lo and behold

One thing I can say for sure is there are worse ways to have a mid-life crisis.  Traveling the country to learn about glass is cheaper than a sports car and at least as fun as (and less destructive than) having an affair.  I intend to keep this up!

My two day class with Heather Trimlett was excellent.  I feel like I learned a whole bunch that will improve my fundamentals and another whole bunch that will challenge me and give me great tools to experiment with.  In the Button Class (Austin Day 3), we learned about the whole punty thing – and it was very fun.  I have been shown how to “punty up” before, but it was just beyond me. I could not wrap my head around tapping the glass and have it pop off and not break. But now I get it, and it is so satisfying when it works, which it did, at least some of the time.  We also worked with the two hole button mandrel.  I definitely want to play around with buttons and see what I can come up with.  And, note to self:  check to see what art buttons they are currently selling at Webs, America’s Yarn Store which happens to be located just down the road in Northampton.  

In the Big Hole Bead Class (Austin Day 4, and Heather says let’s find a new name for the “Big Hos”), I was stunned by how hard it is to wrap glass around a big mandrel.  I don’t know really why it should be so surprising.  It’s hard to wrap glass around the small mandrels I’ve been using for over a year, so big mandrel = big hard.  Of course.  I  look at Heather’s beads in a whole new light.  Not that I ever thought they would be easy to make, but still. Sheesh.  It was great to learn about how to make disks, how to control the glass, and Heather’s way to make twisties which is so much better than what I have been doing. 

The beads I made on Day 4 were still in the kiln when I left early in the morn on Day 5.  When they come in the mail, I’ll do a little photo shoot, including showing off the gorgeous things I bought from Heather’s stock. 

In the meantime:

My girlies went crazy over these beads that Jill Symons made for them!  And these off-mandrel hearts – one made by me and one by Jill, and I bet this time you can’t tell which is which!  Jill showed me an awesome trick about drilling the hole with a tungsten pick.  And by the way, the two beads I showed yesterday, the one on the top is mine.  Luckily, that crack didn’t go all the way through, so it’s still a decent bead. 

And lastly,  Heather prescribed “a bead a day” as the best way to practice and maintain skills (she gave credit to Kristina Logan for the idea).  I usually feel I do best when I have a longer block of time to get into a groove, but the bead a day also makes sense to me.  Just a bead a day.  Keep the feel and the rhythm in your hands.  What if even when the garage is too cold, I sat out there and did just one bead?  Who cares if it cracks?  It’s not about the bead – it’s about the practice.  I am going to give it a try.  Starting today.  No decoration to start.  Just a spherical bead.  I really need to make 100.  I want making a round bead to be as automatic as breathing.

But beads are a little like potato chips.  You can’t have just one.

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.