More test beads of Wild Roses....February 28, 2006

Here's another picture of the wild roses frit on a different color - this color is "pastel avocado." You'd think "avocado" would be green but no, it's a taupe color. Some say it has a cast of green but honestly, I don't see it. I believe that the name comes from a literal translation of the Italian word for the color but someone needs to talk to the interpreter with this one! It's taupe! Lovely, taupe!

About the frit - it leaves a nice brown outline on the taupe color. To me, it looks Klimt-like. I'm thinking of the Klimt backgrounds, not the women in the paintings but the backgrounds - those lovely patchwork of colors in the background. This bead reminds me of that.

February 22, 2006....Busy, busy, busy!

Working with some new glass frit called Wild Roses - here is basically the same bead but one has silver leaf in it and the other doesn't. Kewl effect isn't it?

Spending all of my time re-vamping my other website and getting ready for the Urban Glass Bead show in March. The intense cold makes it hard to heat the studio but I still go out there! Lots of layers on and my heating pad sitting on my stool! No auctions up because I'm so busy preparing for the show

February 19, 2006.....Brrrr!!!

If you've been following the blog, you know that I have new heaters in my studio. Well, today it is soooo cold, they're not making much of a dent in raising the temperature! It was 8 degrees farenheit when I got up this morning - that's negative degress in celsius! I'm going out to work but expect it maybe not to last too long. I've got 4 cotton shirts and turtlenecks on plus a cotton sweatshirt. My bead release was frozen! Waiting for it to thaw out a bit so I can coat some mandrels and then get going!

Monday, February 13, 2006......I hate when that happens!

Yesterday, I spent 5 hours at the torch experimenting with some new frit (for those of you learning about glass, frit is ground glass that gets applied to a base bead). I learned alot about the frits I was using, but very few of the beads are presentable! One of my favorite frit colors, copper blue, turned to black on most of the beads I made. So I learned that copper blue reacts with the chemicals in most of the plain colors, ivory, white and silver leaf - so much so that it turns black. There needs to be caution on the copper blue frit that says not to overwork (heating the bead to orange glow over and over) the color. I was using the Italian glass, I'm thinking that I've used the copper blue on the American made glass and it didn't turn to black. I'll have to do some more testing with it to see.

I've mentioned this before, but this is what I mean about being a "hands on" learner - I have to make all of these mistakes and make all of these rotten beads to learn the properties of the glass and how color works in glass. Color in glass isn't the same as mixing paints or pastels or even colored pencils. The compounds that create the color will interact with certain other compounds and you may get a great color or you may not. This weekend I didn't get much of anything. I hate when that happens!

Sunday, February 5, 2006....Who should paint your portrait?

I have been surfing some bead blogs this morning to figure out if I want to join a ring or not. On one of the blogs there was a "who should paint your portrait?" questionnairre. So I clicked the link and did the quiz.This is all in fun and it captures the Diva in me! :-)

Not having a very good week at the torch. Last Sunday, I dropped everything I had made the day before and broke most of the beads! ARGGHHH! Then on Monday, I wasn't able to get to the torch like I had planned. I had to wait until Friday and it didn't work out on Friday either! I finally got to the torch yesterday but things were going so slow. If my schedule at the torch is regular, I am more creative. When it's not, I find myself fumbling. Yesterday was a fumbling day. Trying out some frit I don't normally use and working off mandrel. Most of the frit beads came out kind of "eh!" and the off mandrel items cracked. I keep telling myself it's a learning process and I'll crack less off mandrel sculptures as I progress. Sometimes, though you just need a good day!

Ok, rant off for the day! I'll go out into the studio today and everything will be fine!

Auctions will be up on Justbeads.com. I have one up now, will add a few more this morning! Hope your day goes well!

Who Should Paint You: Roy Lichtenstein

Larger than life, your personality overshadows everyone in the room A painter would tend to portray you with a bit of added flair!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?

Friday, February 3rd, 2006......

I'll be putting this set up on Justbeads this weekend. I've got a LOT of beads I've made over the past few weeks that I need to take pictures of and put up on the blog! I'll schedule the auctions on justbeads so they list over the next several weeks.

I'm readying inventory to take to the Urban Glass Bead Expo in NYC during March 24, 25 and 26. I'll be debuting new sculptural style beads. I'm looking for a particular style, voice to the sculpturals combining enamels and texture on the beads.