Being a huge fan of glass I went to a Chihuly exhibition at VMFA in Richmond, VA today. What a beautiful collection of amazing glass sculptures! Glass is very rewarding as it offers enormous possibilities as far as colors and shapes are concerned. Dale Chihuly glass sculptures are great illustrations of what an artist can make out of common silica or sand.
Fiori
Persian Ceiling
Fiori
Persian Ceiling
I'm always on a look out for creative and inspiring artists. It's amazing what some of the artists out there come up with and how beautiful many of the art pieces are. I've recently came across Nadia of Happy Emotions who turns common pebble stones into happy and bright home decoration pieces. What a great idea!
How did you start?
I first came up with an idea of making jewelry out of pebble stones. The idea was to drill a hole in a pebble stone to put a thread through it, thus, creating pendants and other pieces using sea washed stones. I tried to make it happen but the result was not quite what I've expected. We often times dream up something new and it does not always turn out the way we want it to be. That's life!
While experimenting with pebble stones I came up with an idea of turning them into magnets. Stones are an ideal material to work with. One can draw something on stones' smooth surfaces turning them into bright decoration objects. One can draw letters on pebbles so that different letters could be assembled into words. Such stones could be a great gift for someone special.
What inspires you?
When a mom gets a message from her daughter saying "I miss you" it's so touching! Even more so when all the letters are pebble stones! Young men and women send each other "I love you" messages made of my pebbles. When I learn about how people communicate by the means of my pebbles it makes me happy and inspires me. I try to come up with new ideas on how to make people's lives rich and full of positive emotions!
Russian Artists team on Etsy just had its Summer Wedding Essentials contest. Fifty six team shops took part in the contest submitting their hand made wedding-themed items. All of the entries were fantastic! They can be checked out at Russian Artists Facebook Page.
Although all of the items submitted were amazingly beautiful, creative and unique, I picked up a few of my personal favorites. All of the wonderful items presented will make any wedding an unforgettable experience!
1. Dog Crochet Wedding Floral Collar by mailo
2. Event Decor for the Wine Glass by MamaTita
3. Tea Set, Original decorative painting by Yury Tarler
4. White earrings with pearls by HoneyCase2
I've recently received an amazing gift from a very talented stained glass artist FleetingStillness who lives and works in Maryland.
It's always nice to receive gifts from fellow artists who are members of vast and diverse hand made community. When such gifts turn out to be beautiful hand made pieces of art it's twice as nice!
I always had a soft spot for pieces made of glass. I praise glass for its transparency, variety of colors and opportunities for creativity. The suncatcher I've got is made of bright yellow and blue glass and a copper foil. It was created in a "Tiffany" style meaning no lead was used to attach pieces of glass. 
The suncatcher is a perfect summer gift. The sun shines through brightly colored glass lighting up everything around and making me happy! Yellow and blue colors are of the warm sea, sand beaches and vacations! This piece of art will always remind me of the summer. From now on I'll have a small part of an ocean beach in my room.
Alla, thank you for such a great gift!
I stopped by a supplies store last week and picked up some really cool yarn in blue and its different shades and hues. The yarn is very pleasant to touch, soft and stylish. As a result I crocheted a flower brooch in blue with white hand felted bead in the middle. It looks great of lightly colored outfits. The brooch can be worn on outdoor coats as it's rather durable. 
I totally fell in love with felting yarn of that bright yellow lime color. It radiates so much positive energy and besides is a perfect color for spring and summer. To contrast bright lemon I added dark blue beads. Those two colors look beautiful together. The necklace will go well with bright spring dresses!
The winter is almost over! I don't know about you but I'm already thinking about deep blue colors of the ocean and pale yellow, cream, bleached out colors of a beach. I'm ready to have a break from white cold snow and immerse myself into sunny days somewhere near the sea. Blue, green, yellow, cream are my favorite colors these days!
I like sunny bright colors and items! Golden, amber, yellow and orange are my favorites at the moment! I created these earrings of high quality amber colored Czech glass and silver plated wire. Large beads look like candy that shines and glistens in the sun making earrings very pretty. Their simple and minimalist design will go well with bright and vivid summer dresses and will add color to any business casual outfit.
I created this minimalist and elegant fish shape earrings of beautiful blue aquamarine glass cubes. These Czech beads are made of high quality glass and shine and sparkle under the sun. Earrings are very easy to put on and take off. They will match almost any summer dress and will add style and color to business outfits as well.
I've selected a few wonderful items in different shades of blue. I've got sky blue birds, deep blue oceans, aquamarine stones and exotic blue flowers! It's a great color!
I like to work with wire. It's so nice to be able to twist and bend it the way you want. When I add bright and shiny glass beads and stones to my twisted creations they turn into either blue zigzag, red fish or red apple earrings! It's amazing how much room for creativity a simple wire can offer! 
Summer inspires us to wear bright and vivid dresses of all hues of red, green, blue and yellow. It's a perfect time to put on jewelry to compliment all these gorgeous outfits! Sun shines through elegant earrings and wonderful glass beads of our bracelets and necklaces. There is so much sun, light and shine around! 
Forget work! It's sunny and warm and all I can think about is white colors of the sand and shells, inviting blue colors of the water and bright rainbow colors of summer and spring flowers! Let's go to the beach!
More Summer jewelry items at Tonya Utkina
