I have been a member here for about 5 years, and in that time I have posted maybe half a dozen times. I am almost a daily visitor. The creativity and the amazing amount of work here just blows me away. While I will admit that everyone's taste is not the same, that is the appeal to me. I can do what I can do, and I can see what I can see. I come to see what other people do and what other people see. I have some things in my garden that most folks might not find beautiful. I have a rose planted in a rusty old blue canner on my back porch, and I have a geranium planted in a chamber pot. (I also have a cement chicken, but that's a differnt story) I love all your things. If I want to steal your ideas (and I have: tipsy pots, ladders, et al) I do. If not, I simply look and enjoy, and do not critique what you have worked so hard to make, and get so much enjoyment from. Thank you for so many years of wonderful enjoyment.

Cait, luckily I tend to do the GE a bit thicker than I should, so it takes longer to cure. I put stuff outside after 24 hrs, but sometimes for another day I can make a piece come loose with pressure. Particular the long skinny pieces. But normally, I just use a razor blade and run it around the rim of a piece and loosen the glue. They come apart easy then. I put the tall cobalt one out back today in my Blue Garden where the bottle tree and other pieces are. When I had to move stuff and rearrange after the house painting, I decided to get all my cobalt and blue together in one area. The little mini totem with the crystal swan and the tall green 'n crystal totem are joining others in my brick planter along the back patio. I'll try and get a photo of them together. In the future, I know I can't resist cobalt glass and luckily I don't find it that often. These are pieces I've collected the last couple of years. I'm still on the hunt for a red vase to finish a special totem. And I might make another 'pottery' one like my teapot totem and matching birdbath. I sure like the colorfulness. But I am telling myself to only buy what I am going to USE AT THE TIME and stop buying every single piece of glass that makes me go "ahh, that might work on something". My counter is looking a lot less cluttered now. Still a work in progress tho tho. More lead crystal and cobalt to use. I can't gift totems around here. Not a soul I know would take them. Only you guys appreciate them. Cait, if you want to come pick up the hummingbird one, its yours. I could really enjoy having you in Phx instead of OZ. Sylvia, thanks for telling me I shouldn't second-guess myself. Perhaps not in this case anyway, everyone seems to like what I made. And I LOVE your translation of purple moon to luna morada. Am going to keep that saved.

Sunnyca -I wondred if hummers would be drawn to the plate (shallow vs. a feeder -- tried that a couple of years ago until I realized it was too much fuss and easier for me to just grow flowers that hummers liked), I would love to see more hummers this year, I didn't see many last. Kathy, the funny thing about the base, I'm almost a compulsive purger, but I just couldn't ditch the base, I thought it was so pretty even though I had no plan to rewire the lamp. I'm so glad I didn't listen to the inner nag that said "Seriously, get rid of it already". Frou, I'm convinced that if I were looking for it I never would have found it. I tried for an ecclectic blue bottle tree. Ecclectic turned into 3 unique bottles and the rest of them were from wine coolers, not the look I was really going for.

Hello jolj, I'm sorta kinda new but I puzzle together old pottery pieces, (i.e. goblets, plates, vases, bowls, etc. Chip and dip pottery pieces are my favorite.) I've been calling them totems but I don't know if that is GJ "correct". The top pieces of my totems serve as either a bird feeder or a bird bath. I sometimes use an old brown ale (beer) bottle, turned upside down as the bottom piece. That would be in place of an upside down wine bottle or glass vase. I put a piece of copper and/or rebar into the ground and then put the pottery "totem" on top. This helps stabilize the piece in case of bad weather, hoses, and a variety of four legged creatures (including grandchildren.) Since my pieces are for outdoors and I live in Minnesota, I don't glue the pieces together. Instead I drill holes in my pieces with a diamond core drill bit and then secure them with flat top bolts, nuts, threaded rods, odds and ends of old lamps, etc. If the totem is serving as a bird feeder I usually drill small holes in the bottom of the plates and seed containers to let the rain water drain out. My fussy birds won't eat wet or stale seed. If the totem is serving as a bird bath I add a few rocks to the bottom of the top piece. My pottery totems are more rustic but I also adore my crystal and glass totems. Especially the cobalt blue ones. Unfortutely in my area the pottery pieces are harder to come by than some ubiquitous glass pieces. Can you tell that I'm also addicted? I could go on, and on, and on. Cheers A girl named Max