I Seem to Have Been Tagged

I don’t participate in this type of thing – mostly because I don’t know seven (in this case) people to foist it upon. I’m always the weak link in the chain. In this case I’ll make a half assed try…

The Rules:

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

So… Julia of Art of the Firebird honored me with this task. Thank you Julia.

Seven things about me:

1. My first pet was a Cairn Terrier.
2. I designed one website (for pay) – Ms. Green’s Wish – and I don’t think I’ll do another one.
3. I love math
4. My favorite colors are blue and green, but I use a lot of different colors (even colors I’m not particularly fond of) in my lampworking.
5. I quit smoking, after 18 years, in July of 2008.
6. I have cut up a human liver – this was when I was working in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology of a highly regarded university.
7. One of my favorite toys as a child was a binary string.

My Trey Beads

I just got back from a Trey Cornette class at Hale Fire Glass in Madison, AL. It was a great class. Trey is an awesome artist and great teacher. The other students in the class were awesome as well. And, of course the studio space and hostess Terry Hale was just wonderful.

I have said a few times (probably not here) that I really don’t want to think about or discuss the political situation right now. One day I’ll wake up and somebody will tell me to go vote and I will. Nobody is going to change how I vote, and I don’t have the knowledge or skill to change anyone else’s mind, so I just don’t want to talk about it. having said that, we all bonded together and found that we could discuss politics and religion with no hard feelings – we were all close to being on the same page. And the political discussions were such that I could tune out most of them – but it was without question, a lively class.

And the beads! I love Trey’s beads – and his attitude about teaching his work. He is confident enough to say “go out and copy me,” adding “people will just say ‘oh, she’s making Trey beads now.'” So, that’s wonderful – although I will certainly make reference to my inspiration when I post my ‘Trey beads.’

Speaking of… The bead on the left here is the “Tribal” bead. The middle bead is the scroll work and end cap bead, and the bead on the right is the “Tye-Dye” bead – it’s only half finished, but I love this technique – it is just out of control. I’m definitely going to be practicing and making these beads. There were a few “a-ha!” moments in this class, and one of them for me was the “Tye-Dye” technique. I highly recommend the class – if you make beads, and get a chance, take this class.

I came away from this class inspired, excited, enthusiastic, wired (on caffeine), and buoyed by the support of the other students and Trey. I have a lot of fresh new ideas, techniques, and a few encouraging tips on how to start trying to sell my beads. It was an all around fun time – and I’m glad I embarked on this little adventure.

Over and Above

That is the name of this necklace – Over and Above. I’m not good at naming things, but I think I like having a name for my work rather than just IMG_00215 or something, So, I need to work on naming my work. Hopefully that is something that will get easier with practice.

But, this is the first in a series of four necklaces that I am putting together for my Wednesday night supper presentation at church. I don’t really know what to expect – I want to have a good variety of stuff, but I just don’t believe that I’ll be making a lot of sales. I know Christmas is coming up – people will have it more on their minds on Nov. 12th. But, it’s the landscape beads all over again – this deep seeded fear that I won’t sell anything and I’ll just look foolish.

I guess I should take the advice I’ve been giving to my father – suck it up, shake it off!

Glass Geek

Some colors of glass must be harder to produce than others. Pinks for instance tend to be hard to find in the traditional Italian pallet – or can be found, but they’re either not that great or very expensive. This leaves plenty of room in the art glass industry for newer companies to develop and sell new colors. Creation is Messy (or CiM) is one company that is doing that. I actually bought some CiM Gelly’s Sty when I was at the Gathering, and that is just one of the pinks they offer.

There is a lot of glass out there – and I am coming to the realization that I probably won’t get to have all of it in my studio. Fine, that’s OK. But, I want to have a decent selection of colors in both transparent and opaque. I ran into a palette problem when I was trying to make a rainbow set. I wasn’t happy with the traditional transparent red and transparent orange of Effetre, and this sent me looking for good transparent orange and red. I picked up some transparent red at the Gathering, but I haven’t been entirely happy with it – and I didn’t see any transparent orange.

Another problem is that the Effetre clear is ‘scummy.’ This means that it’s not a nice crystal clear color (or lack of color) – tiny little bubbles mar the glass, and it just doesn’t look nice. I had heard that the Lauscha (a German company) clear was really nice, and I was able to pick some up from Maureen at FlameTree. Well, this clear was really a lot nicer. I decided to stock up on this clear, and placed an order with Lauscha Lady. I figured I might as well get some transparent red and orange as well, to see how they work.

Well. I made this fish yesterday with the Lauscha transparent orange and I have to say I just love this color! I’m not a big orange person – but I am completely taken with this orange. It is exactly what a transparent orange should be. Now I’m thinking I should really play more with the red – it will be great for Christmas. The only drawback is that it takes forever for the German glass to get here from Canada.

For more discussion about the glass color palette, check out the Coloraddiction blog.

Aislyn’s Bracelet Revisited

I posted before, that the bracelet I made for a long time family friend’s granddaughter got lost in the mail. Actually, we think it was stolen – it got to the post office, but not to the intended recipient. So…. I made another one, and I just got confirmation that the bracelet was received and meets expectations.

Wow, that’s a relief. I’m not real great at those beads. At one point I had 20-25 beads that I had made and only five of them were good enough to put on the bracelet. But now I think I don’t have to worry about making them any more!

I have a video of me making one of the beads on http://www.youtube.com . I took the video with my flip video recorder strapped to a bicycle helmet on my head. It was amazingly uncomfortable and unstable as well. It makes for an amusing end when I put the bead in the kiln, though. Check it out!