I'm Debra Lee Baldwin
I'm at the studio of my
friend and neighbor
Marsha Rafter
Marsha's going to tell us
all about these pieces
and what she does
in terms of her art.
This is a commission
and there's three parts to it
going into the woman's
back yard by her pool
Clearly it's meant to be
outside with the sun
just sparkling right off of it.
The first one I did of this
is in the San Diego Botanic Garden
Just inspired by our local
environment here in the
San Diego area
I think they look like the texture
of opuntia, the way that they're
shaped, the diamond shape
With these, I just wanted to
kind of have flow, so it's like
the cactus is growing
It's an upward, organic, it's
like you're seeing inside
the plant
And these little guys are
called millefiori
They're from Italy
My husband has become a welder
Ha, perfect.
So he welded the armature for me
I did the drawing to scale, and then
He cut it out of metal, out of steel,
and did the welding, and then we
worked together to bend all the
different paddles
It cannot be flat, it would not look right
No, it would not
Heat up the metal until it's
glowing red hot
and you can bend it any way you want
So we do that together, it's fun
Look at that, they look like
you could eat them!
Little fruits of the opuntia
I made each and every one of these
little flowers
And what color are they going to be?
We're debating that
These are some samples
She wants this one
But the orange flower
Has multiple colors in the flowers
So it'll be some combination
If she stays with the orange
I'm going to do some samples
Out of tissue paper
and tape them on there
This is how this is going to be
Isn't that adorable?
Right now I'm mixing up the grout
Which is custom colored for the cactus
And I just pick up the grout into the sponge
That's a bright green grout, is it going to fade?
It will lighten quite a bit as it dries, yes,
But I want there to be some contrast,
I don't want it to be exactly the same color
as the glass
What holds it on is thin-set
That's the adhesive,
and the grout is filler in between
the pieces.
I can do anything for your landscape
or for your interior walls or
countertops
And I also teach classes in my studio
every Tuesday morning, and that is really fun
We have a great group of women
who have all become wonderful friends
and it's a wonderful environment
Everybody from beginners to advanced
All the details are on my website
And you can even register for classes there.
And I teach at the San Diego Botanic Garden
I lead a retreat to Mexico, to Puerto Vallarta
every year, I've been invited this year to
go to the Bahamas
Invited?
All expenses paid?
Well, no.
The class will pay for my expenses.
So I guess from that standpoint, yes.
Marsha, tell me about the mottled
look over here
I'm absolutely obsessed with this pad
It hasn't been grouted yet
I selected that glass specifically
for the cactus
and the glass has some variation to it
Some of it will actually be solid dark green
And some of it will be more the lighter green
So I specifically cut the parts of the glass
That were mottled
So I would have that look
Then you can go into different shades of green
And you know it'll all work together
Right.
So this should be done by the end of the week
And I would be happy to do a
Commission for anyone.