Bead show treasures

It seems like every bead show where I exhibit, I find some stones, pearls or other treasure that I "need".  Every year I participate in a few craft shows where I sell jewelry, so I do need to put jewelry together.  At least, that is my excuse for buying more treasures!  I try to buy stones that will coordinate with my glass beads, but once in a while I buy something just because!  These slabs of agate  have been on my mind since I bought them in February.  I finally took some time to see if I could use them with my beads.  The smooth texture of the slabs is a nice contract to the rough texture of my frit beads, and I was happy with the resulting necklace.

One of the fun things about bead shows for me is finding stones or pearls that will combine well with my beads.  Sometimes I know exactly what will work, and sometimes the ideas need to percolate.

Furry family members

 I visited one of my sisters last weekend and I remembered to take my camera.  This is Thomas.  She rescued him from a shelter a while ago, and he is a real sweetheart.  Big orange cats are so mellow!  He shares his love freely with anyone, and is pretty vocal about it. 



My sister bought a folding laundry basket and he has claimed it- guess she will have to buy another one.

Of course I have to add a photo of my furry family member.  She is over 15 now but you would never know it.  She came from a shelter too.  I wish more people would adopt from shelters- there are so many kittens and puppies (and cats and dogs) that need a good home, and they make the best pets!

Donations

Every year I donate to 3 shows and organizations, and to make it easier for me, I usually make the same piece for each donation.  This year it will be my amber eye pendant in a cone shape.  The color combination is one of my favorites, and I often shade the dots from light to dark.  The design is based on the historical eye bead- each dot represents an eye, which helps to protect the wearer.

The donations this year will go to the Earth Center for the Arts (Tyler Craft Center) for their auction on June 3,  BCTV Octoberfest for their televised fund raising auction on Oct 17-22, 2011, and the  Reading-Berks Guild of Craftsmen Holiday Show on Oct 29-30, 2011 at the Kutztown University Fieldhouse. 

Kiln repair

Yesterday I was in my studio preparing to make beads, but unfortunately when I turned my kiln on, nothing happened!   I was not in the mood for dealing with it, so I turned on my back up kiln and spent the day making beads.  Today I decided to deal with it!  I seemed to remember ordering elements years ago and receiving more than one set, so off I went on the hunt.  In a dusty box, I found 2 sets of elements and the directions for changing them.  After locating screw drivers, wire cutters and needle nose pliers, I tackled removing the old elements, which was definitely in distress, and installing the new ones.  My kiln now works again, and I have the elements for one more repair.  I read some place that they are supposed to work for 10 years, and I haven't come close to that yet.  I am so happy to have my favorite kiln working again!

New butterfly bead

After much experimenting, I think I have finally settled on the colors for this new bead.  I call it a butterfly bead, since the inspiration was a butterfly.  The raised dots actually have a flash of color- I couldn't capture that in a photo.  The background is ivory glass and the rest is various colors of Double Helix silver glass.  I am having loads of fun experimenting with all the new silver glass colors.  I developed the first butterfly bead for my new book, which probably won't be out until early next year.  It is so much fun to work on new designs!

Out of the kiln

Yesterday I came down with some kind of crud, sore throat, etc, but today I felt well enough to work on my torch for a while.  These are what I took out of the kiln tonight.  The large one is a blown bead, and it doesn't have any cracks!  That has been a problem for me, and I am not sure if it is my annealing schedule or if they are going into the kiln too cool.  The bottom left three are my new butterfly beads.  I was experimenting with silver glass stringers, and it really made a difference.  The left one fumed too much and looks dirty, the middle one didn't fume much at all, and the right one fumed enough to turn the ivory glass darker.  I like it!  The gold ones on the right are experiments with a new silver glass.  It was a pretty good day, especially considering how I felt!

March!

Signs of spring are happening!  We have had a lot of rain, not ice or snow!  I thought when Feb was over, I would be able to slow down a little, but that isn't happening.  I have to do all the things I put off!  Plus tax season is coming- not my favorite thing.  But with all this, I made myself a promise that I would get into my studio more.  My new beads were the ones that sold at the Berks Bead Bazaar, a sure sign I need to keep creating new beads.