I'm back! Sorry for the away-time.

Here's what you missed...

Went to Baltimore for Best Bead Show
Came home and worked on class samples for upcoming applications (still working)
Booked new classes

and...

drumroll...

Started planning not ONE but TWO bead retreats. Watch for more details soon, but these will be FABULOUSLY FUN! Two Babes and a Bead Party - New Years Eve (Georgia) and a fall event planned in Texas featuring classes with the oh-so-fun Jill Wiseman of Tapestry Beads and myself.

Stay tuned for details!


tiny blah blah blah...


need some coffee
stat

Recuperation and relaxation. After 3 months of total focus on The Bead and Button show, I'm taking a deep breath and "relaxing" (which really means shuttling my kids, but not working in the studio)

I have mixed feelings post-show. The show is always a good gauge of what's working for me and what's not, but I left that show TOTALLY confused about my product line. I worked for 3 months straight on the Flora Flora kits...totally focused on them because they were the new big project. Did they sell?? Not really. That was a BIG bummer for me. It's not that the time was wasted...I have 3 classes coming up and I'm now in good shape for the classes...I'm just confused why they didn't sell at the show and the other things did.

I changed my booth and made it less cluttered...had lampwork as a sideline not the main thing...what did I sell a lot of?? Lampwork!

I focused on my big wowza project...My most popular kit? The BEGINNER ring... The Say So ring which is a simple beaded strip with one of my lamp worked flowers. Before you make the assumption that it was because there were a lot of beginners at the show...not so. I only sold it to 2 people who would be classified as beginners. The others were all sold to advanced beaders!! I totally couldn't figure it out.

My Sweetheart bracelet is another SUPER easy project, but looks fancier...did it sell? Sort of, but not as well as I thought once I saw the beginner project selling. So I'm left confused... Marie, who worked the booth with me said that people seemed to look at the bigger projects as too difficult...is that the problem?

Do I make more beginner things that LOOK beginner? Do I change my display back to the cluttered way that it was? Do I give up and get a job at Starbucks? I'm going to give it a week or so and reevaluate before I head to Baltimore for the next show.

It's a hard knock life for us artists!


Tiny blah blah blah..

Coffee? as we "speak" I'm sitting outside Starbucks typing on the iPad enjoying an iced CDL

Music...not right now. I'm eavesdropping on weird conversations that my fellow patrons are having! Lol

Home from Bead and Button 2011. Exhausted from the cross-country drive, but energized creatively. Taking a couple of days to just rest and re-group then it's back to the studio prepping for my next show (Best Bead Baltimore) next classes (Best Bead and Great Lakes Beadweavers Guild) as well as creating a couple of new projects to "shop" around for other teaching venues.

This is short, but I wanted to just say "honey, I'm home" and share the picture that Jane Mahneke (who is fabulously wonderful) took at my booth. Isn't my new banner pretty??!!! Love how it turned out!

tiny blah blah blah...

nothing. no coffee, no music. quiet quiet day.

Bead and Button.... 1 studio day left....2 days to finish kits and pack...1 1/2 days of driving...1 day of setup... then SHOWTIME 06/09/11!

I have worked soooooooo hard getting ready for this show. Preparing for Tucson was the first step of this... I made inventory for that show that I intended to be the back-bone of the lampwork collection for B&B. The show went not so well, so that inventory didn't need a lot of replenishing.

I focused on beads for kits kits kits. B&B is a beadworkers show. There are definitely metal-workers and beadmakers and designers, but there are HUGE numbers of bead-weavers and THAT is my customer. I fill a niche in that world that isn't really available from other designers... WHIMSY. My work is bright and fun and makes you smile.

I don't try to compete with the beautiful elegance that is available from other designers... I'm just fine being me. PLUS my work is totally different because it FEATURES lampwork. If there is glass in a kit from other designers, it's usually just an accent...because lampwork is soooo pricey. Since I'm the one making the beads for my kits, I have an "in" with the beadmaker and get a good price and that lets my work be all about the glass, with the beadwork framing it. It also makes my kit prices crazy to figure out.

I remember the first year that I took kits to Bead and Button... I had someone (maybe more than one) walk up to me during setup and basically laugh in my face at the fact that I was selling my kits for $145. (I've probably told this story before... sorry if I repeat myself). I tried to explain to them that there was $95 worth of glass beads in the kit which would make the remainder of the kit AND the instructions $50!! And other bead kits at the time were selling for $80-100 for kits of a similar scale. BESIDES that... there was NOTHING else like what I was doing anywhere in beadworld...and that deserves some sort of markup, doesn't it???

Well, I pretty much sold out that first night, so I guess I wasn't that far off in my pricing.

THIS year, I'm selling kits that have glass contents that are well over $100 in each kit. Pricing them was really hard for that reason. I know that my "competition" (and I say that just because they are other people selling beadwork kits, not because I feel I'm in competition with any of them... we all have our own place in bead world) is selling their kits for MUCH MUCH less than some of these kits will be. It might be tough to explain again... but I can say, with all confidence that the time put into these beads makes these kits worth the $$ that I'm charging for them.

I have worked on the glass ALONE since March 23rd. How do I know the date? Because I posted the first Blackboard of Bossiness for Bead and Button on that date and it looked like this...

At that time, I knew that the list was sooo long that it would look daunting putting the whole thing on at once. I focused on one color palette at a time, knocking them out and moving onto the next one.

Well... today, the blackboard looks like this...71 days of beadmaking and I have one to go. (my original countdown date assumed I'd be done a few days ago... NOT! I even had to cross one color palette off the list. I didn't account for the kids-being-home for summer factor and how that changes the whole working at home thing)

So.... I have a lot to do in the next few days as far as finishing up kits, but I have ROCKED getting ready for this show. My challenges are different than other designers and I'll still struggle with how to balance being the production department as well as the new-project designer... but I'll figure it out.

I hope that I have time tomorrow to blog some big thank yous that need to go out to everyone who is helping me behind the scenes. If I don't...then I'll thank you afterward, but you all are wonderful. I have been standing on the precipice of being a self-supporting full-time artist and I've been a bit scared, but I know that all of you have my back AND I've got some pretty heavy-duty help coming from above. I did it for years, supporting a family as a full-time artist, but it was different then. I saw myself in control...and I wasn't. I know better this time and it makes me have a lot more peace going into this show. God has control over this big gig next week and I go into it confidently knowing that I've done my part in preparing diligently... now I just have to sparkle at the show and be grateful for whatever comes of it.

Off to setup for my demo at Flametree tonight! Hope to see you ATL people there!


tiny blah blah blah...

homemade coffee and same old playlists on the ipod.

Some days I blog and feel like I'm just talking to myself here. I KNOW there are people who read this (google analytics does a good job of telling me who you are! scary huh?) and a lot of you have told me you read.... but my comments are always quiet (except for Mallory... hi Mallory!!! Love you!!)

ANYHOO.... I was looking at my analytics this morning seeing that the regular people had checked in to see what I'm doing, that the regular bizarro search terms are still bringing people here.... and I'm thinking I might re-purpose the blog a bit after Bead and Button. Not sure of any details on it yet, but I think that the blog used to be a way for me to do my social networking... pre-social-networking days. Now Facebook has really taken the place of that. Those who know me post on my regular page... people who would be blog readers can read without friending me on my business page, just like they can read the blog.

I know that at least one of my blog readers isn't on Facebook and that would leave her out.... AND there are still great uses for a blog in addition to social networking. I'm just going to have to mull it over a bit and see what happens.

In the meantime you can just continue reading and not commenting. I'll still love you.


ok... back to work! One week of studio work left till Bead and Button!


tiny blah blah blah...

no, but need some of both!

Are you tired of hearing about all my prep for Bead and Button yet? Probably!!! Doesn't matter...still is the main-topic of studio life for another week and a half.

In the meantime... Read Carrie's blog about my photo shoot. Sweeterthan.net

I needed photos for some publicity thing and hated all the ones I had OR loved the pictures, but I wasn't wearing jewelry. Carrie came to the rescue! My very favorite picture is the one she has as the header...where I'm looking out over my glasses. Too funny!

Back to work!

Coffee and iced tea for me today!
Harry Potter Audiobook to keep me company for the next 20something hours!

June 2, 2011
6-9 p.m.
Flametree Glass
Demo Daze at Night

BE THERE!!!!

Sylvie Lansdowne (me!) and Marcy Lamberson are the featured artists.

The evening is free... the demonstrations will be FAB! It's an honor to be chosen from all the great Atlanta artists to be a demonstrator for the event. I hope to see ALL my Atlanta readers there!!!!


p.s. isn't that torch picture groovy?!! My friend Carrie Shetler Clark of Sweeterthan photography did some pictures for me. She is GREAT at capturing on film...people being themselves. LOVE the pictures that she took of me! (see more on my FB page)

Crossing things off the list, kickin' butt and takin' names!!!

I felt really organized in the way that I got ready for Bead and Button last year. Then I upped that a notch preparing for Tucson this year. Take that and multiply it times a gazillion and that has been my preparation for this year's Bead and Button. I have been a task-master, demanding a lot of myself, keeping as focused as I could.

I still have 2 weeks to go and a lot is still left on the list, BUT I think I'm going to be close to having everything I'd wanted at the show!!! My tiny booth is going to be packed to the wazooo, which will be a bit of a challenge, but bring it on!!!! Much better to have a challenge of how to display lots of beads than how to spread a few beads into a full-looking booth.

I know it's going to be a great show and I'll come home and take a week off before starting to prepare for the next 3 gigs... Best Bead Baltimore, Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild classes and then the ISGB Gathering. It's going to be a busy summer, but hopefully all this work during the spring will give me a bit of a head-start. Then again... I might sell out at Bead and Button and have to start all over! ;)

tiny blah blah blah...

music - Motown mix
coffee - yes and it was FREE!!! I'm now moving on to Snapple diet peach tea. YUM!

Short blog posting... just a quick check-in to celebrate!

Whoopee!!!! I crossed another kit off the list today. I've now finished ALL of the beads for the Say-So Ring. It's not a big kit, but it's STILL a "cross-off-the-list" and I'm embracing each one of those now!!

I'm 30 beads away from crossing a Flora Flora kit color off the list and that's one that has a LOT of beads per color, so I'll be really whooping it up when that happens because at that point I'll be down to TWO colors... one of which I'm still deciding whether or not to take...we'll see.


tiny blah blah blah...

coffee - yes. and tea too!
music - song of the day Prince's "Lets Get Crazy"

My blackboard of bossiness says that there are 17 days till Bead and Button (well, till my beadmaking cut-off date) I'm posting another picture so that you can see all the hatch marks on the left-hand column. They represent kits completed and those hatch marks make me feel successful!! (disclaimer... this just represents the BEADS made... not that the kits are completed. That's a ways away, but the lampworked beads had to be made first)


Here's the list.....

Flora Flora Bloom Boom

• Sassy Chick
• Cool Chick
• Hot Chick
• Rocker Chick
• Hip Chick
• (still to be completed... City Chick, Spring Chick and ____ Chick which is still being named)
  

Sweetheart Bracelet
(colors still to be named)

• Berry Colors
• Green & Purple
• Cool Tones
• Happy Bright colors
• (still to be completed... all purple, turquoise/brown, black/white, pink)
  

Springalicious Pin/Pendant
(the kit names will be a surprise to some people)

• Yvonne-a-rama (bright spring colors...shown)
• Jilly-rific (sparkly rich browns, purples, burgundies)
• Bella Bella Beki (turquoise, purple and lime)
• Marcia Marcia Marcia (black and white)
• Supercali-Sara Sally (turquoise and Chocolate brown)
• Dee-Liteful Jennie (hot pinks, corals, red, purple)
• Sweet Jane (pinks, corals, greens and lavenders)

Sunshine Ring

• Denise (soft neutrals)
  
• Cristie (rich autumn colors)
  
• LeeAnne (deep purple and green)
  
• Alex (cool brights)
  
• Margo (hot brights)
  
• Marie (soft blues/greens)
  
• Stacey (aqua, lime & pink)
  
• Jenny (sunflower)
• (still need to make a lot of faces for these)
  

Say-So Ring (a beginner project which needs to be photographed!)

• Denise
• Cristie
• Alex
• Margo
• Marie
• Stacey
• (still to be made... Sarah and LeeAnne)

Projects still on hold that MIGHT be made.... Splish Splash (just a few) and Head Over Heels special edition Fall-preview

Reading this makes me feel more successful! I've worked my TAIL off and this at least shows that there is something to show for my hard work!!


tiny blah blah blah....

iced tea instead of coffee
movies instead of music - today's were Sleepless in Seattle and How to Marry a Millionaire)

21 days to June 4th. Why does that matter??? Because that is my last work day prior to Bead and Button. (if you're reading this and have no idea what I'm talking about already, sorry... it's the biggest of the retail bead shows and it takes place the 2nd week of June and I'm working like a mad woman getting ready for it!)

So, to catch you up, if you've missed the facebook updates (click on the Facebook icon in the right-hand column to "like" me on Facebook and you'll see more images and input than the blog usually provides) my blackboard of bossiness has been awfully demanding and as a result, I've got a TON of stuff made for the show. I still have a LONG way to go, but I started adding things up today and I was astounded how much I've accomplished since the last weeks of March.

I have made over 2100 beads in preparation for the show.... as of now, the glass beads for 210 kits are completed, and others are partially completed. The left-hand column on the blackboard lists all the inventory I intend to have at the show... WOW!

The first time I did the Bead and Button show in Milwaukee, it was my first show with Head Over Heels. I took 70ish kits (and came home with ZERO! would love a year like that again!) Just to see how things have changed, this year I am planning to take over 450 kits.... 7 different projects (I had hoped to have 9, but 7 looks like what will actually happen)

SO... now you know why I've been quiet. I've been taking orders from a bossy blackboard and it did not say "blog" :)


tiny blah blah blah...

music - just about every playlist I have that's not Christmas
coffee - just one, but I really could have used another cup!

Look what I did today...WOO HOO!


It doesn't look too exciting, but trust me it is! It's a kiln full of 260something beads!!

With today's haul of beads (shown above) I've ALMOST crossed the "cool colors" list off the Blackboard of Bossiness!!! You might not be as excited as I am about this statement, but for me, it's a big deal. I'm TIRED of green, turquoise and purple. REALLY over it!!

I've tried to be very methodical about prepping for shows the last year... working in one color palette until all the beads are made before moving onto the next palette. This keeps my glass a little more under control and seems to help me stay on track a little better. This cool palette, however, just about killed me!! Mostly because SO many of my kits use beads in those colors.... I still have about 30 or so beads left to make, but I should be able to knock them out tomorrow morning and I will have made all the beads for the following kits....

Flora Flora - Cool Chick, Hot Chick, Sassy Chick (still have 4 chicks to go... not looking likely that we will be seeing City Chick (black and white) or Chick-to-be-named-later (grape-y) at Bead and Button.
Sweetheart - Cool, Bright, Hot, Green/Purple (these don't have cute color names yet)
Springalicious - Cool, Hot, Bright,
Say So Ring - Alex, Stacey, Margo
Stack Ring - Alex, Stacey, Margo
Berry Bloom Earrings - Cool

That list makes it look like I've barely started... but I've been doubling up on beads for some things, so I've got a bunch ready to go when I get to the grape-y kits. That said, there is still a LOT to do. I'm hoping to move on to rich browns/coppers tomorrow afternoon. HOPING.

ok... this probably was boring to anyone other than me. Sorry. I'm just thinking through my "to-do" list.

and now... I'm going to reward myself with an evening out! YAY!!


tiny blah blah blah...

heavily fueled by Starbucks and Dr. Pepper
music - 7 hours of great playlists... my long mellow list AND my long "groove-tunes" list

So here it is.... the piece that made me cry... more than once. The piece I was working on for Convergence III... the piece that was not to be.... Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes.

It's not HORRIBLE. It's just not what I wanted it to be... in lots of ways. Now that I've been away from it for a little while (I hid it in a box so that I wouldn't throw it away. I reeeeeeeeally wanted to throw it away) I'm able to look at it and see some possibilities.

What's shown above is an edited version... I shortened it to bracelet length. It had been a necklace. I almost like it as a bracelet, but I don't think I'll ever REALLY like it. That said... I have been letting the thing sort of steep in my brain, like tea and I've come up with a couple of cool ideas that actually stem from this piece.

Just like you saw in the entry earlier in the week... for me, art happens in phases. One thing leads to another, leads to another. I think the little links I made for this piece will show up again in a project which I've given a working title "Cirque du Sprout" I'm not sure how it's all going to come together, but I created a component in this project-gone-bad, which I think I actually like and will use again.

Will I use these colors again??? NO WAY!!!!! In real life, when the whole thing is put together (not just a bracelet length), there are more clouds and more hearts which make it very red-white-and-blue, and to me, it looks very "cute-sy/craty" like a 4th of July parade threw up and made a piece of jewelry. And that's how I REALLY feel about it!

But I look forward to what I'm going to be able to take from the experience, now that I'm able to look at it again without hurling or weeping.


tiny blah blah blah... but not so "blah blah blah-y" today

I had a coffee today with sugar free sweetener. ICK.

music - my praise music mix. Even though I was working today, I was really focusing on Good Friday, now that I understand it more completely... the day that is a reminder of how much God loves me... loves all of us. It's unfathomable, his amazing love but I'm completely grateful for His love and grace.

I need elves. Like little tiny ones who come in and fix your shoes while you sleep.... but these make hundreds of little flowers and spacer beads to my exact specifications for my kits.... or I need to be Marcia DeCoster.... one or the other.

I'm going CRAZY getting these beads made for Bead and Button.... and right behind it are Best Bead Baltimore and classes in Michigan.... so I don't see an end in sight.

I know the elves aren't going to happen....and because of that SOMEONE has to make these beads that go into my kits... because the kits are designed around them and I'm the only one who can make MY beads, so I'm stuck being the designer AND the bead factory.

WHY do I design things with my beads in them??!!!!! Why can't I be Marcia??!!!!! She blogged today about being in production mode for Bead and Button too.... but SHE put together all the beads for 4 kits today... FOUR!!!!!! I haven't even MADE all the beads for my projects yet... let alone started kitting them with seed beads and I've been in full-production mode since the end of March. It's not fair. It's really not. (and I love Marcia... I really do... I'm just pouting about my own circumstances and the pout-fest was brought on by her beautiful blog post....and don't even get me started on how pretty SHE, herself/her house/studio always look in photos. I can't even begin to think about that kind of stuff right now!!!)

I think what really gets me is that I want to bead.... not MAKE beads, but bead... design, be creative, have FUN. I have SO many great ideas swimming around in my head, but every day I go to the torch and make beads for the kits instead of being able to work on these new ideas.... and the bigger frustration? The more successful I am with these kits, the less time I will have to work on the new stuff.

I see other beaders/instructors posting about their new designs, sitting and working on things, plotting their next move, their books, etc. I can't even think past the projects I'm currently teaching because I'm also the bead-supplier!!!!!! I have to make all these freakin' specialty beads!!!

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! (please imagine me in full tantrum mode, throwing myself on the ground)


ok... time to pick myself off the ground and get back to work. There are beads to be made.


Tiny blah blah blah...

coffee today - obviously too much (but I only had one cup)
music today - obviously not mellow (Groove Tunes dance mix)

What I did on my morning off.....

I got a haircut and went to the glass store (Flametree Glass in Roswell)


While I was there, I said "Maureen, will you take a picture of my new haircut so that I can post it on facebook??!!!"

and she did....

One of the only pictures I like of myself... probably because it's in one of my favorite places, taken by one of my favorite people. I'm sooooooooo lucky to have such a great glass store so close to my house. Look in the background of the picture at all that glass!!! And that's just one tiny bit of it, there is another even bigger wall FULL of glass, and another full of TOOLS and it's HEAVEN having them so close.

I'm going to just continue my gush and say that Maureen and Lance are two of the nicest people around and if you live in Atlanta and aren't shopping there for glass or taking classes there... you should! Support our local glass store so that we can continue to have one... we are SOOOO lucky (ask just about anyone who doesn't live in Atlanta how lucky we are to have them so close)

and if you don't live in Atlanta, but you're East of the Mississippi... you can order from them either by phone or online and get EXCELLENT service. I've seen how fast they pull orders and ship them and I know from personal experience what a WONDER Maureen is with color... if you need a certain batch of coral or pink, she'll know what you're talking about better than any other glass supplier (sorry other glass suppliers... it's true. she's a whiz at color!)

so, thank you to Lance and Maureen for being so great and moving your store so close to me. :D

And thank you Maureen for taking my new head-shot! I didn't plan it that way, but it turned out great!!!

A Long Long Posting about Provenance, Inspiration and Originality

Sometimes we need to look at where we've been to appreciate where we are. Sometimes we need to look at where we've been to learn from our own history or to document our progress, but SOMETIMES we need to look at where we've been to just say "yikes! that was one scary face!!!"

This is the story of how one scary face became the Angel that I adore.

Once upon a time, I made this...(Scary, huh?)

In the summer of 2000, I had just taken a class with Sharon Peters in which we made dogs that were made up of a separate body and head, assembled as a pendant (I made a really fun Afghan Hound). After the class, I decided to go in a non-animal direction to do my own thing and made the crazy girl above. Yikes... she was a hot mess! I have no idea what the inspiration for the big hair or fun outfit was, but I have always loved combining patterns... dots/stripes/flowers and I put them all together here. (note the bubble skirt with the ruffle below...cute, huh??)

I had so much fun making that piece, that I avoided doing the mermaids and fairies I was SUPPOSED to be making. (if you need pictures of that work, look up at the top.. the mermaid without the face is what my work looked like back then... peaceful serene fairy-tale, but no faces...and now you know why!)

After making that crazy girl piece, I worked on perfecting faces, using some other techniques so that they wouldn't be quite so scary!

I also took a seed-bead class from Jeanette Cook in which I learned brick-stitch (I think I've talked about this before). We were supposed to be beading around a plastic tube. I rebelled and chose not to use the tube. Because of that, I ended up with things that looked like lampshades... NOT what I'd intended. The lampshades sat around in the studio along with the cute faces while I avoided some work I was REALLY supposed to be doing.

Beads by Design in Marietta, GA sponsored a contest in October 2000 (which I talked about in an October 2008 entry, so I won't re-tell it here) but Head Over Heels was born from that contest. I combined the glass faces with the funny "lampshades" (as skirts) and added the same striped stockings from "crazy girl" but beaded them instead of making them out of glass.

(Head Over Heels was born...and everything changed from this point!)

I kept working on the little faces and took multi-bead pieces, similar to the "Crazy Girl" but with not-so-scary faces to Tucson in 2001. They didn't get a great reaction, but I was really happy with them. I also took Head Over Heels to show off... not sell, just show off. IT got the best reaction and my work moved so that it was more seed-bead oriented, with glass being a sideline.

Multi-bead Girls Circa 2002 (available at Beadin' Path)

I loved making the faces and found some other things to do with them besides Head Over Heels. I added them to my focal beads...mermaids and a new Fairy Godmother, inspired by the multi-bead pieces above.

Fairy Godmother and Mermaid Focals circa 2005
(approx 2" in height)

Also in 2005, I added angel wings to the tiny faces and then made small totems out of them, again making a multi-bead piece. I chose to make them as non-wearables and mounted them on copper stands. (I didn't like the copper stands, so I didn't make a lot of them)I also made a few Christmas Ornaments for family members that were the same sort of stacked beads, but jesters... no pictures were taken, but they were cute!! (all of the totems/ornaments were about 3-4" high)

I took a hiatus from 2006-2009. When I returned to doing shows, I went back to the most comfortable thing for me... Head Over Heels. I decided to do a little spin on the idea... what the Head Over Heels girls would dress up as for Halloween.
After that, I thought that more seasonal Head Over Heels would be fun, so I created a Holiday version. It answered the requests I'd had for years to make a jester. I didn't want to make a male version, but doing an elf let me make the jester hat that my customers had wanted.In making the jester hats, I was reminded of the ornaments I'd made in 2005 and I made new Christmas ornaments combining the heads with hollow beads that I was enjoying making...

I had such a good time with these! Mixing the patterns and colors on the hollow and accent beads was (and still is) one of my favorite parts about making these multi-bead component pieces.

That summer, at the Bead and Button show, I took my mermaid focal beads and put them on stands for the first time. I had made the stands using a technique that my friend, Marcy Lamberson uses. She makes little "scenes" that include several beads sitting on a patch of grass, or a log, etc. I went a different direction and made stands that had little petals, like flowers at the bottom and put my mermaids, fairies, etc. on the stands.

(Bead and Button inventory for 2010 show.
Not the best photo, but hopefully you can see the little flower stands)

In October 2010, Flametree Glass announced their Halloween contest. I knew that I wanted to do a non-jewelry piece... I just didn't know what. I didn't want to make another Head Over Heels, but I'm still who I am and scary halloween was NOT me. I wanted whimsical and fun and a tiny bit dark, but still me. I came up with the "Zombie Girl Totem"

Zombie Girl Totem - October 2010
Approximately 8" high

She was a combination of hollow beads (which I was still grooving on making... especially after a great class with Jari Sheese!) and "girl" beads that I'd made before (only a little less cute and colorful) I struggled with how to add arms, but finally decided not to even try. I remembered my jester ornament from the year before... it had no arms, but still worked and if it did, then this could too!

I was inspired by a big mix of things, but they all came together cohesively... Winona Ryder's character in Beetlejuice (the stockings, which echoed all the striped stockings I'd done in past work), Helena Bonham Carter's character in Harry Potter movies (the hair and the facial features), Bride of Frankenstein (the white squiggle in the hair), Mondo from Project Runway (the mix of khaki along with Black and White, as well as the mix of patterns on the hollow bead that becomes the skirt) and a touch of Jack the Pumpkin King because my youngest son said I had to (and I'm glad I did).

Note all the elements that came from my earlier pieces... Big hair from the original crazy girl, circa 2000. No arms, a body made from hollow beads, like the 2009 Christmas ornaments...a hollow bead for a skirt, with a ruffle bellow (this time as a separate bead) and striped stockings right below... Shoes with a little ruffle at the ankle, like Head Over Heels from 2000.... All stacked up like my totems from 2005, but on a stand like my flower stands from earlier that year (only with spider legs instead of petals).... I loved seeing how all these different elements came together to create something new and exciting and TOTALLY ME.

As soon as I finished her, I knew I had something special that I wanted to continue exploring. I was sooooo proud of this piece (I still am!). I knew that at that moment there was nothing like them out in "glass land." I immediately started working on follow-up pieces, but I also made sure that the piece was seen online to claim the design as mine as soon as possible. .

First came the Sugar plum fairies.

(Display at Bay Area Bead Extravaganza November 2010)

Smaller versions of a totem, with one hollow bead, a face, feet and wings, but no stand. I showed them on a Christmas tree, but really wanted them to be seen as something non-holiday.

After making the sugar plum fairies, I started exploring doing a larger scale version blending the sugar plum fairies with the totems. I decided to play with making their skirts into flowers by adding petals to what had before only been a ruffle.

First Fairy Totem - November 2010

I took the first of these fairy totems to the BABE show in Oakland. I got a great reaction to that body of work...and I was really happy wih the direction I was headed! I came home and worked on Christmas ornaments and more totems!

Christmas Totems - November 2010

I wasn't totally happy with the Angel, but I liked the idea and put it on the back burner, along with the tree... a non-girl totem.

In January, when I was preparing for The Best Bead Show in Tucson, I realized that it was imperative that I take the totems to the show. Not because I was ready to sell them, but because I had to make sure they were seen as mine before other people started making their versions and I was accused of copying them.... Because, let's be honest...that happens. Someone who is an innovator, if they haven't publicly shown the work in a timely matter, can be seen as the "copier" of someone who was better at getting their work out there. SO, that's why I went ahead and pushed myself to have a body of work, based on the totems to show in Tucson.... And I did!

I took this grouping to Tucson, along with smaller totems based on the larger ones.

Totem Group - Tucson Best Bead Show - February 2011

I also took some new stands with more pattern and play, which come from the combination of patterns in the girls skirts/legs. I liked the idea of having stands for the smaller beads that were reminiscent of the larger totems AND give them a bit more presence than the small flower stands do.Mermaid Totem - Best Bead Show Tucson - February 2011

The stands that I started making LOOKED like multi-bead components similar to the skirts of the Fairy totems, but were actually all one solid piece. The mermaid is a separate piece, but everything below her tail is one unit. It's sort of a trompe l'oeil in glass. :)

From there, I decided to bring it all together with an Angel totem that sat on the same sort of stand....Angel & Mermaid Totems - Tucson Best Bead Show - February 2011
(doesn't the angel's face look as sweet as Cindy Lou Hoo?)

The angel was my very favorite piece from the show. And guess who caught the eye of the editor from Bead Unique magazine??? My favorite girl. :)

I got the issue in the mail this week. Here's a picture of me opening my mail!

Bead Unique Magazine - June 2011 Issue (page 73!)

And a better photo so that you can see how cute she is......and how far I've come since Scary Girl, circa 2000.

The editor of Bead and Button magazine once told me back in the late 90's (and this is not a direct quote, but as close as I can remember)... "I look forward to seeing your work when it's not so derivative." I didn't really understand her issue at the time and I still have some differences with what she was saying, BUT her words stuck out to me as I looked at this progression. There is absolutely NO DOUBT IN MY MIND that this work is all mine.... you can see the progression that happened over 11 years... from the big-hair and tiny face to the ruffled shoes... this is all me.... and I'm proud.

And watch out... because there is a LOT of exciting stuff on the way after this!! That's the thing about being original... you can't sit still or you're in line behind the people who were influenced by you and you're no longer seen as original. I intend to keep moving! (and wait till you see what's next!)


...now it's time to get back to work, making more pretty!!!


tiny blah blah blah...

coffee - CDL
music - not yet, but I'm thinking it's dance music in the studio day!

A new day... a new blackboard of bossiness!

(I don't usually show the blackboard updates here... just on facebook, so I thought I'd let the blog-readers who AREN'T on facebook see what I'm talking about)

It's not a NEW blackboard, but rather an erasure and re-chalking. I needed to see a little more of the "big picture" of what I have left to finish before B&B. Not to freak me out (although it does) but to keep me on track and allow me to cross things off. For instance... I got to cross 8 things off the "big picture" column this morning. Those beads are all cleaned and bagged and ready for seed beads to join them!!

I've moved on to a new color grouping... all cool colors and I'm hoping to knock out even more of that list by the end of next week.... if I can stay on track and stay focused and stay energized.

I've been making beads for 15 years (wow) and when I first started, I could go all day long... literally make beads for 8 hours straight. Now? 4 hours is about my limit. There are days when I go longer, but not back-to-back week-after-week. I'm just OLDER and my body doesn't like sitting in one position like that for more than 4 hours. I COULD just take a break and go back to the torch, but by the time I take a break and get a little non-torch work done, my kids are home or I need to go pick them up, or whatever.... my life is just different now than it was 15 years ago.... so I adapt! I work focused while I'm at the torch.... and today I was focusing on pieces for the Flora Flora kits.

The beads in the kiln today are all flowers. PRETTY PRETTY aqua, lime and violet flowers. 24 pretty flowers waiting till later tonight to "bloom" I really like this color-way (not that I don't like the others too... I just love these cool tones. They make me happy)

What else makes me happy? That I have 593 fans on Facebook! And a LOT of them I don't know... so it's not like all my friends just said oh, I know her, I have to "like" her or she'll know! No.... these are people who really DO like me and clicked "like" to be fans. SO, I'm seven short of 600... how cool is that??!!


ok... time to grab some lunch! Hope you have a great weekend!!


tiny blah blah blah...

no coffee - Chick fil A Tea instead
music - Dixie chicks sing-a-long

KITS KITS KITS!!!!!!

I've been working like a mad woman making lampworked glass beads for all the kits. I snapped some pictures just to remind myself how much progress I've made. I have 10 kits of every single color-way, so that's a lot of beads and I still have a lot of "chicks" and "springaliciouses" and "sweethearts" to go! SO many kits to make... which means SO many beads.

(and right now, all the other beadwork instructors/designers are putting together hundreds of beautiful kits full of seed-beads. I won't even GET to the putting seed beads in the kits until mid May. YIKES! But it's worth it. My kits will be FAB!)

Here's a glimpse of what's been coming out of the kiln....


off to rest for the night then get up and do it again.... amen. (I'm feeling the "struggle for the legal tender" line from that Jackson Browne song!)


tiny blah blah blah...

it was a caffene fueled day - CDL and Dr Pepper
music - my "Chick Flick or Should Be" playlist which has TONS of 80s music mixed with current singer/songwriter stuff.

I rock.... but I have a long way to go before I can roll! Bead and Button is only 50something days away and I need every last second of that time!

But today I feel like I made it to a mile-marker...Today I finished all the beads for 7 different kit styles. I'm only a few beads short of having another kit to add to that.... and that will make a total of 80 kits. Each kit has an average of 10 lampworked beads, so that's a lotta lampwork going on!

And this is before the seed beads and other accent beads go in!

Here's a picture of the lampworked beads for one of the Flora Flora Bloom Boom kits - Sassy Girl
I had some other fun " aha" moments in the studio today, but I'll have to save that till tomorrow... I'm up too late!

tiny blah blah blah...

coffee - yes, but much earlier in the day!

music - I was singing along with my country music playlist today.... "All My Exes Live in Texas" and other cheezy fun songs with a healthy dose of Taylor Swift and the Dixie Chicks

This is the story of the LEAST glamorous part of making glass beads... CLEANING them. (and this beadmaker's story has a happy ending!)

For those non-beady types, when I melt glass, in order to leave a hole AND in order to have a stable work-surface, I use a stainless steel rod to build the glass on... when the glass is cooled, where the rod was is a hole that goes through the piece... the catch is, in order for the glass not to permanently stick to the metal, the stainless steel rod must be coated with a clay substance...we call it bead-release (the indians call it Maize...jk) that separates the glass from the metal, but breaks apart when the bead is removed from the metal.

The catch? The stuff is chalky and yucky and in the middle of our pretty glass beads, SO it must be cleaned out... and is a total pain AND time consuming.... especially if you've got THOUSANDS of beads (and by the time I'm ready for Bead and Button i will definitely have thousands of beads)

In the past, I've cleaned them out using water and a bead reamer, or a dremel with a diamond bit or even the stainless rod itself (which works pretty well), but it's SUPER time-consuming and my hands end up pruny and you only want to do this for an hour or so AND you'd rather be doing just about anything else creative, but you're stuck doing this mindless yucky job.

I've delegated this job to other willing souls (thanks mom and dad... thanks ex-husband back in the day... thanks friends... no thanking teenagers, they were unwilling) but it's not something that ANYONE likes doing and they all have better things to do than clean beads.

SO, how does my story have a happy ending? WELL, my fairy godmother, miss Lori Greenberg wrote a blog posting a while back about "hands free bead cleaning" Hmmmm, I thought, I wonder what that's about??!! I read and re-read her blog post about this method and then decided to go for it. I bought a rock-tumbler and shot and gave it a try.

and the happy ending???? It works GREAT!!!!!! I cleaned over 800 beads this weekend with minimal effort. The most time was taking the beads off the mandrels (which I would have done with my old method), and putting them onto the twisted pipe-cleaner wire, but that took hardly any time at all. SO, I'm a happy happy girl with no pruney finger-tips for now.

I'm not confident enough to try putting more fragile beads like my flat flowers and angel wings in the tumbler because I have too much time invested in each bead to risk, BUT I will try some trash-beads like that at a later time and see how they do. I'm just in AWE of inventive Lori and her findings that have HUGE benefit to beadmakers.

She said that I'm the only one she knows of who has really tried the process after she posted it, so I want to make sure people go read about it and give it a try... especially if you already have a tumbler... it WORKS!!!!!!!!


off to the studio to make more beads that have to be cleaned! I've crossed a lot of things off the blackboard of bossiness, but there are still a WHOLE lot more beads to be made!


tiny blah blah blah...

coffee - CDL from starbucks!
music - not sure yet, but I'm thinking Dixie Chicks or something to sing along to!