Just keep swimming

 Another day of chickens... in colors I liked a little more (because I unpacked a box of glass in the garage that had a better assortment than what I had been working with). LOTS more unpacking and organizing or glass and hopefully locating my tool tote which seems to be missing entirely (I had it out of the boxes 3 years ago but now it’s not anywhere). 

I’m missing my own tools but grateful that I can rent torch time where there are tools to use.  I just want the ones that I’ve used for years that have my “imprint” on them from using them daily for years and years.  Replacing them would be pricey and impossible (some are no longer made). Anyhoo.... what I have works and I’m just going to keep going with them hoping to find my groove.

My first set of chicken prototypes, when used with beadwork showed me some changes that need to be made... so although these are cute they are still just test runs.  I need some with different engineering features to make the project I want work.

Did a practice video for friends on Facebook and will do more of them for my glass page. 

Coffee- no, chick fil a tea

Music - Fleetwood Mac Runors

Something totally different

 Most of my beadmaking in the last years I was making beads was specifically for my beadwork projects. I’ve been wanting to start designing new projects again and that is a lot of what led me back to beadmaking again.  By making my own beads I can engineer them to be used for bead weaving. 

I was doodling the other day and decided to try to make one of my doodles come to life as a glass bead and later a beadwork project. These beads are the first step towards that goal.  They were made yesterday and spurred me to make more (in colors I like a little better) today.

I need to test these with stitching to see if they work the way I want them to in a project.  Stay tuned!

What came out of the kiln after day 2

 day 2 of bead making after a 3amd a half year hiatus was better than day 1 for sure.  I took glass in some colors I enjoy working in and just let myself play with small beads. Making stringer, encased stringer and lots of small beads.  It wasn’t a huge quantity of beads for the 3 hours I was there, but I’m making progress. I even attempted a mermaid at the end just to see if I could do it.... not quite but way better than where I was day 1.

music: a mix of older country music, including the Wreckers and the Chicks, both because I can sing along

no coffee but I consumed several charms blow pops... left over from Halloween candy that I bought myself

She’s Alive!

 She's alive!

It's been a hot minute since i posted anything here.  Mostly because I was not doing any glass work, so I really didn't have anything to talk about.  Because this blog was originally to follow my work in the studio, I thought it might be a good idea to re-visit it as I put my toe back into the "pond" again.

I've been on the torch twice in the last week and the results were less than stellar.  I had problems just getting a dot on a simple bead to begin with.  I will try to post a pic of said bead later, so that I can document progress.

It's my goal to make it to the studio once a week... maybe twice if my schedule allows on weeks that I don't have a wedding to coordinate.  Luckily the rest of 2020 is quiet.... 2021 is another thing entirely, but we'll start from where I am now.

Music - once I put some music on, I actually was able to relax a little and had less tremors and a little more success.  The Chicks (formerly Dixie) were my accompaniment because it was one of my go-to's in the past.

The bead that discouraged me so... which looking at it now really isn’t TERRIBLE but at the time made me feel like my world was ending because I couldn’t get dots where I wanted them to be.