Last fall I "planted" a newly created crop of upcycled glass flowers, creating a new garden.
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| Image 1: Glass Garden Art |
I sometimes refer to my new garden as my outdoor "platter collection".
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| Image 2: 2026 Glass Garden Art - 56 flowers in a new installation |
I think of the collection as my Glass Flower "Installation" - a "homage to Chihuly" artwork. Chihuly is a famous glass artist who has done installation projects all over the world. I love Chihuly's glass installations, and now I have my own glass art installation. Chihuly creates with blown glass. I create with thrift found glass. It's much more accessible and affordable ;)
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| Image 3: Glass Garden Art |
The glass flowers glow and sparkle differently depending on the sunlight and time of day.
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| Image 4: Upcycled Glass Garden Art |
On sunny days hundreds of facets sparkle and catch your eyes. On overcast days the flowers seem to glow.
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| Image 5: Glass Garden Art on an overcast day |
In
August of 2025, I wouldn't have thought of creating any of these
flowers in the year 2025. I was collecting materials for some future date. The project wasn't on my mind. I had no plans. But on August 10, 2025, 11
inches of rain fell in a short time and flooded parts of Wisconsin, and my basement. So I ended up creating over 50 new flowers.
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| Image 6: Newly created glass flowers |
How
and why? I had the materials for up-cycled glass flowers stored in my
basement, accumulating from thrift finds collected for years.
(Apparently I had over 50 platters, for instance...) Because of the flood, I
hauled the materials up the stairs and washed them. (The heavy glass
platters were stored close to the floor.)
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| Image 7: Playing with design - auditioning glass flowers |
I
had to pause. Would I really drag all the newly cleaned platters back
downstairs for another decade? In the midst of my mild depression about
the flood I started assembling glass flowers on my dining room table.
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| Image 8: Assembling glass flowers |
My love of colorful and sparkly glass and creating the flowers lifted my spirits while I spent days and then weeks washing legos and toys, cleaning up the basement, arranging fans in the basement, bleaching the basement floor, getting a new furnace, getting a new water heater, getting a new dryer, and more.
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| Image 9: 2025 Glass Garden "Installation" in my front yard |
In the future I hope to post a tutorial on making glass flowers. In the meanwhile, I have had other glass flowers in my yard for nearly a decade. Click here to see another post on them.
"When life gives you lemons, make Lemonade."
- Unknown
"When life gives you a flooded basement, make flowers."
- Me
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I am making light of my flooded basement, but the highly stressful time has given my new empathy for those who have dealt with hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, mudslides, floods, wars and more. I can't imagine the stress, depression and pain of major disasters, but I do have empathy stemming from my experiences. I had flood insurance and not even two feet of water in my basement. Many people face far larger disasters, and I have spent a lot of time pondering that. I hope my glass flowers brighten your day, and I hope you don't have any disasters!
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| Image 10: My flooded street. |
The photo above is taken from my neighbor's yard looking across two flooded driveways at the flooded street. On the left is a flowering hydrangea tree in my front yard.
Below is my house on Oct 31, 2026 Halloween. The white hydrangea flowers turn pink, then dark pink, then brown, but the left flowering tree below is the same tree as the white flowering tree above.
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| Image 11: My house on Halloween 2026 |
Enjoy the rest of the year!
Leave a comment if you have
time. Anonymous comments are welcome.
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