New & News

August 1, 2025

So in an earlier blog, I mentioned that I was learning to use my new kiln. And experiment, I have! My new, very expensive, toy - an Evenheat StudioPro14 - was in use 24/7 for a little over a month as I learned a bit of what I can do with it. And it’s awesome!

I worked with dichroic glass, standard glass, luminescent glass, iridescent glass, tack fusing, a bit of slumping, fire polishing, and contour fusing. Most of my efforts were successful. ANNND a few weren’t, but hey, I learned from those as well. Between the new kiln and the glass grinder I bought last year, I’m producing more lovely fused glass pendants. They certainly garner attention at shows. Bob constructed a fabulous board for displaying them. Here’s a pic. Other exhibitors at shows comment on how innovative it is.

While the new kiln was working its wonders, I spent a LOT of time weaving wire. Inspired by my purchase of a large number of beautiful stones, I started turning them into pendants with woven wire frames. I’m not anywhere close to finished using all of them, but am excited about the ones I’ve completed. I used a wide range of wires: copper, silver plated copper, colored silver plated copper, silver fill, gold fill, niobium, and argentium. That means that there’s something to be found in everyone’s comfortable price range. The weaving is the same quality, I just varied the wire. My goal is to make the pendant frame stunning and often intricate, but to never obscure the beauty of the stone. I see many when I do a search that seem to send the stone into the visual background. I want the weaving and the stone to both shine!

Sometimes at shows, folks will tell me that the woven wire is fascinating, but they just don’t wear jewelry. Not wanting to exclude that audience, I decided to make something that might appeal to them. Putting imagination to work, my shadow boxes were born. They showcase large woven, fancy hearts which are adorned with strategically placed crystals (from Austria), crystal pearls (from Austria), or natural stones. The photo backgrounds are mostly photos taken by Bob or myself and printed on canvas photo material. Each one also features a verse from the Bible referencing love. They garner lots of attention at shows!

An updated Just Created Collection showcases these latest ventures. I didn’t have a show from the middle of May to the middle of July, so I used that time to redesign the website, learn the new kiln, & weave away! Well, I’m also weeding the garden, using the walk-behind weed whacker, putting out Round-up, pruning ivy; yeah, the summer outside requirements. Bob is busy keeping the arena and dry lot turned and the easement, barn area, and pasture mowed. Never a dull moment at the Henry Homestead! At least we’ve reached that point in the summer where we’re enjoying produce from the garden. Last night we tasted our first cantaloupe of the season. Yum!

Oh, and something exciting - a family of barn owls seems to have adopted our place! They show up almost every night around 8:45 and perch in the pecan trees, on the shop, and on the stall runs. They’re beautiful, fascinating to listen to and watch, and they’ve taken care of our mole problem as well as scared away the dang pigeons. A win all the way around! Once we saw 4 at the same time. Here one is right above the roof and one out on the barn stall run pipe. I know it's fuzzy, but I took the pic through the kitchen widow and screen!