Welcome to Lake Breeze Arts, my website that I have created in response to customer demand for a place they can go to see my latest creations and to find out where they can be purchased.

This website will always be changing as I add images of my artwork, list new galleries where you can see my artwork, and update my list of scheduled events where I will be participating. Although my website will always be a work in progress, I hope you take the time to take a look around, and if you have any questions or comments, please send me an e-mail here. If you don't hear from me immediately, don't panic! I'm a little slow at checking my messages. 

Biography
My name is Sandra Kugenieks and I am the artist and owner of Lake Breeze Arts. I have spent a lifetime manipulating objects into art, whether it is paint, glass, polymer clay, and beads, or found objects like buttons, old silverware, driftwood or glassware. I'm always looking for new ways to use existing materials.

Most of my artwork is nature inspired or with a mythological theme. As a youngster, I would spend hours drawing pictures of bugs, flowers, trees, fairies and dragons. As a teenager majoring in art, I had the opportunity to experiment with a broader spectrum of ideas and mediums but I enjoyed the nature and fantasy inspired work the most.     

Among other things, I create jewelry, ornaments and functional items like wall mirrors from vintage silverware. I started making angels then added dragonflies, butterflies, bees, birds, and trees in keeping with the nature theme. Wall mirrors incorporate silverware pieces and stained glass to make unique home decor. See my poem relating to my silverware creations in the right column!

My stained glass work is still evolving but the main subject matter is still nature inspired. I took additional courses in order to learn to work with stained glass and my goal was to make jewelry out of this wonderful material. Glass, beads and wire all combine to offer a small glimpse of flora and fauna creations mimicking the natural world. I use stained glass panels with my series of trees, too, that can be wall or window art.

But, my favorite medium to work with is polymer clay! This is where my love of nature and the creatures of mythology really shines. Polymer clay is easy to work with and, once properly cured, can last a lifetime. Polymer clay comes in a huge variety of colors and, when combined together, make an even broader spectrum of color. My sculptures and jewelry are whimsical characters taken from nature or inspired by mythological beings. Most are embellished with semi precious gemstones, pearls, glass, shells and/or stones and the larger pieces are built over an armature of recycled material. Each sculpture is unique and has a story to tell. 

A New Life 

 Vintage silverware: spoons, forks and knives,
Were made to spend very elegant lives.
Each pattern was chosen to be the perfect winner
And embellish the table for that very special dinner.  

  But pieces went missing over the years,
Some lost, some damaged, among laughter and tears.
Soon families got busier, always on the run,
And setting a fancy table was no longer fun.  

  So the vintage silverware went mostly unused,
Ending up at flea markets, and otherwise abused.
And there they languished, all tarnished and black,
Waiting for the old glory days to come rushing back.  

  With a fork or two here, and a spoon over there,
It was clear that family tables would indeed remain bare.
But then came a lady through the market one day
Who picked up some silverware and started to play.  

  "This handle is lovely and an angel it could make",
Said the lady as she stepped around an old garden rake.
"And this knife is lonely, it just needs another,
To be attached to a mirror as a gift for my mother."  

  So the lady bought all the old pieces she could find,
Taking them home to make the objects she had in mind.
She made angels, mirrors, dragonflies and trees,
And gave a new life to those old elegant beauties.

-Sandra Kugenieks