by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
A few more art shows, and Kelli Dandelake’s hobby could get really serious.
Dandelake, who crafts stained glass ornaments and suncatchers, was one of the big hits at the Dec. 3 First Wednesday Art Walk, conducted by Downtown Vision, Inc.
“The Art Walk was really a very nice show,” she said. “It was a little cold, but it was a good show. I hope to do the next one in January.”
Dandelake’s delicate creations resemble selections of classical glass, bound by lightweight strands of lead “came.”
(Came is a slender strip of lead used to hold panes together in stained glass or lattice work windows and in works of art.)
“I just started doing this design this year,” said Dandelake. “It started out as a hobby, something fun to do.
“And people liked them, so I started making more.”
Dandelake graduated with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the University of North Florida. Her full-time job is as an interactive designer at The Dalton Agency, where she has worked for four years.
“I’ve always liked to build things,” she said. “I like hands-on projects.
“This combines graphic design, and I get to build.”
Reaction to the Art Walks, which began Nov. 5, has been gratifying, said Lyn Briggs, DVI’s director of marketing. Displaying and selling artwork are enjoyable byproducts of the monthly event, she said. But those aren’t the only — or even the primary — reasons why the Walk has become so important.
“Sales are doing very well,” said Briggs. “Especially the second show, I guess, because we had people out there selling smaller-type things, like Kelli does.
“But the main reason for the Art Walk really is to get people down here and promote Downtown as a center of arts and culture. We really want people to see what’s down here and experience how safe and cool it is.”
Most of Dandelake’s designs are somewhat in the shape of a cross with glass nuggets highlighting the tips. There are several examples on her website (www.glaswerks.net), and she encourages those who visit the site to suggest their own ideas: “Let us put our heads together and see what we can dream up.”
Most of Dandelake’s own ideas come from doodling different designs in her spare time.
“Then I get on my computer to redo them to see if they’re going to lay out and work the way I want them,” she said. “I create them from there.”
The lead composition “came” is ordered in six-foot strips from different suppliers. The nuggets come from a local stained glass shop.
“I use pliers on the came, which is very soft, very pliable,” she said. “You can cut it to the size you need and bend it and curl it to the shape you want. Then it’s all soldered together, which gives it a bit more strength.”
Dandelake’s creations are around five inches by seven inches, and most of them are hung as suncatchers. One piece, however, was a two-foot cross that a client put on a wall.
“I’m going to be doing some different mirror designs using the glass nuggets and the came,” she said. “I’m thinking of some candle holders that could hang on the wall.”
A large part of Dandelake’s sales come from word of mouth — “the friend of a friend kind of thing” — though she has also entered shows, such as the San Marco Fall Art Festival. Beginning this week, her work will be for sale at the Cheesecake Cafe, also in San Marco.
“I guess it’s pretty profitable,” she said. “But people do tell me I undercharge.”
Dandelake is considering branching out by investing some of her proceeds into a small kiln that she can use for glass slumping.
“With slumping, you use molds; they’re like cylinders,” she said. “Then you take a sheet of glass, using the slump molds, and you can make something like a cup or a vase.”
As profitable as her artwork might become, “For now, it’s a hobby,” Dandelake said. “I kind of do it when I have time, and these designs really don’t take me as long as it would to do a stained glass panel. That would take a couple of days.
“These only take a couple of hours, and I just kind of do them when people want them or there’s a show coming up.
“So it’s still a hobby. I know my office will be glad to know that.”