A Mountain of Beads

There is a seriously large pile of beads on my work table right now. Lots of new shapes and glazes. I'm actually sort of surprised by the assortment and just a wee bit pleased with myself. Here's a little sample of what's coming up.

I love making birds and now there are birds in new colors. Colors that aren't necessarily found in real birds and that seems just fine to me. OK, the coral salmony one isn't new but hasn't been around for a while. And the black one isn't really new but this one came out with these wonderful little gold specs that I'm infatuated with. There's a new chocolate brown one that makes me hungry for brownies. Then there is  my brand new favorite sort of copper verdigris green. Yes, a green again. I am on a green binge these days now that I've discovered that I like green. What happened to my purple love?

Does this look like an amoeba? I always thought amoebas were kind of cool but didn't actually start out making an amoeba shaped bead. Because, really, who would wants to wear an amoeba. Maybe we should just think of this as a fluted coin bead shape. Boring description yes, but probably beats the heck out of amoeba in terms of palatable aesthetics. Note this bead is green,.... again. There are in fact other colors of beads in this lot. Like blue. Which is closely related to green.

I seem to have been obsessed with pairs lately. Maybe because I've been obsessed with earrings lately. These ones called out to have copper bead caps so I whipped out the sheet metal yesterday and went at it with a hammer. There is just something so very therapeutic about pounding metal and making a huge amount of noise.

The old Bob dog was completely unaffected by the racket from the metal pounding. He just spent most of the day sprawled out on my bed. Helps being a bit deaf, I imagine. Clearly, Alice was less than pleased with the interruption to her daily (all day) quiet nap. But rest assured she perked up when I put on her favorite Lucinda Williams album and played it over and over and over again. She's happy. I want to listen to something else.

About those beads....ETA Etsy shop Thursday evening. Maybe around 7ish, 8ish EST.

Beads, Authors, Workshops, and more

Whew! This summer has flown by. So much to do, so much done. A little pile of beads waiting to be sorted.

I had the great fortune to be able to meet Erin and Lorelei a couple of weeks ago for their book signing at Ornamentea. And my very own copy of their beautiful book, Bohemian  Inspired Jewelry, is signed by the both of them. Really I can't tell you just how much I love this book. Great projects but even better is that it is a wonderful spring board for new ideas. Erin and Lorelei are really good at this and if you don't have a copy you should put it high up on your wish list. Better yet, you should just go out and get one today. You don't even have to leave your home. You can order one here.

It is always lovely to meet the people behind the blogs I read. This was a real treat for me. Erin and Lorelei are two of the very first people I met when I started my own blog. To finally be able to meet them in real time is pretty much indescribable. So I won't try, except to say they are even more wonderful in person than I could ever have imagined.

But I haven't just been galavanting around to book signings and bead shops. No siree, Bob. I have been a little worker bee out in the studio. Beads, beads, beads. I think there are a gazillion of them in various states of doneness. After months of doing so very little it feels so very good to get out there in the studio and make big piles of beads.

A few glaze tests happened too. Some kind of exciting first results with these new combinations. The big kiln is firing away right now and the little one is ready to go in the morning. Progress!

Oh, and, I just got back from a metal casting workshop at Silvera Jewelry School
in Berkley. If you ever get a chance to take a class from Joe Silvera, you should do it. He's a great teacher and so very generous with his knowledge. Wax modeling may be one of his favorites but he's a great metal smith as well. You don't have to go to Berkley. He teaches around the country at bead shows too. But a trip to Berkley is pretty fun! He and his wife Anat are fantastic hosts.

No that's not my ring. That's Joe's ring. I did make a ring. But you can't see it. I didn't finish it because I was too busy making wax models. I love that stuff. Will I be casting? Don't know. It's tempting.

Life is full. Life is good!

Away and Back

The High Country is nothing short of breath taking and it doesn't matter how many times I've been it always nourishes me deeply. 

It feeds my soul with the layers and layers of sight, sound, and texture. To listen to the rain fall softly on the trees. To gaze into a night sky that is so dark that each star shines out brightly. To wake up to the smell of damp earth and wet leaves. To listen to my grandson wake up with his quiet and sometimes not so quiet cries. Each and every moment a special gift.

I collect wee bits of texture and color on my camera not wanting to lose the memory. The woods are so full of amazing small things.

I spend very little time photographing my family. I am too involved with celebrating our time together. My grandson was a month old on Monday. So much change in one short month. He listens and looks at you. He reaches for toys and smiles when you do and makes something like a giggle when you tickle his feet. Babies are small miracles and I feel so blessed to have been able to share this weekend with him and my family.

The man behind the curtain

Being a PaPa to a new baby is exhausting work. Peter doesn't really get enough spot light around here. He really is the man behind the scenes and has held my world together physically and emotionally over the last few months. He's cooked, he's cleaned, he's helped me get orders out to you all. He's pretty amazing. It's a big weekend coming up. Peter is turning a certain age on Saturday. It's not an age with a 0 or a 5 in the end. But shhhh...it does have a 5 in it. I look at that photo above and think just how amazing this man is sleeping on the sofa with our wee little grandson who is only just a few days old. Seems Peter can hold a lot of worlds together. He's good at it.

Then I look at this photo of another amazing man. The photo was pinched off of my daughter in law's facebook  with a caption of 'relaxing after a hard day's work.' My wee little grandson has changed so much in a month. Will PaPa recognize him? 

See what I mean? That's Brody with his Mummy, just one day old. She is amazing too. That's pretty much what he looked like when we last saw him. Oh, oh, how time flies in the life of a baby. He's changed so much in just one short month.

We're off this weekend to the mountains to celebrate Peter's birthday. Brody is bringing his Mummy and Daddy. There will be food, there will be cake, Peter will not be cooking. He will be snuggling up that baby boy. Well, we all will won't we? Nana won't be able to resist.

So this blog isn't just about babies. Tempting as that might be 'cause I love me a baby. I've been a bead making machine this week. Hundreds, thousands of beads. OK maybe just hundreds. It was wonderful to be out there in the studio just working through the ideas.

The Etsy shop won't be closed, I just won't be shipping until Tuesday morning. Thank you all for such a fantastic turn out for the last Etsy shop update on Monday. You rock!

Happy Birthday, Peter!

Tonight, 7 PM EST, New Stuff

 Monday, the 16th, 7 pm EST, I'll be adding heaps of new things to the Etsy shop. New beads, new glazes, birds and more. Four new sea inspired bronze designs and old pendants made new again with new glazes. This is just a small sample. Come join me at 7 pm EST.

Happiness is ......

a bowl of beads

a pile of pendants

and a handful of bronze.

Sorry I just couldn't keep keep the alliteration. But Peter has added that we could go further with a pleasing pile of polished pendants. I think that's just a little too silly even for me.

It's Friday the 13th and I really, really did not want to open the kiln this morning on such a bad luck day. The  glaze tests earlier this week were abysmal. Absolutely nothing was right in there and so when it came to glazing I wasn't real excited. I just sort of slapped some on and hoped for the best. All in all I'm pretty pleased with most of it. And I am quite pleased with myself for getting so much done this week. It's been a while since I felt even remotely productive. 

Happy Weekend!

I'm off to sort bead sets, photograph, and get things ready to list on Monday.

Long Strange Trip

Sometimes the lights all shining on me. Other times I can barely see. Lately it occurs to me what a long strange trip its been.

Oh, oh, how I know that dates me in such a really specific way. But the Grateful Dead were a part of my young adult years, so long ago. It never occurred to me until now how much that iconic song resonates with me right now. It's been a long 6 months and I can't even remember when I touched a piece of ceramic clay let alone fire it. But last Friday it seemed right. I brought back some old designs. I don't even know why I stopped making the Victorian pendants modeled from a lock from in my old home in Melbourne. It seemed the right place to start. It's one of the first designs I started with.

And then there is the lotus pattern I made based on an Indonesian batik stamp that I brought back from Australia. Again, I have no idea why I dropped this design from what I was making. I love that pattern. Maybe I just needed to reconnect to that particular design.



Then there are a few things that are a little bit new blended with the old. I've got a couple of new bead designs and a few new glazes that  are in the kiln right now. Just waiting for it to cool down enough for me to get in there and see what these experiments amount to. I never know when I commit things to the kiln. But it is always a voyage of discovery and usually a jumping off point to new things.

Thank you so much for all of your support especially over the last months. It means so much to me and I so regret that I haven't gotten back to each of you. But thank you all so much. It has truly made a difference in my life.