I am fuming!

Yes I am, and it is so much fun!
I know this month was for practicing dots, but in december I got Andrea Guarino-Slemmons's mothbead tutorial (available here), and really I have been itching to try it. Finally I asked my danish glass group webglas if somebody could spare me a bit of boro, and last monday I recieved 2 bits from a kind soul.


I must apologize for the picture, but check out that webbing! Ooh lala!
I love the mothwing beads, I really do (and have I told you that I have once held an actual mothwing bead, made by AG-S herself?), but the web'ing is what I am really after :)
The tut said that the ivory would turn grey, but as you can see mine didn't. I got a wonderful dark leathery brown that is just yummy! I think if I fume a bit more the grey will come, but I really like this colour. I shall try to make a webbed goddess, though I don't know if I can. The web'ed beads I managed got so hot they almost got away from me. I could fume dots though :)




I probably should not link to the master right next to my own first attempts, but go have a look at her beads anyway. They are too delicious :)

Thank you so much to Bente Clausen for making this possible by sending me boro-rods, and to Fru Babsan who offered, but didn't have any on hand quite yet :)

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Josh Simpson

I really don't remember how I first learned of Josh Simpson, it was several years ago after all, but it was instant fascination for me. What he and his crew does is just amazing, and as a glass-dabler one can not help to be inspired.

The first thing you see on his website, is one of his megaplanets rizing above the horizon. They make several sizes of these, from 1 7/8" to larger than a mans head. Now beads might need overnight annealing, but these monsters must anneal for a full month if not more. And they are just mesmerizing. Like any real planet they are full of details to explore, full of layers to discover. Some of them even have spaceships floating through the atmosphere :)

My favourite of his pieces though, must be the wonderful tektite portals. I'd love to present you with a picture, but I'd hate to infringe on the copyrights of my idols, so you'll just have check it out yourself.
His inhabited vases and blue new Mexico vases are supremely beautifull as well, and some day I will own something of his. How could a glass collection be complete without it? :)

Do give his website a visit, have a look at the splendid infinity project, and his YouTube too for a bit of live tektite action.

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2009 Goals and ideas

Beady Goals, mind you.
In 2009 I would like to sell more than in 2008.
This should not be difficult since, 2008 was a hurried jumble for me, and incredibly slow bead-sellingwise. The only action I saw all year, was the show I participated in, which was fun, but didn't even break even. So for 2009 I will see if I can find other (cheaper) off-line venues to sell from. Getting out in public is good.
As for online selling - well, it isn't working too well so far. I need to mingle and promote more, and that is hard for me, not being a chatty type. And it is difficult to join in on the international bead scene. The simple fact that prices of materials are much higher here than in the US means my prices will be higher that those of US beadmakers. Thus I loose not only the US market, but everybody else that is confident in shopping online. For these reasons I am convinced that I should try my hands with the Danish beadmarket (if I can find it ;). I have tried googling, and even though not much comes up, I am still hopefull that I will find a good public spot.

There is also the possibility of getting my beads/jewelry into an actual shop. This is an idea I have not yet acted on, but I have compiled a (small) list of places I could contact in case I got extremely courageous. I suppose I feel like I need more finished and unique pieces before I can approach anybody, and so far I am happy just considering the possibility and keeping an eye out for places to add to my list.

In order for me to be more confident with my work I need to streamline my products. Recently when surfing beady sites I came across a site/shop that allthough very full of items, looked rather like a fleamarket since there were no rhyme or reason between the items. It may have been perfectly fine items, you just wouldn't know from the jumbled up look of the shop, and I'm afraid I see that in my Etsy shop too. So I have decided I want a more consistent look to my items. I shall make a soulsearch and find out what I really love in terms of colours, shapes and products, and then I will work from that.
One thing I know I love is my organic freehand shapes. Like this one:

Yes, my pod pendant again. I love it :) I might even love it more than the goddesses I make, because there are better goddess makers than me out there, but this one is all mine. I want to try to elaborate on this shape this year, and see where it takes me. As for colours, definately Ivory, and all the mild earthy colours. Browns, greens, blues, rusty reds ... Yes, I'll make a list in my sketchbook and then try to keep to it. It will do me good.


Two more things that need my attention this year, is my website and my book keeping. I may have kept all receipts since I began this glass adventure, but what good does that do if they all lay in box uncounted? I will line them all up and look at the lovely red numbers and tell myself it is all right. It is. We are still eating aren't we?
And the website ... yes, I have been building a new version slowly, but I keep questioning if this is the way I want it, and so I stop working. And furthermore, since jan.1'st I have the option of installing wordpress on the server that holds my domaine. Though I know nothing about using it, this is what I wanted when I got my domain last year. As far as I understand you could build a complete website using wordpress. So do I toss all my measly HTMLfiles and start from scratch yet again, or do I keep on with my very limited knowledge of HTML? Decisions, decisions ... and that is why I never get anywhere with it.
Maybe I should set myself a deadline? In fact many deadlines might be in order, so that I might do it in babysteps.

So these are my goals:
To streamline my items, my web precence and my economic insight, and to work on making a profit at some point.

P~

PS: with this post I just beat my all time hight of 6 posts in a month. Isn't new Years just invigorating? :)

A technique for January: Dots

After I wrote my post on choosing one technique for each month of 2009 to practice, the leader of the Danish glass group I am in took up the challenge.
She posted the idea for the group and several people wanted to join in. She has accumulated loads of links for us to look at and be inspired by, and on Jan. 1'st she posted the technique for January: Dots.

So far I have only had 2 torch sessions, but both were full of dots. December was very busy and I didn't make a single bead, so I wanted to start out slow and easy.
I used the technique described here, the Wavy Bead technique which I have done before. I didn't do as described though, I used only opaque glasses, and in stead of just dollops of glass laid on the disc, I laid out stacked dots which made funky eyes. When I were halfway through melting everything in, I thought: 'This is a fun shape. I think I'll just keep it'. So I did, and here is the result.


Next time I tried out my 5mm mandrels. They are very thick when you are used to 1.6mm, and heavy. But it was fun, and I look forward to the day that I will try to silver core some of them. I love the cored beads, it's a beautiful thing :) It may not be this year though, as I am trying to not buy stuff, but we'll see what happens.
These are my first beads with a large-ish hole.


More will definately follow :)

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My first beaded ring!

A few nights ago I made a ring. I set out to make a ring including beads in colours to remind me of my word 'change'. I didn't have the colours I thought of, and so I winged it. This is my first beaded ring ever, and I have to say I rather love it :)


I have worn it for a couple of days now, to see how it works out, and it is amazingly un-troublesome. As it is a ring with a dangle, I feared it might snag sweaters or things I handle, but it really doesn't. It's a complete joy to wear, and makes me feel very feminine as I don't normally wear this girly or colourfull jewelry.
It is a small orange bead with yellow dots around the holes, and interspaced white and light blue dots around the center. A tiny sterling leaf/feather charm dangles below. It is very spring-y.
I think I might just have to make some more :)

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Merry Christmas!

Oh wait, that was a while ago, wasn't it?
Well, I just wanted to show off this necklace I made for my sister for christmas. Last year one of my goals were to make a finished piece of delicious jewelry, and I think this one qualifies :)

Thank you Hanne for the picture
It's a looong necklace, made with a full meter af goldfill rollochain and 16 links, each with 2 goldfill saucerbeads and an etched spring green spacerbead. You can wear it long or twice around the neck (still fairly long). It's really nifty. And pretty too, the gold and green are lovely together.
I also made one in transparent cobolt for my MIL, which I had to send off by mail before I could take a picture. That was a great colour combination too. I have one more in sort of brick red, that I made a while ago. I am still debating wether to list it on Etsy or keep it for myself :)

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I had a dream

It was weird, and here is the short version in Haiku.

Earthworms are fleeing
1000 silent wide-eyed screams
dead-ends by the wall

Yup, told you it was weird :)
I love haiku'ing.
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