Sheer Potential

I have been making mobiles of glass jars. The jars are things I have made, blowing the forms using a torch. Each one is just a little bit different. They are simple round shapes with round openings, no flat bottoms. They do not sit on a table - they float! I wrap a bit of steel wire around the lip of the jar and attach a swivel. When you touch one (which how can you help but touch that enticing glass globe and wonder what you can put inside!) it dances in response to your fingers!
You can put anything inside the jars in this mobile - that is why I called this piece "Sheer Potential" - the content is all yours. You could put little words written on paper, love notes and inspiration. Or small feathers or flowers you picked up on a walk. The glass washes out easily, its made of Pyrex glass, so it is not a problem to wash it out (although it is attached to a mobile). Here are some more ideas: plants, snails, moss, feathers, small toys, fake flowers, shells, plastic animals, sparkly things, jewelry, small candles (you could pour wax in there and put little wicks and make them candles!), LED lights, used computer chips, sewing notions, bobbins, buttons... oh my. I'm getting carried away. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of different objects in the jars, today I am going to the pet store in search of a snail to put in a jar :)

I love these shapes and how they hang in the air waiting for interaction. This is a very impressionable mobile! Not only does it move if you blow at the pieces or touch them, it holds whatever you think of putting in the three little jars. Reflection and interaction - a lovely little bit of art to share with the world. Thanks for checking it out :)

"Sheer Potential" mobile on Etsy

New: Hanging Lolipop Vase

Check out these new hanging creations I have been making - now you can buy them in my Etsy shop! (they come with a 3M sticky bit that will hold up this vase just about anywhere indoors)

I make the little glass jars, using a torch I blow the glass. Each one is unique, small subtle eccentricities... but really they are all the same, small simple vases. I think they are just scrumptious! I wrap a bit of steel wire around the lip and attach a swivel so it will dance.

Round little spheres, with round openings... you can put plants in them (they are just the right size for a little starter plant or a small cactus or a lump of moss) or other living things (like a tiny snail in water!), or little trinkets, keepsakes and mementos... a button, a key, a coin, a feather...

Your imagination is the limit! I have them in my Etsy shop now, and I'll bring em' with me to the Portland Saturday Market as well...

Love...

I love this picture. Love. Something about the round bump of moss in the round hanging jar. While doing a photo shoot this afternoon I took this shot... I have been making more vessels, for terrariums and such things... simple forms, some don't even have a flat bottom, so they can only hang.
I've been thinking about making mobiles using these hanging vessels... I ordered some nano Marino balls to put in the vessels - I will tell you more about that when they come. Until then, check this mobile out! I put some preserved moss that is bright red in a little jar and made some glass panels and voila - a sweet little mobile! The most enchanting part about this mobile is that it is very interactive... if you touch the jar it spins so easily, and if you blow at the glass discs the whole mobile moves.
This last picture is just a bit more eye candy from taking photos today. I love these jars. Sitting or hanging, they are just the sweetest little things. So simple, so happy, so much potential.

A Little Video

Library at the Hong Kong International School

This beautiful library is in Hong Kong - the designer had me make these custom mobiles for their new space at the Hong Kong International School.
I worked with Matt, of Ekko Mobiles, to have the steel frames made - these mobiles are each about 8feet in diameter and there are four of them in the library.

Colors of the Caribbean Sea

This was a happy commission... a mobile the colors of the Caribbean Sea. I put one small bright yellow disc, like the glorious sun beaming down on the warm sand... the curves of the beams in this mobile remind me of waves lapping at the shore, with glass the colors of crystal blue ocean water.
Once while in Belize I stayed in a place that had a long white pier with wooden chairs on the beach outside out little rented home. This is my idea of a great view.

Before I left for this trip I had a dream, I was on a beach staying in a purple hut on stilts right on the ocean. Sort of like a cartoon. Sure enough we flew down to Belize, caught a bus out to the beach (the buses there are brightly painted re-purposed old yellow school buses pumping reggae music) and while wandering around to find a place to stay, there were these huts on stilts, built in rows on the beach, painted perfectly purple. We had to stay there!

The little dock on the ocean was also part of these purple beach houses. We sat on those chairs for a few hours that first day and burnt our Portland-white-kid-white-white-skin. Unfortunately the sand flies seemed to think these beach houses were as cool as I did, the ocean breeze coming in the window at night also brought the sand flies. So we only stayed there one night, my friend got eaten alive all night by the tiny nearly invisible pests (they thought his blood was way tastier than mine) and the next day I found out the solution was rent a room that had air conditioning, the bugs didn't like the cold.

It as only one night, but a great story I think, purple huts on stilts on the beach. In my dream it was something more of a funny purple house on stilts stranded on an otherwise empty island... Heres what they looked like in reality

Ironically, when I fired the discs for this mobile, one of the blue discs turned bright purple in the kiln (I had mislabeled a piece of unstruck glass). I quickly made a replacement that is a beautiful blue-green. The purple disc brought me back to fun memories in Belize.

I like this green mobile...

I like this mobile a lot. I might make more, not sure yet. After taking some pictures of it and really loving, I listed in my Etsy shop. Frankly I'm surprised someone hasn't snapped it up yet. Its a deal, its not too big, and its eye-catching. This little dancer will hang happily in someones home/office/garden. I know this for sure.

Dot Mobile

This mobile is a tribute to the beauty of clear glass. The little bubbles that make me happy. The look of liquid frozen in motion. And yet it is a bright colorful mobile. Each clear glass circle is decorated with a colored dot. I melted one color on each disc - the seven discs play in the wind and the colored dots cast shadows. I like it. I like it a lot.
If you'd like to meet this mobile in person (as in hang it in your home/office/garden) it is available in my Etsy shop: click here

100 Steps to a Private Beach Vacation

This mobile I made today is simple and small... little blue discs the color of the ocean, one deeper and darker than the rest, one sand colored disc at the bottom. I was telling some friends about a trip I took to Costa Rica years ago... and this story about a villa I found in Manuel Antonio inspired this little creation... the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean...
Heres the story: my 100 steps to paradise.

I was in Costa Rica, it was the rainy season and I was traveling alone. I had no agenda to my travel plans, and even less money to spend on travel expenses. I took a bus from Quepos to Manuel Antonio 3 times (back and forth) looking for a hotel that was both wonderful and affordable - finally walked up the same road for the 4th time and found this place. It was a beautiful resort with a hotel on the beach and grand villas up on the cliff. The place was nearly empty, 3 or 4 families were staying in the hotel so I inquired about the villas. They offered me a great deal, but warned me to check it out before I paid. Sure enough, the lazy American tourists had opted to stay in the hotel because it was on flat land right next to the beach - the villas were incredible but up endless flights of steps. This picture shows one section of the steps, each time you turned a corner there were more steps, and then more. :)

I was in heaven. There were about 100 steps and I gladly took them each time I wanted to go down to the beach or head out to find food. I was walking distance from the Park of Manuel Antonio and my view was something you'd see on a post-card. For a few precious days I was the only person staying in these villas. There was a security guard who would patrol the whole grounds just for me, stopping to speak Spanish with me when I was around. Monkeys would stalk my breakfast and iguanas that would lounge on the stone steps. I was convinced I had the nicest villa (in my mind it was the honeymoon suite) because the biggest of the iguanas (the iguana king I called him) seemed to live on my roof. I could hear him up there, his huge claws scraping at the tiles, and one day I climbed around above my villa to catch a view of him. He was huge.

So thats the story. It was a great set of steps. An amazing view of the beach. And it didn't rain once the entire time I was there. Off season rates and good exercise to boot. I say take the stairs!

Cobalt Blue Glass Mobile

Want to add an accent to your cobalt blue glass collection?

How about a mobile.

check it out in my Etsy shop

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Calder Mobile on Antiques Roadshow

Watch the full episode. See more Antiques Roadshow.

Art Show Opening

The ANKA GALLERY of contemporary fine art

presents

Kalos Eidos

Color | Beauty | Form
Curated by: Anna Solcaniova King

I was downtown this evening setting up my work for a show - it opens tomorrow for First Thursday. 325 NW 6th (right on the Green Line)

I will be there from 5-10pm or so :)
I am exhausted, its late and this has been a long day of working at the studio, class scheduling snafu, hours of sorting and consuming scrap, and then setting up at the gallery. Playing at the Anka Gallery and hanging my work was really a pleasure! I made this long mobile to fit this spot in the hallway, see the opening that is about 2 feet wide and 10 feet long, I could not resist the urge to fill this spot with a mobile. I love how it turned out. Looks great in the spot.

I like taking pictures of the set-up process! Anna and Grayland and Chad were all so nice and graciously did not mind me clicking away with my obnoxious camera. There is something delicious about a gallery setting up. It feels nostalgic for me, as I have worked in Galleries before.

I like the set up process. Its fun to watch art get installed into a space.

This picture (above) is the reflection I saw as I was setting up the front window display. I now have 3 mobiles hung in the front window display for this show! I will take more pictures in the daylight tomorrow.
This mobile just looked so gentle and lovely in the evening light - although I don't know if the awesome lamps will be in the show (they were part of the previous show) - I liked how the picture looks
Come join me for the opening, or visit the Gallery another time. The show runs for a month. Check out the website for information on the exhibit and all the artists involved.

http://www.ankagallery.com/

New Display Concept

I've been working on a new display idea... I painted some simple embroidery hoops (inexpensive round wooden frames) with glossy red acrylic paint and hung them on metal hooks, the idea being that I can suspend a mobile inside the red circle and make a cluster of these circles...

I figure I'll make one circle that has a sign and this will make the cluster a retail display. For now it just looks like a neat installation.

Check it out: my work was used in a movie!

A set designer bought a mobile I made for the movie "Remember Me" starring Robert Pattinson(aka the infamous actor from the Twilight series). I didn't know if/how they would really use it - and I must admit I did not see the film while it was in the theaters... so it was a pleasant surprise to me when I heard from a friend that they saw a mobile of mine in a movie! This movie is so hot in the rental land that it took me a few days and a scavenger hunt to find an available copy - but here it is. Tucked near the end in a scene where you can see this man carrying some tea into his daughter's room - you can see the mobile glowing in the sunlight, hung in the window by the painter's easel. The little girl is an artist and the mobile was bought to decorate her room. I think it looks great. I had to watch the movie a second time to find it :) It makes a split second background appearance. Ah well, its still exciting!

Press in Neighborhood Notes

Check out this wonderful article

Over the last couple years I have become friends with Matt and his wife Kathryn, of Ekko Mobiles and we had the opportunity to do this interview together and it turned into a lengthy wonderful discussion about mobiles, why we make them, why we love them and how to take pictures of them! This is my cup of tea, seriously. I could sit around chatting about this kind of stuff all day! Fortunately I had plans for a private class that afternoon so eventually I had to rush out in the rain to continue my day...


Let me say this website was such a pleasure to work with, the writer Erin Codazzi and the photographer Ken Aaron were really into the mobiles - Erin pitched this story and contacted all of us out of the blue! The article is out now and ready for you to read.

photo above taken by Ken Aaron for Neighborhood Notes

My Booth at the Portland Saturday Market

Thanks Google Alert

Do you use Google Alert? I hope the answer is yes, if not - go sign up now! Put in your name and your business name... you'll get emailed when other websites, blogs... frankly anything on the internet happens to mention you or your business will end up in your email box with a link. Its awesome. Its free. And its really useful to any small business-person!

Here my google alert moment for the evening: a blog entry in which this nice artist (fellow mobile maker!!) referred to me as

"Portland's own glass mobilist and Etsy juggernaut Leah Pellegrini"

After looking up "juggernaut" in Wikipedia I can only assume it means one of 3 things.
1. I am a force to be reckoned with
2. I am a force well-worth avoiding
3. I am a force to behold!

Wow. I don't really know whether or not to feel good about this. Maybe this was just a creative word choice. I'll go with the gut feeling that we can go with #3 cuz this blog writer meant to be complimentary. Regardless, his word choice is very entertaining.

I can't let this go without a bit more fun (not just yet - its too fascinating! Wiki alone did not satisfy me!)

Juggernaut internet research results: (can you see my face going "wha?!?!" as I read these!!!)

• websters definition (a large heavy truck)
• dictionary.com (anything requiring blind devotion or cruel sacrifice)
• image results (a large destructive looking robotic comic character)
• 1974 movie Juggernaut (maniac threatening to blow things up)
• a bad ass plug-in for apps (pushing data)
• a Canadian climbing system (rock climbing exercise stuff)
  
• Marvel Comics (character possessing unlimited power and happens to be totally irresistible)
• this list could go on and on... many things use the name Juggernaut.
  

Playing with Glass

I am busy making things today... and running errands... this is my last Sunday free for the rest of the year -!- the Portland Saturday Market opens next weekend. Wow.

I have been fusing like nuts. Turning scrap pieces into little gems. I was just washing a drying all these little bits... looks like candy on my kitchen table. All these pieces are becoming little crafty mobile making kits... so you too can play with them too!

Busy Working

"Sun Salutation"
new glass mobile I've been working on... capturing some yoga poses in the glass panels... this mobile shows the movement between poses, from namaste to mountain, forward bends to cobra to downward facing dog... let me know what you think! (there are a few more pictures if you click the listing)

Earrings
cleaning glass bits for earrings... I've been busy creating silver ear-wires as well... I love the little green earrings, and I finally have them in stock again :)
I think everyone needs a pair of these little sprouts

Yoga Card Sets
oh my goodness - I played with Jan's printing press yesterday and printed up a kazillion little yoga ladies... I am thinking card sets. I'll post more when they are dry and the project has progressed further...