Sylviebead Journal

Woo Hoo Wednesday!!!

No... not woo hoo because I won the lottery. I've found that if you don't actually buy a ticket, you don't have a chance of winning. :)

I had such a great studio day yesterday. I can't WAIT to get my beads out of the kiln. I stayed on task for about 30 minutes then made art. Art, to me, is doing something that is more from my heart and less "from the list".... not stuff I HAVE to make, but stuff I WANT to make.

I played with a new design. It probably will not turn out the way I envisioned it, but I'm hoping that it will be somewhat of a success and I can take some lessons from it and try it again from that perspective. I'm playing with my bead-totems again. Having learned a very very cool way to make bead stands from my friend Marcy (her blog has a tutorial on making a simple bead stand using old mandrels) I want to try more of these.

The first ones I made several years ago, I LOVED, but I made copper stands for them. They weren't as stable as I would have liked them to be. I'm hoping that the glass stands that I learned from Marcy will be a nice and more colorful alternative. We'll see. I made one last night just as a test. After making that one, I think I'll try it again with a few alterations tonight. I have a TON of bent up 1/16 mandrels, so I'm armed and ready to go supply-wise.

But the new beads I made last night were for a new totem design. (I really can't think of a better name for them than that right now... they're a little too girly to really be considered TOTEMs though).... but "component bead sculpture" seems much less fun to say. ANYWAYS... I'm looking forward to see how the pieces I made fit together (or not). They were fun to make.

I also made a couple of big holed beads. I hate the big mandrels. I don't care if they're big sellers or not... if I can't comfortably hold the mandrel, I seriously doubt if I'm going to be able to make any of those!!!!!!!! My beads were wonky and terrible!!!!!! Not seeing that as something I'm going to be taking to Bead and Button!!

I spent the latter part of the evening cleaning beads. I'm a bead cleaning MACHINE. Well... I'm using a bead-cleaning machine. I'm pretty much just the pruney-fingered operator. I got another 100 or so beads cleaned. I'm getting closer to conquering the tiny-bead pile that I had. I haven't cleaned any of the focal beads yet... but I've got to get through this stack of baby beads first! I also counted some of the beads... OMG do I have a good stash of beads going on!!!

When I do get to a point that I'm ready to sell again I think I'll have a nice selection to build sets from. But we are a ways away from me selling beads online. I'm pretty sure that Bead and Button will be my first selling-attempt and hopefully, like I said before, I'll be able to make expenses for the show and break even. I just need to get my name back out there. Slowly but surely I'll get back into the "game". :)

ok... this was way too long! But I was excited about the beads I made!!!

time for the tiny blah blah blah...

brought to you again by Rosemarie!!! Thank you for my coffee Rosemarie!!!!! Please visit Rosemarie's blog and see the lovely things she has posted. There is a bead posted from the Finding Your Voice class that is really cool AND has a cool story that goes with it. It was from my "personal bead" assignment. She really made a powerful bead.

coffee today - trying something different... will be returning to CDL because this just wasn't as good. Vanilla Latte with cinnamon dolce sprinkles. (I'm trying to do away with whipped cream and thought if I changed things up a bit I wouldn't miss the whipped cream AND it would be less expensive, letting my free coffee last a little longer, but alas... it just wasn't as good)

music today - Dixie Chicks. I realized that the point of this section of the blog was originally to tell what music I listened to while I made beads, not while I sat in my office, SO I'll tell you about that as well. I had my long fun list playing. A little of this, a little of that, but there were some good sing-a-long songs. I love the Queen song "Somebody to Love" and found myself singing along the way I used to aways sing in my studio. I'm turning back into me again. :) (sort of...a new me, but one with the same beadmaking gift that I used to have. Makes me happy to know that all of the facets of me can somehow merge... the happy NEW me...the one that is much more fun and content and happy, with the artist OLD me) boy... I'm talking a lot today! I'm just in a good mood.