Finding my bead style - the journey

I've been making lampwork beads now for about three years.  As of yet I haven't found a bead that is ME.  Something that when jewelry makers see beads, know that I made them.  There are lots of lampworkers out there that I can identify by their beads.  They have a specific look or style.   My style can best be described as simply organic.  I love the stone look and am finding that my customers seem to like them too.  The do take a few more steps to create but the look is certainly unique if not generic. 

I tend to sit down at the torch with little idea of what I'm going to make.  I just start grabbing glass rods and start with a base and go from there.  This doesn't lend itself to finding a style.  I'm not sure if I absolutely have to have a style but so many lampworkers do have them that I kind of feel like I haven't grow if I don't.

If you get a chance, take a look at my Etsy shop and tell me if you see a style emerging.  I would really appreciate any feedback you can give me.    Until then I shall keep doing what I do and enjoying every minute of the journey.

Roses and rain

I love roses, my favorite are the Chrysler, Peace, Double Delight and Tropicana. I have one of each of these bushes, all except for the Double Delight. I lost that bush last year. I've found that roses don't do as well in the south. The humidity is just too much for them and the leave get yellow and have mildew dots on them. The roses are fine but the bushes look horrible.

We had a bit of rain last night and I brought these two roses in the house so I could enjoy them and noticed how beautiful the remains of the rain were on the petals.

You can't fake the look of rain drops on roses. Hey, isn't there a song with that line in it..."My Favorite Things". Anyway, just had to share the photos with you. I really do love the look and wish I could freeze it forever.

The Tropicana rose has such a wonderful scent, it has a soft sweet scent that just can't be replicated in perfume.

Hope you all have a great day. We are expecting more rain. Hopefully I will have a few more roses tomorrow to bring in and enjoy.

Journey of a custom order

I'm really excited to get down to the torch today, I got a custom order yesterday and can't wait to get started. I enjoy just letting the bead get made as I sit there and pull colors and create designs but getting custom order is just as much fun. For one, I don't have to try and come up with something new or make more of the same.
I can hone my craft on something I've made before. It's a chance to practice and make something that I've made before and do it better. Usually the custom orders I get are for some beads to go with a focal that I've made or make one like something they have seen in my shop only in a different color. Making beads to go with a focal can be fun and great practice. Recreating something that I've already done in a different color can be just as much fun, I get to try and make it just a tad bit better.

Hope you all have a great day, as for me, I'll be melting glass and focusing on making a recreation better.
tootles,

Whining-not really a Journey

This is just going to be a whining post. I've read all kinds of articles about how to get people to look at your blog and your products. I get it, but what I don't get is how to go about finding them. I tried continuing to hit the "next" button at the top of the blogs but all I get are family blogs and mothers and painters(artist). One would think that there would be someplace to enter your interests so that you get blogs relevant to what your interested in.

I guess I'll just go try Stumble for awhile and see where that takes me. Even on stumble there is a list of things for you to check off if your interested and the list is quite general. Oh well, as I said, this is pretty much just me whining today.

If anyone has any suggestions about how to go about marketing, getting people to be interested in your blog or just general sales suggestions I would sure appreciate it.

As for the photo, this is my favorite bead today. It's called Royal Rake and is in my Etsy Shop.

tootles,

The Journey of the name

I've been processing bead photos today. After they are all process through the photo editing software to lighten them and crop them I have to name them. I'm not sure why I do this but while I'm making them names come to me. By the time I get to the actual naming of them I can't remember what the name was and have to sit and think about the bead.

I had four beads today that reminded me of wind, maybe because it's been windy here not really sure why. I Googled "God of wind" and got a link to a Wiki listing of all the different gods of wind, who knew there were so many.
This first bead is called "Aeolus", the mythological god of wind.


This one is called "Vayu", which is the Hindu god of wind.




This one is called "Venti", the Roman god of wind.


I had no idea there were so many wind gods, but the names just felt right.

Sometimes I make up names that just kind of sound right. Other times I give the bead the name of a feeling that it invokes. I was the the home improvement store the other day and started grabbing up paint chips in all colors. They have lots of little books with paint chips in them too. I have all kinds of books and chips now to help me name beads when I'm stumped for a name.

I'd love to hear ideas about how you decide what name to give your beads, or quilts or whatever your craft is.

tootles

The lack of Journey

Today is one of those days that started out a bit cool but sunny, now it's overcast and windy. I find that now that I'm retired I look for any reason to take a day off from torching. Today is one of those days. I did photograph 21 beads but haven't processed them yet.

I decided to take the day off, I'm laying on the couch watching TV. For some reason my DVR didn't record The Celebrity Apprentice so I had to go online and watch it. That wasn't such a bad experience. It didn't glich or anything. Hubby was sitting over at the dining room table in front of his laptop, where he usually is, watching something there. Boy, that personifies the couch potato doesn't it.

Anyway, no journey today. I cleaned beads this morning. Did a load of wash and photographed beads, so it's not like I took the day off. But I'm pampering myself this afternoon. I remember all those cloudy days at work when all I wanted to do was lie down. So, the journey is to the couch to contemplate my next beads. (I knew I could find a photo of me on the couch...LOL)

How to take a "Journey on the Internet"

Or should it be Journey through the internet? Anyway I've been "flow surfing" the internet today. You know, you start with on spot that you read every day, for me it's the email I get from Handmade Spark (if you haven't checked out Handmade Spark you really should, there are all kinds of wonderful articles on how to make your Etsy shop work), while I was reading it one of the articles sparked my interest so I clicked on it and found a beautiful Etsy shop called Catie's Blue, her shop is so colorful and I love her eye for making jewelry. Ok, so that led me to her blog, Brandi girl , I spent a lot of time here getting to know what made her tick. Then while I was there I saw an icon on the side bar in her blog that said Save the Internet dot com. Hmmm, Net neutrality??? OK, I admit that that one is over my head. I should probably know what it's all about but I don't.
So, I have to back up to Brandi's blog to see if it leads me anywhere else. So, she has a link to a free download called Pugley Pixel tape, what in the world is that. So, off I go. Seems that masking tape and Washi tape are all the rage. What is Washi tape? So I did a Google search which led me to another Etsy site, Pretty Tapes. How interesting, tapes for decorating, scrap-booking and gift wrapping. Ho knew. The internet is truly an interesting place.

While I was surfing I got an email so I jumped over to see what it was...another great blog by Desert Stone she has some wonderfully unique jewelry. I sat and scrolled for quite awhile looking at so many things that I wanted I had to stop. Anyway, you get the idea about flow surfing.

When I stopped I realized that all I was doing was putting of my "once every ten years" gardening...LOL The last time I planted anything in flower beds was about seven years ago when I got my Westie, she would rip up anything that I planted so I stopped.

My dear friend Lynsey, who lives in Ipswich UK sent me some HollyHock seeds from her garden. I've put them in a pot and now have these cute little plants. So, I have this flowerbed along the front walk that hasn't been touched for at least seven years. You can only imagine the bermuda grass that has establised itself in there. We are going to have to use a pick to get it all out. Off I go to plant my Holly Hocks and some pink and purple petunias to go with them. IF, and that's a big if, they grow I'll post a picture in a month or so...LOL

tootles

The Journey of Blogging and the Bookmark

Ok, so I lied, I'm not going to make it posting every day. What was I thinking??? But I am going to do better. I was a victim of Facebook games. Oh man are they addicting. I can't explain it either. But yesterday and today I've made a concerted effort to not play first thing in the morning. I sit down and before I know it, it's like time has evaporated and four hours is gone. I think it happened because of winter. I torch in the late afternoon in the winter because it's the warmest time of the day. Then spring comes and I start about 1pm. Now that it's getting warmer I have to go down earlier in the morning.

I didn't torch at all today. I had a laundry list of things that needed to get done for the business and the first was to organize what was IN my Etsy shop with what was ON the spreadsheet and the picture files. They were all different numbers. That took two hours. I did reward myself with a little game time after that was done but then it was time to get up and get to work.

I got a lot more done today. Cleaned some beads and got some more bookmarks started. Bookmarks you ask...well I give each of my customers a bookmark with some of my beads on it when they make a purchase. If they come back a second time they get a different bookmark. I have a whole series of them made up for customers as they come back and buy from me again. Kind of like collecting baseball cards. Who can't use a bookmark, right?

Here are a couple of the designs so you can see what I've been up to. The first one that a customer gets matches the banner in my shop and after that they may be closeups of one bead or a composite of many. It's been fun making them.

If your a jewelry maker and like bookmarks, you know where to shop...

tootles