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

Still winter

Yep, it's still winter.  However, we are having some above normal temperatures here in the south and it's been in the high 60's.  The basement is actually is the 60's also.  I'm heading down to the torch tomorrow, I just hope I haven't forgotten anything, hopefully it's just like riding a bike, but you know I think that's a misnomer also.  We shall see.   I've been selling my beads on eBay lately and doing fairly well.  I think eBay just has a much larger volume of people that frequent it as compared to Etsy.  Etsy is a great place to find anything handmade, it just isn't as well known and the search capabilities are limited to the short list of tags we are allowed to use as compared to eBay.  I'm still learning all there is to learn about eBay, as a matter of fact one of my new customers had to walk me through creating an invoice for multiple purchases.    I've been considering buying a DVD on all there is to know about eBay.  You know the one, the guy that sells all kinds of computer how-to DVDs and offers the first one for only the price of the shipping, I think his tag line is "Buy my product".  I'm just afraid that if I call to order it they will talk me into something else.  I wonder if he has a website.  I guess next time I see the commercial I'll actually pay attention...LOL    Speaking of commercials have you noticed lately that the commercials are about 100 decibels louder than the show you were watching?  Tonight I headed to the kitchen to get something while a commercial was on and it was so loud that when I came back into the room poor hubby had his hand over his ears.  It never occurred to him to just reach over, grab the remote, and turn the stupid thing down.  Some channels are worse than others, Spike has a really bad habit of absolutely screaming at you when it thinks you have walked into the other room during a commercial.  Thank goodness for DVR's, fast forward through those puppies, I'll show them.    Well, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and are able to spend it with friends and family. Talk to you all soon....................... tootles, glass lover

Winter journey

I hate the winter, and the holidays for that matter.  And now, if the cold weather isn’t bad enough I have a new reason to hate the winter months…..I can’t torch.  My setup is in the basement and I have to open the windows to torch.  Way too cold down there to do that.  My friend has a big heater blower, you know, the kind they use in car repair shops, anyway he is going to loan it to me to see if that will help.  My only problem now is finding enough power.  We haven’t finished our basement and I am using almost all of the available plugs now so I’m not sure I can even run the thing.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  It’s either this or I find some electric socks and a hot water bottle to sit on.  One would think that the torch would keep you warm but the radiant heat just isn’t that warm as most of it goes up. 

As for the other reasons I hate the winter, the obvious the cold but the holidays always make me blue.  Family is all spread out, they all want you to be where they are and you can’t, memories of wonderful childhood Christmas’ don’t help.  You can’t go back can you.  Usually when January 1^st gets here it’s spring for me.  There is still plenty of cold weather to deal with, even down here in the south, but for me it’s all sunny and bright and I’m ready to get on with it. 

Here’s hoping you all have a great Thanksgiving and a super holiday.  I’ll post beads if I’m able to torch.  If you don’t see the beads you will know that it was a no go……….

Blogger Sucks!

This thing rarely works like it should. I can't add any more things to my blog, haven't been able to for a long time. Guess I'll just add my Facebook link in here and see if it works.