Journey down the Jewelry trail......AGAIN!

I'm having a terrible time with the camera.  I do better with the beads just laying on a white background but had to photograph these things on the manaquin and that's where the problems started I guess.  Some of them came out yellow even thought I used the "tungsten" filter.  Anyway, the first one is already up on Etsy, hoping someone will absolutely love it.   Here is the really pretty one, the wavy tubes are silver.  There is a sprinkling of Dichroic glass floating suspended in the bead.  The turquoise things between the tubes are wire thingies.    See the color difference between these two.  I have no idea why that happened.  Anyway, the second one has silver spacer beads between the tube beads.  I like the tornado bead, its so easy to make and when I screw something up all I have to do is wrap it in a clear stringer and smash it and I get the tornado bead.   These next two are just some other ones I did.  The last one was suppose to have Psyce reactive glass on it but turned baby poop brown and didn't do anything so I swiped some other reactive blue stuff on it and it shined right up.  You get the idea.......LOL     tootles,   back to the torch for more fun.

Journey to the doctor

What a week, I've had a bit of a health issue lately.  My mouth was burning so bad and my tongue in particular that I could hardly eat.  My lips, inside and out felt swollen and the corners of my mouth were splitting out.  Weirdest thing.  I finally couldn't take it any more so I went to the doctor.  Her immediate response was that it was probably a vitamin deficiency.  I couldn't imagine that but then I don't eat very well.  They took blood test and low and behold my B12 was almost nonexistent.    So then I started doing some research to see just what B12 was and what it was needed for.  In the meantime I started taking vitamins.  However, what I learned was that the vitamins aren't going to do any good.  I take Prilosec for acid reflux and apparently that's what has caused me to get this way.  B12 needs hydrocloric acid to break down so it can be absorbed and Prilosec slows or reduces the production of the acid AND as we get older we produce less.  Who knew there was so much magic chemestry involved.  So, I stop the Prilosec and hope for the best.  In the meantime the doctor gave me this wonderful mouthwash that they call "magic mouthwash" (I kid you not)  Its peach colored, syrupy sweet and numbs the mouth completely from the burning and pain.  What a miracle.  Apparently it has steroids in it and really is helping with the swelling and all.    Its been so hot here I haven't dared go down to the torch in the hot basement.  I miss it but it really just isn't the place to be in the heat.  I took the time to make labels for all of my glass rods.  Somewhere around the third trip upstairs hubby says "are those all different colors of glass"....ahhhha ammmm yes, they are.  Opps, guess he haddn't noticed them coming into the house a little at a time.  My bad.  Kind of like all of the fabric, and threads, and beads and polymer clay and on and on.  And I wonder why I'm still working a day job.  Sheesh!

Journey in the Heat

Man, it has been so hot here in the south lately.  I know that historically August is the hottest but dang.  Too hot to go down and even torch.  Yesterday I tried going down early in the morning but somewhere around 11 it was just too hot to go on.  I don't think I'll even go down today.  It's bad enough being in a house that has an air conditioner that is too small for it, we have a big room air conditioner in here and it can't even keep up.  Yesterday was horrible.  Anyway, time to organize the studio anyway.   I've been playing with a few new things lately.  A lampwork technique called the "tornado bead".  I love them.  There are so many different variations you can get.  If you get a chance pop on over to my Etsy shop and check them out.  Last night I sat in here and perused YouTube for some new videos.  I found one on how to make  wire rings, I think this will be perfect for all of my orphan beads.  I can make rings out of them.  Here are a few of the ones I made.  I tried using a button for one of them and actually like the look of it, not all buttons are meant for this technique but I have a ton of them so some of them will work.   Hope you are all keeping cool one way or another.  From the looks of it the whole country is going bake today.

Three Years of Blogging

I was just looking back my blog archive and was shocked to see that I have been blogging three years now.  When I first started I couldn’t imagine that I would have much to say.  As I have gotten into it I realize that it can be a place to go and just clear your mind of clutter or things that you are thinking about.  I look back over some of the entries and photos and am amazed and where my journey has taken me.  From fiber arts, to polymer clay, to fusing glass and finally lampwork.  I still love my fabric, I do, some days yearn to get out my log cabin stuff and just make some blocks.  I have a drawer full of 1 ½” strips, every fabric that comes through my studio gets at least one strip cut off of it for the drawer.  I have been making the log cabin blocks by the strip piece method for quite some time, I have over 100 9” blocks made, eventually it will make a great king size quilt for my bed and it will have all the wonderful fabrics of my life.  I will be able to look at some of them and have fond memories of where I got it or how I got it.  I did lots of internet fat quarter swaps in the early days so I have tons of stuff that I just cut up into strips to get rid of.  It may be time to just sit down and make eight blocks for the fun it. 

Then there is the polymer clay, it took over my fiber studio and the huge cutting table so I don’t have room for anything else in there.  I had to move to the basement when I started working with glass.  I still use the studio for staging and creating jewelry but rarely just go in there and play.  As we get into the dog days of summer and the basement is too hot to torch I may just have to step back in history a bit and just sew. 

Enjoy your weekend, whatever you may be into.

Working for a living

I just hate working, but it pays for the art so I just do it.  I can sit here all day and day dream about what I want to do when I get home.  What I want to make when I sit down at the torch.  I have a notebook that I keep with me at work and keep notes about what I want to do, things that I’ve seen online that I want to try and just generally ideas that come to me.  Do I use the notebook when I get down there…..NO!  I never do.  I usually have one or two things that I want to try and never get to anything else.  The time just flies by when I’m sitting at the torch.  Before I know it, four hours has passed and I need to stop. 

I have all of these great ideas during the day at work and then when I get home, get the girls walked and fed I’m too tired to go down there.  I guess I should go down anyway, at least one or two days during the week.  I’m just afraid that I’ll get stupid when I’m tired and “Really” burn myself.  I do enough of that on the weekend when I’m not tired.  

Last Saturday I had the mandrel in my left hand with a bead on it and I turned to the right to get something out of a drawer and forgot where my left hand was.  I was trying to keep the bead warm at the same time and stuck my whole hand in the flame.  I was so made at myself for that one, I jammed my hand into a large glass of soda with ice near by to keep it from burning and kept torching.  When it started burning again I would stick it back in the ice.  Not the first stupid mistake and certainly not the last but one would think that I would learn from my mistakes.   I guess I do, I just keep making different ones. 

Well anyway, just random thought, back to work……ta ta