth it! This purple bloom absolutely glows tangerine. I pair it with Bertie Ferris - a small bloom in an orange sherbet color.

Some of these little guys are going to have to be moved to a sunnier location this fall but (this purple one is Trahlyta) it's so hard to know where the good sunlight is going to be when you first move into a new home. I've given some of these little beauties plenty of abuse by moving them last summer and then again in the fall and I can only hope they'll forgive me for moving them one last time. I promise.

I'm so exicted I can hardly sleep!

I've seen some gorgeous enameled pieces lately and this is a class I seriously wanted to take. Torch-firing seemed like a 'too good to be true' thing since I really didn't want to add one more piece of equipment to my collection and [duh] I do have torches already. When this basic class was offered at The Lux Gallery in Lincoln, I jumped on it and boy! am I glad I did! This sweet little skill set will open up a world of color to my work and I can hardly wait for the UPS man to deliver my little box of enamel powders.

You can tell by this photo that I'm clearly bad at it at this point. Really bad. However, now that I have a few of the processes in mind along with a couple of textbooks coming soon, I can start working on refining my techniques and getting a bit more consistency going. A LOT more consistency.

Too, I cannot wait to work this enamel into my designs. The color possibilities alone are mind-boggling not to mention the little twists and secret stuff. Those of you who already know how to work in enamel have my admiration!

I wish I'd taken photos of some of the other practice pieces that my fellow students were working on - it became apparent that even though we were all being taught the same thing, we all brought a different 'artist's hand' to the process. Neat stuff.

Breathing room . . .

The banner for Midwest Market group on 1KM inspired me to post this pic of the view from my backyard. Without a doubt, I think this part of the 'fly-over' areas of the US is the world's best kept secret. Typically, I don't like to read artists' statements that describe how they're "inspired by nature" in their work because I think it sounds like something they think an artist ought to say. A bit pretentious and contrived.

For me, it's simply breathing room.