Eating Cake

50

Friends brought me the most perfect birthday cupcake, of course it's chocolate.

It was a very quiet day, most of it spent messing with my latest bead sketchbook, a marker and my trusty archival glue stick. Figuring out where I am headed next in lampworking land.


This is where I may be headed with my bird paintings - symmetrical, repetitive patterning, yet still very painterly. I took obe of my recent painted paper sketches and redoubled it up in photoshop to see what a painting might look like. I think I am liking the results.

Deeply Pink

Promises, promises, the longest evenings, the oldest roses & long, long clover lawns.
I cannot remember ever enjoying late June this much.
Less than four hours of my forties left, oh fuck, pink champagne for everyone.

Red Ruffles

Red Ruffles bracelet

Glass beads, tiny garnets and sterling silver.

I have a few pieces from my trunk show, including this bracelet, that I am going to place in my etsy shop today and tomorrow - they will be on sale. It's a bit early for summer clearance, but I have a class that I want to take at the art gallery in pmc clay and am trying to scare up my tuition and materials fee. I think making my own sculptural clasps and accent beads in silver clay would be perfect.

Royalty

Being a princess is not normal - for me.

So today was completely remarkable, thanks to all for such a joyful birthday party.

Earring Display

One thing I wanted to do for my trunk show was make a display piece for my earrings.
I have never been very happy with how I have shown them in the past.

With a little luck, a little help, a bag of cement and all my bum beads - I made this.

I found the black metal spiral display stand at a garage sale - but the base was unstable and ugly. So I set it into a ceramic dish, filled it with concrete and decorated the surface with all my reject beads.

It functions nicely and really draws people to the earrings.


My trunk show is rolling along - I am extremely pleased with the amount of work I have sold and I have learned a lot about which pieces people gravitate to, and why. Knowledge that will be very helpful when it comes to designing new pieces. Some things were pretty unexpected. Almost all of the bracelets are gone, more than half the earrings, all the buttons have sold, and heart pendants - I should have made more.

So many friends have been by - and so many strangers have just walked in, had a good chat and left with a pair of earrings. It's been a very fun weekend.

MJ rip

a makeshift shine was set up last night at one of our favorite restaurants.

Napoleon P. Oodle

Old fat poodle sleeping in the sun.
Kinda sounds like a haiku needs to be written.

And Away We Go

Here's a preview of the ad that will run in tomorrow's newspaper to promote my trunk show.

I am beyond excited and nervous.

If you're here in Rochester please stop in and say hello. This weekend is the last weekend for the fantastic Wear Glass exhibit at the Memorial Art Gallery - so if you haven't seen it's your last chance. It is also the 'Art & Treasures' sale at the museum - a very fancy-schmancy rummage sale to benefit the Art Gallery.

It's going to be my wild weekend. Thursday, Friday and Saturday I have the trunk show, then Sunday is my 50th birthday party. My parents are here from, that place where all my peer's parents now seem to be from, Florida. My sister is coming in for most of the weekend and I hear there are going to be some surprise guests. Eek.

Sea Blossoms & Mermaids

Sea Blossom bracelet.

Lamp work glass beads, sterling silver, opals % rock crystal.

The glass beads were made with a variety of watery transparent glasses and a little bit of silver foil. After cleaning them the beads were heavily etched to look like beach glass. (pssst - thank you Kerry for teaching me the milk trick - she let me know that you need to neutralize the acid from etching by giving your beads a milk bath)


Mermaids bracelet.

Lamp work glass beads, sterling silver, silver foil and rock crystal.

The glass beads were made with lots of transparent glass over a core of sparkly dichroic glass.

I wish I had time to write something witty and entertaining this morning but, alas, I have no time at all to linger.

June Bugs

House flies really are creepy.


June Bugs bracelet - sterling silver, glass & carnelian.

Orange and dark violet glass rolled in raku frit then encased in pale brown transparent.

Flocking

It's a bit slow and oddly pedantic at the beginning but the end is amazing.


Are you sick of new bracelets yet? You better not be - there are a lot more.

Flock bracelet.

Hammered sterling links, freshwater pearls, glass, labradorite and garnets.

Yesterday morning it was a long necklace that always seemed a bit awkward. Today, with a bit of reworking, it's now a three stranded bracelet.

The bird beads each have black centers rolled in raku frit and then encased in pale, pale transparent gray.

For father's day the three of us went out for BBQ. The restaurant was packed - Dads were flocking to Sticky Lips for roasted meats. We were surprised to learn that it's their busiest day of the year. Affirming my suspicion that "men love meat."

Where's Summer?

We are having a miserable cold, rainy June. Just about every pitiful day I need a sweater, socks and an umbrella. I want my summer, now please.

Yesterday, in an attempt to conjure up some hot weather juju, I put together a splashy summer bracelet. It was inspired by marigolds and ice cubes.

It was raining and miserable for the last night of the Rochester International Jazz Festival. I slogged thru downtown to see Colombian songstress Marta Gomez. Hearing her was like summer had finally arrived.

The entire audience was transfixed.

Swag

A nice big pile of five new bracelets for my trunk show.

My old fingers have been very busy. When I get a few extra minutes I will show them to you one at at time.

silver babies & washboard

Last night, at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, we saw Dwayne Dopsie - which was spectacular. His washboard player was mindboggling.

I know it's sideways, I didn't shoot the video. Amazing, eh?


Siver Babies bracelet.

All transparent glasses with encased silver foil.

I never get tired of messing around with silver foil.

The blue bead is a riff on every cloud having a silver lining.

Rajani

Rajani bracelet.

Glass, rose quartz and sterling silver.

Hand pressed lentil beads made with a core of cim's Sange rolled in aventurine frit, then encased in cim's Rose Quartz, transparent tangerine, transparent pink and transparent yellow.

All you ever need for color inspiration is right outside in your garden.

Poppies & Petals Galore, oh my

White poppy by my front door.


White petal bracelet - glass, rose quartz, peridot and sterling silver.


It rained all day today and my poppies shattered, so this year's poppy season comes to an end.


The glass is white with threads of cim's Gelly's Sty pink. I ever so briefly etched them for a more petalicious look and feel.

poppy petal

I had a nice long session with the torch yesterday - and did try making glass beads shaped like flower petals. You might remember that I sketched out some glass petals a couple of posts ago when I was talking about milk glass beads. First I made six white peony petals, with veins of pale pink, enough for a bracelet.

Then it was time for a little vamping - I improvised a poppy petal.
I really like this gaudy little bead.

I have a little bit of flame time available tomorrow night and will work on torching a small set of these. The base is glass is special red that was wrapped with threads of carrot red, a blotch of black and raku was added.

Today was devoted to making bracelets - lots of new jewelry to show here tomorrow. I am really getting excited about my trunk show at the Memorial Art Gallery. The last bits of stringing and making chain is going very well, everything should be ready to deliver the beginning of next week.

poppy talk

Poppies everywhere.

Black cone shaped beads rolled in large raku (iris orange) frit and then decorated with threads of coral glass.

Milk Glass Beads - 2

This is my second attempt at a milk glass inspired bead.

It's about an inch and a half long and made from plain, old, white glass. The first one I tried to make was out of anice white glass. It was impossible to work with, snapping and popping all over the place, I never even finished the bead. There are things to like about this bead, but I seriously need to work on the even, and equal, placement of my dots if I am going to try and simulate hob nails.

Perhaps, I would rather make a pile of white glass petals that look like they are made of milk glass.

white peony

I really like the idea of a necklace of glass petals.

Shadowplay

Light and dark - late afternoon shadows on a driveway.

I always wonder how much to say. Some of my favorite blogs are written by very emotionally open women who share a lot of their internal lives. Me, not so much, I tend to stick to tales of my painting and glass work. Sometimes I show off lighter bits of my family life and happy snaps of my poodles, but that's it.

Right now there's sunlight and shadow in my life. I am days away from turning 50. It's, not surprisingly, a rather reflective time for me. I am finding that being half a century old is very sobering.

Oddly my karma seems way out of whack and I'm not sure why. Many disparate forces in my life seem hell bent on making things difficult and sad. I am becoming a miserable, unpleasant, tired old soup of indignant and depressed.

I'll tell you a secret - when I was little I wanted to grow up to be a hermit.