Journey in search of gas

It's the craziest thing here in the Atlanta metro area, we can't get gas.
There is no real reason for it except that we are such a large metro area
and once there was a threat of running out everyone panicked and now they
can't keep up with keeping the stations supplied with gas. I had to get
hubby up at 5am today to go find some gas so I could go to work next week.
I actually worked from home yesterday because we couldn't find any gas. I
just lucky that I could do that.

Luckily I'm one of those people that is more than happy to stay home on the
weekends and play instead of heading to the mall or just wandering around.

We have been living out of ice chests for two weeks because a small part in
our frig went bad. If I learned anything from this it's to put a
thermometer in our frig to keep a close eye on the temp. It doesn't take
much of a temp. change for things to start going bad. Both of the dogs and
I got food poisoning before we realized that the frig wasn't cooling enough.
And the vet bill was more than what it cost to fix the frig! It was
finally fixed yesterday so hubby is at the store now buying food to restock
the empty frig. Not the greatest way to get your frig cleaned for sure but
it's clean and empty now.

As for the beads, the first two were inspired by things I saw while surfing
the web. The rainbow bead is one that was inspired by a glass artist that
paints on layers of clear window glass and stacks theme and slightly slumps
them. Her name is Carol Cohen, you can see her wonderful stuff here
http://www.carolcohen.com/pages/coglass1.html
 
Ok, so the second one, I don't even remember what I wanted that to be, I
think ghosts flying around the outside.....hmmmmmm maybe not. The third one
was just another test bead trying out some new fire red shards I got. I
like them. They are interesting in that they are white shards that strike
to red in the flame. Cool stuff.

Ok, off to torch today. I need to make more sets for e-bay.

tootles,
Jan

Inspiration along the Journey

Good morning, I haven’t been by in awhile.  I do forget.  I was introduced to Facebook last Monday and have had my head stuck in there ever since.  It is nothing like MySpace in that it has all of these little interactive games that you check up on through out the day and click on, and you depend on strangers to help to get along in these games thus the need to network.  Anyway, no excuse for not checking in, just why and where I’ve been and why there are no new photos to share.

I was doing my daily surfing and ran across some amazing things on the internet.  Its funny how looking at other media can give you ideas and inspiration when you think that you don’t have a creative bone in your body, sometimes I amaze myself.  I had ideas for two different beads that I can’t wait to get home and try.  Where and how I got the ideas are so obscure that I won’t tell you what I was looking at for fear that you will think my mind has gone…J  Check back here in a few days for a glimpse of my feeble attempts at creating something from scratch based on pure creativity.  Even the thought scares me but here’s hoping it works.  Most of the time my ideas are just too complex for molten glass but I try them anyway.  Hmmmmm, maybe I’ll try them in Polymer Clay if the glass doesn’t work, just a tad bit list volatile substances to say the least.  Let’s see…..nope it won’t work, my ideas deal with clear glass and reflections therein and I just can’t get those looks in PC, hence the reason I went over to the dark side to being with.  I have a whole room full of polymer clay and tools that are just sitting there and have been since December.  That is just truly shameful.  Boy, when I die someone is going to have a mess on their hands.  The sad thing is that no one in my family will appreciate the stuff and it will probably end up in a yard sale or second hand store.  All I can say is that someone will find a gold mine in with what’s in my studio. 

Have you ever thought about that?  Where is all that stuff going to go if you were to be gone tomorrow?  Have you made arrangements for the stuff? A list of who gets what?  I have hundreds of craft books, lets see, there is beading, ribbon embroidery, needle work, quilting, fiber arts, altered books, polymer clay, lampwork, fusing…I’m sure I’ve left some out and that’s just the books.  Then there are hundreds of yards of fabric, much of it hand dyed, the beads, thread, oh my gosh do I have thread.  Ok, I need to stop.  It’s making me sick to my stomach.  I need to seriously gather the stuff up and start selling it on eBay now!.  Wow, how did this become about all my stuff.  It was suppose to be about inspiration.  Oh well, we do get sidetracked by the stuff in life don’t we. 

Have a great day.  Enjoy the journey. 

My first complete set

I forced myself to do a full set of beads on Saturday.  Boy did I hate that.  Took me almost the whole torching session.  I have decided that I'm just not a set kind of bead maker.  I'm more of an organic bead maker.  A little of this and a little of that, if it doesn't work out I make a tornado bead out of it.  Here is the set.   AND a tornado bead that I ended the session with.  I have to make at least one of these every session.  I love making the necklaces out of them.  I have them up on my "Janzart" glass site and Etsy.     

Revisiting Boro

I had to try the boro glass just one more time.  This little tree was the result.  The blue ball in the tree was originally something else that went south so I tried to make a marble.  Didn't turn out too bad actually.  But back to the tree, I love the luster of the boro glass, it has so much more of a shimmer.  The blue ball is actually there to even out the balance and allow the tree to stand, is that sad or what.  I could pretend like it was there for a reason but that would be fibbing.  I'll come up with a really deep name for the tree and ball, something that makes it sound like they were meant to go together.  Help me name it would you?