Winner! Winner! Beady Dinner???

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to those of you that spread the word about my show! Congratulations go to Anne T who won the $40 Gift Cert on Facebook and to Lynn J who won the $25 Gift Cert here  on my Blog!!! I appreciate everyone of you who helped!

Now, what do I do with all the beads that didn't find homes???  

Come Check Out My Glass Beads and Jewelry

The Trunk Show goes on! I was really please with yesterday's response!

I thought I would post some pics to tempt you!

 The majority of the items I have listed are READY TO WEAR! And I thought I would only have like 3 jewelry items when I started this! But I cleaned out my cake show stash... I used to sell tons of ready made sweet treat pendants back then!  These all come with a chain.

Pink Cookie Pendant

I also have a small selection of focals including this HUGE cake slice:

Chocolate Cake Glass Bead

And I'm offering up this AMAZING large set of rare z99 glass beads at a super discount price:

Purple Majesty

 I've pulled jewelry out of my show stash that I've never shown online!

 Sand and Shore Bracelet

And there are some items you probably have seen in there as well:

 

Seashell beads for Pandora / Troll 

I sure hope you will come take a l@@k! 

And don't forget the contest: 

 

Here is the info on the TWO give aways! One for $40 on Facebook. All you have to do is SHARE the original post and you are entered there.

And here on the blog, I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate via rafflecopter (You can repeat certain entries for MORE chances to win!):


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Trunk Show is HERE!

Tomorrow is opening day for my first trunk show! You can preview now and I will add prices in the morning. There is a Buy It Now (BIN) option for everything as well as an opening auction price.  To buy it now, just say "mine" in the comments and it's yours for the BIN price. OR take a gamble and place a bid...

The contest is still going on so I'm placing the rafflecopter here. Do please keep spreading the word! I need all the help I can get!!! And I so appreciate it!

I'm having TWO give aways! One for $40 on Facebook. All you have to do is SHARE the original post and you are entered there.

And here on the blog, I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate via rafflecopter (You can repeat certain entries for MORE chances to win!):


a Rafflecopter giveaway

My First Trunk Show!

I am full of the nervousness over my very first trunk show!!! It will be this week, August 28 - 30 via Artisans Open Market on Facebook.They are a wonderful group that hosts juried sales many times a month! If you are not a member, please head on over and join so that you will get events notices!

My sale will be glass beads and jewelry but I'm also pulling out some of my crystal show stash from ages ago when I did cake shows with the food safe rubber stamps. There will be lots of earrings and little sweet treat pendants ready to wear!

I sure hope you will come take a l@@k. But that's not all...

I'm having TWO give aways! One for $40 on Facebook. All you have to do is SHARE the original post and you are entered there.

And here on the blog, I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate via rafflecopter (You can repeat certain entries for MORE chances to win!):


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wordless Wednesday - Halloween Beads

Strange Bead

I had hoped to have a happy ending for this tale of a strange glass bead...but I don't.

I actually made this bead back in April and had hoped to have the kinks worked out by now... The center is made of copper mesh. Copper does wonderful amazing things to beads... but apparently not in mesh form.

This all started when I lost the washer for key mandrel. Wanting to make a key and not go to the hardware store, I searched the stamp shop for something to "fake" a washer. I cut a large strip of copper mesh and was actually punching a hole in it to place on my key mandrel when I questioned the low melting point of copper and thought better of it! I didn't make a key that day but I was fascinated by the little strip of copper laying on my table.

I just adore that cased copper over white makes a lovely turquoise blue.  Ugly bead but please look at it for color.

All that rich blue mottling was created by copper leaf.  (If only I didn't have to decorate beads... or actually made a plan before I made a focal! OY!) This was actually just a color test to see if the copper from one of my rubber stamp vendors would hold up under the flame. It's cheaper and still gives great color! Whoo Hooo!

Isn't that color awesome??? I can see it as the ocean in a bead or a lovely cone shape... Do colors speak shapes to you or am I just that weird???

And copper leaf yields such tints to moody colors such as Opal Yellow, EDP,  Copper Green or Copper Red...  It turned the EDP a  pinky maroon in the bead below... and look at all the blue mottling in the middle of the bead!

Unfortunately, my copper mesh never really melted to give off another color... but that has me thinking of other options....  Stay tuned...

The Elusive Striped Bead

Ah... the striped bead. It has been my Holy Grail of lampworking. All these years in and I still suck! I still read tutorials and try one from time to time. But last week, it was just driving me nuts. I'm really good at some things... WHY can't I get THIS??? Grrrrrrr!

These are the ones I've deemed O.K. to show you: 

I always seem to have some color gap or a twist going on. I know the twist is heat control and the color gap must be volume control but when I've added the right size / equal amounts of glass, WHY do I still have this issue???

Well, the heat control turned out to be a bigger factor than I thought. I make big beads and... I LOVE to work hot and fast! Most of my big beads take me an hour or more to make! It seems really hard to justify "wasting" 5 - 10 minutes on ONE LITTLE bead!

So I sat down and read every tutorial I could find, one MORE time! And I finally made some decent stripes! See that pink and brown donut on the left... That bead has been in my head for a decade! 

Heat control is HUGE. I remember Kimberly Affleck demoing that she could tap her bead on her marver without smushing it before encasing! You can't case a soft bead and not have it distort. Working UNDER the flame is key!

And volume control... having equal size dots is imperative and still an issue!

But lastly...it's patience. After making these for an hour and a half, my old tricks started coming back. I was losing patience waiting for glass to melt and they started to distort again. The pink twisted one is the last one I made.... SIGH.

But it is FINALLY starting - just beginning- to click! OY!

These are links to the tuts that helped me:

Corina's Subtle Stripes
Basic Stripes by Melinda Melanson

Candice Mathewson's Cased Layered Triangle Bead
Karen Mitchell's Advice (Post #8)
Kandice Seeber's Striped Tutorial (for sale) 

Fresh Glass Beads 8.14.13

I have decided that with the glass bead skills I do have... Ok, not easy for me to brag but I think I rock the huge silver glass focals and the loooong skinny bead...there is simply NO reason on Earth that I shouldn't be able to master stripes! So I worked and worked on it yesterday.

I will be blogging about stripes soon... and I FINALLY have a decent version of the leaf for the business logo I was asked to do... Whew!

Boobie Charm

A customer asked me for a boobie glass bead charm as a gift for a lactating coach. What a great use for the "odd boobs" in my collection! (I make MANY to create matching pairs and sometimes have between 5 and 10 in any one color that don't make a pair! I know; picky picky!)

 I really love how they came out and ended up creating a made to order listing on Etsy for them!

Fresh Glass 8.12.13

Two torch sessions over the weekend = lots of glass bead goodies!

Finally remembered to anneal those two cooling session beads... I love how they are blue from one angle and green from another.

Hated the heart bead... I can't nail down the colors and it seriously was the most nerve wracking bead I've ever made! No more... Mabye just one color!

 Still working on the leaf design for my CA sister's business logo.

I also spent some "skill - building" time... the ever elusive striped bead (blog post to come!) and PINK! I finally "get" PINK!

There is a great special on my fan page today! One of my all time favorite sets is DEEPLY DISCOUNTED!

Thanks for l@@king!

Fresh Glass 8.7.13

Just some torch experiments. I did make some super cool disk beads... but they need TWO annealing cycles... so they aren't ready yet!

In order from top to bottom... a prototype for a custom order. This is a logo for a one of my California sister's green real estate business... still some kinks to work out!

The middle one ... I like and may even sell but, I want to remake with specific colors. I was channeling two bead makers I admire: Tera Belinsky-Yoder who uses the same color palette almost always and Nina Eagle who always has such amazing color. Nina shared a bead that was a black barrel with lots of bright colors melted in... but they reminded me of hearts and I immediately know I wanted to try hearts...which are so ME in Tera's palette. But... I was lazy and didn't pull stringers. Next time, I will!

The final was a test for a new copper leaf I was sent... I just ADORE the blue background that comes when you case copper over white! And no... I did not have a plan for the rest of the bead.

Luckily, the Beads of Courage kids see perfection when I'm lacking!

Other than enjoying our cool weather and torching, I've been trying to get more teaching work... gotta pay bills. Sigh. And I feel a tutorial coming on! But life is just humming along.

Hope you all are doing well... Specials still going up on the Fan Page almost daily! This heart will be available there in a bit. Thanks, as always, for l@@king!

Fresh Glas 8.2.13

Fresh Glass Beads!

 

Sorry about the crappy cell phone pic! 

Have a great weekend and... be sure to check out Glass Beads Daily tomorrow for Spooky Saturday!