Some Days, It All Just Works

[I edited this post; initially I posted a photo that didn't include the pig. I reposted the picture with the pig and added the paragraph about the pig.]

There are some days when I can't make a decent bead to save my life.

And then there are days like yesterday, when all is right with the world, birds are singing, not a cloud in the sky, and my output looks like this:

Now, I recognize I'm my own worst critic. I can tell you where the flaws are in each of these beads (although I find most people don't want to listen). But I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with this batch.

The top, darkest bead is one I've made several times before -- and sold each time. I made this one too big (forgot how much glass is added in the process), but I like it and hope to keep it this time.

The white bead on the left was made for a friend to match her new skirt. Hope she likes it! She's helped to bead a bunch of stuff for the women's retreat silent auction coming up in 2.5 weeks, so I'll pretty much make her anything she wants.

The two beads with orange in them (not a favorite color of mine) were made for another friend. She gets her choice, and I'll probably make the other into a pendant for the silent auction. Confession: I didn't make the clear one last night -- it's a couple of days older, but it's the only one -- and when I took it to the retreat meeting at church on Saturday, several people offered to take it off my hands. Maybe I should work with orange more often...

The pig at the top was made for a kid named Dylan. You can read his story here. I'll warn you that Dylan's story may make you cry. You have been warned. (I don't know Dylan personally, only through this link.)

The two pairs of smaller beads will be made into earrings for an "earring wardrobe" for the silent auction. The idea is that if you buy these 3-5 pairs of earrings, you should have a pair to match virtually anything.

The gray and blue bead on the upper right is the retreat logo. I'm frankly sick of making that bead, but I suspect I'll make a half dozen more in the next couple of weeks. That particular bead proved difficult -- it broke loose and was moving around as I was trying to finish it -- but I'm just that good. Snort.

The pastel-swirly-organic bead just right of center was an experiment with a new color of glass. Y'all can Indian leg wrestle me for that one; it's MINE.

What I Did This Weekend, Part 1

This weekend we attended a benefit for my brother-in-law Larry, who I've talked about before once or twice.  To recap briefly, Larry suffed a spinal injury in late November and is still working toward what we still hope will be a full recovery (one never knows with these things).  

It's now been four months since Larry's car accident, and he's been sent home from the rehab hospital; the insurance will no longer cover it.  Unfortunately, insurance will also not cover the home nursing care he requires, so my niece Courtney pulled together a benefit for her uncle complete with two bands, two t-shirts designed just for the occasion, a live auction, silent auction, BBQ lunch, jumping castle for the kids, and assorted other attractions.  I have no idea how she did it all in two months.

Her request to me was simple: could I please make a jewelry set for the silent auction?  Why yes, Courtney, I believe I can handle that.

What, you just meant one set?  I believe you're talking to the wrong person.  I only wish I could have done more.

This first necklace is green Czech glass with some unknown brown gemstone bead and black rondelles.  As with most of the jewelry, my mother-in-law outbid the competition and walked away with it.

The next necklace is the only one I was unsure of.  It's unusual enough that I wasn't sure anyone would really go for it.  Apparently I needn't have worried; there were several bids.

When I showed him what I'd made, my roommate pointed out that I didn't have anything in spring colors; it was all earth tones.  So this pink and purple glass necklace was the last one I made.  I love pink and purple and have always loved the bead I used as a pendant; I had a hard time giving this one away.

Turquoise will always make people happy in Texas.  This is turquoise, onyx, and blue lace agate -- a lovely stone with bands of light blue and white.  Pretty sure this one ended up with my mother-in-law too.

The long animal-print-looking beads in the next one came from my friend Cindy, who helped me bead several of these.  We wanted strong colors to go with the black and white beads, so she picked the malachite.  We had a hard time finding another strong color after that though; red was too Christmasy, and most other things looked wrong.  Fortunately I had these great royal blue cats-eye glass beads that were just right.  Larry's niece, who lives near me, bought this one.

I loved this necklace, made with unakite and garnets. I felt the bidding was too low, so I bid on it myself -- and won it! I haven't decided whether I'll keep it or use it as an item for another silent auction (for my church's women's retreat) in a month.

Again in this necklace, the main beads were my friend Cindy's.  She had looked for beads to go with the striking striped wavy yellow beads, but nothing seemed right until she found my oval wavy black beads. A match made in heaven! My mother-in-law thought so too.

Courtney had specifically asked me to create a necklace using beads I made, and this is it: there are three of "my" beads in this one (the pendant and the two lentils).  The base glass is dark purple, with lots of decoration in the silver glass I've been enjoying so much.  They're strung with purple shells, neon pink pearls, and green aventurine.  This one was the most popular of my pieces; my mother-in-law complained that it was priced out of her range.  The winner beamed and the woman with the second place bid was none too pleased (I did give her a business card, of course).

These simple black and white earrings are striking and fun.

These purple earrings have gold dots on them and purple Swarovski crystal dangles.  Again with the purple!  I wanted to keep them too, but they looked great on my mother-in-law; she wore them to dinner that night.

And last but not least, I really did love these beads when I made them.  I wanted them but always had a sense they wouldn't be mine.  I'm glad they went to a good cause.  They are three different types of the fun silvered glass -- sort of an experiment that turned out really well.

So now you've seen what I made for the benefit.  Tomorrow I'll post the pics I took while I was there and tell you a bit about the day.  It's really too much for one post.  It was a LONG day.

Ah... I will leave you with one more thing.  This is the web site for Larry's benefit.  You can click around and see some of the different stuff... but don't miss the video under the "Larry's pics & videos" link.  He's come a long way.  He has a long way to go, but he's come a long way. 

[Note that I had to view the video using Internet Explorer; it wouldn't work for me using another browser.  It's kind of picky that way.  But it was worth it, at least to me, to see it.]

Kiss My Glass

I've spent far too much time away from my torch, and I can tell.

I *heart* my torch.  The fire, the molten glass, the mesmerizing joy of creating something that didn't exist before I made that bead.

It's also been a really long time since I posted any pictures here.  So now you're going to be inundated.  If you hate pics of beads and jewelry, close this window now.  You have been warned.

First is a picture of a necklace I made for a friend's mom for Christmas.  I've known this friend since college (the first time, 20+ years ago) and his wife since junior high.  For him, I made this pendant three times; I simply didn't like the first two.  This was pretty much my all-time favorite bead when I made it.  I had a hard time sending it away.  I hope she loves it as much as I loved making it.

Next up is two pairs of earrings that I made for a blogger I love and admire. She made a New Year's resolution to wear earrings more often.  I hope she's sticking to it!

This is a necklace I made for the lovely Jessica, my Taiwanese co-worker who is invaluable in helping make sure that all the administrative wheels keep turning for me.  She requested a pink and green necklace.  Again, this is a pendant I made more than once.  The first one is ugly enough that I won't post a pic of it. I liked this one a lot though.

The next four pics are beads that I've made in the last few months that I don't think I've taken pictures of.  I actually took the pics to show to an online friend who beads, but since I have them, you can see them too.

The bead on the left in this pic is another favorite.  It's made with a silvered glass (yes, the glass has actual silver in it) that does cool things under certain conditions.  This particular glass is called Psyche and is one of my favorites because of all of its cool effects.  The one on the right is OK, I suppose; I just haven't gotten around to making anything with it yet.

You may notice a similarity between the bead on the left in this pic and the one on the right in the pic above.  I was trying for a particular effect with the bead below -- the base glass before being heated is a sort of translucent white. Unfortunately, it's what's called a striking glass -- it changes colors after it's heated.  It turned burnt orange, which is about my least favorite color, and I thought looked horrible with the pink and purple twist running through it. Strangely enough, it struck again in the kiln firing process and turned pink.

The middle bead is made with a base of white glass and two different silvered glasses.  The one on the right is made with a dark clear glass for the base, with dichroic added for the big pop of sparkle, and dots of two kinds of silvered glass for accent.

The bead on the left below was the second attempt for a pendant in my friend's mom's necklace.  See -- it's OK but not as great as what I ended up with.  Next to it is a bead in which I was trying to replicate one of my favorite beads -- seen in the bottom pic in this post -- epic fail.  The other three beads are just me noodling around with the fun silvered glasses.

There are some fun beads in this pic.  On the left and the bottom right are black beads with raku (multicolored glass chips, rolled onto the molten bead, then melted in), then twisted with a pink stringer (stringer is just a skinny glass rod).  Between those two is a white bead with Psyche accents.  You can see all the color variation and the way the Psyche fumed the white glass -- love it!  The two small beads on the opper right are three different kinds of silvered glass. Even if you don't see the silver explicitly, they're just a little shinier than other beads.

Now on to the beads I've made in the last few days... These are more twisted raku like the ones above, only these are in a lentil shape.  They will either be strung with the pendant above or be shipped off to my online beading friend.

Below are two more lentils made with silvered glass -- an experiment.  It's hard to tell in the pic, but they look completely different, even though they were made in exactly the same way.  It's both the charm and the curse of that particular glass (Michelangelo) that it rarely comes out the same way twice. The pink ones are earring replacements for my sister, who lost one.  And the large bead may be my new favorite.  I like it a lot.  It's the same base glass as my previous favorite, but the surface decorations are done with my two favorite silvered glasses, Psyche and Black Pearl.  Yummy.

And, last but not least, I revisited the guitar bead.  I figured out how to make actual strings on this bad boy.  Unfortunately, I didn't consider that I should have made a "pickup" or terminus for the strings to the south of the "hole" in the middle of the guitar.  And of course, during this bead is when my propane decided to run out.  I've had that tank for a year.  So this will be remade with a pickup, the strings will run where they should, the white decorative part will look better since that's where the gas ran out, and there will be tuning pegs.  I do think the strings look cool on top of the fretboard, though.

And that's all I have for you today.  I have some more raku beads and another guitar to make, but my hubby has run off with my camera, so we'll see when I get more pics posted.

If you could have a bead or bead set that represented you, what would it look like?  I always like a new challenge.  Comment me up!

I'm So Excited, and I Just Can't Hide It

Now, I'm a fairly low-key kinda girl. My voice is low-pitched.

But today I SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALED so loud in excitement that I hurt my poor hubby's ears. Why, you might wonder?

Because this loveliness was in my mailbox.


It may look like just a triangular box and a tube, but when you unpack it, then you find THIS!


You're still not excited, are you?

Apparently I got some 'splainin' to do.

These, my friends, are glass rods. Well, except for the shiny thing in the middle, which is dichroic glass. What you're looking at in that picture, believe it or not, is about $120 worth of glass.

Yes, I am aware I'm completely insane. And that my husband loves me too much for words. These types of glass are ones I've never indulged in before -- far more expensive than anything I've ever bought. They are so-called silver glasses, meaning that there is silver in the glass that shows up depending on how you work it. It's fancy stuff, m'friends, and I'm just about shaking to get on my torch as I type.

But first I'll show you what I made with the bead sets I posted earlier.

First is the set I made with the raku frit beads. Several of those were sold to the nurse at my doctor's office, so they aren't all represented here. Not to mention that I haven't made the earrings yet. (Picture background courtesy of my great-grandmother.)


Next is the necklace I made with green, blue and gold glass over ivory (earrings to follow). I finally talked to my friend last night; I had previously only talked to her hubby. I'm close friends with them both but had been itching to catch up with her. Her work schedule prevents a lot of socializing, but it was great to catch up with her. She has no idea this is coming, unless her hubby tells on me.


This is the necklace made from the pink and purple heart. It's strung with dyed pearls (hot pink and purple), long mother of pearl beads, round glass white and purple beads, and faceted garnets. I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I hope Robin likes it.


This last one is what I made with the Michelangelo beads -- and if you go back and look at that post, you'll see that I said there was an expensive glass purchase in my future. Apparently I was right! Can't wait to play some more with this color. Actually, I made a twistie with this color and another expensive glass but was a little disappointed in the result. I'll have to play with this one a bit more to see how it works.

I was going to post about my church's 10-year anniversary celebration this weekend, but truth be told, I took so many pictures that it's hard to narrow things down. Once I sort through them all again, maybe I'll have something coherent to say.

Then again, it is me we're talking about.

Gonna Be a Busybusy Week

So... my Taiwanese co-workers are coming to Texas this week. And I have about a thousand things to do before I leave for Houston to meet up with them.

Here are several of the thousand -- complete!

If you were wondering what those beads were for earlier, this is the purpose. Three of my co-workers arriving today are female; two are male. For the men, I made necklaces for wife and daughter for one co-worker and for fiancee for the other. My friend Jo came over to help me today -- thanks, Jo! She is a fabulous jewelry designer, and I was thrilled to have her help.

I will likely be really busy for the rest of the week, trying to show these folks the same kind of great time that they showed me when I was in their part of the world. Have a great week, y'all!

Glutted with Glass

That's right. I'm tired of my torch.

Or I would be anyway, except I bought some new glass and haven't made any beads with it yet.

Maybe I'm just tired. Maybe agreeing to go to work at a church three weeks before Easter wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done. That, plus this art exhibit, may kill me.

But I've got some bead pictures for ya! Yes ma'am, I do! (And if you're a sir, I apologize heartily, Brian.)

If you're tired of bead pics, or any pics for that matter since that's all I've done recently, oh well. That's all I have energy for this week. Once we're through Easter -- which should be amazing at my church -- I should be back in full mediocrity.

First I'd like to show you the basketballs. These were made at the request of Coach Jenny, and I finally got around to making them. The one in the back is the dud I made before I looked at an actual basketball (moron that I am), and the other two have authentic basketball markings, although they're less round. They were more round when I started, but all the glass I added for the black markings made them oblong. Go figure.



These beads are all sort of "miscellaneous." I made a cross for Easter, of course. The ones to the left and right of the cross were just fun colors and patterns. The cube bead in front is an improvement on a bead I made and liked a few months ago. It doesn't photograph terribly well though -- it's better in person. Pretty much everyone who has seen it wants it, which means it will probably get broken in the exhibit. Easy enough to recreate though, so no big deal. The metallic spots are made with a glass that starts out black, and the black burns off to leave the metallic color. Pretty nifty.

The flat bead in the center is the first flower I ever made. There's a different flower on the back. It turned out really well; I was pleased. The one on the left won't be in the exhibit because the clear coating (it's called an "encased" bead) isn't even; it's all lumpy-bumpy. It's supposed to be beautifully smooth. It would be a great bead if the encasing had come out well, but encasing is difficult, and I don't do it well yet (nor does my friend who's much more talented than I, which makes me feel a little better). The two similar ones on the right are ones that I've tried before; the one on the bottom turned out the best of any that I've done, so it will be in the show. The one on top with turquoise and purple/pink will also not be exhibited. The purple/pink color is colloquially known as EDP, or Evil Devitrifying Purple because of the pond scum it leaves on the surface of the bead. This was my second attempt with it, and it did its thing. So the only two in this pic that will be in the exhibit are the two at the bottom.

This pic includes my first attempt at using EDP (the bead at the top). One way to prevent the pond scum effect is to encase the bead in clear, which I did here, but the purple crawled out through the encasing and left pond scum all over the bead anyway. Bleah. So the other two stripey cylinder beads on the left and right were attempts to replicate the idea of that bead without the pond scum. I will probably only exhibit the one on the left. Of the three round beads clustered in the middle, I will probably acid etch the upper one and the one on the right (you can see that effect in the next picture). All three will be in the show. I may re-take a pic of them after the etch, depending on how it turns out. I may also etch the pond scummed one to see if it looks ok etched, and if it does, I may exhibit it as well.

The flat bead in this pic has been acid etched. It just removes the "shiny" from the bead, so it has a matte finish. This is great for some beads and disastrous for others, so you have to know when to use it. I probably don't use it nearly enough. The others are also variations on the swirl theme. Swirling a bead leaves it completely misshapen. If it looks interesting that way, sometimes I leave it, like the pink and brown one on the left and the green and brown one on the right. Interestingly, I didn't use brown glass in the one on the left; that's just how the colors blended.

Last but not least, everyone's favorites: the animals. I've made frog beads before and posted pics, so that shouldn't be anything new, but this is my first fish, and I was quite pleased with him (her? it?). It took almost an hour and a half to make that bead, so I'm pretty sure that one will be on a necklace belonging to me when this show is over. I'm not nearly so attached to froggy #6, though.

And that's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed the bead extravaganza. If not, well, come back. I'll talk about something else next time.

At Long Last!

The promised pic of... (drum roll please) the long awaited PERFECT (or at least good enough) GUITAR BEAD!

Yes, I'm me, and there are still things I'd change. I made the "strings" by pulling a thin rod of glass (called a stringer) that is black with gold glitter in it. It didn't show up very well, so if I were doing it again (which I am NOT), I would do black with white. Hopefully it would then look more string-like.

However, I'm thrilled to have found a glass that stays turquoise, to have made a bead that didn't break, and to have made something that looks pretty much like a guitar. (Last night at my small group meeting someone looked at one of my earlier attempts and said, "Wow, cool... violin?")

Now I must pick it up from the glass shop where it is being annealed (put through the kiln to strengthen the glass) and bead it onto a necklace as a pendant. I hope the recipient likes it!

The Envelope Please...

As promised, I picked winners around noonish today. The random number generator made sure I had a little counting fun with the first one. Maybe this is why I don't buy Target or Amazon gift cards -- so I don't have 450 entries to count through!



I counted three times, and Paryjeja is the winner of the purple and green lampworked necklace (she has no blog, or I would share the linky love). I will be emailing her in a few minutes.

For the second drawing, the fishie necklace, the winner is proof that it's never too late to slide your name in. The winner was the VERY LAST entry. How's that for fun?

The winner is ChristiS, and I'll be emailing her as well. I wish I'd seen her giveaway -- a fun CZ ring -- but somehow I missed it. Ah well.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and I hope everyone had a great time with the carnival! I know I did!

EDITED TO ADD: For the month of February, if you order from my web site, put "Bloggy Giveaway" in the special instructions for 10% off and free shipping!

Bloggy Giveaways #2

More jewelry fun! This necklace, like the one in #1, features a fun and funky lampworked bead, although this one was not made by me.

This is a fun little fish friend for you, featured on a 16.5" necklace; the fish is a 1" drop. Retail value on this necklace is $30.


And here's a closeup of the fish:



To enter, just leave a comment... no rules except that you must have a way for me to contact you. If you don't have a blog, please leave me your email. Oh, and only one comment per person, please.

I am open to shipping internationally, so anyone can enter. I will draw a winner via random number generator on Saturday around noonish.

Go see the rest of the fun stuff here!

As stated in my other post, you're welcome to take a gander at my other jewelry on my web site. You're also more than welcome to enter both my drawings if you like both pieces.

Thanks for looking!

Bloggy Giveaways #1

I love to bead, and I love to share! So I'll do two giveaways this time around. You are welcome to sign up for either or both. These are both a little unusual for me... you're welcome to see my usual style at my web site.

First up is a necklace for which I made the 6 largest beads on my torch. These are called lampworked beads. They have been kiln-annealed for strength, and the purple and green make for a fun and funky color combo to wear with an eclectic outfit. Retail value on this piece is $45.

The necklace is 18" long with a 2" extension, so it's great to wear over crew neck tops or with a v-neck.

To enter, just leave a comment... no rules except that you must have a way for me to contact you. If you don't have a blog, please leave me your email. Oh, and only one comment per person, please.

I am open to shipping internationally, so anyone can enter. I will draw a winner via random number generator on Saturday around noonish.

Go see the rest of the fun stuff here!

Now That I've Recovered a Bit...

I hope your weekend was grand; mine was pretty busy.

We had friends (Brian and Angela) visiting from Colorado. They stayed with other friends, which was good considering the rest of the weekend. So Brian and Ang came in on Thursday evening. Heather came over on Friday and helped me by beading a few (OK, six) last minute things for the jewelry party on Saturday. Heather rocks.

Later on Friday, Brian and Ang and Matt and Becky (the friends they stayed with) came over and we chatted while Ang and Becky helped me tag everything for the party. I have the best friends ever. We went for gelato to a place that said it's "open late" but hello, late on Friday is at LEAST 9pm, even in suburbia. So we walked across the parking lot to Marble Slab and got actual ice cream instead, which we ate outside. In December. Sometimes it seems wrong to live in Central Texas...

So after the crowd left, I finished pricing everything and packed up the beads to take them, and thanks to everyone's help, I went to bed by midnight.

On Saturday, I was up by 8am so I could get on the road early -- I had heard a couple of people wanted to come early and look before they had to move on to other commitments. I got there well before party time, but no one arrived early, which was just as well -- it gave us time to get everything ready for the party. I had forgotten my business cards, of all things, so my wonderful niece scanned in one I had in my purse and made copies for the party.

Everything went smoothly, and I sold about 2/3 of the stuff I brought. I apparently didn't make enough matching earrings (earrings are kind of a pain to make, and I really just ran out of time), so I owe one woman a matching pair for a necklace she bought, and I only came home with four pairs, including ones that came in sets with necklaces. Lesson learned!

After the party, I went to dinner with all the girly in-laws (niece, MIL and two sisters-in-law) and then the sister-in-law who played hostess for the party and I got a couple of movies and chilled out for the rest of the evening while her son, who is quite the social butterfly, had friends over. We were both exhausted but couldn't sleep with that many teenagers in the house.

After a solid but too-short sleep, I came back to Austin, missing a turn somewhere that added about 45 minutes to my drive. I crashed again before going to dinner with the Friday night crowd (mmmm, NY style pizza!). Then Monday I took the Colorado folks to the airport, with admonitions to "move to Austin soon!"

So that was my weekend... how was yours?

Fun For Today

My Onion horoscope for this week, which my husband took great delight in reading to me, as I groaned over my umpteenth pair of earrings last night:

"Your meticulous attention to detail will once again ruin an otherwise fun and pleasureable pasttime."

Thanks, hon.

Amazing How Things Can Turn Around in 24 Hours

I've mentally written a dozen posts in the last few days -- mostly about how frustrated I am. Let me count the ways!

Austin supposedly has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation; yet I've been looking for a job diligently for a month and a half with barely a nibble.

I have a jewelry party (my first) coming up on Saturday with my hubby's two sisters in a Houston suburb. I'm about to hit full panic mode on this one. I feel like I'm on a treadmill, running as fast as I can and getting nowhere at all. I still have so much to do and so little time left in which to do it. I'm sure it will be fine; my perfectionistic tendencies say otherwise.

The weather here can't make up its mind whether it's early fall or (for us) deep winter, which is playing havoc with my sinuses. And making it difficult to work on the torch, which is in the garage, at least on the cold days. Today is a "bundle up!" day.

But yesterday, my hubby found me a new job listing that fits me amazingly well in a place I've always wanted to work. I don't want to say a lot more about it now, but I talked to the hiring manager, and I'm hoping for it. In a lot of ways, it's not possible for anyone else with my history and experience to apply, not that that's any guarantee of getting the job, but I have to cling to something.

Funny how one little thing can turn your perspective around, isn't it?

I've Been At It Again

I have my first jewelry show / party scheduled for next Saturday, December 8th.

I'm a little nervous. OK, that's an understatement. I'm a LOT nervous. The party is being hosted by my two lovely and gracious sisters-in-law, who know pretty much everyone in their smallish hometown outside Houston. So far the Evite doesn't look like the entire town is coming, but I still want to have enough jewelry made that everyone can leave with stuff.

So I've been beading like mad, and working on my torch like mad. Oh, and not posting much. Which may make a difference to you if you're one of my two faithful readers. Otherwise, not so much.

Here are the bead sets I've finished or almost finished. A couple of caveats: there is white stuff in all the beads. It's called bead release, and it keeps the glass from sticking to the metal rod (or mandrel) that the bead is made on. I clean it out after the beads are annealed (put through the kiln to strengthen the glass). Since these beads are new, and since I don't own a kiln, they haven't been annealed yet.

Also, when I photograph beads, I often use ticky-tack to make them stay put where I want them. You can see it in some of the pictures. Oops! If you see a yellow blob at the bottom of a bead, it's not glass, it's ticky-tack.

The first picture is of a black and white set I'm playing with. I haven't decided if the two beads in the back "go with" the one in the front. What do you think?




The next pic is two cute caterpillars (or callapidders). Guess who requested that? I like to have two good ones to put in the kiln. I thought I had a good one the first time, and then one of his antennae fell off. Tragedy! So I may make one more before the grand annealing run next week.

Next is Christmas trees. If the friends of one of hubby's sisters are anything like her, these will all sell. (One will probably go to sis herself.)

These beads may look familiar; I've posted a pic of similar beads before. But the more of these I make, the more I find that people want them. I make a few of them every time I sit down at the torch. I finally figured I should probably (DUH) make earrings to go with them, thus the smaller ones in the back. My sister and one of my best friends have already stated their Christmas wishes for these...

Likewise, you may have seen these white-on-clear beads before. I've posted pics of these either like this or after they've been through an acid etch -- they look frosted rather than clear when they've been etched. I will etch all the ones in this pic after they're annealed. As in the pic above, all the small ones will be earrings (four pairs in all in this pic).

I posted the pic of this black swirl bead before, but these are the actual beads it will go with. I didn't like what I had it paired with before. I will make others to go with it as well; this isn't a finished set just yet.

And ah yes, another crowd favorite -- the clear jewel toned shaped beads. Again, I make a few of these every time I sit down. It's fun to figure out a different shape for each one, and since I don't have molds or presses, shaping the glass is an interesting challenge.

Last but not least, my old nemesis: the guitar bead. Apparently people liked the pics I posted before, but I was not satisfied with those beads. At long last, tonight I made one I was happy with! I took my time and made each detail right. There are even markings for the fretboard.

There's also a huge crack down the front. Tragedy, part 2! Back to the drawing board.

Yes, there's plenty of new beaded jewelry as well... you can find all of it here. And there will be more to come in the next few days; I will put it up on the site as I finish it and get it photographed.

Thanks for indulging my overgrown kindergarten show and tell once again. =)

38-30

Man, what a great day... I launch my web site AND we beat t.u. 38-30 in a nail-biter of a game.

Not as much of a nail-biter as the LSU-Arkansas game -- wow, what a game! -- but still.

Two more things to be thankful for.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!

The Web Site Has Launched!

Just in time for the busiest shopping day of the year!

Although it would have helped if I'd checked my email before I went to bed and posted then. :-P Silly Lisa.

Anyway, please forgive my shameless self-promotion, but my new jewelry web site has launched. I've been working on it for a month or two with my amazing webmaster, and I think she's done a great job. Thanks, Rose!

I have a few new things I need to put up -- I haven't had time to photograph them yet -- but the store is open and ready for business. If you ever have questions, you can always email me at lisalisalisa(at)gmail[dot]com.

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog-surfing.

OK, I Can't Stand It Anymore...

I've been very good... haven't talked about beads or jewelry or lampworking... but I got a bunch of beads back from being annealed (heated in the kiln to make them stronger) today, and I'm pretty excited about them. So I'm going to share with y'all. If this bores you, you can skip today. =)

I'll start with the ones that I've either sold or that are in process to be sold.

This cute little froggy dude is the culmination of probably a month's worth of work. A frog bead takes about an hour to make. Cindy asked for a frog necklace as a gift, and I had a book with instructions on making a frog bead, so I went to work. I think this is my 5th frog. I love him almost too much to sell.

It's a "feature" (or an annoyance) of this green glass that it occasionally makes lines as you work with it. In this case, it was a happy accident that this little guy ended up with a line right where his mouth should be. I could never replicate that in a thousand years.

The other beads are similar to the bead the frog is sitting on and will go on the same necklace.



These are frogs 3 and 4 (note their lack of mouths... you miss them now, don't you?). People have told me how cute they are, but naturally I can only see their flaws. #3 (on the right) is off-balance -- I made his front feet to the left with regard to his back feet, so he's twisted, and his right front leg is really long. And his right front foot is just all wrong. #4 on the left is better, but he has a hunched right shoulder.

I'd show you #1 and #2, but they unfortunately broke. =( I haven't yet glued them back together. I am the master (mistress?) of SuperGlue, but it bonds glass THISFAST, and I really don't want to ruin one of my little froggies. Both of them separated from their beads.

OK, on to not-frogs! I have a friend who is mastering my web site, and she does many others as well. She requested joolz for a musician friend of hers who shall remain nameless. I'm not at all happy with these... they are three of the first four attempts (one broke). You can see the crack in the pink one; it may break. So these are a work in progress. We'll call them the alpha versions; I'm not sure they're even beta level yet. They're certainly not ready for prime time.

This is another set for the same nameless musician. She wears a lot of black and white, so this is my first attempt at something around that. The flat bead in the center is a pendant. The bead on the upper right was my first idea for beads to go with it, but I wasn't happy with how it turned out, so I went with the other idea (top left and bottom right). This set isn't complete yet; it's a work in progress.

Next we're onto sets that aren't spoken for yet. This large bead is one that I made a long time ago and decided to make beads to go with it. Probaly one pair of the small beads will be earrings and the other pair will go into the necklace.

These beads have been a huge hit with everyone who has seen them. They are pale pink glass with hot pink decoration -- a real girly girl bead. I envision these in a bracelet with Swarovski crystals, but I'll be making a bunch more, so there may be necklace, earrings, etc.; who knows?

This last set was a lot of fun. The owner of the shop where I buy all my glass showed me the chemical reaction between ivory and turquoise glass -- it makes an outline anyplace the two colors meet. The five large beads will go into the necklace, and the two small beads will be earrings. I love these a ton. I may price them a little higher in hopes I get to keep them. Is that wrong? :-\

That's all I have right now, although I'm also working on another necklace (or maybe two)similar to BooMama's... one ordered by someone who got the idea from the same place, and I may just make an extra for the jewelry party since apparently everyone in the world just loves that necklace.

Thoughts? Which ones do you love / hate? I thrive on feedback, so please tell me. =)