Blogging

GeeZe, I haven't been here since February! I'm shocked and ashamed that I
have ignored my little blog for so long. Why, you ask...hmmm...New job,
Facebook, Twitter, Etsy and Lampwork all keep me so busy that I had totally
forgotten to post here. I will admit that I got sucked up in the Facebook
games for awhile but I've finally honed it down to just a few that I enjoy
visiting every day to do a few clicks and then I'm done.

I've discovered that both Facebook and Twitter are fantastic marketing tools
I can't imagine anyone that would care what I was doing in my personal
life, ALL DAY LONG. But, do a search for jewelry makers and follow those
folks, they will follow you because they are curios. When you post a new
item to Etsy, copy the URL of your new post, go to "Tiny URL"
http://tinyurl.Com/ and make a tiny link to your new item and post it to
Twitter with a little note as to what it is. BAM...you will get some views
on your Etsy item. I have upped my sales to at least 5 a week with was
unheard of for me. I have customers who come back and buy again so I must
be doing something right. I love making glass beads and this allows me to
share what I make with others. What more is there???

As for the new job, I retired after 33 years with the government and went to
work as a contractor with a large company as a forecaster for a multi site
contact center. Customer Service baby, that's what it's all about these
days. It pays the bills and I don't hate it. I wish I could torch every
day but that will have to wait for awhile. In the meantime I torch on the
weekends. Which reminds me, it's time to torch. Light em' if you got em'

tootles...
          

Coming up for air

Well, the day is almost here. I will retire from the govt. job after 33
years of service on Tuesday. I get five days off then back to the same
place as a contractor. It will be a transition but I've been looking
forward to it for eight months. I qualified to retire last June and had to
wait for things to happen before I could officially retire. It will be a
strange day but exciting just the same.

And you wonder why I haven't posted in awhile. I did have a breakthrough
with the silvered glass Triton. I finally figure out how to get the wildly
beautiful bright blue and turquoise colors out of it. When it is reduced in
the flame all you get are the shiny metallic colors and I just didn't get it
ok, so they all look pretty much the same but how to folks get the pretty
colors to show. Well, I decided to reduce the glass and then cover with
dots of a light transparent, in this case a very light blue. It worked, I
was so excited I couldn't stand it. On the black one the metallic ring
around the bright colors is the silvered glass that didn't get covered by
the transparent, I put it back into a reduction flame to bring the metallic
shine back up before putting it into the kiln. On the middle one, the blue,
the black areas around the bright colors are the Triton that wasn't covered
by the clear, I didn't reintroduce it into the reduction flame and it just
remained black. I love the look of the bright blues shimmering through the
transparent. Not easy to photograph for sure, there is a shimmer that
reminds me of fish scales that sparkle in the light. AND I can reproduce
the look, something that doesn't always happen when I discover a new look.
Try it, you will love the look.

tootles,
enjoy the journey