Rita Levine

Rita has been surrounded by arts and crafts her entire life. Is it any wonder that she is now employed by Diamond Tech, one of the largest manufacturers of art glass, mosaic and hot glass crafting products? Rita says most of her inspiration comes from her mother. Her mother's handiwork could be seen in the kitchen where Rita watched her stir up imaginative dishes for her hungry family of nine and in the sewing room where she magically turned feed-sacks into adorable sundresses for her daughters. "So, I would say my genius and inspiration comes from dear ol' Mom," Rita said. Since graduating from the University of Cincinnati, Rita's art career has centered on paper, pencil and computers. However that all changed when she became employed by Diamond Tech. During her tenure, she was introduced to and fell in love with glass and mosaics, a love affair or obsession that continues today. This obsession has lead Rita to edit and co-author twelve glass crafting books, produce a video on glass beadmaking and provide handmade mosaic projects to several well-known magazines. "In my opinion, glass crafting is an unsung art and I am here to sing its praises. I believe the more one learns about stained glass, mosaics, fusing and glass beadmaking the more one wants to learn MORE!" For 20 years Rita has lived in sunny Tampa, FL. "I have lovely daughter who enjoys mosaics, not necessarily with me - teenagers. Often times we find ourselves at garage sales looking at tables chairs, clocks and saying to each other, 'we can mosaic that!' I'm telling you it's addictive."

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Celebrate Earth Month with Crafts and Color!

In Events and Contests By ritalevine

Did you know that April is National Earth month? Thats right, a month-long event scheduled for April 1 through April 30 in Washington, DC, featuring interactive, eco-friendly experiences to raise awareness of environmental issues and encourage sustainability. Earth Month 2013 represents a significant expansion of Earth Day festivities normally celebrated April 22. Join millions of people around the world and unite with the sole purpose of celebrating National Earth Month by looking for your communitys local efforts and meaningful programs. In the meantime, why not start the celebration at home with crafting projects that recycle, re-purpose and reuse. Responsible manufactures such as Diamond Tech are coming up with alternative crafting projects that provide a value proposition as well as social, emotional, and therapeutic benefits that balance in perfect harmony with any Earth Day celebration. For example, last year Diamond Tech introduced the Generation Green Bottle Cutter and Kits. These eco-friendly products allow craft enthusiasts to recycle and reuse glass bottle and jars otherwise bound for the trash. Bottle Art Kits make it easy to cr

Feed the Need for Mixed Media Collage

In How-To By Rita Levine

Raise your hands if you are totally psyched about what is happening in todays arts and crafts world! In true Arnold Horshack form OOOOOOHHHHH! OOOOOOHHHHH! OOOOOOHHHHH! What has gotten me so excited - the rise of Mixed Media Collage! I have a confession to make, even though I work mainly in the art glass world - I am so the closet Mixed Media Collage junkie ! No wonder, my love of combining tiny pieces of tesserae to create mosaics translates perfectly to combining layers of mixed media to create a similar effect. Mixed Media Collage brings so many techniques together to create wonderful masterpieces. Its all about the layering and composition. And it teaches us so much about what looks right and what doesnt. Now mind you, I said I was a junkie, not an expert! But I would like to share with you my addiction and the method to my madness or the madness to my method. To begin creating a collage you usually start with a sturdy backing, or substrate to create the foundation for your work. For a mixed media art collage, this may be a canvas, a piece of cardboard, a piece of wood, a page of an altered book or my favorite - a sheet of metal. Just mak

Mosaics: Piecing It All Together

In How-To By Rita Levine

Mosaics add charm and whimsy to any room in your home or corner of your garden. Mosaics are not only beautiful to display, but they are truly a lot of fun to make! Traditional mosaics are made by cutting tiny pieces of glass and fitting them together with just enough space between each piece for grout. Traditions change, however, and today's contemporary mosaics are not only made from glass but broken china pieces, buttons, shells and even Grandma's rhinestone jewelry. To begin, choose an item on which to mosaic- fountains, small bistro tables and stepping stones are good starting places, but generally mosaics can be applied to any and all surfaces. If you've chosen a smooth surface, rough it up first using fine grit sandpaper or score it using a craft knife. A rough surface will allow the adhesive to form a better grip. Next, decide on a pattern for your mosaic. For inspiration visit your local library or book store for a pattern or mosaic book. Once you have an idea for a design, draw it on paper and transfer it to the surface using carbon paper and a sharpen pencil or simply draw it directly on the surface. As with any craft project, the proper tools are essential.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

In Everything Else By Rita Levine

Ever wondered what goes in to developing a new craft tool or product? The post below was submitted by Rita Levine of Diamond Tech International. She leads readers on a journey through the product development phases of the new G2 Bottle Cutter. Last Spring I was invited to join a group of friends for a little "eco" crafting. Little did I know that two months later I would be working to design a new bottle cutter. We worked hard that day to embrace our eco-friendly projects. Our goal was to transform bottles into art. It was clear, however, the bottle cutters we were using were not "cutting it". We struggled to score and separate our bottles with very little success. It was then I thought, There has got to be a better way! So I rounded up our product development team and we set out to create a tool that would effortlessly turn bottles and jars, bound for the trash, into crafts. If we could make it an earth friendly tool, all the better. To achieve this, we first fashioned our new bottle cutter from recycled aluminum. This was good, we thought, but we decided to take it one step further and made the packaging from recycled paper. (We were definitely bitten by the recycl

Bedazzled Earrings: A Microwave Fusing Project

In How-To By Rita Levine

By : Rita Levine Skill Level : 2 (Adult 1-5: 1 being the easiest, 5 being most difficult) Time to Complete : 45 Minutes Materials: Fuseworks Kiln Fuseworks Kiln Paper Fuseworks Glass Cutter Wheeled Glass Nippers Ruler Westrim pearl assortment Sterling Silver Plated Square Cabochon Mini Links - Delphi 85435 2 hat pins Earring wires Scrap fusing glass 90 COE Chain-nose pliers Round-nose pliers Instructions: 1. Place white glass on a clean flat cutting surface with the smooth side of the glass facing towards you. 2. Start on an edge of the glass holding the cutter firmly in one hand. Keep the cutter perpendicular to the glass. Push the cutter gently and evenly across the glass. Decrease pressure slightly as you reach the opposite edge of the glass; lift the cutter off the glass at the end. 3. Breaking the score line can be done with breaking pliers. Hold the glass in one hand, with the score facing up. With the other hand, center the score line in the jaws of the breaking pliers about a half inch onto the glass surface. Apply pressure to the handles; you will hear a “pop” and the score will run, breaking the glas

The Delphi Blog

Rita Levine

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