A Kid Free Night!

How often does that happen? Close to never. My brother-in-law was gracious enough to take both my kids and host a sleepover with his daughter (their cousin). We often have them all together for sleepovers and it is a blast! So, tonight is MY night. Mark is playing a show with the band and I actually get to see them for the first time in a long time! So, goodnight to you all! I hope your night is as fun as mine better be! I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow (no kids to wake me at 6am), but I do have to be up at a decent hour since I work at 10am. Here's to tonight!

Cheers!

Before I head out, though, I want to introduce my new pieces. I have been experimenting in the kiln. As I said in a previous blog, I am inspired by nature. I have beautiful plants all around my house and have been eyeing the ferns. So, I took some leaves off them to begin experimenting. I started with my simple white glass paint, applied it to the leaves, then sandwiched it between 2 layers of glass and let the kiln do its work. This is what came out and I couldn't be happier!

Needless to say, I will be playing with many more organic inclusions. Stay tuned to see what else comes out of my kiln! Feel free to offer any suggestions of organic things you think I should try!

What is Beautiful Schlopp?

Beautiful Schlopp is anything I make out of glass. I feel that I create 'beautiful-yet-sloppy', intentionally messy glass art. It's meant to look a little 'off' or casual. Being the mother of 2 young children, I rarely have the occasion to wear fancy jewelry. So, I create things I can wear. Glass is durable, so the kids can't break it (usually *grin*). And my designs are great for every day wear. They can be dressed up for those rare nights out, but can easily be paired with jeans and a T-shirt (practically my uniform).

As for where the name Beautiful Schlopp came from... that has to do with my kids also. Mainly my first, my son, Liam. After having him, I changed all my online IDs (e-mail address, MySpace, etc.) to Mommy2Liam. Once I had my daughter, Lyla, I was no longer ONLY Mommy2Liam, so I decided to change all the IDs again. I didn't want to continue with the whole Mommy thing, so I started looking around and thinking of another title. The inspiration came from both my son and Dr. Seuss. Enter this book:

At the time, this was one of my son's FAVORITE books. I can't even remember what the record number of days in a row we read that. But right there on page 7 is where I took Beautiful Schlopp from.

"Schlopp. Schlopp. Beautiful Schlopp.
Beautiful Schlopp with a cherry on top."

And after reading those lines, my son would always mimic in a silly, purposefully high-pitched voice, "a cherry on top!"

And THAT is where I found Beautiful Schlopp. I actually had claimed it before I even started working with glass (we'll save that for another blog), but I have come to embrace it and feel that it represents me and what I create perfectly.