At the tail end of my assignment in Alaska, the snows were heavy and daylight slanted through a small 5-hour window each day. But you can find beauty anywhere and watching the snow march down the majestic mountains was amazing. As an artist, I appreciated the muted colors of the sky from silver gray to powder blue to pastel pinks, purples, and oranges. If I had been a painter...hahaha.

In Fall and Winter of 2016, I expanded out from making stained glass birdies to creating fused glass pieces and this one may have been my first fused glass piece (terrible pic, sorry). My son loves gardening, so I made a potted plant/flower for him to hang in his window. This is a small piece and the flowers are made from tiny shards of glass. Shown after tack fusing, which still leaves texture.

Pretty soon, though, snow began to blanket the ground and delightful ornaments were so fun to make! The Christmas trees were done in December 2016, just as I was moving out of Alaska. The...

Of course, when you start anything new...the results are less than stellar. My first little ugly projects were just that...ugly! But with every new attempt, my mind and creative expression bloomed a little bit more. The overall journey is a joy, but the results of any specific project might be anything but!

I shamelessly put these early pics up because we all need encouragement in becoming less attached to an end result and more attached to the process. Otherwise, we will get frustrated, stunt our own growth, and lose the joy of the journey. This little heart was, I think, my very first attempt at making anything, much less learning soldering (2016)!

This was the first multi-piece stained glass attempt (2016) using a pattern (yuk). Soooo not impressive. LOL.

And then I was on to using scraps of stained glass to make little birdies (2016). Great way to fill my time, since I was in Alaska alone and my husband was back in Tennessee. I was also practicing soldering and wire...