knitting Paradise

I belong to a wonderful knitting and crochet group called

Knitting Paradise.

http://www.knittingparadise.com

I hope you will drop by and check us out. Shirley

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Hi everyone!





I haven't been blogging much this past 8 weeks as we have been dealing with a lot of stress due to the illness of my older son. Things have settled down and he has found an excellent physician who is over seeing his treatment. As a result I am feeling more like getting back to work.

I have been checking out some of my stepping stones which were a major project for me for 4 years. I used original designs cutting out glass and putting them face down in a mold - then pouring fine cement over them and letting them dry. I taught the stepping stone class while we were in Mesa and made and sold the stepping stones (Usually by private orders) for people who wanted specific themes. We had a cottage in Central Alberta and I had a little shop. Here are some of the stones I made. As we are living in a condo, I am not doing stained glass any more. I hope you enjoy looking at them.

5 comments:

Judy Ellsworth said...

Beautiful stained glass work!! I especially love the frog and dragonfly.

Susan Loftin said...

Your stepping stones are beautiful! I had never thought of using stained glass in a stepping stone before. Very creative!

Janet Hartje said...

Beautiful work, Shirley! This is like what I want to make for my garden. I hope mine turn out half as good as yours.

Dolores said...

Hi Shirley, the stepping stones are great. What did you use as a mold? Did you make it yourself?

Shirley said...

I had a lot of fun doing stained glass of all kinds.

I think the molds are still available at glass shops (stained glass - not window glass)grin. I used wax paper and cut out the shape of the bottom inside of the mold. I put oil around the edges laid the design on the wax paper - facing down, then poured medium light cement onto the bottom, then a slightly heavier concrete until the concrete reached l/2" below the edge. My husband and I made 700 in 4 years. Most were individual orders and most by word of mouth.
We had a lovely cottage with a meadow in front surrounded by trees. I made a stone of every bird I saw at the cottage - as well as smaller stones around the fire pit.

I loved cutting the glass and making realistic designs/ Thanks for the kind words ladies. Shirley