Happy Halloween!

Having a blast here, you should hear the kids: "most tricked-out house yet!" "best house ever!" and the like. Good kids!

Luke is Turning 7 Tomorrow...

and it's all going to the dogs! (Cats too.)

Haha, the gifts are, that is. Seven is going to be a good year and I'm so proud of how he's starting it off. Instead of gifts, he is asking for donations to the local animal shelter, PAWS.ORG. The party is today at one of the indoor pools, and a little more than 20 kids are coming. We just finished making 44 kitty cupcakes to serve after the hotdogs. "Doggie Bag" gift bags are ready for the kids to take home with them after. How matchy-matchy can I get with this, hu? Oh well, Luke is very excited and Paws will be very soon too.

Luke is Going to Be So Happy!

I woke up this morning to the walls covered with taped-on construction paper halloween decorations.... each room had several and I pulled them all down and told him tape only on windows and the fridge. Such a bad mom...

Anyway, I took his hint and went to town, I think he's going to be thrilled:

Carnival Bracelet

The beads in this bracelet were inspired by this painting, "Carnival at Marmorhaus" by Josef Fenneker. I enjoyed making the beads a lot - they were fun, organic, messy... lots of layers, no mistakes. They just flowed, literally and well, you know.



The bracelet is another story. Not my best wire-wrapping (it's been a long time since I did this kind of thing), the dangles I'd intended didn't work out the way I envisioned them and so did not last, and then I couldn't find my LOS (Liver of Sulfur) to darken the silver. It sat around for a week, looking like an awful waste of sterling silver... and making me feel like a jewelry designer failure... but then I remembered what else has sulfur in it and tried something really odd. I hardboiled an egg, mushed it up in a baggie, and deposited the whole bracelet. I stuck it in the fridge in an attempt not to stink up my kitchen. A few hours later I pulled it out, happy the shiny silver was almost black now, even though encrusted with egg yolk, and scrubbed it with a toothbrush. Ta Da - Done. As done as it's going to get anyway. As funky as it is, the pictures don't do it justice, the red is richer, the patina is darker... but there you go, photographing red is never easy.

Nothing Good Ever Comes from Cleaning

I swear, it happens almost every time I get the bug to clean and organize my workspace... the clutter and mess goes away and so does my long list of ideas that usually crowd my head like crazy.

Today it happened; I never saw it coming: I sat down, ready to get to work in my nice clean space... and my mind was a blank, even though it had been full yesterday. I could not for the life of me think of a thing to make. I tried both the glass-melting side and the jewelry-making side... nothing.

Tomorrow I'll go mess things up a bit and try again.

What's with all the Studio Shots?

You might have been asking yourself "what is with this girl and all her studio photos?" or "Goodness, she takes way too many pictures of her work space and not enough time working in it" or something of the sort. Well, I'm here to tell you there is a reason to my madness, it's that someone has asked me if he could put my studio into a book he is creating and publishing in England about sheds and backyard workplaces. Exciting! SO of course I had to clean up and take some new shots, right? Anyway, sometime next summer, my little studio might be published! And Zoe too, because she posed for me while I had the camera out.

For more information, check out this shed site: http://www.shedworking.co.uk/.

Settled into the Garden

The Studio - it gets better and better

It's been a few months now that I've been able to work in the studio somewhat regularly - I've added some fun new things like my shiny cool glass storage rack, a "creation station" to hold my torch with armrests and elbow padding, a wired "busty" lady to hang finished pieces from, a shelf made from an old shutter, etc etc. I have not been able to hang anything on the walls yet... for some reason I can't bring myself to hammer a hole into that plaster I worked so hard to create. Hah. It will come.

New Favorite Glass Blog

Oh! If you love color and glass and beads, you have to check this blog out! ColorAddiction. Kandice is a wonderful beadmaker who lives up the road from my old town - she makes the prettiest flower beads and her use of color is divine.

Spooky Trees on Art Bead Scene Blog

How exciting!!! One of my trees was posted on the Art Bead Scene Blog today - amongst some really beautiful and inspiring tree beads. You should really check it out - amazing tree beads!

New Bracelet Listed

I'm calling this one Autumn by the Lake, I think it's very pretty and rich looking.



Check it out - it's for sale on Etsy: Autumn by the Lake Lampwork Bracelet.

Etsy Teams

I've joined two teams on Etsy - these are groups that people have formed to help promote Esty and all of the Indie businesses there.

The first is called EtsyRain - yes, you got it, it's a Seattle group, and I think it will be a good one for me - not only are they promoting online sales, but it is also a network of small business owners having meetings and shows in the Seattle area. To see some of the work by these artists, click on this link:

Items tagged "EtsyRain" on Etsy.

The second is the Creative Glass Guild of Etsy, CGGE for short. It's a very active group, with sales, challenges, a flickr group, and a newsletter. See their site here: http://www.cgge.org and get a taste for some of the beautiful and diverse glass items for sale on Etsy here:

Items tagged "CGGE" on Etsy.

And here is a little video of some CGGE member artwork: