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Trash To Treasure

I think I'm a trash to treasure person . . .

16 years ago

Hi all. I'm from the SG&M board. I lurk here from time to time and think you all are a creative bunch. Hope it's okay if I join you. My name's Silva and I have a lot of interest in Trash to Treasure as it applies to my mosaic work. I just finished a piece that I think really qualifies as T to T. A cyber-space friend from California dropped and broke a vase that had belonged to her grandmother. She adored her grandmother and misses her so much. She was devastated when she broke the vase. She shipped it to me to see if I could salvage it and she said if I couldn't, to just throw it away. My heart sunk when I unwrapped it. It was just a really thick heavy glass vase; the bottom third was solid glass. I had envisioned a ceramic vase that I could nip up and use to mosaic over a similarly shaped vase. Well, it sat around in the bottom of my kitchen cabinet for at least two years. Recently I found a little candle holder at a thrift shop, shaped like a pyramid. It might have been suspended in a metal hanger (pointy end down) but the hanger part was missing. I love pyramids so I bought it. I placed it over the opening of the vase, (pointy end up) and it fit perfectly. I glued the vase together, glued the pointy piece on top, mosaiced the whole thing with this wonderful stained glass, and converted it into an obelisk. Please click on the link to see pics.

Here is a link that might be useful: Silva's blog

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Comments (9)

concretenprimroses
16 years ago
Very cool Silva. That is very beautiful glass. what is it exactly?
kathy
silvamae
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you, kathy. The glass is irreplaceable, I guess. I bought it on eBay last year from a man in Vancouver, who said it was from a stained glass factory there that closed. It is hand-poured, irregular shaped, different thicknesses, and every piece is a different color when held up to the light. I wish I had more, but I can't find it anywhere.
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There are only two of this style on eBay right now. The others on the oldtymecollectables site include postage. Someone slap me!! I DON'T need this! I don't need to spend money on something I don't need! Grocery prices and gas prices are going up and up. My wages stay the same. "The economy......." Yeah, right. How many people off the street can do my job? Here is a link that might be useful: Humpty items here
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silvamae
Original Author
16 years ago
Finished it today and added new pictures to my blog. Will ship tomorrow.
toomuchglass
16 years ago
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh --------- your creations are breathtaking !
You are in the right place here --- keep posting pics !
leveta
16 years ago
That is really beautiful...
luna_llena_feliz
16 years ago
Love the obelisks! I'm lucky in that there is a stained glass shop between where I live and where I work that sells scraps. I think it is fun to work with what you have instead of planning something out and then buying the colors/textures that you need. I really like your stairs too! Welcome to an inspiring group!
silvamae
Original Author
16 years ago
If I had a stained glass shop that handy, I would be in deep trouble. I have tons of glass already but cannot resist buying more scraps. Check out this trash to treasure steer - more info on my blog.

Here is a link that might be useful: Silva's blog
silvamae
Original Author
16 years ago
More about the cool stained glass I used on the obelisk. I should not have done this, but I did. I went way back on my eBay transactions and found the seller. I contacted them and they have crates of the stuff in their crawl space. Sigh. They are going to put together 50 pounds for me.....isn't my husband a saint? Not one word about the thousand pounds of glass I already have stashed in the garage. Okay, so anyway, I am going to do another trash to treasure project. These ugly old glass vases I am going to glue together like a totem and then mosaic it all with the cool stained glass and make it a priority that it is installed in a stable fashion. Unbelievably, I found three glass pointy thingies at Goodwill this week, so I now have the toppers for three of these creations. I will post pictures!

Here is a link that might be useful: Silva's blog
silvamae
Original Author
16 years ago
Please visit my blog to see the stained glass I've been talking about, and to see the beginning of my latest project, a glass totem made from various pieces found at thrift shops.

Here is a link that might be useful: Silva's updated blog - next project

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