Meet Merluvlee, My Gift From Brenda Miller

Brenda Miller is not your ordinary gal. Her sister's birthday was on Sept. 13th, and to celebrate her sister's birthday, Brenda decided to do a gift exchange giveaway, which was a fabulous idea. Each person who signed up for the giveaway was, in turn, to send a piece best representative of their own work, along with shop urls, contact information that was all placed into a booklet, to the next person on the list. Each person involved sent as well as received a gift (Brenda's siter being the last to receive the gift and booklet), and that is how I became the proud owner of this wonderful painted lady named Merluvlee.

When I asked Brenda to tell a little about the process of making this gorgeous piece of wearable art, this is what she said:

"The creation of Merluvlee....The process is lengthy, first I cut the glass, top and bottom, to the desired size and shape. I use Bullseye 90 COE art glass. It is then fused together which takes about 1 1/2 hours. Then it is allowed to cool. With this piece I added a piece of Dichroic Glass for the crystal ball. Then comes the fun part, painting. I use special glass enamel paints for my painted ladies. Many of the colors are hand mixed for my desired color. After the painting is completed it goes into the kiln again for about 3 -4 more hours and allowed to completely cool again. It's a long process but when they come out of the kiln it is always a surprise. This is a wonderful mini work of art with lots of personality and detail and each piece is signed and dated. The hardest part of the process is naming the ladies. Sometimes the name just comes to me and other times it's a struggle. Still waiting for the one that will talk to me and give me the lottery numbers!"

If you like my Merluvlee, or would be interested in viewing or purchasing some of Brenda's other works of art, you can visit her website at http://atouchofglassjewelry.com/. I guarantee you will be delighted with everything you see!