These are some hearts I made over the last couple of days. I figured since I know how to make hearts, I should make some for Valentine’s Day. I’m thinking I will try listing them on Etsy and see if I get any nibbles – I guess I should do that soon!

I’m pretty happy with the hearts although they aren’t perfect – the lines at the bottom of some of the hearts are not perfectly straight all the way around. Oh well, somebody’s bound to like them anyway. There are a lot of people out there that like the handmade look – little flaws that make a piece not perfect, although I’m not one of them.

My approach to bead making is to strive for perfection – or at least a high degree of precision. I am fairly critical of my work and am constantly striving to improve it – I know I have a long way to go. I don’t look for too much assurance or compliments – I like compliments, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t need them. I show all my beads to my mother and she also has the same point of view – must be where I got it – she is critical of my work too.

Now, when I say critical, I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just mean that the beads I make are assessed for design, shape, color, execution, etc. and held to a high standard. I think this is good because it pushes me to practice techniques and work towards a higher technical proficiency. I am fairly ambitious and want to be able to support myself with this one day – in order to do that I have to be really good.

My friend Beth has a completely different approach. I’m not sure I can describe it and do it justice. I don’t think it’s a bad approach – it’s just very different. For example, she made a nice bead that cracked, and instead of putting it in her dud pile, she’s wearing it around. Her family is also very supportive of her efforts – in an amazingly uncritical way.

I should mention that Beth has been making beads for a week. She bought a kit at Hobby Lobby last Saturday and has been working with that. I have supplemented the kit with some bead release and some Satake glass (soda lime) that I didn’t want any more. (I’m going to focus on the lead line when I get a chance.) Beth has been having all sorts of problems with the beads and has been relying on me for advice and instruction.

Perhaps that’s part of her problem – lack of good instruction. I let her make a couple of beads a week ago or so – that is what spurred her on to get the kit. She really loved making the beads, and couldn’t wait to make more. I’m not really prepared to teach an introductory class just yet – I need practice with that too – but I have helped as much as I can. I just enjoy sharing my love of glass, and I think it’s really cool that I now have a friend in the area who loves making beads too. I think it’s going to be fun to have someone so close to share my love of glass with.