Sylviebead Journal

Tuesday!!!!!

The kids are back at school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I'm sure they don't appreciate those extra exclamation marks though) We had such a good time the last week and a half... but I'm ready for some "normal" again.

It's RAINING and grey here AGAIN!!! I'm really getting tired of the grey days. I can't imagine living in the Northwest if it's like this all the time. It would get to me after a while. I definitely need some sun.... even if it's freezing cold outside... I need to see some blue skies SOON!!!

In beady news...

I made beads yesterday!! WOO HOO!!!!! I SO needed that! I didn't do anything crazy or creative, but I made beads!!!!!!!! It felt really good too.

Now... here's where you non-beady people can just glaze over, zone out, or go ahead and press the "back" button because I'm going to talk glass...

I played with color and pixie dust. Some of you all know... I am the QUEEN of pixie dust. That might be a title that some people think they own... but I'd have to strongly debate the issue, as I have been rockin' the sparkle since 1996! I know a lot of people don't use it because they can't get it to perform the way they want it to OR they stick with the "sparkle" colors because they are a little more fail-safe, but I luv me some "highlight" colors!!!

They make using the pixie dusts SO much more interesting! Their subtlety allows the base color to show through and creates new and interesting colors. love love love it!!!

I have a recipe book that I've been keeping notes in for a long time. It's basically a list that has glass colors with the colors of pixie dust I like over them. Some of them include accent/dot colors as well. When it's time to do production work, I sit down with the book and just start through the list. That said, I usually wander from the list a few lines into it, BUT it gets me started and that's the point.

Yesterday I focused on gold-highlight. I made black and red beads with highlight gold. It sounds kind of weird, I know... but they're really beautiful together. The black takes on a bronzy color... sort of a sparkly dark khaki (sounds totally different than black, huh? that's why I LOVE the highlight colors). The red was just an accent and using the gold dust over it, makes it a little more subtle.

The nice thing about putting pixie dust over 2 colors... even those with a strong contrast, is that it brings them together in a harmonious way... it's like when you're mixing paints... if you have a color that is in common between 2 colors, they go together much better. If you're a beadmaker... try it. You'll see what I mean.

SO... yesterday's beads went a little something like this...

black/gold rondelles
black/red/gold tiny dot beads
black/red/gold ruffle beads
black/topaz/gold tiny dot beads
black/topaz/gold ruffle beads
black/fine silver dots/gold rondelles

I made a LOT of beads!!! It reminded me that a lot of beadmakers right now are in serious production mode getting ready for the Tucson show in February. That sort of made me a little blue BUT I was so happy to have made beads, I pretty much got over it.

SO... Sarah Jessica Parker got to dance yesterday (a "you had to be there" blog moment... if you don't get it... never mind)

I'm hoping to get a little more torch time this evening... we'll see.


Tiny blah blah blah - brought to you by MOM!!! Yay mom!!!!

coffee - venti 2 pump mocha. I needed a little chocolate today.

music - Dixie Chicks For some reason, Griffin was listening to them last night on my ipod and when I turned it on, they were "up" so I stuck with his choice. I'm glad... it's a good day for the chicks.