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.

Pollination

Almost everything I make is inspired by nature.
I never met a seed pod that I did not want to recreate using either paint, pencil or glass.

So, when I saw the cover of this coffee table book called "Pollen" I was sunk. I trolled around ebay for weeks until a reasonably priced copy came up for sale and I scored it. Scored is the perfect word to describe my shopping behavior with this book. I was consumed with want in the days that preceeded it's purchase.

When it finally arrived in the mail I was not disappointed.

Page after big glossy page of spores that look like beads.

After absorbing it for a day or two I started to sketch out some bead ideas.

You know, you really should keep a bead sketchbook.
Keeping track of your ideas, color recipes, triumphs and failures is very useful.

My first pollen beads.

They're a completely new shape for me.

They start with a round bead. By spot heating and raking both sides of the round base bead they are pulled into an elongated 'pollen grain' shape.

The base glasses were Opalino Carnelian, Light Gray and Cim's Plum. Before starting to shape each bead I added a band of Double Helix Aurae around their middles. They were reduced after shaping.

I am so pleased with these beads. The plan is to make several dozen more and then string them into a strand - sort of like pearls - but pollen.

A Geode to Go - That's How We Roll

I looked over at the passenger seat of my car and saw -

A ball of variegated chenille yarn, a big tin of tomatoes, a brown bag of stuff from the hardware store and a geode. My life seems to be a bit random at the moment. I smiled, and wondered what conclusions someone would draw if they stopped to snoop through my car's window.

The geode was for bead making.
I wanted to mimic its combination of soft grays and watery pale opal blue.

I used a base of dark and light Ivory glass and added bands of Double Helix Triton and Aurae. Believe it, or not, there was a wide band of transparent light blue around the middle of the beads. For some reason the blue glass just seems to have vanished.

Next time, a lot more blue glass and maybe some Fossil.

This last bead is the weirdest of all - it's just a light webbing of Aurae over Dark Ivory.

Oh, to get right back at the torch and have another try at it.
Lately, more than ever, I wish I had a home studio for glass. I would love to have more than one day a week to torch, sigh.

Earring Cards

I recently discovered that my earrings sell better if they're on cards.
Has anyone else found this to be true?


Here's Rochester's homegirl Susan B. Anthony sporting a pair of my meteorites.


Same goes for Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she likes the pressed peacock feather look lentils.


A posh pasha with little glass beans and and ginger colored stick pearls.


I don't know who this is... do you? She's wearing a pair of dirty snow lentils.


They weren't hard to make, I designed them in Corel Draw with some free online clip-art that was easily downloaded. Cutting them and piercing their ears was a bit time consuming but shoppers seem to really like the presentation. Yes, that's Walt Whitman - second row, second from the right.

Button It Up

I make lots and lots of big glass buttons.

They're are so fun I get carried away making them.

Lately, I love doing off mandrel work - like marbles and buttons.

The button holes are made with a nifty tool that a friend brought me back from the Tuscon bead show made by Andy Ray called "handy andy tungsten tweezers."

This landscape button and the others were just delivered to the Memorial Art Gallery museum gift shop, and I have a big box that I am taking to the knitting guild holiday sale. I haven't put any in my etsy shop lately, but if you want one let me know and I will pop some in there for you.

Leaf Litter

Clear, bluer than blue skies.

It's chilly out but the sun is shining and I feel well enough to go outside.
Poodles come here - I think a leisurely dog walk is in order.


Yet another new necklace.
This one imitates fall leaves and berries.

The base glass for the leaves is Cim's Commando - which I have used up and need to reorder.
They were decorated with stripes of an Effetre cool color called Relish, some bands of Ocher, big and chunky raku and avocado frits and a bit of black around their middles.

The berries are made mostly with 'peachy persimmon' coral glass.

All the wire work is sterling silver, and the small stone beads anchoring my glass beads are carnelian.