I'm in a Treasury!

It was made by makemesmile and lies here

It will only last till tomorrow, so here is the screenshot, and a list of all the featured sellers and their products



YasminBochi, me :), byMarianneS

CatTingles, Brownbunnybyiris, Erdbeerfroeschchen

Blue Terracotta, Catherine Cooper, 5erg

Uloni, Newafresh, Subrosa123


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A word for 2009

I've been reading several blogs saying that instead of making resolutions for the next year, you should pick a word to focus on and live by instead. Most recently I read it in Christine Kane's blog (thank you Vickie) and since she had a list of interesting words to choose from I actually found one that appealed to me. I have chosen 'Change'. Lots of little things in my life need a bit of adjustment, several bigger ones too, and I hope I may be able to do something about it in 2009.

As I am already thinking about changes, there is no reason I should not start right away to change little things whenever I can. When I were reading about peoples experiences with chosing a word, someone had suggested having a bracelet done with a little disc with your word on it, so that you may be reminded of it daily. This I like. I know there are several Etsy sellers making costum words on bangles and I considered treating myself to one of those.
Then I thought 'Hey! I am already wearing a skinny little bangle, so why not do it myself?'. This in itself is normally a bit of a challenge for me. I have been in several groups with people doing 'altered art', and I have always had a problem with this (not with other people doing it, just myself). I keep thinking that somebody worked hard at designing whatever object it may be (even match boxes), and who am I to undo that work, and so I freeze.

Anyway, back to the bangle. I don't have any stamping tools, so actual letters were out of the question. My solution was to write it in morse code, filing little notches all around the edge. I have just finished the filing and I am pretty pleased, and I didn't have a second of hesitation in me about altering it :) It has come out very nice. It has a little bit of scratchy edges, but those will wear down in a few days, or I may just sand it lightly if it is annoying.
So there you have it. I hope I can keep it up for a whole year. Who knows what might happen :)

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12

If you were to choose 12 techniques of beadmaking, one for each month, to practice through all of next year, what would it be?
I haven't quite come up with 12 things yet, but here is my list, in no particular order:

Stringer/heat control: dots (placement, size) and lines (keeping them straight, nice un-lumpy ends)

Fuming: Just got Andrea's tut, and am eager to go. Just need a bit af a boro stick to get started.

Sculpting: to evenly divide by 5 or other uneven numbers. 4 is easy, but 5 is much more appealing to me.

Sculpting: evolve on the organic shapes I love so much (and eventually fume them :)

Vessels: I do have a hollow mandrel to blow through. Only did it twice, though I loved the results

Off mandrel pieces: I made two little heartshaped clumps of glass this year. I have room for improvement. Might need some tools for that. My tweezers doesn't have a good grip.

Longer beads: barrels (they always break for me?) and bicones (never breaks, yay!)

Lentils: I have just bought my own christmas gift, a pair of lentil mashers, yay! I have wanted to try this shape for a long time, and soon I will. Simple ones first of course, then decorated and sculpted ones later.

I also want to study colours and how to combine them. I don't think I will ever be tired of the look of ivory, but a bit of colour would be nice too.
There is also the electroforming I really want to try at some point, and I know I will eventually.

What techniques would you most like to evolve in?
Doesn't have to be beadmaking :)

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Phew!

Hooray, it's December!
And by December I mean a nice couple of days off, to lounge around at home, sleeping in and staying up late. Not all of them though, but from dec. 19'th I can be found in my bed until noon.
Or probably not, but I can dream, right??

November sure did pass me in a worn out daze. I have to say, even though I enjoyed my show quite a bit, it was also a very hard adventure.
Since it was my first, I am sure I have been overthinking everything at least a dozen times. I had nothing else on my mind for 15 weeks, and it might have been a bit much, for both me and my family (=boyfriend), and I have been taking a few weeks off to recuperate. I am sure I have learned a lot from it though, and I would like to try my hand at other venues, with a more crafty vibe to it. I did not make quite enough to cover the cost of the booth and the materials I have invested, not even with the sales that came after the show, at my workplace,
and I think I could do better if people were there to shop for crafts in the first place, rather than art.
In any case, our booth (is that even the rigth word?) looked beautiful. Many people said so, and we agreed :) My sister worked hard too, not only on her art, but also on sprucing up this old piece of furniture I had kept in the basement for way too long. It's a lovely thing (especially now), and it went well with the style and ambiance of her artwork.





Something I learned: I was/am very pleased with the little glass cabinet I got. It looks great, lifts things into view and can hold a lot, but ... people are vary of opening it to feel up the goods, and I know I would be so too. Generally when things are under glass you are not supposed to touch it unless the vendor is handing it to you. This is not what I wanted. I do want people to get at good feel of the glass as that is part of the attraction. I also secured my pendants with some rubbery goo stuff, to prevent them from rolling around and also to help them stand up. It looked great, but again, people did not like to pick them up. I wrote a little note saying 'please do touch', but nobody did without being told it was okay.



If you know of a nice way to display multiple pendants, hanging the way they would be worn, easy to remove and put back, do let me know. I looked far and wide before the show, but came up with nothing.
Also, next time I want neck displays. In my mind they are fairly crucial.

Now that a new year looms I look forward to making a new plan for the year, as the one for this year failed misserably. This time I shall include time for homelife into it, making it a 'life'-plan rather than a 'business'-plan. I may not be able to do everything I'd like to, but every little bit counts :)

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PS: Thank you Hanne Piasecki and Maria Sylow for the pictures :)

Countdown!

Actually, there is not much to count, as we will go tonight to set up our stuff, then do the finishing touches tomorrow before the show opens.
Of course as it turns out, I get to spend two days in bed this final week, and one more to recover, from eating some bad meat on monday. Go me! But as I always say, when things are not quite what I had hoped for: It is, as it is, and that is okay.
I have products to sell, though I had wanted more.
I have displays, some looking better than I had hoped, some I made myself, also looking great. I had wanted neckdisplays, but I can live without them.
I have businesscards (thank you a million times Lenette!), and boxes that came out just as I had envisioned.
Also a million times thank you to sister Hanne, for fixing up the furniture thingy that will be my display table.

Pictures will follow of the booth, the setup, the jewelry and foto-art, but here is one of my boxes that I think came out so well. It was all black, but I had a stamp made (by Babyjewels on Etsy), and now they are all personal and pretty.


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"I create, therefore I am"

I know. I haven't been around much lately. It's partly because of my show next week, the ArtFreak show, that keeps me busy all evening til I fall asleep. And partly because I have been lurking at Facebook a lot these past 2 weeks, and not so much here.
I have a lot of things to talk about and show you, but my mind is too occupied with offline stuff and I simply don't get it done.

As I said in my last post, I have joined up in a very exciting bead project. Sylvie Lansdowne blogged about it, since it is her project. I have made my first bead, and will make the second sometime during this week, and I will definately blog about it too, as soon as the show is over and I can relax and think straight again :)

In other news - The Creative Scandinavian Etsy Team is no more. It has been closed down as well as the blog we wrote in. I have saved a post I made on february 1'st this year, and I shall post it here below, so I don't loose it forever.

Thanks for reading,
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PS: the beadfair mentioned was cancelled this year, but I have new hopes for next year :)

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'I create, therefore I am'

Such was the saying I once made up with a school friend. It was years and years ago, and still it holds true.
I have had periods of life where I did not create, like having a new baby or other major uprooting of daily routines, but the time always comes where I feel the urge and must act on it. If I do not, life is nothing but work, and that is no fun.

Last year I threw my love at glass. I have always loved glass, but being able to work it myself is something very new and glorious. To think that I would be able to finally work in this medium, that I have eyed and envied for a lifetime, yes, it is nothing short of glorious. And there is nothing better than the feeling of 'I did this!' when a bead comes out better than expected, which has happened regularly in this my first year in the field :)

The thing about glass is that it is generally a hard, frozen material, and to see it glow and drip and to handle the ultra hot mass, is an alchemical wonder to me. The fact that you can shape it pretty much any way you want, and it will end up as a solid and deliciously tactile piece is just fascinating. Then there is the colours. I had no idea there would be so many available. And that they range from transparent to opaque only gives ground for further investigation and playtime.

So, last year was for playing. This year is for playing too ;) but this time I have a plan.
First off, I have made an agreement with my boyfriend as to which weeknights he will watch the children, so I will have more free time and be able to create more than I did last year. 4 hours a week by the flame just doesn't do it for me. I also need off-flame time to bend wire and make knots and so forth.
In preparation for the new year, I have bought new and exciting glassrods. To try something new and also to add to my palette. And indeed they are fascinating :) They are not solid coloured rods, but have cores of other colours than the surface. This makes for swirly insides of beads, which is such a lovely sight.

I also plan to branch out into jewelry finally. I am aware that even though Etsy people are a creative bunch, ready-to-wear is something everybody can enjoy, and it will test my abilities as a craftsman on a whole different level. I have invested in nice vermeil findings, sterling chain and also some black leather cord, that I look forward to trying out.
I am determined to try new techniques this year. I have a tendency to get stuck when first I try something and it goes well. Then I never evolve any further, and I cannot let that happen to my glass adventure. I am not sure which 'new techniques' I shall work on first, but I have an ever growing list of things I want to try. Making vessels is high on it though :)

I am also determined to make an actual set this year. I need to learn to plan ahead, not just make one bead and then a different one and so on. So far I have only made 'sets' of 2, for earrings. This year I will make a full necklace.

And very excitingly, I am planning to get a booth at a beadfair in March.
With only a year under my belt, this is a daunting project, but at the same time a very exciting one. I went last year as a buyer, and I saw nothing looking like what I do. I am very hopefull that this will be the case this year too.

Not only is it the only fair I know of around here, but it is also a very nice size for a first timer. Not too big, and not too expensive to join.
Of course everyone there will be beadmakers, so the competition must be fierce, but then again - every customer is looking for beads or jewelry in the first place, which means they are already open to my goods. Time will tell which part will dominate the other :)

PS: Click any picture to get a pop-up for my shop, or the actual listing of the object.

Final Annealing

Monday this week I went for the final annealing I will have time to do before my show, which is in just 3 weeks (Arghh!!!). Unless I make something outstanding that I just have to bring, this is it. And I don't think I will as I have dedicated these last weeks to assembling, some promotion and thoughts of set-up and display. These are a few of the pieces I will be bringing: pendants, earings and fibulas.


Being inspired by Lone from the Webglas group, I have also made some ringbeads. I never did this before, and I find it very difficult to keep them properly warm as I work them. Consequently, two have visible cracks and I am just hoping the others will survive the annealing and trip through the mail. I am wondering if there is a tool for this, as my tweesers does not have the best grip of things.



I will not desert my workshop completely though. Tuesday last week I went for the demo of the Double Helix glass at Bifrost Studio Glass. This was a great idea on their part, since after seeing how to work the glass and the beads that came from it, everyone that came had to bring at least a few rods home. I did too, and have been playing with them all last week. My absolute favourite is Elektra, with Nyx and Triton as seconds. Elektra looks just beautiful with Ivory, it has a wonderful blue tone to begin with, and when reduced leaves a very shiny surface.
I don't like to reduce the Elektra completely, just a touch, so that I can still see through it and look in to the underlaying surface. The Ivory reacts with the silver and produces the wonderful crackled lines that is my favourite effect of Ivory. The Nyx and Triton both reacts with Ivory too, and get extremely shiny when reduced. I am not much into bling and sparkly stuff, but these are really nice and so fun to work with.
I have a picture of the beads I have made, but I left it at home, so I will have to post it later.

I also made a bunch of drops for pendants, which came out quite splendid, but most unfortunately - all but one cracked. They all broke in two, right at the widest part, at the very tip of the mandrel. This is unusual, since mostly other glasses crack at the tapered end from cooling too fast. Only one drop made it, and that one was a bit overcooked, but still pretty, just not as pretty as it could have been.
I have a picture of these too, at home ...

Still, it is a wonderful glass to work with, and ideas keep popping in my head, so I can't not work with it for the next 3 weeks :)

Also, I have joined up in a new and very exciting project that involves beadmaking, which I will write more about in a few days or perhaps even tomorrow if I can't contain myself :)

Oh wait! I almost forgot - here is the bead I mini-demoed the other day. It is one of those beads that just happens, and I am very pleased with it and seriously considering keeping it. Actually I think I will. It has such a lovely organic shape, like a flower ready to bloom :)



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