Some Tea, a medley of Vintage Hats, Queens squared and a project!

The past couple of weeks have been taken up primarily organizing our 3rd Annual "Tea with the Queen" event. which was held on Saturday May 11th, at Fusionglass Co.  And was a simply grand affair altogether.  With many of the Queens guests dressed in their best fine figaries, and their prettiest Hats & dresses.

Vintage Hat collection Thanks to Thomine Wilson.

Some of the hats worn to our event this year had not been out of a box for decades! & we really loved hearing the wonderful stories attached to them. Smiling, happy faces were the order of the day and who can help smiling when adorned in a beautiful hat!














We had a fun photo booth set up to record the frivolities. With the long suffering Paul Fernandes standing in for the Queen.
Whom the palace had assured us was a bit too busy to stop by for tea.

Paul did a fabulous job and I don't think anyone actually noticed the difference. But you can tell for yourself from the photos! 

One Queen is enough for most occasions but at fusionglass co. we always believe the more the merrier.
We were absolutely delighted to welcome reigning beauty Queen Diane Marie Green Yavorsky, the very lovely Mrs. San Diego, to our event. Diane was delighted to pose in her sash and crown along with our own dear "Queenie". I will be consulting on a project with Diane. But more details about that on another blog!

We had a Tea Demonstration scheduled for 3pm with Bill from

"All Things Bright & British"

in La Mesa.  He was in big demand that day. With our event being the third he had scheduled.

He made a fabulous "Bon Teavant" for our occasion, explaining how you should go about making a "proper cup of tea" & serving up all kinds of English goodies and treats, including scones and clotted cream!
He also answered questions about the different varietals available,
and when they are traditionally consumed.







Bill's friendly little store is located in the village, and is definitely worth a visit. With all kinds of  edible goodies & gifts from the British Isles and Ireland. They also happen to carry my favorite Barry's Tea!
Look for the Palace guard! You'll know you've found it!






And while you're out this way stop by

"A Unique boutique" 

and visit with the lovely Estee Hyman.
Estee brought an array of gorgeous designer clothing and purses for a mini fashion show, and at the last minute too!
Our original boutique had to cancel. Estee was happy to help out with less than a week to pull a number of looks together. She did an amazing job, and was just a great addition to the event. Below are a few of my favorite looks modeled by my daughter (right), and a past intern of Fusionglass Co. We were absolutely delighted to find this very unique boutique! and it's truly beautiful owner.

Model: Siena McKim. 

Model: Dealgnaid Solan 

Model: Siena McKim 

Model: Dealgnaid Solan 

I also owe a big shout out and Thank You to the talented make-up artists from

 Rockeresque Beauty. 

We really enjoyed having Nickie, and the girls here. They did quick make-overs for people, before their audience with "Herm Ajesty"  

Rockeresque carries a line of vegan eye-shadows

 in the most gorgeous hues.

This year we loved welcoming our new neighbor Joleen from

The Bouncing Bead

She offered specials and had treats and goodies for all who visited!

Joleen and I are planning a new batch of classes for you.
We'll incorporate glass and beading techniques to offer you a whole range of projects! Sign up on the Bouncing Bead link above or join the Fusionglass co mailing list for more information.







Don't forget you still have a couple of weeks to check out the Channel 6 video promo for the Palette to Palate project. If you can find that hair clip you might just be the lucky winner of one of my "Sunny San Diego" pendants. Check out my first blog for details and the link.

Make your own life size cut out!

Here's how our set-up looked

For the Queen's Life size cut out.

I used a basic digital camera to take a photo of  Paul.
& Photoshop to change it to black/white.
However most digital cameras will give you an option to shoot in b/w.
I brought my file to Copy-it to have the large scale image of "Herm Ajesty" printed out.
And my good friends at La Mesa Lumber gave me a big piece of cardboard to use as a backing. 

I used spray adhesive on the back of the poster to apply it to the cardboard. When dry use a sharp craft knife to cut around the image. The base was something we had in the studio, I think a christmas tree stand would work just as well.  I taped a half round dowel down the full length of the back to give it added strength and added a big feather to the hat to give a 3d feel.

The Photo booth was just a couple of King Size sheets hanging on a dowel from the ceiling! By converting the photos to B/w or sepia you get a great effect as you can see below :)

It's easy when you're not the one battling traffic

It's easy when you're not the one
battling traffic.
 Marjorie and I on our way
 to the TV station.

I set up this blog in August 2011
and never got around to actually, well.... blogging. 
So what better time to start than on the heels of my first television interview. 

It wasn't something I had on my "Bucket List", but being thrown an opportunity to promote an event I was involved with, how could I say no. 

So with team member/bestie/fellow artist Marjorie Pezzoli, along for the adventure, we set off for Channel 6, San Diego. We were to appear as guests on San Diego Living, with Marc Bailey.  To promote a fundraising project called Palette to Palate. The show airs live, oh yes! Just in case we weren't nervous enough already.
The whole experience was great fun from the moment we walked in the studio door. We were greeted by a lovely young man and escorted to the "Green Room". 





While we waited for our segment we chatted with a couple of beautiful young ladies, Jennifer and Nicole. Identical twins, and co-founders of  Old New Borrowed Redo.  They'll make a keepsake from  your wedding/prom or any other special dress or piece of clothing. you should check them out.

They loved my "redo" of a wedding dress into a faerie costume, which I just happened to have brought along for the show on the advice of my sister.

Before we knew it Tiffany Frowiss was
 there to get us ready for our "Bit"

According to Tiffany we had about 45 minutes before

 our segment when she brought us to set-up.

It was a chilly day in San Diego... really, it was.

 Our segment would air from the outside patio. 

So Marjorie and I went about setting up our tables and prepping ourselves, twenty minutes later, I was just about to clip my hair back, when standing in front of me was Marc Bailey.

I thought he was just saying hello before the segment, but no chance, next thing I know the camera is on Marc and he's doing his intro! and I couldn't find my hair clip.

"Sunny San Diego" Dichroic glass pendants by Debb Solan

You can See our segment here and if you happen to notice the whereabouts of the errant hair clip (which also made it's TV debut) tell us where it appears in the video by emailing me, &  you might just be the lucky winner of a very lovely Dichroic Glass Pendant from my Fusionglass series called "Sunny San Diego". I'll choose a random winner from the entries. Winner will be announced on May 31st.


If you like to find out more about Palette to Palate
Check out photos from our Event here: 

and when all was said and done

we were allowed to ham it up in the studio! 

Thanks Tiffany Frowiss and

Channel 6 for making our TV debut so much fun!

In future blogs I'll show you how we created
some of the projects for the event.
 Including the "SteamPunk" style silk seen in the background.
We used the silk layered with two others to create the sculpture incorporated in the centerpiece Tree at the top of the page.

We had much help from many to complete this project check out:

 http://feedingamericasd.org/ 
 www.sdvan.net 
 http://www.synergyart.org/                       
 www.radiantlifebyjulia.weebly.com 
www.gypsytreasures.com 
www.quiglyfinewines.com 
www.pezzoliart.com www.fusionglassco.com   
www.komephotos.com 
www.etsy.com/shop/leahbmetalworks  
www.murphyscreativity.com