What Have You Got To Show For That Banner?

Staples has a huge sale on copy and print services right now, so I went ahead and ordered new business cards with updated information on them... and a table banner. In theory, I'm going to be doing shows some day if I get enough time and product and I'll need a banner, so.... If I never use it, I'll only be out $10.


I've been working on little beads lately. A customer order and simple Pandoras so that I can get a feel for the glass again while I'm waiting on the rest of my new stuff to arrive. I'm actually excited to be creating again so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.

Flesh Eating Beetles

After much foot dragging, I got to the torch the other day and started making a myriad of canes I'll need to try to make a Jellyfish Seascape bead. I bought the tutorial more than two years ago and have never attempted it because I *really* don't like making canes and pulling stringer. I sold a bunch of my presses that I never used and got more than enough money to get all the new things I need for jellyfish beads and shipping, so I'm really excited to get started AND I have a little extra room! I'm so close to being ready to start now that it's brought about a revelation of sorts that's helped me figure out a direction I'd like to take my work.

I've decide I'm going to do a sea-themed line of products - beads, hairpieces, jewelry. I've always been rather fascinated by the ocean and all the things in it. Maybe it stems from being landlocked on the plains my entire life, or the fact that my dad was in the Navy, or all the myths and legends that are based on the sea... I dunno. So anyway, I've got plans for a sea-themed tattoo sleeve, and a line of related products only seems fitting.

I've also got a special affection for all things dark / gothic / macabre, and I'd really like to make some hairpieces and things with raven skulls as centerpieces. There are other uses for bones and things that I have planned also.

What do flesh eating beetles have to do with all of this? Well, they can clean out the shells and things I might find and have a use for. They don't eat much so I can throw spare hamburger in once in a while if I don't have a project for them to work on, and when the colony gets bigger than I need I can sell some.

I don't know what else will come after all of this, but I have a discernible direction for the first time in a LONG time and I really like having clear thoughts and ideas and motivation for once.

Away and Back

I'm back from a lovely (albeit very long and tiring) vacation to South Carolina and New York. The kids had a good time visiting with the grandparents and their uncles and aunt and cousin. It rained like fury almost every day, but it kept the temperatures down for the most part. The days it didn't rain were HOT. We fed some buzzard-y looking ducks one day, and from that day on they showed up at the lake house waiting for food. We saw a mother duck and a duckling one day also.

We spent four days in Rochester, New York for the annual ISGB gathering. I met face-to-face a lot of neat people I've been friends with on facebook and Lampwork, Etc for a few years. I went on a day trip to the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, where we saw an exhibit of 35 centuries of glass beads, took a glass blowing class, watched some demonstrations. It was a neat trip and I've told Husband that if we ever take a trip alone through New England that we need to go back so that he can see it. 

My glass ornament from class was delivered this morning :-) I'm going to venture into small-scale glass blowing on my torch until I learn. Thinking about asking a local hot shop for an apprenticeship after Youngest Daughter starts school. Anyway, here's my ornament from CMoG.

I know I should have a lot more to talk about after having been gone for so long but the thought of rehashing everything is very overwhelming. So in summary: A good time was had by all, we're all glad to be home, new motivation, new ideas, new things coming up!

Thanks for stopping by :) 

Up, Up, and Away!

We leave the day after tomorrow. Initially I thought about taking some clay with me, or beading supplies, or anything to keep my hands busy. After thinking about it, I've decided that I will take one book about miniatures and that will be all. I'm hoping that getting out of here will clear my head and help me re-evaluate and get my focus back. I'll be closing my etsy shop down Wednesday night and taking all my remaining beads as trades for the bead swap at the ISGB gathering. Hopefully I will come home inspired and motivated to make new things.

I've got to go get some beads made or laundry done or something productive so I'll end this here. Thanks for stopping by.

A Sad Commission

I have a jewelry designer friend who I met through a mutual friend when we did a bracelet collaboration last winter (I made the beads, she put them on a bracelet). Since then, she's bought beads and I've sent her beads for no reason, I had her repair a set of earrings for my grandmother, etc etc. We talk almost every day. So earlier this week when her sister lost a pregnancy at 22 weeks and almost died herself, I was heartbroken for my friend and her family. Now said friend has asked me to make a set of beads in masculine colors that have the baby's first name on them so that she can make them into something to give to her brother-in-law. It's a fairly urgent project as friend is out of town until the 17th and I'm leaving town for three weeks on the 11th. When all is said and done I will post pictures of what I come up with.

I did get my beads made and sent off to Beads of Courage for the Show the Courage challenge. I have some others made up but decided I didn't like the bridal pieces so I'm going to be re-doing them. They might be something I sent late when we get back from our trip in light of my other project but I'm sure it won't be a problem.

Husband and I went out and bought registry gifts the other day, and wrapping stuff so that we can put it together when we get there rather than risk it being messed up during our trip. We also got a new Tervis cup and some laundry bags and empty travel bottles for our trip.

Last week I made a single jar of jalapeno strawberry jam. One jar because that's what I had enough fresh jalapenos to make and I wasn't sure anyone would like it anyway. It turned out fantastic and tonight we'll be using it as a glaze on pork chops. Youngest Daughter, who has been a spice lover since she started eating solid foods, particularly likes it and was stealing everyone's samples the night I made it. In the process of making it, I broke my food processor. Apparently they have a limit to the number of times you can shred chicken breasts and grind up hard candies and crush frozen fruit. I'm at a complete loss now that it's broken :(

Also, this week I decided I'm going to take some classes in miniatures design for things like electrical work and metal fabrication and woodworking on a miniature scale- things I can't teach myself through reading a book. I also think I'd like to make some miniature headstones - high quality versions, not the kitschy Halloween-town crap you find in the craft stores. A few years ago I kinda played around with stone carving because I always wanted to learn to do monument work, but there are no stone chisels to be had around here and I packed my wood chisels up when we moved and have no idea where they are now. Anyway, that's something I'd kinda like to get back into. Not that I don't all ready have enough crap I want to do and no time to do it.

So yeah. We're getting ready to go on a trip, Youngest Daughter and I have been sick for going on two weeks, and no work is getting done. I like to hope that things will settle down soon. Thanks for stopping by.

A Pile of Frogs and A Pile of Glass

I've been working on "A Pile of Frogs" cross-stitch lately after having ignored all cross-stitch for many months now. When it is finished, it will look like this:

Also, I'm back to working on the grid my Oriental Tiger project, but after working on it for over an hour last night I've discovered that my grid lines are off somewhere and now I have to go back and find where I screwed up, so I'm discouraged and tempted to ignore it. 

Also, I've worked on glass a little bit over the last week or so, making some beads for Beads of Courage. Hopefully somewhere along the line, I'll get some beads made for trading. Today I've got half of a bridal set in the kiln for a wedding Husband and I will be attending while we're in South Carolina next month.

Not much else to report at the moment. Thanks for stopping by. 

An Epic Undertaking - Maybe

I spent a lot of years making cakes. I am so tired of cakes that come spring when we have most of the family's birthdays in a five week span, I want to run and scream and never look at a mixer again. I don't like making them any other time either, but I hate the spring. That said, I like making miniature food. Recently the itch to make miniature wedding cakes has come about and in the manner of how I do all things, I've decided to do something big and extravagant and extremely complicated. I plan to make this in 1:12 scale:

 Photo courtesy of Associated Press

That is the cake from Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding. It is 8 tiers and 17 total cakes and has more than 500 flowers. I can't say that all 500 flowers will be there but I plan to make it as closely replicated as possible, complete with teeny tiny stringer work. It will take a LOT of time, but I plan to work on it in stages. Before I can start I need to find more detailed photos.

I took Ginger dog to the vet this morning after she came in with a bloody tail last night. Vet says short haired dogs with long tails often kill the blood supply to their tails when they constantly beat them against everything they walk past, so the dog is going in early Thursday morning to have the majority of her tail taken off as the flesh is necrotizing.

On a glass-related note, Husband finished my ventilation set up for my torch area and it's now much quieter and more convenient. Hopefully I'll have exciting new beads to show off pretty soon. I need to start working on beads to trade at the ISGB gathering in Rochester this July. I need more than 100 and I have exactly zero. 

Son finished school on the 23rd so I've been giving him extra chores and things throughout the day to keep him busy. At the moment, all three kids are watching Sesame Street and there is no screaming or whining. This means I need to go check on them soon.

I need to get to work and finish Younger Daughter's new bedroom because I really don't want to have to rush to do it after we come back from vacation in the end of July. 

I've learned some new techniques from Melanie Muir and Debbie Carlton and have gotten a lot of new ideas from various polymer magazines so I hope to take my polymer jewelry to a new level over the coming months. I have a couple ideas I'd like to bring to fruition that I haven't started and a few unfinished pieces waiting at my desk. Hopefully I'll find a bit of time over the next few days to work on that. I took a stack of movies to my desk so that I can listen to that while I work and hopefully avoid making myself completely crazy from thinking too much. My writing here is a perfect example of my thought process - it jumps from here to there to somewhere else constantly, sometimes with intervals of deep fixation on one (usually meaningless) thing.

On a final note, this past weekend was the Chalk Art Festival in Larimer Square. I've been a few times but not in recent years. One of my favorite artists who is there every year is Mythica von Griffyn. This year she did a technicolor Marilyn Monroe piece that won the Best Use of Color award. It is mind-boggling. I saw an in-progress picture from one of my friends on facebook: 

Photo courtesy of Nathan Rasmussen

Upon seeing the above picture, I immediately thought it was a viable possibility that she might win top honors for it. Here is a picture she posted this morning on facebook with the award:

Photo courtesy of Mythica von Griffyn

Every time I see a picture of her, she's got on overalls and a crazy hat. The hat in the first picture is how I knew who was doing the piece as soon as I saw it. So hop on over to facebook and look at her amazing work :)

As for me, I've got kids to put down for a nap and dishes to wash. Thanks for stopping by :)