February 29, 2008
Tomorrow will be the first day of March. I know we could still get snowstorms and have cold, cold days but somehow it doesn't seem quite so bad when it happens in March. The promise of spring is in the air, the days are getting longer, and you know it won't be too much longer before you see the first blooms. I guess that must be the reason that most of the beads that I have been working on are flowers....
February 14, 2008
I've been working on trees again. These are okay, but I think I can do better. I will be putting these on Etsy in the next couple of days....
February 11, 2008
It has been so blustery cold. I don't even like to think about the wind chill factor because it just makes me shiver. I haven't been out to the studio for a couple of days, but I know that it won't be long before I can't stand not going out there to play with glass. But I've had plenty to keep me busy just the same. Started on the dreaded taxes. It's harder this year because we did start the "business" and I haven't had to do some of those forms before.
In the midst of the cold, I did some spring beads. I joined an Etsy street team and they do a theme of the week promotion and this week it is "Spring in the Air". Making spring beads when it is 20 below takes a bit of imagination, but I think I did okay. Did a bit of experimenting as well...mostly flops, but got a few things that I am happy with.
This one is not at all what I intended when I started. But I had some problems with the bead release and had the choice of either dunking the whole thing in water and losing it altogether, or trying to salvage it. I think I like it and am glad I saved it. It has depth that is impossible to photograph, and I may just keep this one and do some wire work on it.
I just like this one. It has a transparent red over white that didn't strike into the normal dark red and it has many shades of reds and oranges in it. I like the shard and the total metallic look it got.
I still go back to blowing vessels. I don't do as many of them-I have the attention span of a gnat most day-but these three I do like.
So that's what I have been doing while the cold winds blow....
February 5, 2007
I have a bad case of the winter blahs. And I do believe that my muse is off somewhere either skiing or perhaps sunning on a warm beach. Nothing is coming out the way it should, frustration level is getting higher, and I am a grump.
The new bead release doesn't work for me. So now I wait for a shipment of what I should have gotten in the first place. I worked on some vessels for an exchange, and am hoping that they come out of the kiln looking as good as I thought they did going in.
I went through my pictures and found a couple more pictures of things that have been made with my glass.
I've already shown these, but I still love the wire work that Gladys did on them. I really should melt down some more of the wonky, broken beads and see if I can get her to wrap some more for me. She just started a Vox blog http://gladys548.vox.com/ and I hope she adds more of her work on it.
I have a very special friend, Sueze, in Canada. We "met" on WC and she always makes me smile. Last fall I sent her some of the leaves that I had made, and used them, along with some of her own beads to make this...check out her Etsy store http://sueze.etsy.com
Then one day I got a package in the mail. It was a sweet gift from Sueze and I was amazed beyond words. Needless to say, I felt very special to get these things made by her.
I've been playing with the vessels, just trying to figure what to do with them. I like this one....not too fancy, but still pretty I think. The cork stopper top is maybe a bit too long though.
