mysterious stuff

this is kryptonite (unique 2) from messy glass.
it's a pearly, misty, translucent blue green - or green blue?
whatever, it is gorgeous.

each dime sized bead has a little bit of silver foil encased in it.

they look like little winged bugs.

about 30 of these should make a lovely necklace.

we're thawing out !
i know winter is not over but we are having a couple of days where the temperature pushes 50. it is doing a lot for my spirits. despite several days of warm sunshine we still have a least a foot of hard packed, glacial snow on the ground - it will be a long time until we see the long lost grass.
but today, i am casting a shadow and that's a wonderful thing.

lucinda the little donkey

'"but," said mr. pinkney, "lucinda is a very contrary little donkey, too. when i want to go to the left, she goes to the right! when i say stop, she pretends she doesn't hear me. and when i put her in her bed in the barn at night, she gets right out again as soon as i am gone. oh, there's no doubt about it, lucinda is a contrary, stubborn little donkey!"

by irma wild, illustrated by george wilde, published 1952

sweeter tweet

a new glass cocktail ring.

the little bird is cim's sangre red, wrapped in a tiny piece of fine silver foil and encased in light grass green transparent.

it's up on etsy.

it was a bloodbath

this is the fortune that came with my spicy broccoli last night,
especially appropriate after last week's awkward award tagging debacle.

i have many more of these to make before i am done -
but here are dots of pandora on both cim's sangre and clockwork.

a woodland folly

that felt good.

a new bracelet.
made with the mushroom beads.

there's all kind of foresty goodness woven into this piece.

i started with about a mile of chocolate brown wire and my amanita muscaria lampwork beads.

then added some flocked red velvet beads from the clearance bin at the craft store, rondelles made from the cross sections of polished antlers, some little nut beads and long slender wood beads, pale mossy green carved stone leaves and lots of tiny dark red and black ceramic beads.

i don't know how people distract themselves when they are doing endless wire wrapping but i watch mind softening tv on hulu. it has to be real drivel or i get bored with my task.

this bracelet makes the most interesting rustling and clunking sounds when you wear it.

the return of mexican voodoo

remember these guys?
they're back - new & improved.

each one has a dangling vintage charm on the bottom -
for better mojo.
l to r
merry mary
auntie sam (SOLD)
ronald raygun (SOLD)
little sister
lucille falls
bohemian baby

etsy
"i wish i were in tiajuana eating barbeque iguana..."

mexican radio by wall of voodoo

a favorite tool

this is one of my favorite flameworking tools -
a pair of stainless steel ice tongs.

i use them to press lentils.

they needed a little bending to make them line up perfectly parallel, but it was easy to do.

see how it just snuggles in there?

the ones i use were made by oneida. i don't know if you can still get them in stores, but i found mine at a garage sale.

next time you find yourself at a garage, or estate, sale be sure to root around in all the kitchen utensils - there are lots of secret lampworking tools to be found. stuff for shaping, pressing, adding textures, gripping short rods, fixing wonky ends - just stop thinking of it as a serving spoon and think of it as a bicone marver. try to stick to stainless steel so your new tool won't stick to your glass.

dirty snow

filthy road snow? it must be february.

a set of six, hand pressed, lentils inspired by the dirty snow.

each bead was made with a base of dark ivory glass and wrapped with wide ribbons of messy glass (cims) canyon de chelly.

first, the canyon de chelly was melted into into the ivory causing the curdled lacy effect. then the bead was pressed with a pair of stainless steel ice tongs.

thin ribbons and dots of psyche glass from double helix were added, melted in, and then each bead was re-pressed.

the flame was adjusted to be slightly reducing and the bead waved thru it repeatedly until the psyche struck/reduced to a lusterous, oily, metallic blue green with violet edges.

i thought it would turn metallic black and be appropriate to the dirty snow theme - but the blue was a wonderful surprise.

this double helix glass is amazing.
i know, i am late to the party - but what a party.

the bead (above) also has a bit of opalino carnelian in it - i dropped my dark ivory rod on the floor midway thru the bead and had to improvise.

a side view

a snapshot of bare branches taken from the passenger seat of the van. the vivid blue is from the tinting in the windshield.

proximity

steph from vlaDtheBaT's aTTiC gifted my blog with the proximidade award.

what does it mean?

proximidade is described as follows:
"This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!"

the instructions (as passed on to me):
"The rules are: This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog."

so, now i get to escort you to eight of my favorite blogs (but this doesn't mean all the other links on the right aren't wonderful - that's why i list them as them wonderblogs)

perched on a thin branch

cynthia thornton of green girl studios

andrew thornton

japonisme

apron thrift girl

kab's creative concepts

dear ada

angeliska

gone to the dogs

dick, my husband, has started a new painting.
it's of our decorative hounds.

hang on tight - i will keep you updated as it progresses - this ought to be a wild ride.

a warm bath

before the beads come off their mandrels they get a nice long warm soak. this makes them easier to remove and then ream out the last little bits of clay resist.

this is last night's production happily submerged on my kitchen counter.

a little bit of a close-up.

ray lamontagne - "joleen"

he may be a bit too much like cat stevens - but who cares?

pandora aurora

a little bird done with encased "pandora" glass made by double helix.

the bead is just a wee thing but i almost got all the elusive pandora colors out of it. double helix is a very exotic american made glass that is full of metals. this mysterious glass does all kinds of enigmatic stuff in the flame - like turn a rainbow of pastel colors.

i braved the tundra last night and went to open torch. mostly i worked on sets - i have got to get some big necklaces done. i know i should stop grousing about the snow and cold, after all this is upstate new york and we all know how to handle winter. but, having said that, this has been an especially grim winter. the snow and cold has been relentless. what can you do? just have some more oatmeal for breakfast before bundling up to go dig out (again).

the new colors of glass that i ordered from moretti and more are very luscious. i should have some nice sets of stuff to show in the next couple blog posts. i can't wait to pick up my beads today - i am anxious to see how one particular set of large lentils turned out - they were inspired by dirty snow drifts. huh?

a winter's snark

winter has gone too far.

the cold here is relentless.

more shoveling, more scarves, more snarking.

i am dreaming of dandelions -

and bare feet.