Hobby class and more Advent ideas....

I have completed my hobby classes(Tiffany course). I enjoyed every minute of it. After the first session, I honestly thought I would not be able make beautiful stained glass art. I must say, over time I have gotten confident and with practice I should get better. 

The above is a t-light holder. For now, I do not intend to light t-light's in it. Found this idea in Good Housekeeping. Place pinecones in t-light holders to make miniature trees and line them on a runner on your dining table. Since my table is way too small, I have placed a single pine cone tree on my centre table.

The angel below was made during the last session and as you can see, there is a definite improvement in my work. I hung it on my pine branches which run around the house. The sun reflects through it and she looks pretty indeed. I keep going back to her, to admire her :D

I love the season of Advent. Keeps me occupied and gives me reason enough to try something new. The Adventkranz below can be made easily at home. You can decide on what kind of base you like, round or rectangular. I purchased a rectangular metal base( I think wood or glass plates should work well too). Place 4 candles in whatever fashion you like. Scatter around pine leaves, cinnamon sticks, dried orange, pinecones and some glitter. Gold and red ribbons too give a festive look.

 Now back to my window sills. The one below, is the window outside our apartment. I made these candle holders with bottles to give the christmasy glow at night.

Linking this post with good friend Sharon's Christmas Carnival. 

Hobby class - Part 1.

That's my schmetterling (butterfly) made by me....:) I finally enrolled myself to a hobby class. I have always been fascinated by glass art. I did dabble with paints on glass back home in India. All I did was to purchase a few books and paints. It turned out to be pretty easy and I did  up the house with a few glass painted bottles. 

  On moving to Germany, the art work with glass intrigued me a lot. You find plenty of such glass figures, t-light holders, decorations in shops sold for quite a price. Every village, town or city in Germany has a Volkshochschule (folk high school). These schools are generally institutions for adult education.  Various forms of art are taught in a Volkshochschule. One problem being though, the teaching is in Deutsch. I nevertheless mustered courage and enrolled myself, because by now, I do follow Deutsch but cannot speak.

     In our class of 8, we are 7 Germans & me the Indian!!! The classes began and it looked like I was able to follow what was being said. We were told to cut the glass with a cutter(it doesn't actually cut, but makes a mark which then helps you break the glass) and then pull it out with a kind of plier!! Simple, isn't it?? That's what I thought, until I actually had glass and cutter in hand. To my amusement everybody were cutting glass as though they were experts and poor me was struggling away....:D In 15 minutes, I concluded that either my batch mates already knew the hang of it or they were pretty pretty strong (you need to apply a lot of pressure and believe me I was doing it with all the strength I had). Not wanting to give up, I struggled and managed to have the most untidy butterfly of all. But I was glad I was able to do it. It took me 3 hours to complete my masterpiece. It may not be perfect, but it is beautiful to me...:)