Spirit of the Rose

Spirit of theRose

This is a very lightly drill engraved candleholder. The roses are all around the glass and one has a face below it. The rose is like a hat on her head. I used stone wheels on this piece to achieve the effect.

A very cool thing happened, I was picked as one of my community`s most fascinating people of 2010. Earlier in the year the Editor of mynaramata.com, Craig Henderson interviewed me and wrote a fantastic article about my glass art and the Guild of Glass Engravers. It was so good and true I`m very glad attention is coming back to it.

Here is a link to the article I would love to share with you; www.mynaramata.com/show1446a/Most Fascinating People 2010 Soon the New Year will be upon us. The Year of the Rabbit.

Yule Tidings and Merry Christmas!!

My Nephew had his first child this year. This is his first Christmas and I made this tree decoration in his honor. He is always laughing and so sweet. This decoration pretty much sums up his little personality. We all love him dearly! Happy Christmas little Amaethin!!!

Sabbatical

I am taking a Sabbatical from commissioned work for the time being. This winter I plan to take my skill level up a few notches and create some gallery quality work. Time to go inward and let my creative subconscious do its thing. I feel it stirring and yearning to create art that comes from within..........

A Little Visitor

This is Phoebe, she is our little hubcapbird that nests here and has her little family. She knows us and lets us come right up to her and take pictures and say hello. She is a little Dipper, who spends most of her time in the creek and in the shrubs around the creek. We have a number of birds who come around on a regular basis and live close with us. I love it when I can get a picture and keep a record of them all, get to know them and their habits, as they do ours, I`m sure!

We`ve had another wonderful visitor , from Stourbridge, England, Yes!, a fellow glass engraver and Guild member. Amanda Lawrence. www.gge.org.uk She was in Canada to personally deliver a commission she did for Mission Hill Winery in Kelowna. Amanda and her husband, stopped by for a short but very sweet visit to our home and My Studio. It was so inspiring and very thrilling to at last talk to another engraver in the flesh. It is fantastic to belong to the Guild of Glass Engravers, which inspires, educates and connects us together. "Light" is truly a magical medium to work with, and I hope to share with as many as I can in this part of the World.

Happy Halloween!

This is a wine bottle engraved with the copy of my client`s family label. They are from Sulzburg Germany, the family label is "Ghost from Sulzburg". They will then fill the bottle and keep it in their wine cellar as a special bottle. A cool design, the white image of the ghost coming over the castle. It turned out quite nice, the ghost was really sparkling. The bottle was brought here from Germany, Engraved and brought back again. I`m half German, on my mothers side and actually lived overseas for all my teenage growing years. It was a most rewarding experience to travel the world at such a young age.

It was kind of neat to engrave something that came from Germany to go back there again.

Finally getting back in the creative saddle, I will be engraving things with the winter season in mind and stir up a few ideas that have been waiting patiently for my wrist to heal up. Happy Halloween Everyone!

Harvest Time

Harvest time in our beautiful valley. This piece is a small portion of a 5' panel. Custom loft balconey glass, Two 5` panels, one side vineyard the other apple orchard.The house overlooks Okanagan Lake on a bluff. Not much engraving went on this summer. I took a wild fall, slipping on wet stairs in my slippy rubber boots. My engraving hand took all the weight of the fall. Silly thing to happen, devastating to my engraving. We don`t realize how precious something is until we loose it for awhile or altogether for that matter.

A fellow engraver from England, also a member of the Guild of Glass Engravers, is in my area. She is here to hand deliver a commission to a local winery. I really hope to get to meet her!

More news to follow!

I`ll be shortly back in the studio again, good as new I hope!

Local Scenes

We are now enjoying our beautiful summer Okanagan, wonderful vistas, the lake, beauty everywhere. So blessed to live here. I never take it for granted. Cherries are so delicious now, dark and sweet and sooooo good! The rainbow children are here to pick fruit and enjoy the culture and adventure of it all the tourists are happy enjoying themselves. The lazy days of summer. Just had a few small orders in the studio lately. Its Siesta time in the valley now. Time to enjoy the summer!!

Summer

Well, we are still waiting for summer anyway, our usual "Sunny" Okanagan has been rather dark lately. We hear it will be coming next week! Certainly can`t complain too much as we live in a beautiful paradise. When I look around this crazy world, I think how am I so blessed to live here and do what I love? Gratitude fills my heart everyday. Growing season is upon us and things grow a little every day. Its such a delight to run to the gardens in the mornings and see how they`ve miraculously grown overnight! We are embracing our gardens and growing more and more food every year. There is nothing like eating a meal that we grew ourselves that is still filled with life energy and nutrients. Ahhh, the good life! Anything you give attention to will flourish! We create our surroundings and all that happens to us. Attitude is so important to the outcome of everything. We can choose to keep the shiney up. Act as if you are excellent, even if you are a little off and soon you will be excellent. We really have that power. Its ok to feel bad sometimes, feel your feelings and let them run through you, then you can quickly change your mind, like a fish darting in the water! Try it!

Happy Anniversary to Alex and Jeremy!

Happy Anniversary to Alex and Jeremy. One year together and many more to come! I wish you all the best and cheers to a wonderful celebration today!

The Guild of Glass Engraver`s annual exhibition in Cambridge this year. You can go to the Guild site www.gge.org.uk and check it out on line. Very inspirational! I hope to enter for next year. Time ran away on me this year as it does!

Celtic Knots - Continued...

I`m happy to say the Guild site is in order again. All the knots undone and happily I am snuggled again into the member profiles. A few more details of the doors pre- installation. Its wedding season! Just finished a wedding decanter heading for a wedding in Calgary, Alberta.

Celtic Knots

This is a detail of the wine cellar doors I keep talking about. This was taken in my studio while in progress. It is very lightly engraved as I was working on tempered glass and could not go very deep. This kind of engraving really relies on proper lighting to see it as it should be seen. It can almost be invisible if the lighting is not right. The doors have been installed and the lighting is going in also before we take more photos in situ. More details to follow.

The Guild of Glass Engraver`s website is having a temper tantrum at the moment so a lot of us engravers have had our profiles wiped out off of it due to a glitch when everyone was trying to pay their dues at the same time on line June 1st. I know they are working on getting it back together again. In the meantime, my website www.marlenemoloneyglass.com is up and running again. And soon we will be back up on the Guild site as well. It is nice to be on a few sites so that when a glitch happens on one, there is still another to check out! This blog is an awesome tool to keep things updated and my clients informed of what is happening in my studio. I currently have three orders to fill for some regular clients who come to me for their gift needs. I am so grateful and always honored.

New Beginnings

This is a watercolor painting I did of my little chicken Kansas. She is sitting beside a forget me not. Do you see hidden in the painting another little chicken in prayer? I sure miss her this time of year, garden season, she loved the garden and we gardened together all the time. Sometimes I forget shes not there so I think her energy still is.

My Nephew`s son Amaethin was just born on June 1st! What a blessed event!! New beginnings are so wonderful and hopeful! So much joy to come!

I was going to attend the Naramata Market this year to sell my wonderful herbal healing salve and promote and show my Glass Engraving. However, as I said before, sometimes plans don`t work out. I`m temporarily without a vehicle and undecided what to get next. In the meantime, walking is so fantastic for my health and I don`t need to venture too far from my studio now. I have several new orders to fill. Wine cellar doors are getting proper lighting before I can post them installed. I will post some photos I have of them in progress.

Healing

We come into the world alone and naked and thats how we leave it. We have to be good with ourselves as well as the way we treat others. Thats who we have to answer to in the end. Inner-peace comes when you are feeling good about yourself and the things you do. Intention is a most powerful tool.

I love to make healing lamps, that are soothing to look at and thought provoking as well. I like to lay in the tub and watch my lamp, the quartz crystals glow with the changing colors the lamp from below lights up the engraving and the crystals. These kind of gifts or personal pieces are very heartfelt and meaningful. The crystals give the piece extra healing qualities. The energy of the people giving the gift or having one created for themselves becomes very much a part of it.

I am currently in between websites, mine has been taken down for the time being, in the meantime please contact me at tommoloney@shaw.ca

Soon I will post photos of the wine cellar door project, recently installed. I can`t wait to see them!

Celebration of Life

Life comes at you when you are busy making other plans. All part of our wild and crazy human experience. My Dad passed away on May 6, 2010, rather suddenly, however with many health problems of late. We are having his celebration of life tomorrow and he will be well remembered. He wanted all of us to not have anything formal or sappy, but full of joy and love and storytelling . He was quite a character. This event will bring his family all together in one place, which is the good part. The good, the bad and the ugly come at us everyday. We can only accept what comes and solve the solvable and let the powers that be, solve the rest. Going with the flow is such a happy way to live. My Nephew Daedrin and his beautiful lady JC, are about to have a baby! What joy, our father will be at that birth in spirit! He will be my Dad`s only great grandson. Daedrin and I designed this piece of the Raven, Rose and Celtic cross a while back and it never got finished. It jumped out at me in the Studio when I was having a moment about my Dad. All of a sudden I saw this piece in a different light. Everything has its time to shine. We love you and will miss you dear old Dad .......

JC and Daedrin also designed and built my website www.marlenemoloneyglass.com

Moving Forward

Sometimes life happens and changes your plans for awhile. My Dad transitioned from and Apartment, to hospital, to respite care then into bachelor assisted living apartment in a beautiful new place in town. He is looking better than I`ve seen him in a long time now and just getting settled. It was of course a very stress-full and emotional time for all involved. He came back from the brink and getting stronger all the time. He gets 3 meals a day, gets lots of exercise, is never alone if he dosen`t want to be and in a very positive environment. What more could you ask for, and he still has a sense of independence.

Now, back to making a living engraving and life in general. The above piece is called" Raitt Castle" It is intaglio engraved which is deeply carved into the back and viewed from the front. It is an old family castle in Scotland and drawn from photos of the client`s visit there. They commissioned this for their Grand daughter.

Wine cellar doors in progress, paperweight designs in progress, and small pieces being planned to take to the Naramata Market with my fabulous homemade herbal healing salve I have been making for almost 20 years. The market starts the first wednesday in June. I plan to go at least twice a month, hopefully more if all goes well. I never get too far ahead of myself, I like to take life as it happens in the now and go with the flow with goals in place.

Our Feathered Friends

Living on the creek on almost an acre, gives us such enjoyment and wonder on a daily basis and our special friends like the Pileated Woodpecker come back every year on almost the same day March 13. We spend the day in close proximity and watch him and photograph him. Of course we call him "Woody". We have many visitors like him and look forward to and celebrate their returns. A Kingfisher comes by quite often and makes quite an entrance and fishes little fishes out of the creek. They nest in burrows on the creek. I want to engrave all of them! We have many resident Robins and have named a few of the familiar ones. I like to do little engravings of them which make great tree decorations and suncatchers. These baby Robins were nesting eye level in our lilac bushes. There are so many different kinds of birds on the creek. I`ll engrave them all and share them on this blog! I have a collection of nests that fall out of the trees in big winds and they wind up being decorations in my studio. They are so beautiful!!

A wonderful article was written about me by our community journalist and a very good one at that! I`m very pleased with it and have had many compliments on it from all over including the Guild in England! They are sharing it with my fellow guild members as well! He really nailed it!! I`ve had an outpouring of encouragement and support from my community! I`m very fortunate to be living in such an inspiring magical place! www.mynaramata.com

Jenny

This piece is "Jenny" she is a beloved pet and long time companion who passed away and her owners asked me to do this memorial for her. She loved the ocean and would swim and swim every chance she got! One of her owners would go with her and run along the rocks to follow. They also have 3 adored hummingbirds who they care for and enjoy when they come back to the property every year. I portrayed Jenny as part of the ocean, waves washing through her as she watches over her companion on the beach. The 3 hummers are like angels who give comfort as they still come back every year at the delight of L. and Wm.

This piece is still in progress as it will become a lamp. I am currently looking into strip lighting that I can install within a hopefully driftwood and rock base. This work is very lightly engraved with stone wheels. The glass is a thick piece of recycled broken table top. Lovely for these kind of things or deep intaglio engraving as well. Thankyou L. and Wm. for letting me show Jenny before she is totally complete. I will post her again when she is in "lamp form".

Wedding Glasses

Spring is approaching and its time to think about new beginnings and love and weddings. Wedding glasses that have meaning to the couple and perhaps tell a little story become a very special keepsake and heirloom. When someone approaches me about wedding glasses I find out what is important to the couple, their favorite things, what flowers will be at the wedding, what is the theme etc. You can bring me the glasses you want engraved or I can source them out for you. Just about everything can be done on line, drawing approvals etc. When they are all done, if you can`t come to Naramata to my studio to pick them up I can get them to you by mail or courier or even deliver them if I can. Prices range depending on the amount of work you want done on them. I have a minimum charge of $45 Cdn. plus the price of the glass. I would love as much notice as possible so I can do a beautiful job without being rushed. I work to deadlines. I also am very open to working within budget limitations. Don`t wait or hesitate contact me soon for your up and coming special event!!

Decorating

Bowls, crystal or glass, are beautiful things to decorate with. I notice a lot of glass being used for decoration lately. It can be functional and beautiful. When the bowl or vase is empty it can still be stunning when the light catches the glass or even better when it has a design or some special meaning engraved on it. I do quite a few bowls for wedding and special anniversary gifts or just decorative pieces to dress up a room. A bowl can be a wonderful commemorative piece as well. These bowls shown, have a west coast flavor to them. They were both commissioned wedding gifts. They are intaglio engraved, which means they are quite deeply carved into the thick glass and have a very 3 dimensional look to them. They become functional art pieces.

Signs of Spring!

The snowdrops are a first sign of spring in my gardens, I love them and they are very pretty engraved as well. This is a little candle holder available in my studio should anyone need a spring gift or just something sweet on your table. I have several projects on the go at the same time with different deadlines. I look forward to sharing them with everyone. As spring comes on and the weather gets nice the energy picks up and more people venture out and about. Most of my work so far has come from word of mouth advertising and I`ve been pretty low key so far, however I will be venturing out quite a lot from now on. This year I have started a custom engraving business and have yellow page advertising coming out soon. My job is to educate people about hand engraved glass. All the engraving in my area is machine engraving and I`m always very excited to show people what I do. I love belonging to the guild of glass engravers and am very proud to be an elected craft member. My advertising mentions the guild and I like to share it with people and get people in my neck of the woods interested in hand engraved glass. I have several precious patrons who frequent my studio for their gift needs and are always tooting my horn out there to others. The 2010 Olympics are in our area this year, very crazy in Vancouver now. The weather is not co-operating unfortunately too wet and mild. We are located about a 5- 6 hour drive away. There is quite a buzz in the air!

Cherubs for Valentine`s day

This little cherub paperweight is heart shaped and multifaceted to shoot rainbows as it catches the light. This one is currently available in my studio should someone wonder in for a gift for their sweetheart. I always engrave as much as I can in between commissions, for people who would like to stop in and buy a gift or pick it on line and I can send it. I will post these items periodically on this site for spontaneous buyers. Everything that is left at the end of the year will be available at the Naramata Christmas craft fair held every year at our beautiful Heritage Hotel on the Lake. This paperweight could have a name added to it as well. Of course cherubs are very popular for Valentine`s day gifts, also botanical vases, a perfume bottle engraved with the name of your sweetheart would be fabulous as well. I also like using recycled pieces of thick glass for paperweights and recycled eye glass lenses to make pendants. I have quite a lot of glass that are scrap pieces that I love to reuse and make them beautiful. Happy Valentine`s Day to everyone and don`t forget a little special something for the one you love.

The Rose and the Robin`s Nest

This is a decanter, custom engraved with a combination of stone and diamond burrs. It has a very special personal meaning to the client. She designed it and I brought it to life. With a marker she loosely gave it shape and placement on the decanter, which then made it very easy for me to jump in and engrave it. I love working with my clients this way, it gives me a clear idea and a jumping off point with confidence that you know its pretty much exactly what they vision. Bringing it to life is the fun part for me. Then my excitement for them to see it and love it is very rewarding to me and the reason I love the custom work. I added the ladybug on the stem because there is always lady bugs appearing in her house. Her house is surrounded by gardens in a rural community, so the ladybugs are dear and welcome little creatures who get free rides out to the garden on the roses where they belong.

Meconopsis benecifolia

This is a small vase with a lightly engraved Himalayan blue poppy. When you peek through the top it looks like its just about to unfold. The lettering is very simple and plain around the top of the vase. This was a sweet little thing to engrave, my client spotted the vase and visioned this flower on it. Quite often the glass will tell you what to put on it, because of its shape and essence.

Where the magic happens

My little working studio sits on the creek, its very tiny and not much of a show room, however it exudes ambiance and magic in its beautiful setting. How can I not be creative there! The internet is more of a showroom for me on my website www.marlenemoloneyglass.com or the guild site www.gge.org.uk or my blog. Its nice to have this blog for updates as someone else controls my website so I don`t have immediate access. My dear spouse Tom, my best friend, biggest fan and promoter made this space for me to work in. He also built a little area beside the studio we call the zen zone. A very private place to sit very close to the creek and enjoy nature. Perfect for uninterrupted meditation. Tom walks 10 km everyday on Naramata road for exercise and his meditation. He just made the 25,000 km mark walking that road! I try to do a regular yoga practice, however not nearly as dedicated as he. He also manages to give out my business cards at the same time! Our community of Naramata is quite small, a very magical place where many artists and craftspeople live. However, we have been discovered and now many new, very large and amazing homes are being built in our community. I`m very forturnate to be one of the local artists who are being sought out to create special features for these homes. I have a commission for two glass wine cellar doors as an up and coming project and Very pleased about it.

The Guild of Glass engravers just pointed out in our members forum that an engraved goblet by Laurence Whistler, the first president of the guild, has just been sold at auction for lb 6,600 , which is about $12,000.00. Awesome!! To view go to www.bonhams.com, go to sales results, go to past sales, put in 16 December 2009, go to 16901 New Bond Street go to lot 131, show details.

My last two completed pieces are heading to Vancouver as I`m writing this and once the owner receives them, I will post them. Right now a pet memorial is in progress.

My Studio

Mirrors

Mirrors are very beautiful engraved. They have a silvery effect and really pop because they reflect back on themselves. This Rooster mirror was a recycled old mirror that was discarded. I saw all the little dots and some scratches in it and thought I could turn the dots into stars and add a lot of scratches and it turned into a rooster. This was engraved in the year of the rooster to celebrate. I am a rooster in Chinese astrology and decided to keep this mirror in my collection. I am very partial to birds of all kinds. My little chicken lived with us for 17 years. You end up almost learning their language when you live with one for so long . She became part of our family. A few years ago while my engraving was still at the hobby stage, I engraved a number of mirrors for a local glass shop . I also engraved cabinet panels and indoor architectural pieces. One thing I do regret about those years was not keeping a good record (Photographic) of all the pieces. Quite a number of the mirrors were for wedding gifts. I would take elements of the wedding invitation and put them on the mirror with personal touches meaningful to the client. I had done some very beautiful oval mirrors which were for the couple`s bedroom. Engraved borders around mirrors are very beautiful too, I`ve done many grape and leaf/foliage borders. Flowers, hummingbirds and fairies for children`s rooms. Horses, whale and dolphin mirrors. I engraved a commemorative mirror of our KVR railway tressels in Naramata which burned due to the Okanagan park wildfire in 2003. It was devastating. I engraved the tressels on an old CPR mirror with a silver boarder, which was rescue out of the Banff Springs Hotel in Banff Alberta by my German Grandfather who was working on the renovations of the hotel. That mirror is now in the collection of my Uncle Ken in Calgary, Alberta. He loved it and bought it from me. I`ve engraved an old antique mirror for some clients first grandchild. Each corner was told some of the story. It will become an heirloom in their family now. Most of the mirrors were not photographed some of the ones that were didn`t turn out because of the glare on the mirror. One thing I did manage to do was keep all the drawings. I do have a few though that I will post. Did I mention that glass is hard to photograph properly, especially mirrors. However, I have learned now through trial and error and thanks to better cameras and experience my photos turn out really well. I love the photographing part of my work too. I love engraving I love taking photographs. I quite often will run to get my camera when the light catches a beautiful scene or flower in the yard. Engraving glass is using light as your medium, so often when the light is just right on something I think how awesome it would be engraved. So, I have a lot of stock photos I keep as reference for when I need engrave those subjects.

In my studio now is a finished decanter waiting for the owner and an almost finished little botanical vase and a just about to be stared pet memorial. These pictures will be posted when the owners have seen and picked them up.

I have an awesome project after my pet memorial also, Two french doors for a wine cellar entrance. I`ll talk more about that later. Everything is very exciting for me, I love it. All the years of hard work are certainly paying off now. The future isn`t in front of you, it comes racing up behind your head. If you get my drift.

Botanicals

I love engraving botanicals. This vase was inspired by a very special patron and now friend, who is an avid gardener with an eye for beauty and quality. She is very involved as a "fog", friends of the garden at UBC Botanical gardens in Vancouver, B.C. She has brought some of my work to Vancouver to show and inspire others. This is a real boost for me as so much of my work involves educating people about Engraving in this part of the world. It is very popular in England (where most of my fellow engravers are) and recognized more overseas. I aspire to teach engraving in the not too far future and keep this ancient art alive. I gave her this vase as a gift, I could not resist, her enthusiasm and bright energy she gives to me at every meeting is invaluable to me as a working artist.

Custom Engraving

I love doing custom engraving! They are very heartfelt and meaningful gifts or personal collections. A couple examples - The Alexandra and Jeremy wedding glasses (set of 2) told the short story of A harp at the wedding, gerbera daisies were the flower, Alex and her sisters wore pearls and their mother is a music teacher. Alex loved receiving these glasses and had some done for her parent`s anniversary in the same style. Family is important to them (the tree) Three girls, (3 apples) Her mother is a piano teacher and loves gerbera daisies also, they love to be together listening to music.

Everything can be done on line, contact, communication, drawing approval and pick up or shipping instructions. Its awesome how technology allows a working artist to spend most of the time in the studio doing what they do best, and helps to bring patrons to us. It allows people like me to make a living at it. Before having a computer it was very difficult. As everyone knows by now, the face to face self-promotion is very nerve-wracking to most artists. Its so great just to show people what I do before we meet and then have a foundation of confidence and excitement to actually meet the patron. Its so much easier to give a business card with my website then go to the "elevator speech" Every time I meet someone. Thats my take on it anyway.

Its a winter-wonderland outside today. Beautiful day to be inside looking out!

first post

Happy New Year!! First I`d like to introduce you to our little pet chicken "Kansas" who lived joyfully with us for 17 years!! She has been a great source of inspiration, joy and happiness in our lives. When she passed away, to heal from the grief, I engraved a memorial of her. This memorial was sent to the Guild of Glass Engravers to be juried for my Craft Membership assessment. The engraving traveled to England and Back home to roost. With an interesting adventure on the way, first stopping in Australia and getting caught up in customs. Sending glass overseas is easy if you check the right boxes. I did not unfortunately. I should have mentioned it was coming back. Anyway, lesson learned, I passed the assessment and very proudly and happily received my Craft Membership to the Guild of Glass Engravers in London England. Its been a long time goal, finally accomplished and I feel very much a Professional Engraver and strive to get better and better. Its wonderful to be engraving full time now.

When little Kansas passed away, a rainbow was on her back coming from a prism engraving of her in the window. It was a very magical moment. This piece of glass I chose has beveled edges and shoots rainbows onto the engraving to simulate the moment she passed. This kind of pet memorial is a very meaningful thing and can be very healing also. I highly recommend it. I love to engrave pet memorials as I love animals and know how much this one means to me.