Wednesday - Half Way Through The Week!!!! WOO HOO!!!

I don't know WHY this week is getting to me... it shouldn't be. I'm in a really good mood, but BOY am I living for Friday!!!!! I just keep waking up in the morning SURE that it's the weekend. That's the problem!!!

I'm very excited about what I'm going to talk about today. More musings on the creative process. I had 14 people sign up yesterday for my online workshop which is great, but too many people for one class in this format, so I'm going to have to split things.

I didn't expect a lot of people I didn't know to request membership in the group, so it grew faster than I was ready for AND I can anticipate it continuing like this once word gets out. Because it's SUCH a great thing... seeing people develop creatively. (I know that might sound stuck up since it's my workshop, but it's not ME that makes it exciting... it's seeing people find inspiration and develop creatively and have "aha" moments. THAT is what's so much fun!!!

I want to share my own creative development here today and if it gets too long, I'll continue it tomorrow (or another day... we know how that goes!)

When I taught the "creativity class" (as it was first known) the first time, I participated along with the students and one of the beads I made in the class spurred my work in a WHOLE new direction and is really responsible for the whole tone of my work now. This will be funny, but it's all from THIS bead.....

Hard to believe, huh??? That this WEIRD bead could be where my WHOLE body of work today comes from!!!

That THIS bead
<----- led to THIS bead --->

And a whole lot of other things along the way.....

So... How did that happen??

You KNOW I'm gonna tell you!!! (and it won't be short, so non-beady people might want to "fast forward")

Here's the story. In the class, I gave the assignment to make a bead based on a black and white photograph by Karl Blossfeldt. I picked one at random, so my personal preference did not come into play.

<---- this is the picture I also had the parameters that it had to be done in 4 colors... and only those 4. AND if those 4 colors weren't available in the glass I had, I had to do my best to replicate the colors using other materials (such at enamels).

These were the colors (i forgot to add the green square...oops) ----->

So, that's what I had to go with and the funny bead at the very beginning of this post is what resulted from the assignment.

The class met together and gave each other ideas for future beads, based on the bead that they were looking at (they didn't see the photo or the colors). One of the class participants said "it looks like one of those crazy cool cakes where all the layers are different colors" (think "Ace of Cakes" because even though this was way before that show... that was what she was talking about)

I went home from the class and had this bead sitting around and thought... I'll try to make one of those cakes as a bead!!! (it's funny... I just realized that this beadmaker made cake beads herself!! Never thought of that till this moment. Melissa... do you remember this at all??)

ANYWAYS... the bead inspired me to make a crazy cake bead, so I did. I made a funny birthday cake bead. UNFORTUNATELY that bead was in my old house and didn't survive the fire, so I don't have a picture of it to show you. Let me tell you, however, that it was HORRIBLE!!!!!! It wasn't cute AT ALL. BUT it sat around on my table for a while and made me think of something else...

Girls with birthday cake hats on!! I have no idea WHY I thought of that, but i did. SO, I made a bead like that. And it too was HORRIBLE and didn't survive the fire. (be glad... it was truly tragic... very scary to look at!!) BUT it sat around on my work table with all the other bead castoffs that I just couldn't bear to toss.


And one day, after taking a Sharon Peters class where I learned to make multi-bead sculptures... I came up with this ------->

The birthday cake hat made me think of crazy tall hair... very B-52s or Marge Simpson. The candles caused me to make the raised dots on her hair. She was wacky and honestly... her face is pretty scary. BUT I learned something and THIS set of beads was a springboard taking me to the next thing...



My Head Over Heels Project which was a beaded version of the multi-part bead made with seed-beads. Because it was made of seed beads, she was a lot more flexible and could bend over backwards to be a bracelet!!! And my beadmaking life changed right then and there. I won't give you the long story about that. I think I've told it here in my blog at least once.

And Head Over Heels was a springboard to 2 other big projects... The Clothesline and Splish Splash (but we're not even talking about those here... so WOW that cake bead did a LOT!!!)

Head Over Heels led me to doing other things... more "big haired girls" and I started making these fun drawings which were sort of interpretations of my head over heels girls. The pink picture here is an example of this.

And THAT led to something else...

The Halo neckpiece.
<----- In the drawings, the faces were more subdued, so I made beads that were faces more along those lines... angelic. Inspired by those drawings AND by renaissance paintings where the angels have halos that almost look like big hats (or gilded "big hair"), I created these new face beads. I turned them into a necklace.


THEN that piece took me back in a different direction.... making little beady versions of my older fairies, but with big hair. I call them Fairy Godmothers.



THEN I looked at that pink drawing and the halo faces and thought that I could make a vessel where the hair was the vase.... or maybe it wasn't even hair anymore... it was just a face peeking out of the patterns... sort of Gustav Klimt-y....
And the vessel up at the top was born. Taking us to where I am today as a beadmaker!!!

SEE??? One thing led to another. ALL because of that ONE crazy "cake" bead that was an assignment from this class COMBINED with an idea from another beadmaker. THIS is what is possible!!!!!!!!!! And even though it's sort of "tooting my own horn." Not a ONE of those pieces looked like ANYTHING else that was out there in bead-land at the time.

THIS is why I'm teaching this class!!!!!!!!!! and that is the end of my long long story. It made me happy to see how far I've come. :)

Thank you again Melissa. I don't know that I ever realized until this week what a PROFOUND influence on my beadmaking your ONE little "crazy cakes" comment made.

tiny blah blah blah...

coffee - Starbucks Mocha - I needed some chocolate today. Some days are just that way.

music - OMG. I was just in a store and they were playing a DANCE version of Total Eclipse of the Heart. That song was BAD the first time around. WHY would they re-make it with a dance track???!!!!!!!! And I have NO music with me here at the office today to get rid of that horrible memory!!!! "turn around bright eyes....." AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

The Bead and Button Blues

Here we are almost half way through the month of May and I'm bluesin' (I guess that's not a word... spellcheck didn't like it, but I'm going to officially make it a word from now on).

For years, this was one of the weeks that I was cramming for Bead and Button. It was a total adrenaline pumping, full-out beadmaking work-out that lasted a couple of months, but the last 2 weeks of May were the craziest.

And here I sit with my biggest challenge this week being how do I get one kid to football practice while the other needs to go to an orchestra concert. Quite a change. (I would have had those challenges PLUS how to make inventory and get ready for the show, so I guess I should be thankful for the reprise.)

But I miss Bead and Button. I miss that connection with people who were buying my work. Meeting them face to face and getting that Sally Field moment..... "You like me! You really like me!" that came when I had something that sold really well, or that people brought back things they'd made with my beads the past year.

I miss that. A LOT.

I got an e-mail from a friend this week (hey friend!) that is also a former Bead and Button vendor. She was asking me if I'd like to go next year as an attendee... that she missed just being at the show.

I really WANT to go. In fact, I was trying to figure out how I could do it this year, BUT the more I think about it, the more I know I'll be sad when I'm there as a shopper. I'll miss being the one on the other side of the table.... talking to my old-friends... my customers that came back year after year.

I miss that. A LOT.

It's time to find my way back there again. I have NO idea how I'm going to balance things, but if I miss something THIS much, it's something I need to find a way to do. Whether I can make it onto the wait-list is a whole 'nother thing. But I need to work this year and try to find a way to be back on the other side of the table again.

ok... enough bluesin' for today. I have a TON of other more fun stuff to talk about, but this is not the venue for that. Maybe some day there will be a blog for that too. But I doubt it!!!


Coffee - 2 Venti Cinnamon Dolce Lattes (bad bad girl!)
Music - none. maybe that's my problem!
Fashion report - I have nothing to report on this one either!!! I haven't seen anyone today other than my kids... and I actually could "out" one of them as a Glamor Don't, but I won't.

My last posting sounded pretty ecstatic. It was. The good and bad of that are good...lots of sales, bad lots of tired. So lots of ups and downs since that post. Mostly up, but I'm tired!

I was listening to James Taylor today, though and heard the song "That's why I'm here" and it struck home...mermaids mermaids mermaids. That's why I'm here I think...to make people smile and such with what I do. A nice aha moment for the day.

No big crowds or big bucks like JT, but just an overall happiness with the approval I got from this project.

:)ing

coffee - cinnamon dolce latte which is totally delicious
music - James Taylor

WHOOOPEEEE!

They like me they really like me!!!

(splish splash mermaid is a big success and I'm a happy camper!)

Much more exciting than the Gap selling talls, though that is pretty darn exciting!

off to work,

coffee - no, stomach is sick, so having a coke (and a smile)
music - my playlist on ipod called "if I were a radio station" has TONS of songs with no rhyme or reason that I like. You might hear aerosmith and then carly simon and then beck...you just never know what's going to pop up. very fun

I'm a rollercoaster of beady emotion.

I have been so psyched to be back in the beadmaking/bead selling groove again...

HOWEVER...I do not wish to give my beads away!!!!! I feel like I am just about doing that on e-bay right now. What is it that makes someone hot or not is not really what I'm talking about...it's just...why aren't my beads selling at all???? I don't ask to be the darling of e-bay, just to get a price closer to retail...I'm not even NEAR a wholesale price right now. I've only had a couple of auctions not sell EVER, but I've had at least 3 in the last week not sell. waaaaaah!

I probably shouldn't whine publicly, but that's what I'm doing here. waaaaah!

So...do I quit doing e-bay? I just don't know. I just want to pout.

coffee today - oui! Venti Mocha
music today - my "groove tunes" playlist on my ipod. From Tenderness (old school) to Mary J Blige it's my dance in your seat while beadmaking music

Happy Dance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I'm in a magazine, I'm in a magazine!!!!!! (sung in my best Sandra Bullock voice from Miss Congeniality when she "sings" "you know you like me, you want to kiss me...")

I was taking Brad Pearson's class today and Gerry, the owner of the beadstore where the class was asks me "will you sign my magazine?" YOWZA! It was my article!!! I knew that I'd been interviewed and sent pictures, but didn't know when the magazine would publish the "artist spotlight" about me. They did!! It's here!!!

Bead Unique...page 22!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bead Unique Magazine Current Issue
(this link is to the "current issue page" which as of today is not the current issue...hopefully it will change soon!"

happy dance!

And here are some beads from this week. Not my best photos, but they were fun beads!





coffee today - mais oui....iced venti hazlenut light ice latte (that's a mouthful!)

music - thanks to Brad Pearson, lots of fun reggae. I'm going to go find the album he played which was Bob Dylan songs done reggae!

p.s. funny link du jour...a blog (which wasn't what drew me in, rather this page with fortune cookie style quotations. I loved these!)
Fortune Cookie Quotes from Fussy

OK...

If I were not feeling so darn creative tonight I might be having a nervous breakdown due to the fact that most of my auctions right now have absolutely NO bids. I am deleting any whiny-ness just because I'm not whining...just puzzled and a bit miffed.

I have good stuff up there!!! I have low starting bids!!! Even the ones I raised to $19.99 are good prices...they're $70ish bundles!!! So, why they are receiving no bids is one big mystery to me. I really feel they are some of the best things I've had up in a while (not that I don't like my other stuff, but I was really happy with these) I was really happy (am really happy) with the photography too! Whazzup? I just don't know.

That said, I'm feeling really creative right now, so I'm pretty stable emotionally about this. Still, it would feel much better knowing I actually had some income next week! LOL

I have been beading new things today, so am happy about that. I'm ready to create..not just produce.

Off to create more.

ok...

I'm just about dying now.

I have auctions with NO bids. I have a bundle of beads closing in 4 hours with a high bid of $14. This is a $70 bundle of beads and I'm really really close to thinking twice about e-bay.

I know I know I know I need to sell beads to pay bills, but the idea of selling cheap just hurts my pride. :(

I did get a new bra this weekend though and it made me happy. silly thing, yet happy about it. Was terribly controlled on a shopping trip and limited myself to a very inexpensive PTA outfit (long story) and did not buy shoes (though I was quite tempted to go to the Nordstrom big sale).

Have my new photo setup and am working today to learn how to use it. Learning curves stink, but I'm needing a day to figure it all out.

ok...

off to work again. enough whining.

free beads. get your free beads.

That's what I feel like I'm saying right now with my beads on e-bay. I am practically giving away those beads. I have to sell right now, though, since Rob doesn't have a job and I can't say "no, I'm just not going to sell my beads if I don't get what they're worth", but it hurts to see $70 worth of beads go for barely $20. I just don't have the luxury of saying "I just won't sell right now".

I can go back to the worrying about how my beads stand up to others and why are others selling and mine not...or I can just be glad that I'm making what I'm making without having to be a secretary. That's pretty much where my head is at right now.

Making beads for e-bay is my "job" and I have to do it just like I would have to go to another job that wouldn't be nearly as pleasurable.

I am currently watching a bizarre movie while I type and I think I'm going to have to go watch it with my full attention to see how BAD it really is! LOL

Am not depressed, just filled with philosophical art vs. money questions that have plagued me for the past 8 years!!! (or more!)

spent the holiday weekend sick...allergies hit and turned into icky sinus stuff. Makes it hard to make beads when you can't breathe!

I did go back into the studio yesterday to get more beads made for bundles. I'm desperate to have enough to sell on e-bay again. I need to have enough stock to do that though. I seem to have a ton of beads...none of them work together. :(

Hopefully, after at least another 2 days or so, I'll have enough colors to make SOMETHING to sell. Need to sell. Time to make some money.

Hating the relation of money to beads right now. I am just telling myself that my "job" right now is a beadmaker and making little beads is just a job...not an art form for me. There are those whose small beads are art. I just don't view mine that way. My heart and soul are not in those beads.

I'm wanting to have the freedom to make whatever I want without having the monetary factor in there. I really really would like to spend more time doing one of a kind mixed media sculptures, but for now, that's just not happening.

ok...off to do other work stuff (not even bead work stuff)

It's me.

It's actually a posting. We'll see if it happens more than once. I'm home for a little while. I taught for NanC Meinhardt in her new studio this last weekend. I had a wonderful time and I hope the class did too. They were lots of fun and great beaders. Hi to anyone who was there!!! <--Sylvie (this Sylvie) waving to you.


For being in a good mood about that class, I'm also bummin' a little bit. My classes just don't seem to be filling like they did before. I didn't have the response to the new project...The Clothesline that I had hoped.

Am I a one hit wonder?

Do I have to go back to doing shows and put teaching on the back burner?

Is there any hope for my hair?

Can I give up sweets?

Will I ever go below ____ lbs? (I'm at a plateau due to my love of sweets)

Can I still afford new windows for my house?

For the answers to these and other questions...

Tune in next year for "Sylvie's Blues Review"

-------

this is one of those postings that is written without really thinking about what I'm saying. I reserve the right to deny anything said here when I re-read it later.

All of a sudden I have that stupid Right Said Fred song in my head...

I'm too sexy for my hat...



Only I'm changing it to...I'm too boring to make beads...too boring to make beads...help me!



I am still trying to get used to making beads again and it's not encouraging. I WANT MY EBAY BEADS TO SELL!!!!!!



I hate that I use $ as an indicator of the value of my work, but I do and I put e-bay as a "every bead person" thermometer of how on my work is. Apparently, it's boring! I'm not getting bids!!!!! I know I've been gone awhile and that there are tons of auctions out there (4,000 something I saw today), but dammit (you have to say that version of the word in a very specific, a bit snotty way) I have some good beads up there! I rock at colors and these beads are rockin'! Hey!! Why am I selling them anyways???? If no one appreciates the wonder of these particular beads....I should keep them!



I'm saying a lot of things in a very sarcastic tone here...I don't think I'm all that and a bag o' chips, but I do like the colors I blend together. I think my work is different because I don't sti down to "make sets". I make beads and then blend them into color stories...all different and I think all really nice. I just wish that the e-bay buying public could see the same differences that make my work a little different.



I'm thinking of doing boro for a few days. I'm just not having fun and need a play day.



On other completely different notes...

I am now a swimmer! I have known how to swim since I was a kid, but not to SWIM with good techniques and controlled breathing, good strokes, etc. So...at the urging of my kids' swim teacher...I have been taking private swimming lessons so that I would have the stamina, control and "not looking stupid in the pool"-ness to swim laps at the pool instead of treadmill icky-ness.



Well....I began in November and was a dismal failure at breathing. I just didn't get it...wanted to hold my breath until I was out and then come up for air....couldn't for the life of me get the blow out air while under so that you can come up quickly for bigger breath. I'm sure this makes no sense to anyone but me, but remember...this is my journal and I'm keeping my baby (I have no idea where that little Madonna-ism came from in this sentence).



So, back to swimming...It took until the end of December for me to get the breathing thing down and swim the length of the pool (25 yards) without dying!



So, the big news......



Yesterday I swam 1000 (yes, that's right ONE THOUSAND) yards in about 45 minutes with my instructor urging me on, making me keep going even when I thought I was going to die.



So even better news....I went to the pool solo today...no cheerleading/slave driver and .....



I SWAM 700 yards in 30 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am no longer weirded out, feeling like too much of a novice to swim in the "big pool". very proud of myself that I was self motivated enough to do it on my own.



off to do other stuff.

this is my journal and this is just me talking to me....

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this has been a public service announcement from me to me.

I am frustrated with my sales on e-bay. I have a big ego which is easily squashed on a place like e-bay. I know I'm being stupid, but I just feel bummed when my auctions get no bids. This is one reason that I have problems with e-bay. It's so hard not to take things personally. It's not like I consider the beads I'm selling ART (oooh it's the A word!). It's just the want to be the best part of my personality that makes it difficult sometimes to sell my work.

I am sick today and thus am looking at the computer too much. I need to not be so consumed with this and just go.

so I'm going.

I'm back
I'm back
I'm back.

I have to say that it is a rush to be selling beads again. It's that whole Sally Field "they like me" thing again. You do your work on your own and have no idea what people think unless you're in a class situation or if you sell your work publicly.

I am really wanting to make beads again (it's still been a while), but I absolutely need to get my studio up and ready after it's been moved to a different location in the basement.

So....until then, I'm living off of previously made bead stock.

My letter to Santa...

Dear Santa,

Because I wouldn't expect any human to pay attention to my greedy list and as my children recently told me "Santa can bring you anything you ask for...he has lots of money"...

I would like to ask you to consider bringing me the following...

A weekend at a Ritz Carlton, preferably in a beautiful city...all expenses paid including room service, transportation and a massage....so that I can bead in peace for a few days.

A new really nice firm feather/down pillow (I own a ton of pillows, but I love them and always want more)...you could include this with the Ritz Carlton visit by letting me keep one of theirs.

A big kahuna Starbucks gift card.

A ventilation system installed in my studio (I'll pay for it, but I need a genie to come and poof it into place...elves would also work I guess...but they're a bit short to do the ceiling stuff)

Diamonds - or cubic zirconia that looks real :) - a bracelet set in platinum/white gold if necessary Santa Baby.

A monkey...because according to a song (I think it's Bare Naked Ladies) "everyone wants a monkey"

Someone to remove the wallpaper in my kitchen so that I can make it green instead of terra cotta which looks like my parents and not me.

I am sure you'll think of some other fun little things to fit in a Christmas Stocking such as baubles, bath products, cute girlie stuff, etc.

I think you can handle all of these Santa...if the Genie can't show up, maybe you can come on one of your days off after Christmas to install the ventillation system.

I've been mostly good this year, but if you have room in your sleigh, please bring me a new attitude too...sometimes I need it.

Merry Christmas Santa!
Love,

Sylvie

Since I've had two comments, I must add that while in Lowell- home of no starbucks and no restaurants open after 5 p.m. - My beads were on the front page of the "Lowell Sun" They had an article about the bead bazaar (that word never looks right, so I'm sure it's spelled wrong) and they took pictures of my beads...et voila! They were in the paper and on the front page no less.

Probably the coolest thing from my trip...I didn't know it until someone showed it to me, which was like a cool surprise present!

Ok...enough of notariety...off to do laundry...and bead