Retirement! Art! Murano Glass!

Hi all! I have been gone quite some time! I did Grand Jury duty here in Queens in February of  2020, and after that, everything is a blur.

Now Tootie Pie is 16 and a junior in high school. We still second-hand shop and I found a Ziploc bag full of Murano glass. Actually, I found 2, but I left the one with just the balls behind and took the one with the flowers! I retired just under three weeks ago from teaching, and I'm getting creative again.

Found canvas from former gym near Tootie Pie's former dance studio.

Gold paint, glitter, iridescent medium...all is off to a great start!

Extended lighter shade of gold up higher. Added blue.

Trying to arrange the glass. Not quite it with the flowers and bursts. Certainly the stems aren't popping against the black. Added green middle.

Green stems on white background?

Glass finding its home now. New York, New York, New York is on fire!

Flower color explosions.

Firework explosions.

Adding in a detail from my niece!

Now adding some origami from Tootie Pie.Green stems obviously stay on green background.

Paint containers temporarily supporting the more vertical structures.

Process in detail, and then a detail. I call it, Find the 14K Cultured Pearl (with tear and misfire). It will go in Tootie Pie's room where the star chart is temporarily.

It is an ode to New York, obviously, but with heirlooms and treasures unearthed in Sarasota and in the bead district and during our still current crystalling phase, and from Rhode Island (I challenge you to find the Avon daisy earring! My first communion cross! I Spy!) and little girls in the Midwest and love. It is also a redoing of the little girl undoing I did to my Nana's lovely shell doodad, a memento of her one tropical vacation, the Bahamas. I picked off every pearl and shell on that thing. I couldn't help it. Guess what I had to physically restrain Tootie Pie from doing when I unveiled this? And most of those pearls were my Nana's...

Almost found its way into the thrift bin (sadly, the thick custom acrylic shelf DID), but then...

I peeled off the circle scale things, painstakingly removed the hot glue, and had to cover up the poorly hidden Corona, Queens based art that was originally, um, flesh-colored...

Made with: thrifted AND reused canvas, white paint and gesso, vinyl tarp, Liquitex iridescent medium, Murano glass, coral, semi precious cut and smoothed gems, faux and one real pearl, barnacles, beads, sequins, origami paper, hand lettered beaded chain, turquoise, Mod Podge, E6000, Aleene's fabric glue, flat back crystal glue, walnut in shell, shells, charms, sterling silver, craft paint, fabric paint, 3D puffy paint, 3D puffy glitter paint, stickers, Testor's oil gold paint, Dutch and Swiss coins, a Euro, pendants, glitter, glitter card stock, tassels, Jelly Belly, Scrabble tiles, ceramic tiles, math manipulatives, plastic, pompoms, nail polish, buttons, plushies, bells, wood, earrings, many custom Golden products from long-ago A.C. Moore's closeout sale, marbles, Angelus leather paint, faux fabric flower, rocks, metal fittings, matching faux peridot earrings from Ann & Hope that didn't go through my sister's digestive system, thank you. 

It feels good to get this out of my system!