Seed of Inspiration

Would you believe this set of beads actually caused a disagreement between one of my closest friends and I? (Her alias on my other blog, if you follow that is Kat.)

They did! You see I named this set Komboloi (kahm buh LOI) which is the word for Greek prayer beads.

I had seen Komboloi for the first time a few months ago when Kat's son had ordered a set of strung prayer beads. They can be used while praying, like a rosary, or as worry beads. But the most important feature is they should be touchable.

I loved the little olive shapes of the beads I saw and I knew I wanted to make beads in this shape. I also knew they had to be of the oh-so-touchable silvered ivory. And when I discovered this new Gaffer glass called "Chalcedony" (Cal SED oh ny) and all the lovely colors it yields, I knew it would work wonderfully filling in the color gaps that sometimes appear in silvered ivory.

The set came out exactly as expected ( a rarity in my world!). The beads roll around and are so pleasing to touch. They are mesmerizing... a little world in each one. It is so easy to see how you could meditate while caressing these babies.

So while this set was inspired by Komboloi, Kat wanted to know why I didn't string them up to be an actual Komboloi prayer strand. I told her I didn't want to. Days later, she was trying to get me patterns for Komboloi. I finally explained, while I do make jewelry...I'm really "just" a beadmaker. I would rather my customers turn the beads into their vision regardless of what inspired me to make the beads the first place.

These guys were part of my recent newsletter sale and will be on ebay in a few more days. I have a couple of sets up there now that need some bid love... Thanks as always for your interest in my work.

Searching for Quality Lampwork on Ebay

Before I made beads, I bought lots and lots of beads. Ebay was in it's lampwork heyday then. It was glorious.

But I must admit, the reason I rarely sell my beads on ebay is the very reason I stopped buying lampwork there (preferring to buy them artist-direct): it was just too hard to weed through all the "bad" listings to find the good ones! And yes, by bad, I mean Chinese lampwork.

This crap is not annealed...making it weaker than the carefully crafted artisan lampwork I prefer (and make). The photo is never of the actual set you will receive and the set that comes is often not a good representation of the photo. Furthermore, the beads are not cleaned. The leftover "mandrel poop" inside the bead wears down and weakens stringing material making the finished jewelry more likely to break. Not to mention, the piece looks "dirty" in no time.

And even though I was searching lampwork US (not even realizing I may be leaving out many talented artisans working in Australia, Germany, Isreal, Canada and the UK out by searching that way), it was taking hours to filter through the "junk beads."

Case in point: The search I did this morning reveals a search results of 28,862! Who wants to search through that???



As I was wailing my woes to a friend on a lampwork forum and describing my anger, she asked me a very simple question: "Don't you have an SRA number?"

"Why, yes. Yes, I do. It's D50."

"Most all of the artists add that to their description. Search "lampwork sra" instead."

It was like a lightning bolt hitting my head. An SRA number stands for self-representing artist. Most lampworkers have one. It means you represent yourself for sales and that your work is made by you and no one else.

So, I quickly went to ebay and did another search and was amazed at the results! Big difference, eh?

And look, instead of there being "junk" at the top of the page, here's a lovely artisan featured set!

Now, I love searching for beads on the bay once again. And I've even dipped my toes in the selling waters again.

It's a Yart Sale!

Team ESST on Etsy is hosting the Annual Yart Sale. I just did a very quick Yart search and found over 23,000 (!!!!!!!!) items on sale today through June 14th!

First, what is "Yart?" Yard + Art = Yart! Handmade items all on sale!

I'm offering 15% off all Holly's Folly items in my Etsy shop. AND... if you make a purchase on both Etsy and Holly's Folly, I'll give you 20% off! Purchase any three items for FREE SHIPPING!!!

I know that many of my Fire Diva's Friends are participating too! Just go to Etsy.com and search for "Fire Divas Yart."

Come on over to Etsy and check it out.

Experiments

I have been desperately trying to improve my cased floral skills. I just adore big (HUGE) beads with lots of flowers and stuff going on inside the layers upon layers of glass. That's one of the reasons I took a class recently with Cynthia Tilker.

Then I came home and kept working. I've been spending about an hour of torch time working on cased florals each torch session. I'm finally starting to like my results enough to show you!


This bead is for sale on the Folly site.

The other thing I've been playing around with layers of dichro. I just love all the colors going on in this black-heart bead (also available on the focals page).


And as always when I experiment, I have a lot of beads I just don't like that much. So I'm having a large sale on focals on my Sale Page. Most are $10 or UNDER...many are $5!... Take a l@@k, won't you?

Moving to ebay

I've moved a few sets to ebay and will be moving more. Here's the first two:




My Ebay is HERE.

And this one is off to Etsy.


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Secret Sale! Shh...

06/06 update: Now that my subscribers have had first pick, I'll share the link. This page will only be up for another day... so if you see something you like... The sale is HERE.

I'm having a sale for my loyal newsletter subscribers only. Here's a few items from that sale. You can subscribe to my newsletter for the next sale on the Holly's Folly home page.




I'm having a sale for my loyal newsletter subscribers only. Here's a few items from that sale.

If they haven't sold soon, they will head to ebay and you can get them there.

Art Bead Scene - Water Lilies

My entry for the Art Bead Scene's May 09 contest. Water lily lampwork focal, lentil and lily pads by Holly Dare / Holly's Folly ~ Glass.

The two toned necklace features Swarovski crystals and e beads in addition to the lampwork. The clasp is made of sterline and e beads that fit into the crystal loop.
This will be on Holly's Folly in a few days. Thanks for l@@king!

Color and Design

Color that works together is a hard thing for any new designer to grasp. That one of the reason's I find this year's Art Bead Scene contest so inspiring. By taking color hints from master painters, you have your colors chosen for you.

But choosing colors doesn't have to be difficult. There are a number of websites that let you play with color choices and combos. And Fire Mountain Gems has teamed up with Pantone to forecast jewelry colors for upcoming seasons. They do this months in advance for upcoming seasons.

The swatch above represents the "it" colors for Spring and Summer. The swatch below are the color predictions for fall.




As a beadmaker, I'm always thinking about color and new combinations. I often print up the swatches and keep them by my torch for inspiration.

What's YOUR favorite way of picking color?

Birthing Venus

Last month's Art Bead Scene contest was inspired by Botticelli's Birth of Venus. I struggled a bit the the design and ended up with something much more commercial looking than my usual fair.

I felt a real responsibility to the painting as it is one of my closest friend's favorites. She has seen it in person. I ended up making all sorts of beads I never even used in the finished piece. In the end, the little pink flowers floating in the sky / water of the background proved my greatest inspiration. And that seashell, of course.

Here is my entry. This piece will be on Holly's Folly in a few days.

Finding My Voice Workshops 5 & 6

Really behind posting here... I have a lot to say lately...just no time to say it.

Beads from my most recent FYV workshop:

This bead was to be inspired by a song. My thought precess went something like this:

In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight...

Lions, Lions...Hmmm...

Lions and tigers and bears OH MY!

Hmmm, I've always wanted a tiger bead set.

But I don't really wear earth tones that often. It would need to be purple...

IT WOULD NEED TO BE PURPLE!!!!

May I present to you...the Purple Tiger.

I ended up making another in a darker purple. Both will be on the Holly's Folly site later, under focals.


My most recent assignment was to seek inspiration in a child's book. I first thought of Alison's Zinna or the Good Dog Carl books. I'm a big Carl fan and have met "Carl" and his human mistress, writer Alexandra Day...but the animals seems way over my head and I surly wasn't going to tackle doing baby Madeline! As for Alison's Zinna... Anita Lobel, the author, is a former boss' mother-in-law. I've seen the orignal painting from one of the pages of the book...it was stunning. But alas, I couldn't find a copy of the book in time to do my homework.

I did find a copy of The Little Prince. I loved this book as a child. I used to doodle the drawings in my notebook as we studied the book in school. It was the first time I ever pondered my own drawing skills. I always loved the part about the rose.

As my luck goes, I had a rough week on the torch. I had an idea for a magazine contest (don't even ask...this particular magazine has the strictest pre and post publication rules I've ever read! I don't want to be disqualified... and I can tell you, my entry made it to the top 10!) . Anyway, this idea was larger and somewhat structural and every day, my bead broke! I've never had such heat control issues. Every day my confidence shrank. But I finally got that bead made...but I was feeling to confident when it came time to do my homework.

I figured this would shatter...but it didn't! It was exhilarating to work this way - rod in one hand, mandrel in another and a tool in the other ;-)

I was pleasantly surprised by this bead...

The Little Prince's Rose:



This will also be on the Holly's Folly site in a day or two.