My hand-crafted, hand painted glass night lights have been a work in progress for over two years. Like anything good, it took me a good solid year to figure out how I would mount the fixtures, what fixtures I would use and how I would approach the painting of my subjects. It then too me another year to paint and create my glass night lights on a regular basis let alone offer them on my website.
My reverse painted chandeliers offer me a large glass canvas to freely paint flowers and mix colors. On the other hand, the night lights only gave a limited amount of space in which to capture my ideas. At first I tried to capture big sections of my chandeliers and compress them into my small glass shapes and that did produce some interesting and original painted night lights that took too long to paint (for what I was charging—keep in mind I cut, slump and cold work each glass shape and in those days I was also creating the backing that attaches to the fixture).
Certain subjects were a hit right away and I continue to offer those in my collection. Others were truly one-of-a-kind and the collectors who purchased those particular pieces got a great deal!
Because each hand painted night light is truly original and unique in it’s own way—no two could possibly be alike—and I allow myself a certain freedom in how I paint them, I don’t post each and every “new” night light that is created on my website. It would simply take too long to do so. A good friend who designs unique jewelery pieces said this, “it’s a grab ’em while you can get ’em situation” and that is so true because I’m inspired to create and paint my night lights in batches. When I’m focusing on my chandelier commissions I’m usually not creating night lights.
I am not a production artist so I will continue to paint unique night lights and I’ll continue to allow myself to veer off from my designs and color schemes and yes, some night lights that were “hits” will eventually no longer be offered. After all, I’m an innovative artist and I have to be interested and inspired to create truly unique works! It’s just how it is and I’m true to my work.