Sage House Glass

Tag: art

  • May Commissions

    May Commissions

    I had the honor of making some birthday and mother’s day gifts for May Commissions. Of course, my mom got a Monstera leaf for mother’s day because she’s my #1 fan.

    One of my mom’s besties growing up commissioned a sunflower for her niece’s birthday. I love hearing a little bit about the person I’m designing and crafting a piece for–it really informs the creativity and helps me design with more intention when I know a little backstory. This commission is going to a busy mother with a house full of love, who doesn’t have a lot of counter space in the kitchen, but loves to cook. She has a beautiful window above her sink and a sun catcher would add some light into her life. She’s especially fond of sunflowers, so I got to design my first sunflower sun-catcher.

    There are plenty of sunflower patterns online but I wanted to draw something that was a little imperfect, slightly askew. Just like all the flowers I design, I prefer to keep the petals off-balance. Flowers in nature are always slightly imperfect and so gorgeously varied. Patterns that are too precise feel more like wallpaper to me. So I started by gathering inspiration online and dove into drawing on my iPad in Procreate. Once I had a design I liked, I picked a color scheme and approved the mock-up with my customer.

    Picking glass is alternately the best and worst part of any design. I’m still learning to listen to my gut reaction when it comes to picking out glass, instead of waffling for hours over what shade of yellow is the perfect sunflower yellow. I selected a pale yellow Florentine glass sourced from Carolina Stained Glass, shout out to Suzie! Great shop with extremely helpful people and reasonable costs.

    Once my customer approved, it was onto cutting, grinding, washing, wrapping, soldering, washing, buffing, washing, patina, washing, buffing, and polishing! I’m extremely pleased with how the copper patina lends to the yellow glass and the kokomo glass center.

    It’s headed to California and I’ll be making a few TikToks and Instagram Reels from the soldering and patina process. Stay tuned!

  • Spring Restock at Minkology

    Spring Restock at Minkology

    Since I’ve been going through the ringer with my health the last few weeks, I’ve had a lot of time to hyper-focus on my stained glass art. It feels protective and productive and healing to create when I’m feeling drained. It feels like I’m filling back up.

    In honor of spring butterflies and my nwe meditation hearts, I just dropped off a very full restock at Minkology in Asheboro, NC. On Sunset in Downtown Asheboro there’s an amazing arts & decor boutique that specializes in local artists, vintage finds and homeland creamery ice cream. It’s a pretty perfect warm weather combo. Be prepared to spend way too long browsing, their storefront is a total dreamscape.

    Below are pictures of the spring haul, including my new spring butterfly arch, several large paradise leaf panels, lots of medication mood hearts, and more. Visit Minkology for these pieces, or send me a message through my contact form if you’d like to purchase these pieces through my online store. Thanks!!

  • Nostalgia and Beauty: Birds of Paradise

    Nostalgia and Beauty: Birds of Paradise

    Birds of Paradise plants in California
    Birds of paradise growing outside my mother’s old house in California

    If you’re seeing a lot of tropical floral themes in my art this spring, there’s a good reason–I’m yearning for a sense of “home”, a slice of comfort and nostalgia. For that, I turn to the bird of paradise.

    I replicate the shape of the bird of paradise in my art quite a bit because the plants remind me of where I grew up. My mother’s old house has a beautiful array of birds of paradise. Growing like wild stalks, birds of paradise are prolific in California. They grow in yards without fuss, blossom like an after thought along median strips on highways. They’re everywhere in Cali, like wild cacti, red rocks and the Santa Ana winds. It’s something I took for granted in the landscape when I lived there. Now that I’m in North Carolina, the scenery I’d ignored for so long has become my special interest. Funny how time and distance can make you yearn for the things you took for granted.

    The flower itself is a little alien against the backdrop of a desert landscape; the blooms unfurl with such pronouncement, bright orange and deep violet, in stark contrast to the dark green foliage. The orange petals look like a bird in flight, hence the name. They’re a subtropical coastal plant from South Africa, displaced in the 1700’s, now thriving confidently along the California coast.

    I’m fairly obsessed with birds of paradise. I have a few plants that live on the deck during warmer months and I bring inside for the winter. They blossom in January, almost like it’s a gift for my birthday. I take endless pictures of the birds, celebrating them like they’re a part of the family. My husband and I bought an MCM Letterman oil painting of birds of paradise at the vintage store Red Collection in Greensboro (pictured below.) It lives in our den, in spite of my husband’s objections (it’s huge.) He knew he would lose any fight that stood between me and birds.

    Our Birds of Paradise midcentury modern vintage painting & my own birds of paradise arch design

    Bringing tropical flowers into my home in North Carolina is a small tribute to my west coast roots, but I would never give up the lush green of the mountains here. The fact that I can have both in one place? Priceless. Or at least just the cost of exotic plants at the local farmers market.

    Do you have any beloved plants, flowers or scenic features that remind you of home? Shoot me a message in the contacts if you’d like me to recreate a naturescape to catch the light in your window this summer.

  • Mood Hearts for Meditation

    Mood Hearts for Meditation

    I recently bought a mood ring at Sisters on Tate St in Greensboro (a gorgeous women-owned small business, visit if you’re in the area) and it brought back so many nostalgic memories. I have a fondness for mood objects of any kind–a ring that can predict my feelings? I’m in. I need a magic ring to tell me how I’m feeling, to be honest. How else will I know?

    I love objects that can help us process the world around us, or interpret signs and meaning. Anything that helps us look inward is valuable, I think. Star signs help us investigate our personalities and the personalities of our friends and family; same for enneagrams, Myers-Briggs, and Harry Potter houses. They’re often conversation starters, ice breakers. They’re a shorthand for something meaningful, speaking a similar language with each other.

    Lucky objects probably serve the same purpose, aside from superstition. After buying that mood ring, I really wanted to create art that felt like someone’s lucky object. I wanted to manifest meaning into the craft and help someone meditate on their needs, focusing their energy inward in a peaceful way.

    Undoubtedly we could all use help these days with cultivating peace, quiet, and stillness internally. I don’t know the last time I’ve meditated on my own without an app to guide me. Silence can be very loud when we’re not used to it. There’s always a subtle hum of life in the background: music in the car, conversations at work, voices on the television, phones chirruping with texts and TikToks.

    With that in mind, I made mood hearts for meditation! On the surface, they’re just cute little heart-shaped sun catchers and plant stakes. But for someone who may need a few minutes to stare, think, breathe through a problem, they’re a reminder to slow down and be in the present.

    Below is the little how-to guide I made to correspond with the colors of the hearts. They’ve got as much meaning as you bring to it, so take what you want and leave the rest.

    Mood hearts can help anchor an intention or just be a pleasant reminder of what you’d like to manifest in the coming years. Just focusing inwardly, even for a few seconds when you catch the colorful light of a heart out of the corner of your eyes, can change perspective and alter the course of the whole day.

    I hope you try it sometime! Catch my hearts at upcoming markets, the Minkology store in Asheboro, or contact me for bespoke hearts!

  • Join Us at Art in the Yard: A Local Artist Community Event

    Join Us at Art in the Yard: A Local Artist Community Event

    EDIT: Due to an IVF-related medical emergency, Sage House Glass was not in attendance at the Art in the Yard market advertised below. The artist is okay and resting!

    Springtime means the roses are in bloom, the earth is waking up and Art in the Yard preparations are in full swing!

    I’ve been working on new pieces for the spring markets and I’m really excited to unveil some meditation hearts, butterfly panels and new framed foliage pieces. Though the art production is going slower (re: life is lifing) I hope the amount of time I’m putting into these new pieces will make them even worthier to grace your window ledges this season.

    Art in the Yard is a very special market run by Christina Brown, better known as Moonbird Soulful Living— a local artist who has created a thriving creative community in North Carolina. I’m honored to be one of the artists featured at Christina’s Art in the Yard experience. The space itself is truly magical–the food, the art, the ambiance–come see what I mean, if you’re a local to Greensboro!

    From Moonbird Soulful Living website: “More than two dozen amazing local artists come together for a joyful day of connection, creativity, and community…It’s more than an Art Market—it’s a celebration of local spirit. Come stroll Art in the Yard, meet the artists, visit with friends and feel the joy of buying from people who make things with heart.”

    Shopping local doesn’t get better than that.

    Joining me at our station will be my sis and forever market partner with her mystery photography drops! Visit her website here for more information on her upcoming collection: Dusk Light Photos

    See you at the market!

    • Art in the Yard 2025
    • Art in the Yard 2025
    • Art in the Yard 205
    • Art in the Yard 2025