lo and behold

I’m getting very excited to see all the creations that will be revealed on February 10th at the Bead Soup Virtual Party.  Eighty-four bloggers are playing along; it will probably take me days see them all – and I do want to see them ALL. 

My bead soup came from Mary Harding.  I let the ingredients simmer for a few days and then began to make components -like the way a soup is better if you sauté the onion, carrots, and celery first instead of just throwing it all into the liquid to boil.  I wanted to work Mary’s beads into my style.  I really admire designers like Lori Anderson whose jewelry can range from Goth to romantic to bright and whimsical to organic and subtle.  I am not a designer who is adept at many different looks; rather I am one with a signature style (if I can be so bold as to say that about myself at this point) and I want all of my pieces to be somewhat recognizable within a style.  Right now, I would say that bead crochet is one of my signature components.  So I went at it:

The one in the back is not bead crochet but that piece of rope will be used in a similar way.  That’s all for now!!

I also decided that in honor of my many new blog friends, I am going to do a giveaway – my first ever.  Since I consider this stage of my artistic life to be more about learning and developing skills than about selling, I love to GIVE my jewelry as gifts and surprises.  One gift is the bead crochet bracelet below, and a second winner will get a surprise.  Here’s how you can enter:

1.  Sign up for my RSS feed so we can stay connected after the party ends.

2.  Leave me a comment telling me that you’ve done it. (There must be a way I can see who has subscribed, but I don’t have that piece of technology/knowledge in place yet – so we’re on the honor system!)

3.  I will collect names from the comments and choose one randomly on Monday, February 15 at 12 noon EST.  I will contact the winners and announce it on the blog Monday afternoon or evening. 

4.  Want a second entry?  Blog about my giveaway, leave me a comment with the link to your post, and I’ll put your name into the pot again! 

Good luck everyone!  See you again soon! 

When I indulge, it’s usually chocolate or sleeping (remember that recent post about health), but today I stumbled onto Indulge, a jewelry marketplace at the Bellevue Museum of Arts in the Seattle area.  Now there’s an exciting idea:  indulge myself by buying jewelry! 

Indulge is a weekend show this coming February 5, 6, and 7, featuring 30 jewelers from around the country.  Check out this link for easy access to photographs from each participating artist.  I recognized Lulu Smith, Rona Sarvas Weltman, and Susan Chin.   And here are some folks who are new to me and who I would like to see more of:

This ring by Anat Basanta really caught my eye.

And then I discovered that she has a line of neverending necklaces.   The no-clasp-slip-over-the-head design is also something I do with my bead crochet necklaces.  I love that it allows the wearer to choose and change what part of the design is centered.

This work by Alison Mackey below looked similar to what Lulu Smith does with resin.  Turns out, the color comes from photographs of nature taken by the artist and then incorporated into the jewelry – very cool.  I really like the organic and whimsical sterling silver shapes.

Now, here’s the really interesting thing (to me, at least).  I did not see any jewelry made from glass, or more exactly from handmade glass beads.  Nothing like what I want to do.  I saw one person who did use some clear Pyrex components.   Chihiro Makio, whose work is pictured below, studied glass, but most of her work is metallic with some crystals, and as shown here, what she describes as glass beads that are hand sewn onto the pieces.

So, what I figure is that what I am trying to do is either really original, really old and overdone, or really impossible to do profitably.  I’ll just have to keep going and find out which it is. 

Tonight for dinner, I made soup from some leftover turkey I froze at Thanksgiving, but this weekend, I worked on my Bead Soup, which was way more fun!  Just ten days until the big reveal when 84 bloggers show off their artistic creations made with beads received from another blogger in the swap. 

There is also a Bead Soup Flickr pool and had a look around there tonight.  I have to admit, I have not yet visited all 84 bloggers and I liked seeing a bunch of soup pots all in one place. 

These two partners swapped components in the same colors.  That happened with my partner and me, but it was total coincidence.  I wonder if it was the same with these two, or if it was planned? 

You might also remember that I got a heart in my package.  Hearts seem to be a common ingredient – because of Valentines Day coming up?  Or just because beaders love to LOVE? 

Visit the Flickr Pool to find out who got and who gave the soup mixes pictured, and come back here later in the week to see some hints about what I am cooking up. 

My kids got their report cards last week, and since I’m in art school, I’m going to get report cards, too. 

Blogging:  13 posts, participation in a blog party with 80 other people = A+

Studio:  acquisition of new tools and a used RedMax torch by Nortel  =  A

Reading:  Torchworked Marbles, Step-by-Step Wire, Jewelry Artist = A

Making: finished a bead crochet necklace, worked on and then gave up a knitted sweater that was torturing me = B

Health:  kept a journal of healthy behaviors, bought and took vitamins= A

I have a bunch of posts coming to elaborate on some of these accomplishments.  Stay tuned to see my torch and hear about an excellent article I recently read.

Goals for Feb: 

• Get my blog on the latest Wordpress platform, continue posting
• consult with contractor re studio
• make piece for blog party, string bead crochet for trip in Feb
• enter a jewelry contest or submit to a magazine
• exercise once each weekend, once during the week

Note to file:

• next year:  attend at least two major marketplace shows i.e. Tucson, Bead and Button, ACC

The family gifts included a few extra surprises that I did not mention yesterday.  I called them birthday gifts, but sent them while I was on a roll . . .because despite the best of intentions, all these people have different birthdays and I might remember those dates, but coordinating gifts in the mail, not so much. 

For my mother-in-law Marian, whose her b-day is in February:

For my sister-in-law, Ann, whose b-day is in March:

For my sister-in-law Cathy, whose b-day is in December:

For my niece Lucy, whose b-day is in January:

When is your b-day?  Don’t be shy – you never know what might happen!!

My extended family celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah, and I sent out their gifts just last week.  The packages have all arrived and now I can show the goodies that were in them. 

Some long time ago, I decided we would recognize the holidays with what has come be called a "family gift."  The nieces and nephews all live far away from us, so I don’t ever have a good idea of what stuff they already have and what stuff they really want.  What I do know is that they have a lot stuff, and I just couldn’t bear were the thought of heading out the mall, fighting the crowds, and racking my brain for some original piece of plastic to send to them.  What I decided was to make a gift giving a family event:  our family would make something together that their family could enjoy together. 

For example, the first year, we baked some of our favorite coconut bars and sent them along with all the ingredients and a recipe card so the recipient family could make another batch when they wanted to.  My kids were pretty young then, maybe ages 5 and 2.  I remember that I typed out the recipe cards and Isabel individually decorated each one.  We spent a good half a day assembling all the packages, wrapping things in ribbons and making it all look pretty.  I think I also bought some baskets at the Dollar Store  to hold it all which then became part of the gift. 

One year we made a snowman kit, and Isabel wrote a poem to explain what it was.  One year, we painted mugs I also bought at the Dollar store and sent them with bags of cocoa, marshmallows, and peppermint sticks.  The year after our big house renovation, we made mod-podge collages on leftover 5×5 tiles and sent them as coasters and/or wall hangings.  I’m not really sure that the cousins wouldn’t prefer getting something plastic, but I decided when we started this tradition that it was as much (or maybe even more) about the giving for us and what my children would learn from it.  and And I do know that my kids really enjoy it. During the year, they’ll see some project on TV or in an American Girl Magazine and they’ll say, "That would be a good family gift." 

So this year, we set out to make cards.  Both Isabel and Rachel really like collage art and have made beautiful cards from time to time, so we thought a set of stationary that could be used by any member of the recipient family would be good. Another good thing about this project is I thought we could use up stickers and buttons and sequins and any number of other scraps we have hanging around in our art closet.  I bought the blank cards and matching envelopes at Michaels.

And then I complicated things by seeing a very tempting project in my Internet craft travels that I really wanted to do:  glass refrigerator magnets.  I found some good instructions here, but ignore her links – they aren’t working. When the kids got tired of cards, we made the magnets and then sent some of each in each package.  I had all these Altoid tins that I got from Freecycle and I knew I’d eventually find a good use for them. 

These magnets are really addicting and we’ve made some more since.  It took a little experimenting to figure out what kinds of images and patterns work best.  Valentines gifts?  I am so doing these for teacher gifts at the end of the year!. 

Actually three packages – and it’s not even my birthday.  And it’s not from the Bead Soup Party.  Look at all this stuff: 

Here’s the story:  One of the blogs I follow is Studio Marcy.  I really like her short posts that appear without fail six days a week, always with some interesting angle on an artist’s life.  Sometime in December, she advertised that a lampworker she knows was closing up shop and wanting to sell her entire setup:  torch, kiln, ventilation system, and all the tools.  It’s my fantasy of how to set up a real lampworking studio – have someone hand it to me, all put together.  Unfortunately,  I live nowhere near this woman. I sent a note, saying that I was not local but if she wanted to split things up, I would be interested in buying the tools.  So we made a deal and I got three boxes of stuff, half of which I don’t even know how to use. 

But I do know that I really needed glass nippers and more mandrels.  Now I have buttonhole mandrels and handmade holders, too.  I never bought myself rod rests and they really are a good idea.  I already have a 6×6 graphite pad, but now I have two!  I have one Zoozi’s press, which I’m not sure I really like, but now I have three!  I got picks and pokes and tweezers of every size and shape.  I got glass etch which I would love to play around! with.  And that’s only two of the boxes.  The third box held this:   

Pixie dust and frit samples that will keep me busy playing with a long time. 

There’s one more package coming – any guesses what’s in it?

I’ve been reading this book as if it were a novel.  Really.  It’s that good. 

When I took my last class at Snow Farm, I was obsessed with making round, spherical beads, and my teacher, Nancy Tobey, said that Heather Trimlett showed her a method of getting a really good shape using a marble mold.  (I hope I’m not disclosing too many secrets.  This was just one of many, many wonderful things that I learned from Nancy – take a class from her anytime you can!)  Nancy recommended a special marble mold made by Drew Fritts.

So, I wandered over to his website and fell in love with his work.  I ordered the marble mold and also this book.

What I love about this book is that his voice is very conversational and yet fully technical at the same time.  I think that’s a hard balance to strike.  He’s very forthcoming and generous with his knowledge, and he’s incredibly thorough about what he covers. 

There is a huge introductory section about setting up a lampworking studio.  He writes about torches, safety issues, tools, the bench, etc.  In every section, he’s really clear about what matters only if you work at the torch full time and what matters to everyone who lights a torch and melts glass. 

He says, “Here are the options,” and then, “Here’s what I do.”    It’s so helpful.  When an accomplished expert lays out all the options, of course, you want to know which one he chose.  It doesn’t mean that you will choose the exact same, but you can see his work, you can know what he uses, and it feels so much more complete and real than just getting the options and being left there.  I am in the process of moving from a Hothead in my garage to a gas/propane torch in a four-season location TBD, and with this book, I feel like I have a true instruction manual.  If you are a beginner beginner, this part of the book will be immensely helpful. 

He also is very thrifty and handy about his tools. He has figured out how to make items like a rod rest, how to carve graphite, how to make special marble tweezers from a wire hanger and others.  He holds nothing back, with step-by-step instructions on how to make them exactly the way he did.  

After the set-up stuff, I started reading through the techniques, and that’s when it got weird.  I have no access to a torch right now.  I can’t put even a single finger on a rod of hot glass (you know what I mean!) and I’m reading through technique, picturing it in my mind, taking in the concepts, fully engaged and interested.  Reading one after another.  I have several other glass books, and I don’t think I’ve ever had quite the same reaction.  Of course, I will look to the book again when I can actually experiment with the processes, but his writing is so easy to follow, and he doesn’t just say, “Do this and then do this.”  He talks about what the glass is doing and why you need to hold it a certain way, move it a certain way, etc.  The technique section is 115 pages long, and much of what he teaches can crossover to other flamework that is not marbles. 

Another section of the book includes exact recipes he uses to mix Effetre colors.  What an amazing gift.  It could take someone years (as I’m sure it did for him) to figure out all those combinations.  Fun to do, but with his recipes, a person could make just as many new recipes and share them back. 

The last section of the book is over 100 pages of lessons for how to make the twenty marble styles pictured on the front cover.  Fritts says on his website that he doesn’t teach classes, but surely what he has poured into this text is a class in itself.  I am still reading through the techniques, but I fully expect that I will read this book cover to cover before I get back to a torch.  You can buy the book here.

We have a tradition of sending out our annual holiday letter in January – and our family gifts, too.  We like to believe that nobody minds having the fun of getting mail and packages go on a little bit longer.  This year we thought about choosing a time of year when it would not be stressful to get it all done, but we couldn’t think of any.  So, we slogged through and hit the middle of January just like we usually do.  It all went into the mail today!  Yahoo! 

More on what’s in those packages after they’ve arrived at their destinations. And I have no idea how many holiday cards other people send out, but once you’re on our mailing list, you’re on for life!

Lori Anderson’s virtual Bead Soup Party has attracted over 80 participants, and we’re having fun getting to know each other.  My partner is Mary Harding.  We share a common interest in seed bead work, and we are also both bead-makers.  But we also recognized immediately that we have very different styles. 

Mary makes ceramic beads with subtle, earthy glazes in various shapes, often imprinted with objects from nature like leaves, flower buds, grasses, and trees.  I would call Mary’s style organic, and she also called it rustic.  She has also worked in fused glass, but it seems not what she is most currently interested in. 

My style I would describe as modern, sparse, geometric. . . .Mary and I decided to send each other packages that would offer challenge by taking each of us out of our usual MOs.  Here’s what I got:

A beautiful heart pendant, a coordinating handmade clasp, and six round ceramic beads in two colors (upper left corner) – all handmade by Mary.  Light blue/aqua-ish faceted gemstone and tumbled Tourmaline chips from Artbeads. 

First thing I noticed is that the beads I sent Mary are in the same color family – that should be fun! 

Next, I went to my own stash, and pulled out things I have that would go with this palette.  As you can see, I love bluish- purply shades and I have lots of choices:  some amethyst rounds, some glass roundels, and three different sets of lampworked beads.  The single round one on the left is one that I made, the others are all ones that I’ve bought over the years. In fact, you will see later, that some of these exact same beads are in the bead soup I sent to Mary.  But more on that after she gets the package. 

Here’s another shot of the accent beads Mary sent me with some beads of my own. 

So, I can tell that my way into this project is through color, and I’m working in a color family that I really like.  The question for me now is: how much can I transform these materials into a piece of jewelry that approximates my aesthetic and how much can/should I bend myself to match the integrity of the materials themselves.  Hmmm. . . .Any thoughts my fellow Swappers?