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Editing to add: These boys are identical triplets. 
I loved these boys! So much energy and fun. They reminded me so much of my almost 5 year old boy, only tripled, of course 
I also cannot help but grin at all of the loose front teeth! Such sweet childhood memories…won’t be long before they are all grown up and taller than Mom…
This past weekend I hosted a grown-up playdate at my home for myself and 3 other wonderful local photographers. Since Winter in the NW often leaves us with very little natural light to work with, it was nice to get the lights out and have fun with “still” models. These were taken with 3 different 1 light, portable setups.
I’ll let the pictures do the talking 2 week old girl and 2 boys. Just unbelievably sweet and cute.
I am pleased to introduce the lovely and talented Leah Pellegrini. Her glass mobiles are beautiful and inspiring and perfect for your garden and home. Here is a little bit more about Leah, and more photos of our fun photoshoot at the Hoyt Arboretum below:
Where do you sell your art?
Here in Portland you can find me at the Portland Saturday Market, as well as a few small local shops like Splurge (in N PDX). I try and keep a somewhat updated list of all my retail locations on my website. Online you can find me at www.LeahGlass.com and on Etsy (LeahPellegrini.etsy.com) as well as HangingMobileGallery.com.
If you have a spot that you’d like to hang a mobile, or a store that you would like to carry my work in - please feel free to email me! artist@leahglass.com
When/how did you fall in love with glass?
I have always loved glass. My grandmother was an avid glass paperweight collector. She passed away before I was born, but it seems as if the love of glass was passed down genetically to me. I made my first glass paperweight at a hotshop in Philadelphia, taking a glassblowing class for fun while I was studying to become a doctor. The pre-med track got de-railed and my glass love affair became something that infiltrated my dreams. I ended up with a BA in Psychology and a love for glass. After a year of traveling and relocating, I found myself renting my first artist studio here in Oregon and taking business classes to learn how to sell my work. Its been 7 years now of full time artist/entrepreneur life and I love it.
What inspires you about mobiles?
There is something about the balance of mobiles that is absolutely hypnotizing. I love them. My father is an engineer and my mother is an artist, and I am definitely a combination of the two. There is a geeky science/math side to mobiles, as well as an aesthetic natural beauty. There is something wonderful about artwork that is kinetic and can be influenced by its surroundings. Mobiles are like dancers, striking poses and responding to breezes in the air.
I think I first made a mobile because I saw one in a shop somewhere and I liked it and I wanted to make one. My mother says my first baby mobile was leaves she collected outdoors and hung as a mobile above my crib. She has told me about Native American women who hang their swaddled babies in the shade of the trees from the branches while they are working, the babies find the movement of the leaves to be soothing and they sleep peacefully. Like nature’s first baby mobile. You know the old nursery rhyme “rock a bye baby, in the tree top”, perhaps it was based on this.
More adults should wake up to mobiles. They decorate the space above our heads and make us feel happy and relaxed. What more could we ask!
How long does it take to make a mobile start to finish?
Its a multi-step process. Making a mobile takes me anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or so. The glass elements are made prior to assembling the mobile, and this takes a while. For some mobiles I create the glass elements with a torch and fire the glass into droplet shapes. For my large installations I cut the glass cold and fuse the pieces together to form the flat panels. Glass like this can take about 24 hours to fire in a kiln. This makes them strong and beautiful, like big colored puddles in the air.
What is your favorite thing to do outside of glass?
Hmmm… my absolute favorite thing to do outside of glass… I’d have to say here in Oregon I adore the natural hot springs. The hiking in old growth forests and soaking in the mineral waters, its so amazing, makes me feel spoiled by the Pacific NW.
1 month old beautiful little fraternal twin girls.
