Inspired by Spring

www.carolingrammoore.com ~ www.artisansofthegap.com www.facebook.com/CarolIngramMoore

The first day of spring I was inspire by the colors of blues, purples, and  greens. This is the back of a fused glass dragonfly piece. It is actually standing up so you can see the soft lavender of the glass.  

A purple jewel tone thin iridescent Bullseye glass I placed against the dragonfly mold from Delphi Glass. I learned a lesson from this. Place the clear glass on top of the iridescent to enjoy the rainbow effect of all the purples. It is always fascinating to me to see what happens when glass comes our of the kiln.

These glass beads were lying on the beading board. I kept thinking about them. It took several hours and lots of trial and error to create this piece. I used silver wire for the larger beads to give the piece some strength. Then I used a beading wire for the nine strands of glass beads. I crimped and  crimp bead covered each of the nine strands using silver plated jump rings to connect the five pieces. It is finished with a hammered sterling silver clasp. I wore it for several days, something I learned to do before I sell a piece to see how it flows and to make sure all the jump rings are tightly closed.

 These beauties are all over the yard. I planted about six dozen in early March. They will come up in late May. These are in the front of the house, the first daffodils planted. All of these are the early spring variety. The smells are just amazing.

 Wild grape hyacinths roam down the side of  our mountain yard. They began popping up on Friday. We had a little bit of rain and they are beginning to flow. I try to be careful not to step on them as they are tiny.

                                                    Wild hyacinths popping up all over.

 It was a bit starling to find this lilac and one holly were the only plantings in our yard. It is now surrounded by iris, daffodils, and soon to be planted annuals.

 The same day the forysthia budded out, the wild violets showed their faces. These are all over the yard.

Between the two buildings on the property, Ray had put the compost. I created a garden in front of this stump. The garden lies next to the woods. The critters certainly have enjoyed digging under the space. One spring, a turtle laid her eggs here. They did not hatch,

For Valentines Day, we gave each other this garden bench. I had been looking for several years and found this on Overstock. Ray assembled it and set it into place yesterday at the back of the yard. It gives a new perspective to our gardens and a place to rest while gardening.