Strange Dreams

Where DOES the time go??? Anyway...I was chatting about strange dreams in my last bead post. I wanted to tell you all a bit about this strange guy:





He was the result of a dream too. I've always been fascinated with octopi. And the thought of making an octopus bead was intriguing on one hand but seemed wasteful on the other. Wasteful??? Yes! Many lampworkers will make a gorgeous bead for the octopus to sit on but I get so annoyed at how much of that fabulous bead gets covered by the tentacles.

I knew if I were to make an octopus on a bead, the base bead would just HAVE to be simpler. And then a heart popped into my head....one of my favorite shapes that can lent itself to both simple and complicated techniques.

So there you have it: a simple red heart, add some tentacles of my favorite rich gray glass and then fill in the details of the critter. I think he's rather cute and one of the few beads that came out just how I dreamed of him!

Hanging on to Love is available on my website.

I have some news and "should" be posting a bit more this week...

One Heart; One World Winners!

The Holly's Folly Prize goes to BrendaLea of The Purple Lady's Art and Life. She makes all kinds of stuff and is a nice lady from what I read.



The Creekhiker prize goes to Willa of Zoltanszabo. Willa is a watercolor and fabric artist!

Fish Tales

I promised a post about the new directions I'm taking and thought I would chat a bit more about inspiration.

There are literally times I dream in beads... they are strange dreams indeed!

Recently I awoke after having the most intense dream about hearts and fish. (I told you they were strange!) I'm a Pisces - sign of the fish. Would you believe I found this little tidbit of advice on my favorite Astrology site: Your answers to your most pressing creative (and other) questions will arrive in visual forms, as if in a storyboard, a dream, or as a little movie?

After this dream, pondering it all, it occurred to me that fish are really undefined hearts. So I sat down at the torch to make it a bit more of a solid definition. This is actually the second, more clearly defined vision and is currently on Etsy. I really love how she came out. And that she looks like both a fish and a heart depending on how she's worn.

This was my first attempt and will most likely appear on Holly's Folly in the coming days. Being my first attempt at recreating my dream... I stuck to red... Red heart, red fish. I used opaque and transparent red on her body and fins with a touch of rubino on her lips.


And, like version #2, she can be worn as both a heart and fish depending on the mood of the jewelry artist.

The most hilarious part to me are her lips... she looks like she's not sure she wants to give you a kiss or not. I love how something like that can set the tone of the piece.


And finally, this guys is on Holly's Folly... He's the result of another dream. But I'll save that strange fish tale for another day.

Inspiration and New Directions

If you are looking for the One World, One Heart contest thread, click HERE. There is another drawing for a different bead on Creekhiker.

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It's been no great secret that I've had the blahs for months! Coming out of it has been hard. But I realized I love making beads and since my sales are in a slump nonexistent, I've decided to shift directions.

While I fully expect to keep listing beads on HollysFolly and my Etsy, I've decided to make the beads I want, not the ones I hope and pray will sell. For me, that means entering more contests and just getting my work out there.

I was really excited when I read that the Art Bead Scene would be using paintings as the inspiration for their monthly jewelery competitions. I've always been inspired by paintings and and art in general. I was a painter for quite a while when recuperating from foot surgery.

January's painting was Van Gogh's Irises - one of my favorite paintings and one of my favorite flowers to make on the torch. Here are the two beads (of three I made) used in my necklace (photo above).

I knew I wanted to rework an old lariat I made ages ago when I first started buying lampwork beads. It was made of a thick, multi-looped sterling and was just over four feet long! The beads I envisioned were diamond shaped...but I wasn't sure of the orientation. So I made three: one with a horizontal layout and two that were more vertical but of varying scale. I decided one of each worked best and ended up not using the smaller vertical bead at all. (Look for it shortly on the Folly website. )

Each bead was shaped into a large and thick diamond... I knew I needed some weight to the beads and made them much thicker than I normally would have. Once shaped, the bead was coated with blue / teal dichroic glass which was carefully melted flat. Prior to starting, I pulled various hand mixed canes in my chosen lavender / purple / blue color palette and a few yellow stringers for stamens. I also pulled leaf cane using my favorite muted green - I'm not a fan of Emerald. All the beads were decorated on both sides.

I cleaned up that old chain... that took some major work and, special thanks go to Lynne Bowland at Islandgirl, who reminded me that tumbling silver was awesome for cleaning it up. Still I pickled and scrubbed and dipped and that old chain was a dull gray at best. So I went into the art studio and dug through all my PMC teaching boxes, found my tumbler and 30 mintues later had a sparkling silver chain! If you do any kind of silver work... get a tumbler! (Lynne, BTW, was named one of the designers of the week in the ABS competition. Lynne is a fellow LEST team member and I'm so proud of her! Her necklace rocks! Another Lest team member, Jennifer Cameron a/k/a Glass Addictions, won the drawing for the monthly prize at ABS! Congrats Jennifer!!)

After the chain was clean, I wire wrapped my beads with Swarovski crystals (8mm), Bali silver and finished off each end of the lariat with Turkish tassels.

It's really hard to photograph such a long necklace! The top photo, the chain is wrapped around my neck and tied .



My next post will be about other new directions I've decided to take, but I'll give you a little clue here:



This cute girl is on Etsy .

One World, One Heart

VOTING IS OVER!!! WINNER ANNOUNCED SHORTLY!

I am participating in the One World, One Heart giveaway on BOTH my blogs. First, about One World, One Heart, created by artist Lisa Swifka

The common denominator in blogging is that we all have stories to tell...We can be inspired or inspire others by finding a blog and taking the time to read/see someones story. Often times a spark happens....this palpable spark of recognition through kindred understanding and shared passions in life. It is in those times when we take a moment to comment and comment again.......when those comments are reciprocated a discovery is made that we share commonolaties which connect us sight unseen. Sometimes we may live on separate continents or at either end of the same country or even discover you hail from the same general area. By paying attention, by connecting with others, we are creating a circle of amazing individuals who can literally enhance our lives and we can enhance theirs.

In the first 2 years of hosting OWOH I came away with an amazing sense of how genuinely good people are and how open their hearts are. I've read blogs where since they participated as a fairly new blogger made connections that stuck.....art swaps began, shared stories and so on built to a genuine friendship. That makes my heart sing as that is precisely the goal here.

The giveaway portion is like hosting an open house......as if we were all living in this gigantic neighborhood where once a year we visit homes to meet, reacquaint and get to know one another. At each home there are samplings of goodies that you have a chance to take home like a door prize. You leave your name and at some point each home choses a winner or winners......and now you not only have met a new "neighbor" and you've seen where they live.....you have something that someone lovingly chose to give..... AND visa versa.

What you'll win: One of my lampworked off mandrel hearts (photo of both sides of the bead below) AND a slider chain in your choice of silver or gold tone (available in 18 and 24 inch lengths)

This heart is made from an elaborate cane of all lavender and purple glasses and is one of my favorites. All my beads are kiln annealed for strength and durability.


To win: Simply leave a comment. If you are not a blogger, please leave an email so that I may get in touch with you if you win. Drawing Feb 12.





And... in the spirit of One World, One Heart, I have a a give away on my other blog too! You may enter both contests!
And don't forget to check out the One World, One Heart blog for lists of over 600 participating blogs! You may find a new blogger to connect with!

My New Must Have Tool

I'm a tool hound....always have been. I grew up in a construction and contracting family. Every one of my uncles and my mom all believed in the right tool for the right job. I have more tools than many men I have dated!

I usually don't expound upon lampworking tools...there are so many out there... some are great and some are WAY over priced if you have a clue where to shop!

But I have a new favorite. Something I can't live without and must share! Here it is:


Looks like it belongs in the bathroom, doesn't it? It does... it is the cheapest waterpik I could find.

And how does this help with lampworking??? I had an idea that it may help with cleaning my hollow beads. I adore making huge hollow beads and get really frustrated at how long it takes to remove the mandrel poop from inside the bead. Sometimes I leave the beads in soak and work on them every time I come in the kitchen... it can take days!

But not with my new best friend! It took me less than five minutes! Brilliant!

It's Time for Hearts

I've been making a number of hearts lately. It's funny but it's a shape that seems to have endless possibility for me. The first lampwork beads I ever bought were boro hearts.

I love all sizes and shapes of them... off mandrel, vertical, horizontal, long skinny tails or big and fat...they all have a place in my...er... collection!

This one is new on the Holly's Folly site and I should be adding more by week's end. This one is hollow in pink / lavender and aqua with holes big enough to add small crystals or czs.

Holiday Project: Neckwarmer with Lampworked Button

Being sick and having time to curl up by a fire lent itself to some holiday projects. This is a little neck warmer I made for the BFF. She's very cold natured and wears her coat all winter. I thought this soft, fuzzy neckwarmer in her favorite colors of blues and browns would be just the thing.


I picked out the yarn and then picked out my rods. I do apologize for the photos...I've yet to find a camera that photographs cobalt blue well... The button is heart shaped on a two-hole lampwork button mandrel with a cobalt center, dark brown and transparent cobalt on the outer edges.

The scarf was worked on the largest Knifty Knitter loom. You can't really get a nice scarf that doesn't curl using only a knit stitch so I had to teach myself to purl! It's a great little piece that worked up in around six hours (not counting the handmade button).

The BFF loved it!


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The sales is still on over at Holly's Folly. Check it out.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday.

There's a little sale going on over at Holly's Folly in honor of our holidays. Hoping to clear out a few things before adding more goodies.

I want to send out a special thank you to all the customers that supported me in the past year. You have no idea how much that means!

When Creativity Takes a Vacation...

I have no creativity left in me bead wise. What seemed an endless fount of ideas when I first got my torch has dried up and filled with ...nothing! I seem to be paralyzed by fear. Fear that I'm wasting my time - making yet another bead that won't sell or not looking for a job that will actually support me.

As my stamp business started to decline, I had hoped bead making would pick up the slack. But it hasn't. Truth be told, I've hardly sold any beads online. My sales are much better in person for some reason, yet with my handicapped feet and back...I physically can't do many shows.

And with the time it takes to photograph beads, write the code for a website and get beads listed on line... I feel like my time would be better spent looking for a job.

I've always just made beads I like, hoping that some designer would have a similar tastes. I've never liked cute little sets and they are a struggle for me to make. And when I start worrying about what sells what little creativity I felt when I turned on the torch seems to evaporate.

I don't have any answers...I just keep looking for work every day...