An Eclectic Glass Artist and Her Inspirations

Long Time No See

2010-10-04T17:16:00.005-05:00

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I've blogged! Been busy with everyday life, you know, kids, school, work, and beads!

Recently, I did some glass bead making demos for an artist walk which was a lot of fun. I'm curious how the beads turned out since they are still at the studio (Bliss Beads in Dekalb, IL)

I've been on a bird bead kick lately. Here are a couple:

I'm off to celebrate my daughter's 6th birthday today =)
Have a great day!!

Down Time

2009-08-14T01:49:00.006-05:00

It's almost 2 am and I can't sleep so I thought I'd come ramble on here.

I've been having some fun with the glass beads and friends lately. On Saturday I was at the Bliss Beads bead shop/studio doing some demos at the torch. What a fun thing to do! I'm excited to go back during our local cornfest and do more demos in about a week.

Sunday my dear friend Sheila came over and we took turns torching. It was so great to try new things and learn from eachother!! We played with shardes, frit, CZ's, shaping, and implossions. She is so inspiring to me. I look to her as a mentor in glass.

I have been playing with organics and nautical type beads.. Here are some of my recent beads:

Happy glass dreams to you all!!! I'm heading off to bed!

Back to the Torch

2009-07-11T16:40:00.008-05:00

I've been finding less and less time to torch these days. It's hard with the weather being so nice to not spend the time outside playing with the kids now that they are getting older. I did find some time this last week on some rainy days to get down to the studio and melt some glass. Here are a couple of the beads I made this week:

I hope you all are enjoying the summer weather! More glass to come =)

Relay For Life 2009

2009-06-18T09:29:00.004-05:00

The fun never ends here. I've been keeping really busy. This year I'm participating in Relay for Life put on by the American Cancer Society. We started a team through my real life job and I'm even the team captain. The walk is this Saturday from 6 pm - 6 am on Sunday. If anyone wants more information you can click here for my donation page.

I created a necklace to go into the silent auction for this event:
That's not the best picture but you get the idea. It's made with my handmade lampworked beads, sterling silver, pink opal, quarts, and Swarovski crystals.

I hope all of you have a chance to do something good for someone else. It sure makes you feel good!!

Have a wonderful day!

Bead & Button Show 2009

2009-06-06T14:27:00.012-05:00

What a wonderful bead show!!! I had a blast yesterday! First of all it was amazing to meet some of my wonderful co-artists in glass, better known as my glass friends. It is so great to be able to hug a friend after 3 years of communication over cyber space. That alone made my day.

Samma, Me, Mallory

But then I got to see so many amazing glass artists! These are big name people in the glass world. I have to say how impressed I was at how very friendly these people were. They are so full of knowledge. I wish I could have spent more time with each and every one of them.

I came home with some goodies! A boro dragon made by Louise Wilson (a.k.a. Dirty Louie), a bee-bug-bead by Sharon Peters, a fairy pendant by Diane Hawkey, A gorgeous gift bead from Samma Parcels. I also got beads that were in my B&B bag from Unicorne Beads, Inc, Along with a good heaping pile of gemstone, shell and seed beads.

Dragon by Dirty Louie

Bee-Bug Bead by Sharon Peters

Pendant by Diane Hawkey

Samma Parcels Bead

Catch up

2009-06-02T09:19:00.005-05:00

Today I just want to take sometime to fill you in on what I've been up to since it seems like it's been so long since my last blog.

First I took a trip in May out to see my best friend out by Boston MASS. That was so fun. Then I took a train down to NYC and met up with four of my glass friends. We spent two days walking around and exploring Manhattan before heading to NJ where we all spent time torching together. That was great!! We each demonstrated different bead styles and techniques. What a learning experience!! If you are ever in a slump go work with someone else in your art. It is very inspiring.

Since returning home work and family have kept me hopping. As well as custom orders that I am very thankful for and an art show this past weekend.

This weekend coming up is the Bead and Button Show up in Madison WI. I can't wait to go to it! Not only will there be a massive amount of beads and glass supplies to shop, but many of my glass friends will be there!!! I can't wait to meet them in person!

Here is a little set of shells I recently made, inspired by my torching time with my friend Maggie and the beach on Cape Cod:

I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Art Club Rocks!!

2009-05-14T10:50:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing a glass demonstration for the DeKalb High School Art Club. Talk about fun!!! We started with a small fusing demonstration and each student (and teachers too) put together a little 1 x 2 inch fused glass piece that they can either make into a pendant later or a magnet.

Next I fired up the old hot head torch and did a lampworking demonstration. I was super impressed at the students ambition of wanting to make the advanced sculptural beads like the ones I showed as some examples but we had to start with baby steps. Each student had a turn at making a bead. Above you see the beads that the students and teachers made. Pretty good for first timers!!!

It was a great opportunity. I had a lot of fun doing this and I hope to be back there next year for another demonstration!!

Art Goal

2009-05-03T00:00:00.007-05:00

What is your goal in creating art? What drives you to create what you create?

I have recently had to send my camera in to be repaired so I had to dig out the old one and use it to take a few pictures of some of my recent work. Here are two focal beads that I was really happy with:

The reason I am so happy with these two beads is the motion that has been captured in this organic style. My goal in my art beads recently is to capture motion. The top bead reminds me of cherry blossoms. I really am drawn to nature in beads as well.

So what is your goal for your art?

Copper Leaf in Beads

2009-04-25T14:16:00.003-05:00

I have been playing with copper leaf in my beads. The first on the left in the photo below was my first attempt. It is turquoise blue and ghee (cim) wrapped with the copper leaf and then super heated. The middle bead is turquoise with some white and transparent turquoise blobbed on. I did not heat the bead enough to fully cook in the copper so I ended up with some grey spots. I added the transparent raised dots to see what it would look like encased in parts - there was no difference under the encasing. I may etch this bead to see how that makes it look. The bead on the far right is bubblegum pink wrapped in copper leaf. I added a few scribbles of silvered ivory to see what would happen. I love the blue/gree color on this one. This bead is my favorite. I used a base of periwinkle and added a few swipes of opal yellow. I super heated this one very well. I just love the green color the copper made on the opal yellow! I squished the bead and added some flowers down the sides.

Copper leaf is fun to play with. I just suggest being cautious with breathing it in because it can be harmful. Also you want to really super heat it. It takes some time to really cook it in. It will spark in the flame which is kind of fun to watch.

That is it for now. I broke my camera and I have to send it in to get it fixed so I'm not sure when I'll have more pictures.

But for now, have a great weekend!!!!

2009-04-21T21:13:00.008-05:00

April is sure flying by quickly!

Since Easter I have been trying to spend more time at the torch. I've been in a gravity swirl mixed with organics mood lately.

Here are a couple of my latest beads:

I've been so busy making beads to stock my display at the local bead shop that I have been neglecting my etsy and artfire shops. But rest assured that now I'm working on filling up my shops. I had a much needed photo shoot today and will be listing several items during the week.

I will be back soon to discuss my attempts at working with copper leaf.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!!

Happy Easter!!

2009-04-12T00:43:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!!!

We have had a fun weekend so far. My 4 y/o daughter got to cheer at a Chicago Slaughter, indoor football game, at half-time tonight. So that was super fun. I was productive and got my website updated and all up-to-date info added to it. You can see it here if you'd like.

I've also been busy making some jewelry. I created this necklace around the focal bead I made:

Here is a close up of the focal bead: (I plan to make more like this next time I get to the torch)

Well, I think I hear the Easter Bunny thumping at the door, I better go let him in or the kids will not be happy. Have a great day!!!

Sunny Saturday

2009-04-04T18:50:00.006-05:00

What a beautiful day here. Spent all day with the kids, doing Easter eggs, playing, went to the park, and did some shopping. I'm exhausted.

I've made some beads recently and thought I'd show some pictures. These two are a couple of large focal beads:

I also made a set of beads that match a pair of socks. I am hosting a fun sock/bead exchange with a group of friends from Wet Canvas and this is one of the pairs of socks and beads that will be in the exchange:

New news... I have updated my website and it now includes the ability to sign up for the classes I am teaching directly from the website. Check it out under classes at sundaisyglass.com

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!!

2009-03-24T22:41:00.002-05:00

What a crazy couple of weeks I've had!!

Started with a mammogram and ultrasound of the boobies and then finding out I had to get a biopsy. Good news is that the cyst they took out was benign!! - Happy Dance here!!

Then I got invited to be on the Oprah show and was on national TV yesterday on the show with Steve Harvey as her guest. That was so much fun!!!

I've been super busy at my real life job.

The kids are on spring break this week so it's a mad house here!! It's been raining for the last 2 days so it's not been much fun for spring break.

When it comes to glass work I seem to have lost my mo-jo. I'm not sure what to make right now and nothing is selling. It's a tough economy right now all over. The beads I make just seem to sit here and it is really sad to me. When I create beads I do so in the hopes that they will travel the world and see places I'll never get to go to. I love that I have beads in places like Africa, Russia, United Kingdom, Canada, and all over the US.

I welcome suggestion on what kind of beads I should make.. Really I want to know what you want to see. Please leave a comment with some ideas for me.

I do have one idea from a dear friend that made me giggle!! I'll have to share it after I make it. I want to see if I can pull it off first.

Enough babbling for now.. I'm off to bed in hopes of dreams of glass beads... Have a great one!!

Week of Good News

2009-03-04T17:59:00.002-06:00

This has turned out to be a good week! I am now selling my beads at a bead shop called Bliss Beads in DeKalb Illinois. Super exciting!! The owner, Allison is really nice and has a wonderful bead shop going. I brought in two trays of beads and a display of goddess beads there on Monday. In just two short days I have already sold a couple.

Not only am I selling beads there, I am also going to be teaching some classes. My first class is going to be on April 16th or April 18th - 2 days so you get a variety of times to choose from. It will be on making goddess beads. I'm so excited. I've wanted to teach for a long time now so I feel like my art is coming together now and that it is a good time to expand. If you are interested the cost is only $75 for 3 hours of goddess instruction. I can get you the number to call and sign up, just drop me a note.

This is one of my older goddess beads. I call this one PMS.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!

2009-02-18T09:09:00.004-06:00

Happy Wednesday! Torching did not happen last night as I had hoped. I got distracted by a movie that my husband was watching and ended up watching it with him until almost 11 pm. I did however write some notes in my beading journal after taking a good hard look at my cat.

If you find that you seem to have all kinds of ideas during the day but when you sit down to create your art you have forgotten what you wanted to make, seem to have miss placed your muse, or just don't feel the motivation then you need to keep a journal. It can be a simple notebook that you keep with you just about all the time. You never know when the inspiration bug will bite! I write down things such as color combinations I find, textures, shapes that intrigue me, things I want to make from glass. Even if you don't use what you write down right away you can go back to it at any time and find some inspiration.

So last night as I looked at my cat I realized what wonderful colors she is made of. Her colors will be soon seen in a glass bead of some type. I can't wait!

I did say I'd post photos from my torching play date with Sheila. This is a picture she took of some of the beads we made that day.

I hope everyone of you has a wonderful day full of inspiration. If you can't create your ideas right away - write them down!!

Playing With Fire and a Good Friend!

2009-02-16T14:32:00.004-06:00

Having a play date with a good friend is one of life's simple pleasures for me. Yesterday I spent the day with my friend and fellow glass artist, Sheila. We had a wonderful time torching together. I feel so inspired and motivated. Sheila taught me so much. I'm still amazed how much you can learn from watching a fellow artist at the torch. We took turns teaching each other little tips and tricks. We oohed and aahed over each other's beads. It was a really great day!

So moral of the story, if you are ever in a slump, get together with a like minded friend. You'll be inspired and feed off each other's positive energy.

I'll share some pictures after Sheila takes some since the beads are coming out of her kiln.

Have a wonderful day!

One World One Heart - Winner..

2009-02-12T12:30:00.002-06:00

Thank you to everyone that posted comments on my give away! What a fun event. I'm looking forward to next year already!

The winner of this year was comment #104

Andee from andeesigns! Check out her great blog. She makes gorgeous jewelry!!

http://andeesigns.blogspot.com/

Beginning To Look A Lot Like Love

2009-02-06T16:23:00.008-06:00

Love is in the air! I've been getting ready for Valentines day. These Boro hearts recently emerged from my kiln.

I have been slacking on my blog for a good reason! I have been busy working on my new website.

A while ago I was debating what to do about my website. I liked having one but I did not like paying so much money for one. So it must have been my lucky day the other day when I got an offer from Microsoft small office and learned that I could have a free website. So I bought a new domain name and made a new website and canceled my old one. The new domain name is great because for a while now I have been wanting to change my business name from Sun Daisy Gems to Sun Daisy Glass. - It's just more fitting. I still will own sundaisygems.com until 2010 sometime, but it's not costing me anything. In today's economy that is defiantly for the better!!

So, if you get a chance take a peek at the new website: Sundaisyglass.com

Happy Saturday!

2009-01-31T12:05:00.007-06:00

As I recover from last nights' outing with my girl friends I'm excited to show you my progression in glass fusing.

I started with a single sheet of black glass and added a single flower to it. I made the flower pieces with glass at the torch. This is what I came up with first:

Then I decided that it was just too boring. I had to add more to it. So during my next torch session I made a variety of other components for more flowers. This is what I came up with next:

I do have to note here that it is really hard to photograph black glass! I will next slump this into a sushi plate mold. I have to plan to do it on a day that I am not going to make beads since I only have one kiln. Maybe I'll get it done on Tuesday.

Doing this project has given me a ton of ideas! I love the swirly pieces of stringer that I pulled and have in mind more designs using just swirls. I guess I'm pretty happy for this being my first.

Another happy thing to report is that I'm inspired to make more beads. My mojo is back! Here are a couple of my newer beads:

I really just realized that I have been making a bunch of floral beads. I think it's my inner child craving spring!

I hope you all have a great day! I'm going to be making boro hearts today, that's the plan anyways.

New Day

2009-01-27T08:54:00.002-06:00

I'm excited because I think my glass mojo is coming back! I have at least three things to photograph and get listed in my new art fire shop. I've decided to keep up with both art fire and etsy for now to see how it goes. Once I get the art fire shop filled with beads then I'll just alternate listing things in each while I figure out what shop fits me better.

I'm amazed at all the comments from the One World One Heart give away. Thank you to all that have commented. I think this is such a cool event! I've really enjoyed going to all different blogs from all over the world. I find some of them so inspiring and artistic. I really should blog surf more often.

Another fun happening right now is that I have a piece in the kiln fusing. I made a bunch of components for flowers with the torch over the weekend and I have them laid out on a piece of black glass in the shape of three flowers. Right now that is tack fusing. Then on Thursday I will slump the piece into a sushi dish. I like that I can work with glass in the day with fusing since I can't torch when I'm home with the kids, just not safe.

I'm off to photograph some beads... Have a beautiful day!

One World One Heart 2009

2009-01-25T10:15:00.005-06:00

A dear friend of mine shared a link with me to this One World One Heart event. I went and read all about it. WOW, what an awesome idea. What a great way to bring people together from all over the world. I'm really excited to be a part of it this year. You can click here to learn all about it.

What am I going to give away? Well, beads. Since I make handmade lampwork beads I will send some happy beads to one lucky winner. I'm thinking I'll send some like these:

I won't send this exact set since these are already listed in my etsy shop, but I'll be making some like it. These blue birds make me feel so happy. And of course I love making floral beads.

* Update, I have a new bird and nest made. I'll be making the flower beads during my next torch session and I'll post a photo of the exact ones I'll be sending out very soon =)

So, to win, you must leave a comment on this blog entry. That's it, pretty simple. I will draw a name on Febuary 12th. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you so I can do so if you are the winner.

This is a great opportunity to spread some joy and happiness and to make some new friends.

Have a wonderful day! I'm off to do some torching =)

Inspiration

2009-01-19T21:01:00.005-06:00

What a long and fun weekend. Celebrated my son's 7th birthday with his party on Sunday. Today met up with a friend from high school that I haven't seen since 1992! Way too long! It was a great day!

I've been doing a lot of thinking of where my inspiration comes from when I make my beads. Many times I'm inspired by a challenge. I love when someone asks me if I can make a certain type of bead and I always say I'll try it. One customer once asked if I could make a dragon head so I tried it and ended up enjoying making them. This dragon bead is in The Flow Winter 2008 Women of Glass edition.Other things that inspire me are natural things in nature. Such as the human body, weather, plants and animals. This bead was recently inspired by all the cold snowy weather we have been getting. I added a cardinal on the snowy branch because I was thinking about my grandmother at the time. She was a true bird lover.

I found myself being inspired while doing last minute grocery shopping for the party this weekend by the packaging of items at the store. Have you ever looked at all the inspiring patterns on the Kleenex boxes in that isle at the store? I was impressed. I wish I had my camera with me at walmart that day... well, someone may have thought I was crazy taking photos of Kleenex in the store, LOL!! But my point is that if we open ourselves to see the color and patterns around us we can find inspiration everywhere. It is like we have to make a conscious effort to see it though. I find I have to be in the right state of mind to notice the inspiration that is all around us.

I hope everyone takes some moments this week to look around. You will find inspiration where you least expect it. Have a great week!

Slump

2009-01-13T18:43:00.009-06:00

It sure is hard for me to blog when I'm not feeling very creative. I feel like I am in a slump. It could be because I'm fighting a bad sinus infection, burnt my fingers pretty bad last time I torched, and trying to keep up with my real life job and family - who knows. So I'm giving myself permission to take a little break. I'll be back on the torch in a couple days for sure. I do have a request from a friend to make. Usually once I get on the torch the ideas will flow. I'm just not feeling it today. I think I'll tomorrow I'll have an inspirational day where I will pay attention to colors and patterns around me. Hopefully something will stick in my artistic subconscious.

In my last session I got stuck on organics. I've been seeing so many wonderful organic beads being made by some of my glass friends that their inspiration rubbed off on me. Here are a couple little focal and earring pair sets I made. The bead with the flower was made with transparent grey, ivory and silvered ivory with a raised flower on top. I etched this set for that soft matte finish. I absolutely love etched transparent grey! The green set is made with Jungle Twilight from Vetrofond. One of my favorite greens! I mixed in a bit of silvered ivory stringer, some random twistie I had sitting on my work tray, and a bit of frog pond green. Then I banged this set around on the graphite marver to give it an uneven square-ish like shape.

I hope you all have a wonderful day with lots of inspiring creativity!

Happy New Year

2009-01-06T08:11:00.004-06:00

This holiday season was sure a busy one. With visiting family, having company, spending time with friends, and celebrating my son's 7th birthday I have not had a lot of time to be torching. I have however torched the last two nights.

I'm trying to make some glass toggle clasps. I have on in my etsy shop now but I've just finished a couple made from boro. I want to design a necklace with one to test it out to make sure that the bar part is long enough. Here is a sneak peak at the loop part of the clasps:

I'm hoping by the end of the week to have some fun glass toggles in the etsy shop.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T11:02:00.002-06:00

I just want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and the happiest of holiday seasons. I've not been able to make many beads in the last week due to getting reading for the holidays but that's ok. I'm enjoying my time with my husband and kids. I am finding tons of inspiration from all the colorful wrapping paper and decorations but I'll have to bank them for now because I need to go find more batteries for the new toys.

Have a wonderful day!!

Website or No?

2008-12-19T08:09:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted here.
I've been working on trying to quit caffeine. Let me tell you, I have been a raging beast! My poor family. But I'm starting to feel better and it feels like I'm coming out of my funk. I suppose I took some time off because like my mom always told me "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all."

Now I'm debating if I should keep my website or not. Let's take a look at my pros and cons lists:

Reasons not to keep list: Money is super tight right now. I have this blog I can use instead, not sure if people visit my site, the site builder thing was kind of annoying, and I don't sell from it - I sell at etsy.

Reasons to keep it: customers like it? More web presence, serves as a gallery, it's on my business cards.

What do you think? Is it important to have a site these days? Could I do without the website?

My web site

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. We are snowed in today and schools were canceled so it looks like it will be a family cleaning day today.

Have a great day!!!

Friends are the Best!

2008-12-11T18:46:00.000-06:00

I have to say I'm so honored to have such a cool friend! My friend Mallory took the time to promote me in her blog. What cool feeling that is to know someone cares about you, thinks your work is good, and appreciates what you do. It really made my day!

Mallory's Blog

The kids are being so weird right now, I better go see what they are really up to!

Busy Busy

2008-12-07T14:59:00.001-06:00

What a fun day today! We had family portraits taken today. It was fun though. I felt sorry for the workers there though, that place was busy!!

The other day I went to order a present for my DS for Christmas. My husband didn't think we should get it for him since it was kind of expensive and money is super tight right now. So I said I would order it with my paypal money because I thought I had enough. I go to order it and I didn't take into consideration the tax. I was only $0.05 (5 cents) short! How frustrating was that!! That night I decided that I had to get my e-tutorial finished! So for the past two days I've been busting my bum finishing up an e-tutorial I've written on how to make a "Beads on a Bead" style bead. I get it all written up nicely and then the job of converting it into a PDF file was a job and a half! But thanks to one of my friends on wetcanvas, she sent me a link and made it super super easy then. You can now find my tutorial for sale at my etsy shop.

Here are some example beads made with the technique in my tutorial:

I hope everyone has a great day!!!

Name That Tune

2008-12-02T17:45:00.001-06:00

Hello my friends.

It's be a while. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

Over the weekend I worked on beads that were inspired by music. If you really think about it music can inspire us in many ways. It can make you run faster on the treadmill, it can inspire all types of art, it can change a persons mood for the better or worse. Music is a wonderful tool to get your soul moving.

I tend to enjoy a very wide variety of music. Everything from country to rap, classic rock to dance hits, and even jazz and blues. My mp3 player is full of randomness. (is that even a word?)

I thought it would be fun to see if anyone can name the song or artist that inspired this little set of beads:

The picture is not the best quality. I had a hard time today with getting the background to look white. But it's probably best since there are transparent beads in there.

So let me know your guesses. And have a wonderful day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2008-11-27T08:45:00.001-06:00

I am thankful for so much in my life. My family, my children, and my friends! I belong to a group of people on a forum called wetcanvas. We post together all about our glass art, give eachother support and encouragement, and we laugh together. It's really great.

We started I think last year, posting our little Christmas wish lists on there for fun. Then would you believe it, secrete santa gifts started appearing. This year I have been blessed twice already. One friend sent me some raku frit to play with and a beautiful bead. Another sent me a mold to use for fusing frit into a teardrop shape along with some frit to use. Currently I am preping three packages to go out to people for secrete santa gifts. This is so much fun! I love the season of giving but often remember that it's not just for this time of year. Giving is a blessing no matter what the season or time of year.

Here is a photo of the cool teardrop shapes that I made last nigth:

I think they will make awesome raised flowers on other fused pieces.

I better get to cleaning my house. We are hosting the big feast here but tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving and may we always have a giving spirit all year long!

Happy Monda

2008-11-24T09:05:00.000-06:00

Today is a good day. I'm getting ready to go to work. I had beads to take out of the kiln this morning that are now soaking. I'm feeling my mojo coming back.

I'm taking this wonderful on-line class taught by Sylvie Lansdowne on facebook. It's about finding your voice as a bead maker. I am finding this class so inspiring. It's just what I've needed. This weeks assignment was to take photos around your house of inspiring things. I took this and focused on color combinations. Here is an example:

I made this bead after being inspired by this photo :

It's about seeing colors and watching the world around you for these amazing color combinations. I've never put red and yellow together in a bead and I'm so glad I did.

I hope everyone has a great day. I'm off to work - but first, have to go see what the assignment is this week.

Rumpus Room

2008-11-20T10:47:00.000-06:00

I hate to report that I did not torch last night. I knew that today I was babysitting my best friends two little children so I chose sleep over torching when I finally got home from work last night. I have to say that I'm glad I did. The kids are playing very nicely and having fun so that's what counts.

I started this post about two hours ago. Now I'm happy to report that I've survived several diaper/pull-up changes, lunch, and now it's nap time. I'm off to snuggle with my DD who no longer naps, but we are having quiet time and going to watch the Tinker Bell movie.

It's a great day!!!

Have Faith

2008-11-19T15:05:00.000-06:00

Ahhhh, Wednesday. Today is my super long work day. But what that means for my glass work is that it is a day that I like to come home after working 11-12 hours and go down to the studio to zone out and create before going to bed. I'm not sure what I want to make yet. Sometimes I have ideas to create and sometime I sit down at the torch with a blank idea list. Sure enough something will come to me. Just by doing it I have high hopes that something I create will turn out - Got to have faith!!! - The right attitude when you sit down to create, no matter what the art.

Even though I am at work today I'm using any down time to look at colors - different color combinations and such. I'm feeling stuck with the same colors and need to gain a bit more courage when it comes to putting different colors together in the same bead or set of beads. Like, red and purple - I don't think I've ever used those two colors together. I'm really liking pink/orange combination but I don't use it when I torch. Wonder why that is? Maybe I'll give it a try tonight.

Will let you know how my torching session turns out...

Have a beautiful day!

To Etch or Not to Etch

2008-11-16T17:31:00.000-06:00

That was today's question for me. Last night I spent a little time on the torch and made a set of lentil beads. This morning I could not deside if I should etch them or not. So I desided that if I did not like them etched I could always make more. I also desided to leave the spacer beads unetched for a more dramatic effect. Here they are:

I'm surprised to be really happy with how they came out. They are listed for sale in my etsy shop: Here

I also made a pink set. I think they look like stained glass. I used val cox lipstick frit that I just love! I'm going to be sad when it's gone! You can also find these on at my etsy shop here

I hope everyone has had a great weekend.

Sick Day

2008-11-14T19:36:00.000-06:00

I've had a feaver on and off all day.
My throat feels like I ate a pound of glass frit.
My body aches all over
And I've slept on and off all day. (that makes for some weird dreams!)

No torching today for me.

But what I did today was look through a wonderful book, Masters: Glass Beads: Major Works by Leading Artists. This book is full of inspiring ideas. I like to take notes on ideas or concepts that I'd like to try. So I have a list of things to try next time I sit down at the torch. Maybe soon I'll be posting some photos here too.

Hope everyone out there is well.

Day Two of This Blogging Thing

2008-11-13T08:11:00.001-06:00

I don't have anything really exciting to report. I came home from work last night with a strong desire to torch. However, my BFF, Oprah gave away photo books on snapfish.com. So instead of torching I sat here at the computer and made a book that feature my children and highlight their relationship. It's really cute and I can't wait to get it.

Speaking of photo books I think I'm going to make one of my glass beads. I don't really have a style. I don't make the same beads over and over. I make what life inspires me to make. I think that is what keeps glass work so fun for me. So in this photo book of my beads I think I'm going to just do sections of different styles. Like a page on flowers, vessels, sets, focals, large hole beads, goddess beads, animals, fish and shells, etc... Sounds like a plan.

The bad news of the day is that I'm sick. Last night I felt my throat get more and more sore. Today I wake up with a fever and body aches and a throat that feels like I have just eaten a pound of large glass frit! So I'm off to see about getting myself some meds to get better asap!

Have a wonderful day!!

Day One

2008-11-12T16:12:00.001-06:00

Today is the first day of my blogging journey. Something I'm new at. Well, not really new. I've started a few blogs in my day but today I feel that this is one I'd like to keep up on.

My plan for this blog is to ramble on about my glass bead making.

I've been making glass beads for over two years now. I first lit my torch on July 13th 2006. What a day that was! Let me back up for a moment. I had been making and designing jewelry and during that time discovered these beautiful lampwork beads. Then as I was reading on an online forum about them I discovered that I could make beads myself. So I read everything I could get my hands on from the books at the library to the wealth of information on the Internet. I could not get enough information on making glass beads.

One of the frustrating things that I found in this process what that classes are very expensive. I was saving up my money to take a class but after all the reading and studying I did I decided to use that money to buy my hot head torch and start up supplies. So once the supplies came I dipped my mandrels that night and the next day I lit my torch. I have not regretted it for a moment!

Now I torch about 3-5 times a week. I use a mini cc torch now. I also have moved form my garage into my studio. I'm happy to say that my glass work is now a self supporting art - my husband is also happy, LOL! It's not a cheep art to get into.

I'll have to show photos of my first beads but that will have to be later since I'm not at home at the moment. So...until my next post, have a wonderful day!!