Summers end

Summer has finally ended in the south.  It's so beautiful here this time of year, dry and cool with just a hint of warmth on the skin.  I'm always sad when all the leaves have finally fallen off the trees because I know winter is just around the corner.   I think I'm also sad about looking the leaves because they are my privacy.  My den, dining room and deck are on the second floor and look out into the green lushness of the leaves, when they are gone I can see other houses and the starkness of winter.

I've been making beads in fall and winter colors and doing a bit more etching of beads.  I love the feel of the etched beads, the shininess is gone and they feel soft and smooth.  If you don't want to make jewelry out of these you can always carry them in your pocket so that you have something soft there to touch when you need to.  Kind of like a worry stone.

I've been retired eight months now and I still feel like I'm on vacation and it's about to end.  I wonder how long that will last.  I love just being home and am starting to enjoy cooking again.  Just the other night I decided that I would try a different breading on some pork chops that hubby brought home from the store.  They really don't have a lot of flavor unless you do something with them.  I put some tortilla chips in the blender and chopped them up and added all kinds of spices and used it as a breading for the port chops and they were wonderful.
The secret to keeping the breading on your meats is to first coat the meat in flour, then the egg and milk mixture and finally the breading you have created.  I have four different dry breading mixes in the frig for meats so we don't get bored with what we eat.  Me thinks I've been watching too many cooking shows...LOL

Heat affects the journey

It's been an unusually hot early summer here in the south, the average temp. here is 80 this time of year and we have had above 90 for fifteen days now.  My torch is in the basement which stays fairly cool at 75F but I have to open windows to create a draft for ventilation and in comes the heat.  I can only torch in the mornings and I'm a slow starter.  I get up early, like 6am every morning but never get around to being ready to torch until at least 9am.  All this to say that it's just been hot.  Brutally hot.  It slows my brain and hands and the creative juices just don't flow. 
I haven't torched in five days, which is a record for me.  We aren't even into the hottest part of the summer yet so I'm afraid of what the next two months will be like.  I find myself doing smaller beads in sets, the bigger ones take a lot more time up close to the torch and it's just too hot for that. 

So, if you are seeing more sets from me right now, that's why.  Just too hot to make the big focal beads that I like to play with.  I made the set above on the 4th of July.  LOL, It never occurred to me to make some a month before the holiday to sell.  What a noob.  

If you don't hear from me for awhile it's because I'm sleeping away the heat of the day.  The air conditioner in our house is undersized.  Don't even get me started on that subject, suffice to say that when it gets over 90 outside it's 80 in the house.  We have a stand alone air conditioner in the house (loud, loud, loud) that helps to keep it at 80 but at that temp. all we can do is sit under the ceiling fans on high and stay still.  Sleeping seems to work well...LOL 

Hope it's cooler where you are.  If not, I feel for you.
Stay Cool...

Etsy Bloggers, my first deadline was missed

I joined the Etsy Bloggers team hoping that I would blog more.  Well, as you can see that didn't happen.  Now I know what writers feel like when they get writers block.  I can't think of a thing to say, which is not normal for me...LOL  The first subject was suppose to be a milestone or accomplishment that we recently had.  I couldn't think of a thing.  The other subject was my goals...LOL  Seriously when I retired the major goal of my life was hit and I went on vacation mode. 
I did recently hit 500 sales in my Etsy shop, considering that at the first of the year when I retired I had had 50 sales I would say that was a major milestone for me.  I guess my next goal will be to hit 1,000 beads sold by the end of the year.  Hopefully I can make it. 

I've been retired for roughly six months now and I am beginning to see sales patterns in my shop.  Hopefully I will be able to adapt to that and be prepared for the peaks and work hard in the valleys to get ready for the peaks.
So my goal will be to blog at least once a week.  Clearly once a day is way to much for me to manage.  I hope someone is listening.

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

Journey through a rainy day...

It's rained all day today. I knew it was coming but didn't prepare for it. By prepare I mean, have something to do to keep busy since I can't torch. I mean, I could but if there was any wind at all it would come in the windows of the basement and make a mess. And there was, a lot of wind. This was a particularly bad day in the south weather wise. So...what to do. I have tons of lampwork beads that just weren't quite good enough to make it into my Etsy shop. Lets face it some of them are down right ugly. So I was trying to think of something to do with them, like wind chimes or something.
I did a search on Etsy for wind chimes and was absolutely amazed at the pretty and unusual wind chimes for sale. I love wind chimes, I love the sound of them. I don't really have anywhere to hang them but I still love them. I guess I could hang them in the trees. But I digress. I left my fusing days behind when I started lampworking but I could do some fusing to make some parts for the wind chimes if I really wanted to. Or do I just want to bag them up into bags of say 15 or so and sell them on eBay?

Anyway, I ran across the most beautiful Etsy shop full of wonderful fused glass pieces and wind chimes. The shop is called Mystic Prism and some of the wind chimes were absolutely stunning. Stop by and check them out.

When I did a Google search for wind chimes I was amazed at what there was out there. I guess that anything I could think of a million other people would. So, most likely I will bag them up and sell them at the bay. Any other ideas about what to do with them???

Tomorrow the sun will be out again and I will torch, and make more ugly beads...LOL

tootles

Striking color results

These are some of the beads that I did a couple of days ago with the striking color glass. I was more pleased with the test glass. The glass above was Terra2, the one in the center was a mix of Terra2 and Ekho. It's a bit transparent and I learned from the Double Helix website that the test batch that I love is a test batch for Ekho that was a bit more opaque and had a bit more cobalt blue in it. So, what I'm going to try today is Ekho on a base of white covered in cobalt blue. Maybe it will give me a color closer to the test batch. That will take a bit more doing so the beads are going to take a bit more time to make. But if it works it will be worth it, since the test batch glass is almost gone and when gone will be gone forever. (sob, sob, sob).

Stay tuned for the new results. I have high hopes for my test...LOL More desperate than anything else....LOL

Planets along the journey

I've been playing with striking glass lately. First of all for those of you who don't know what that is, striking glass is a highly silvered glass that is of odd bland colors in rod form, when super heated the glass goes clear and then as it cools it darkens to a very dark brown. Sometimes it cools clear and as it is "lightly" reheated it goes to the dark brown. Then it is encased and the magic happens. The colors underneath the encasement range from purple to yellow with every color of the rainbow in between. The colors can be amazing if you know what your doing. There are three companies in the US that make this special designer glass, Trautman Art Glass, Double Helix and Striking Color, the last being a very new company here in Georgia, his glass sells out almost as fast as he posts it in Etsy. I've been lucky enough to get a few pounds of it and I treat it like gold. Double Helix sells test batches while they are working on new colors and I have a little bit of a test batch that I am in love with. I can only hope that they decide to make it a permanent line. The test batch that I have is named OK-326. The beads above were made with it. You can see why I'm in love with it. It's so consistent.

Today I tried two named glasses from Double Helix, Terra Nova 2.1 and Ekho. I had a horrible time with both of them after having such good luck with the OK-326. It was so easy to strike that I though I had it all figured out. Not even close. I'll try and remember to post the beads I made today, maybe tomorrow if I get them cleaned.

So, just in case your curious about how I did the beads above. I lay down a very small clear glass bead, I then roll it out to give me my foot print. Then I superheat the silvered glass as I lay it down on the footprint, when I done adding the silvered glass I give it even more heat until it's completely clear. I let the bead cool just a bit until it stops moving and then roll it in a brass former to flatten to the same barrel shape as the footprint (the color should be pretty much clear when it's cooled). Ensuring that the bead is cooled I then lightly and I mean just barley pass it through the back of the flame until you see it start to turn very dark. Take it out of the flame and start encasing it with a good clear glass. Nice and thick so that when it's heated you don't overstrike it. I then slightly shape it in the flame, take it out to cool and put in the kiln. Magic...I don't have a clue how they make the stuff but I'm addicted!

Inspiration of the day

Instead of a bead today I have some inspiration in the form of an oil painting by Delabarra. He is a member of Total Art Soul Forum, a wonderful arts forum that I'm a member of. I love the colors and I just know that there is a bead in her hair somewhere I'm going to go down to the torch today and try to incorporate the waves of her hair into a bead.
Wish me luck.

Bead of the day

The bead for today is Golden Poppy. This is a Coral Poppy Orange with a silvered ivory stringer trailed around the bead. Simple yet classic look. I think the best way to use a barrel bead like this is to simply hang it from a silver chain with some silver bobbles around it. But then I'm not a jewelry maker. I tried it and just never was good at it. I leave that to the jewelry makers out there.

Here are some of my favorites right now on Etsy:
Uniqueartpendants, I love this butterfly pendant

ERiaDesigns Loved this little nest pendant, I see that it's sold now.

And finally PeaceBirdStudios, her wire wrapped gemstones are to die for.

Hope you enjoy seeing some of the jewelry I love. Until tomorrow, enjoy the journey.

Glee Starts tonight!!!

Yes friends I'm a true Gleek!!! I love Glee. I think the music is
fantastic and the story lines fun. I thought I would just throw that out
there before I do my bead of the day. Just in case there were some Gleeks
out there that didn't know that it started tonight on Fox. I can't imagine
that any of them don't know but maybe some of you that have never seen it
will try it. You'll love it.
           
Come join us Gleeks!

Bead of the day

I'm going to try to start post a bead a day. One that I've made and am selling in my Etsy shop. You can click on it at the right.

Here is today's bead, its called Ivory Rainbow. Simple dark ivory with raku dots that have been raked. They kind of remind me of hearts. I love the range of colors that I got with this one. I'm going to try the same thing on plain ivory and see what happens.

Blogging journey

I'm wondering if there really are people that follow my blog. I wonder why anyone would want to for that matter. Thus far I've only used it as a place to vent and maybe talk out problems I'm having with my Lampworking. I am having the age old problem of finding the perfect clear but that isn't anything new for us bead makers. I'll go into that more tomorrow so if your
interested stay tuned.

How about a cute dog story today for something different. We have two terriers, a westie named Piper who is the sweetest West Highland White terrier there ever was, she is seven now and very mellow. Very much the alpha and my dog. We decided, when Piper was about one that she needed a friend to play with. That was our first mistake...we decided we wanted a
Scottish terrier so we went in search. We found a woman who had a whole litter of them for sale and drove out to see them and talk to her. Her Scotties were beautiful larger than you would think but very regal. She only had to left that weren't spoken for so I choose the runt. All the time I was inside talking to the woman about the puppy and filling out some papers my hubby, who is much more dog savvy than I, was outside watching the litter. We couldn't take the puppy home for another two weeks so we headed home. Hubby was explaining to me that the puppy that we had choosen was going to be a handful. He said that after the whole litter had eaten all
the puppies had huddled together to sleep there was our Sadie, yes we had already named her, poking around still eating. After she was done eating she grabbed one of the puppies by the tail an drug it out so that she could get into the middle of the huddle for some warmth. He said that she was going to be a handful and that she would probably challenge Piper for the Alpha spot every chance she had. I didn't listen, first of all the other puppy was a male and I wanted a female. Second, it's kind of like bonding, I had all ready picked Sadie up and held her and she was mine.

During the following two weeks while we waited for it to be time to go pick Sadie up the woman called with a concern. She had lost track of the mother one night and when they found her she was with a big male long haired Dauschund. She didn't know if they had mated was as the puppies were getting a bit older she thought that four of them were showing signs of
being mixed. Sadie being one of them. I was only slightly disappointed, at this point Sadie was mine and I was going to take her no matter what. The breeder of course couldn't give us paper, which again didn't matter since we weren't going to breed her and she did offer us a much reduced price since she wasn't sure about the lineage. So the day came and we went out to get
her. We had prepared for the drive home with a large box, the 30 minute ride home with Piper had been a nightmare, but that's another story.

It soon became apparent that Sadie was a mix of Scottie and Doxy, The only real apparent thing was that her ears never came up as Scottie's ears do. When we had to cut we had her cut as a Scottie. But she had all of the tenacious traits of both breeds. She is an extreme hunter and very Very vocal when she wants something. Where Piper just sits and stares at you when she wants something Sadie tells you at the top of her lungs that she wants it. All this to tell you a cute little story.

This morning the girls got me up early, they wanted to go out or their walk. It wasn't really their fault that I stay up until 2AM, they hadn't, they went to sleep in their usual places on the floor near the couch until I was ready to go to bed. They both sleep in crates at night,they consider them their little caves. Anyway, we went on our walk and when we got home I planned on laying back down on the couch for a bit more sleep. I do that sometimes...retirement is wonderful. My hubby's large chair is closer to the front door and up in the corner of the chair is the prime preferred spot for both girls. Piper got there first, Sadie was still eating her treats. So I laid down on the couch and Sadie sat there and stared at me, she wanted to get up in the corner of the couch, the second spot used by both girls. I didn't want her up there, I new for a fact that she would stay up there for about ten minutes and then want down at which time she would have to climb over my head to get down. I was having none of it, I closed my eyes to try and not see her staring at me. I could still feel her eyes on me, I opened my eyes and she had moved out to the middle of the den where she could get a better view of my eyes. I finally asked her what she wanted and she came around, stood up on the couch with her front paws and looked from my face to the corner of the couch and back to my face. This went on or about a minute
before I finally gave up and sat up so that she could get up in her spot. She knows I'm weak and will break down if she stares long enough.

She is a very different dog. When we are getting ready to take them out or are preparing their food she talks to us. Not with barking but what I can only describe as a popping sound with her mouth. It opens and closes and no sound comes out but this strange popping or snapping sound. I've never seen another dog do this and it is the strangest sound I've ever heard. She also
bumps us a lot. She doesn't lick to kiss as many dogs do but kind of bumps you with her nose. When we are preparing her food or getting them a treat she kind of reminds you that she is there by running her wet nose up your leg. The strange thing is that Piper now does it too. Who says you can't teach an old dog a new trick. They have both picked up the others habits
and Piper even barks now when she wants something bad enough. They are our furry children and their personalities are as different as day and night. What we would do without them I don't know. Every day Sadie does something weird that proves she is as unique as her mix.

Ok, I promise to talk about the perfect clear glass tomorrow. Stay tuned. Until then, enjoy the journey and remember to stop along the way and enjoy the view.

The Journey is reving up to start again

The kiln is fixed....yeaaaaaaah. Not without a lot of grunting and groaning, most of which came after we were done. What a job to take that kiln apart, remove the elements and thread the new ones back in. Threading them in was the hardest part. All of it was very tiring, standing on that hard concrete floor in the basement. Luckily hubby had a really nice work table at a perfect height to work on something. Anyway, the kiln is working again. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous when I fired it back up. I flipped the switch and ran back to stand with hubby about 10' away. He wasn't stupid...LOL He's not stupid. Watched the temp climb and then click off and click back on at the appropriate place. I was so excited I almost wanted to start up the torch and work right then. I was way too tired to do that but I wanted to.

While I was sitting there waiting for hubby to get all the screw out of the kiln I was playing with all the pretty colorful glass rods. Pulling rods I wanted to work with the following day. I love gradations of a color, I had inadvertently pulled out all the opaque blues that I had and put them in shade order from light to dark. Oh how I wish I could make a bead that seamlessly shaded that way but glass just isn't like water, it has a thickness and the two colors don't really mix, well not at the temperature I'm working anyway. I have an idea of how to get past this but it will take some more thinking so I will leave it until I get it all thought out in my head.

As for what I'll do today, my first day back at the torch in over a week. Not sure, it's Spring and I feel like using all kinds of pretty colors. Maybe some pretty frit beads. Or maybe I'll go back and play with the silver glass again or wait maybe the shards are calling me....see...it's so hard to go down with a plan. Probably why I'm an organic bead maker, because I love all colors and can't ever decide what I want to do next. Stay tuned to see what I come up with. Until then, here are a few I made before the kiln went south: