Indian Summer

It's really late this year - so late that many said we weren't going to get one.
But, Indian Summer is here and it has been glorious.

The ginkos in my front yard are always, always the last trees to drop their leaves.
Some years they don't fall until it snows which makes it 'delightful' to rake them up.

They also produce thousands of beautiful looking berries - which are sticky like Karo syrup and smell exactly like dog poop. You have to wait til they freeze solid to clean them up, otherwise they stick to your rake and make you gag.

Still, despite all their faults they are my favorite trees.

I haven't had any success making glass ginko leaves - but I adore drawing them.

A pair of small paintings - acrylics on black rag paper.

Oil Stones

The pictures do not even come close to showing off how lustrous and metallic these are.

They're made on a core bead of black that has been wrapped in light Silver Plum.

On top of the Silver Plum I wound on strands of Double Helix Psyche and Aurae, melted them in just a little bit to make a raised and webbed surface. Finally I reduced the silvered glass to make lots of oily blue and gold metallic highlights.


If you look carefully at the reflection in this bead you can see the ginko tree outside my desk window.

Viola.

Mystery Bead

Does anyone have any idea what happened here?

I think this bead has a base of Cim's Canyon de Chelly with decorations of Double Helix Psyche.
Is that possible?
Weird.


The very last thing blooming in my garden.


Ginko leaf.

Lady Deb

Be careful if you admire on of my husbands "cartoon modernism"paintings -

because he will give it to you.

Our friend Deb learned this yesterday, on her 50th birthday, when she received this painting as a gift.

Luckily, she really did like it and was thrilled to get it.

Raked Pods

A small set of seven glass beads sculpted to look like seed pods.

The shortest ones are about three quarters of an inch long, the longest about an inch and a quarter.

They are made by shaping the molten glass with a tungsten pick, or rake, whichever you like to call it. This is a bent tip rake - they also come straight tipped. Either one is great. Mine came from the online glass supplier Moretti & More, an excellent place to get your glass and tools.


Below is a page from one of my bead sketchbooks where I made some notes to myself on how I formed these pod shaped beads. For me, writing things down is essential. It's amazing what I can forget as time goes by.

After making a simple round, or oval bead, let it cool enough to set so when you spot heat and rake the basic core shape will not deform.

To make the indented points you need to spot heat the bead, then touch it with your tungsten poker and drag the glass upwards until you have the shape you want. Rotate the bead to the next spot you want to shape and spot heat and rake again.

Remember to keep flashing the whole bead in and out of the flame occasionally to keep it from cracking. One of the secrets to this is being sure to really, really spot heat the area you're going to rake so that the glass is nice and soft - if you don't there will be too much drag on the glass and your bead release will crack.

Is there anything more annoying that breaking your bead release?

Most of these are made on a base of either Cim's Commando or Cim's Plum.

They're decorated before raking, with stripes of brown, light silver plum and swamp moss, there is also some copper green and raku frits added for splotchs of color.

Just a few more before I have enough for a necklace.

Big Hearted

It has been a long time since I made a big winged heart -

and this one is huge - just over 2" long.

The base glass is Cim's Sangre with bits of 'end of the day' glass mashed in all over it. The wings are light ivory tipped with golden dabs of Double Helix Aurae.

Promises & Bluebird Fluff

I have so many new beads to share but first they have to be photographed. Some of them are really interesting with some unexpected color reactions. I hope to have them up later today.

In the meantime have some fluff -

Milkweed pods.

And take a look at this - It's a lithography stone that's ready to be printed.

Mr. Bluebird On My Shoulder - by my daughter Margaret.
She's a printmaking and photography student at Alfred University.
I love this image and am begging for one of the prints - I hope as mother of the artist, and payer of the tuition, I can claim one.


More fluff.

Urchins & Orphans

Making beads, buying beads, selling beads, round and round I go.

Some lovely beads that I found last week at estate sales.

Dyed wooden beads, very old and soulful, probably from a game for children.


Sea Urchin spines.

I have broken them up into smaller groupings and listed them in my Curious Old Things etsy shop.

Speechless

They say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

The Swingin' Swami

I was going to post a bunch of Halloween snap shots, but this one is more than enough.

Halfway Through Halloween

One big party down - last night was an Alice in Wonderland themed 40th Birthday/Halloween party.
Tonight's fests include - "Night of the Living Pies" and "Spirits Open Mic."

Pictures galore - tomorrow.

Basic Beadmaking

Last night I finished teaching my first session of basic glass bead making.

I am proud to announce that after three consecutive Wednesday nights no one had set themselves on fire and everyone had learned basic lampworking.

These are my sample beads from the first night of class.
Yes, everyone had made all these shapes by the end of the first night. Subsequent classes covered things like using and making twisties and stringers, encasing, trapping air bubbles, and lots of different decorating and sculptural techniques.

Will I ever teach again?
I hope so. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

Watch Over Me & Listen Up

I have been binging on Little Jimmy Scott.

Vintage Venetians

50's Italian Luxe.

A lovely old Murano glass necklace from a household sale last week.

So simple and perfect - a strand of half inch round beads.

The beads are clear glass encasing coppery flecks of Aventurine frit.

They're sitting in my Curious Old Things etsy shop right now. SOLD
You could wear it and be very glamorous or take it apart and use the 25 beads in your own jewelry.