Happy Accident

I picked up a rod of black yesterday to do a color test with some high silver frit yesterday. I thought the black was being "strange" - bubbling and such. But some blacks to that for me... I forged ahead. Suddenly, I realized I had not made that rather large base bead of black but out of an oh-so-pricey silver glass.

I kicked myself a few times as I pondered what to do with that bead in my flame... Well, I was going to experiment... let's see what the two silver glasses do together. Oh, did I squeal as the colors bloomed! I loved that bead!

Hard to believe these beads use mostly the same glass!

So I set out to make a HUGE version only using actual black as my base. I added lots of dots and stringers of that first silver glass and then the frit.... and you know what happened?? NOTHING. I made a big turd! A really big piece of caca... Over an hour in the flame and  I hate the bead....Some people may like it...but I don't... ARGH.

So today will be spent trying to figure out how to recreate the "not caca" bead.

I thought I was show off a pendant I made. I had the bead in my pocket last weekend while teaching wire wrap and one of my students asked about working with larger beads. I whipped it out and made a pendant. This gal will be listed next week in my glass bead jewelry section of the website.

Hope you have a lovely Saturday!

Just For Me

It's rare that I sit down at the torch and make something just for me. I often end up with beads that are not my best - something that is off center or even has a crack (eek!). I make myself a necklace or bracelet and still get lots of compliments...it pays to be a walking billboard for your business!

But I've always wanted a bobbin bead. And knowing "my customer" so well, I knew it had to be purple. Gaffer's new Purple Rose and Royal purple seemed a perfect fit. Still those are pricy glasses so I used a much cheaper COE 96 for the core since bobbins use a fair amount of glass. I used another Gaffer glass - Chalcedony - in frit form for accents.

Once I had my bobbin, I knew I wanted it to sit on a necklace so I could see the metal so I went back to the torch and made a matching big hole bead. By threading the BHB onto the ribbon first and threading the bobbin over both ribbon ends, the bobbin sits flat on the necklace.

I've always like wearing unusual sized beads this way... this is an old silvered ivory necklace of mine:

Do you have an unusual way of wearing big hole beads??

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I'm participating in a Blog hop:

Finding My Muse Again

I've been slowly finding my muse again after ages away from my torch. In the end, sitting behind the flame and just playing has brought her back! Hey, what can I say...it's been a rough year and it's going to get worse before it ever gets better. For that reason alone, I NEED to torch more!!!

What has come out of the flames this past week has amazed me. Some of the beadies, I knew I would love:

I was squealing with gless when I made the wavy stems on these flowers... And their matching set:

Some beads surprised me... like this color test that I was certain I hated so I failed to shape it as carefully as I should have... and was again squealing at the colors that developed inside the kiln!

Still other beads were just plain strange but still likeable in their strangeness:

And some delighted in their predictability:

I'm still not over my obsession with long skinny beads:

Or what can be done with them:

And finally, I took a little time to make something I've always wanted: A bobbin bead of my very own.

It's been a productive week with lots more to show... The beads you see here (except for MY bobbin) will be available on my glass bead site this week. (I list one or two a day.)

Thank you to those who have stayed with me... I appreciate it!

More wedding how-tos coming....

Upcyling the Wedding

NOTE: This was written well before our niece's wedding in February but... I realized she had not seen many of the items in this post... hence the delay. (I told you she was not a Bridezilla!)

We're all on a tight budget for the niece's wedding but we're NOT gonna skimp on elegance and glamor! Take the dragonflies one of the aunties has been working on. I mentioned in a previous post that we have dragonfly on the invitation... a symbol of good fortune.

 Our decorative dragonflies are HUGE - about 20" tall!

While out on a  research shopping trip, we found these hideous wire frame butterflies. Don't EVEN get me started on all the butterfly winged tchotchkes out there that have dragonfly bodies or vice versa... they are LEGION! We found 3 very large (the bodies are almost two feet!) ones on sale and after a little manipulation, realized the wings could easily be re-shaped into dragonfly wings!  But it still needed a bigger body. One was carved out of foam core. And then the fun began.

Not wanting to spend a fortune in beads, the artist raided her mom's antique jewelry box for broken or no longer worn pieces.  She raided her button box and her craft box. As the holidays approached, small glitter ornaments were purchased for the eyes and tail. We ended up with three: the red "welcome" on you see above, a white one for the sweet heart table:

 and a most glamorous black and white one for the cake table:

A big part of building these was organizing all those various pieces-parts for ready access as the artist built each dragonfly. Check this out:

She found a couple of old  spice racks at the thrift store and just look at all those organized beads!

Here's a shot of the finished sweetheart's table featuring the white dragonfly. I just love the layers of diaphanous fabric and lights!

We had to do a lot of brainstorming on how to attach that heavy dragon fly to the front of the table. We didn't care if it damaged our sheer tabletop but we couldn't have it damage the under - cloth belonging to our location. We're used velcro and heavy refrigerator magnets to keep it all in place.

Memory Bead - The Wedding Gift

I've written at length about my love of making Memorial Beads. But another similar type of bead I love to make is what I call a Memory Bead. It's a way to capture a memory.

These can vary depending on the occasion. I've made hollow beads and filled them with sand from a beach to celebrate a proposal. When I went to visit my niece last year in Nevada, I was stunned at the powder like quality of the sand on the lake by her house.  Because that sand was so fine, I melted into glass and made her a bead out of it.

With her recent marriage, the good memories continue. This is the gift I made the honeymooning couple:

Forgive the bad photos... it's POURING here and that's the best shot I could get on this gray day!
It's a silver shadow box style frame containing a heart made from the champagne bottle I found on their table while cleaning up after the wedding. Behind the heart is a story I wrote for them. Here's a closer view:

It reads:

David & Athena

February 17, 2012

Made from the champagne bottle used to toast your nuptials, this heart symbolizes your journey together...

Formed from two distinct beads and shaped into one heart, just as your love has turned the two of you into one...

...Air bubbles were carefully placed inside the heart. Some consider this a flaw... but they are there to remind you that no marriage is perfect and that sometimes... you just need to breathe and work through whatever is troubling you. 

On the front of the bead is a spiral. This is the symbol of the circle of life. In some cultures, this means "home." No matter where life takes you, follow your heart and it will lead you home. 

Life is a journey - one you have chosen to share with each other. Life will lift you up and it can beat you down. But love is a shelter in any storm.

Treasure One Another.

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Photoshop Tutorial for the how to geeks: 

• Photograph the bead. Measure it as well. 
• In Photoshop, create a new workspace the size of your project...mine is  4 x 6. 
• Paste the bead pic in and using the rulers size it down to actual size. 
• Fill background layer with white.
• Type your memory story on top of the bead layer, using the bead pic as a guide to create a void in your type. 
• Hide the bead layer and change your printer settings to a greeting card weight paper before printing.

New Auctions - Getting Back in the Groove

I'm back from Louisiana. My sister managed to pull through this last round of chemo but is now off of it and at home under Hospice care.

Cupcake Charm

I'm trying to get back in the groove of life but it seems to take me a while... Little stupid things - like where I put my keys, remembering to get the leash or to dry the dog off after a swim - seem to boggle my brain! Add in that it was in the 80s in Louisiana and it's been in the 30s and 40s here at night and windy 50s in the day time... and my blood feels like molasses!

Giant Scallop Silvered Ivory Shell Focal

I simply MUST process stamp orders... of course my least favorite - wood mounts - today. Then I MUST finish my tax prep for the accountant! And then it will be sales tax time and I'm left wondering where the  first 1/4 of the year went! Does that happen to anyone else???

Hole in my Heart - Silvered Ivory Pendant

Because it was so cold and windy and I was over-tired from chasing raccoons out of my yard all night, I did not work in the shop or on the taxes yesterday. Instead I listed nearly a full page of items on ebay!!! Some craft supplies, an old camera set up and GLASS BEADS!!!

Chocolate Egg Focal

I hope you will take a l@@k at these deeply discounted items!!! I may clean out the bead bowl for some new listings later in the week...

Hidden - Giant Lentil

Have a good one!

Sales Math for Dummies

I hate math...In spite of being told I'm good at it. It makes me think in a way that hurts my head and I don't like when my head hurts. So I'm putting my handy math tips in a place I can always find them. I hope you'll find them helpful too!

Returning items to a full price after a sale:

100 - % of discount = % of original cost

% of original cost / 1 = y

y x (sales price) =  actual original cost

Example:

Say you've marked every item in your shop down by 20%. You have an item marked at 15.99 but if you add 20% to that (15.99 + 3.20= 19.19), the number you get would not be the original price of the item. Using the formula above we get this:

100 - 20 = 80% - so our sale was 80% of the original cost.

1 / .80 = 1.25

1.25 x  15.99 = 19.99 - the actual original cost.


FEE Bay shipping

You can use the same formula above to recoup the shipping money stolen from you on ebay. The current rate of thievery there is 9% of shipping.

Let's say you are shipping a heavy item that costs you 18.50 to ship and Feebay will steal $1.67 of that. (18.50 x .09) So you need to recoup 20.17 to break even. But if you charge 20.17, you won't recoup 18.50 but 18.35. This may seem like pennies but, you go in the hole a little at a time. The same formula works to calculate the shipping charges:

100 - 9 (ebay's %) = 91%

1 / .91 = 1.0989

1.0989 x 18.50 (actual shipping cost) = 20.32

20.32 * .09 = 1.83
20.32 -1.83= 20.16 (close enough!)

Calcualting for eBay and Paypal

 Same theory but with Paypal charges the fees come up to around 13% so...

100 - 13 = 87

1 / .87 =  1.15

1.15 x 18.50 (actual cost to ship) = $21.28

Wedding Photo Booth

The wedding has come and gone. I'm still exhausted and now buried under the mountain of tax paperwork I ignore all year! I'm going to share more wedding tips in the coming weeks but today, I wanted to share some pics from the wedding photo booth.

The ampersand and photo booth signs add a fun element to the wedding pics!

The photo booth was all the niece's idea. The groom didn't get it. Neither did the aunties or the in - laws. We all thought it was our girl being her goofy self. Boy, were we ever wrong! The photo booth was the hit of the event. People didn't want to dance to our perfectly fine DJ because they were dancing in line at the photo booth! WHO KNEW??? (The bride, apparently!)

Edzel Fuertez provided our photo booth and also provided additional photography services at the wedding. He and his team were just AWESOME. The bride and groom  purchased frames, removed the glass and backing and as people got their photos taken, Edzel's team placed them in the frames as a gift to the guests.

The giant ampersand was made from foam board. I could only find heavy wooden ones on Etsy, so we made a lighter version. It's 18" tall!

But that wasn't all... They showed up with all kinds of props: funny glasses, boas, parasols, hats etc. The bride made sets of lips and mustaches from fun foam and dowel rods. I made a giant ampersand and signs. I took the artwork from the wedding invitation and made rubber stamps (duh, that's my day job). I used the same artwork and created words: Bride, Groom, Mr., Mrs. Ms., Dr., Rev. I really wish I had made ones that say 'You' and 'Me' - but I didn't think of it til too late! See tutorial below.

It was a beautiful and most memorable evening! 

 The lips and mustaches were a big hit too!

Sign Tutorial

• Print signs on heavy photo paper at Office Depot and trim them to size. 
• There seemed to be a run on 1/2" thick foam board when I was making these... so I had to make do with 1/4" ... but used 1/2" if possible! Cut foam board pieces an inch larger on all sides on scroll saw or with xacto.  Because I wanted them sturdy and could not find the thicker board, I cut two matching pieces on my scroll saw. 
• Stamp the front with swirly rubber stamps all around the edge. If using thinner foam core, only do this on one side. 
• If using thinner foam, hot glue two pieces together.
• Insert kitchen skewers into the middle of the bottom edge of the foam. You can remove the stick, just make sure you allow for the hole. 
• Take ribbon to match the width of your foam core (3/8" - 1/2 ") and   sequin pins  or SHORT straight pins. I used the sequin pins when I was pinning ribbon and short straight pins for beads. Pin the ribbon in a few spots close to the skewer hole but not covering it. 
• Pin beads through the ribbon close to the front edge of the sign. I alternated beads pinned on the front edge of the ribbon and sequin pins to hold the back edge of the ribbon and worked in this manner all around the sign to the other side of the skewer hole. Trim ribbon from bolt and place final pins.
• Put hot glue on the pointy end of the skewer and insert back into hole. Let set up. Trim other end with wire cutters to desired length. 
• Wind 1/2" ribbon (use the darkest color from your wedding color scheme... hands are always dirty and you don't want the signs looking grungy!) down the length of the skewer. Tuck and roll at the bottom and go back up the skewer securing with hot glue. 
• If desired, hot glue beaded garland down the skewer. 
• Use iridescent pull string ribbon to make a bow: Cut 1 yard (I used 1 1/2 on the bride and groom signs but less on the rest). Pull the string, making sure you are holding onto both tails. Wrap string around the bow and tie a knot. Repeat. Trim string, hot glue bow in place.

Win for the Not so Little Guy

Almost every type of designer in this country has felt the pressure imposed by someone copying their work - namely by Chinese manufacturers who can make "the same*" product for less. Just this week alone, I have been beseeched by Chinese manufacturers via my Artfire shop to allow them to make beads for my shop!

DO MY BEADS LOOK LIKE CHINESE CRAP???  Yes, I know, I've always been a bead snob. I can spot cheap Chinese fakes a mile off! And I've always had an eye for genuine Swarovski crystals. I can tell the difference between Swarkies and Czech! And most certainly Swarovskis and Chinese knockoffs!

Interestingly enough, Swarovski has fought hard to protect it's image and product over the years, getting patents on certain cuts and even developing their gross packs to not be resealable (Thieves were stealing the packages from jewelry stores that legally sell in smaller quantities, filling the packs with Chinese knockoffs and reselling as genuine!) . And they recently took it to court against a Chinese company violating their Intellectual Property! [The bold red italics below is mine. I LOVE THAT PART!]

From the Swarovski Elements site:

An infringement recently occurred in China: the company namely Yiwu Yongyang Ornaments Co., Ltd. stood accused of producing and distributing flat-back stones imitating SWAROVSKI’s patented XILION cut design. A civil litigation was filed by SWAROVSKI and lead to a settlement in which the defendant admitted engaging in an act of plagiarism that constituted infringement of SWAROVSKI’s registered design patent. The perpetrator was obliged to destroy the goods in question in the witness of the plaintiff; pay a substantial monetary compensation; and issue a public apology that included a statement of intent never again to infringe SWAROVSKI’s design rights.SWAROVSKI’s pursuit of justice was wholly based on the unfairness of plagiarism. SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS take years of costly research and development to produce innovations. Protecting SWAROVSKI’s business partners worldwide from the knock-on effect of such acts of theft is a key motivator for prosecution.

Win one for the not so little guy! More companies need to do this!!

*You all most certainly know that Chinese lampwork is NOT the same as true artisan lampwork right??? It's not cleaned, not annealed and breaks easily. Remember, with art glass, you get what you PAY for! And thanks to the Chinese, you are paying less and less and real ARTISTS are struggling to survive! 

The Wedding Ballarina

I finally finished the ballerina for the candy table at the niece's wedding. it was slow going as the wire was hard on my hands. I was using a coated wire to match the red crystals and didn't want to use wire tools on it to avoid scratching.

I think it came out really cute: