Saturday, October 28, 2006

Oct 28, 2006.....

I put a bunch of pieces into the kiln yesterday and only one came out presentable. It's not the one you see here, but it's the same type of cabachon - a bead not quite up to par that has been slumped with a murrini chip. I'll take a picture of it and post it in the next few days.

This morning, I am itching to get out to the torch. Got some ideas rolling around in my head to "draw" and need to go while the ideas are fresh (and before I forget!)

Friday, October 27, 2006

Writing funny in the blogiverse....

October 27, 2006....Wow! I've been reading some crochet blogs this morning and some bloggers can be very funny! Their work has a sense of humor and they're able to convey funny even in their profiles. I really admire that! Here's one whose URL is funny:

Monster Crochet

Take a look at her profile: Artist, wife, mother, crocheting fool, wanderer, creator, knower of adhesive tools.....knower of adhesive tools?!? How funny is that?!? Every mother is good with adhesives and I just had to laugh in recognition!

Not crochet related but glass bead related is another funny writer I came across while reading a thread on "do descriptions matter?" on one of the glass boards (of course they matter but then that's another blogpost not this one) back to the writer - Nikki the Sheep Goddess! In one of her auctions she writes this description for annealing:

"All beads are made by ME, Nikki Carollo, the Sheep Goddess in my studio. Most are Moretti glass, but if I find anything else laying around I'm not against using it either. Everything is kiln annealed so my colleagues don't stone me."

Ha ha ha.... so my colleagues don't stone me! I've got tears rolling down my cheeks! Hats off to you Nikki! Keep those descriptions coming!

Now, I know I'm funny in real life....people do laugh when I make a joke or at least I *think* they're laughing at the joke.... but it's much harder to *write* funny than to *be* funny. I admire those who can do pull it off. Bravo!

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Thursday, October 26, 2006......

Here's another in the Glyph series - This one is entitled "happiness." I've been showing these on the glass boards to give them some exposure. Although I am a little reluctant because of some of the members believe if you put your beads out there, then it mean you are giving them permission to copy the *design.* Notice I say *design.* I don't think it does - if you publish a book, you aren't giving everyone permission to copy chapters from your book just because you have put your story in print. To me, it's the same with the beads we all put up in the "show" sections of the boards. So what do you do?

To show your beads or to not show your beads
That is the question

(sorry for the bad Shakespeare paraphrase!)

The dilemma is, if you don't put your beads out there, then no one sees them. People have to see your beads in order to want to buy them. Although, by the tiny number of hits I have on any of the "show" threads I start, no one is seeing them anyways! LOL! I'll keep plugging away - trying to find that happy medium just as many other artists do.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Getting behind.....

October 22, 2006....I've got to clean up my office! I've always been one of those people who has order in disorder but sometimes the disorder takes over! We re-modeled in our bedrooms in August and September and that caused me to neglect my office. So now it's much more disorganized than even I can handle!

Because I haven't talked about it, I'll tell you a little about the remodel - We had texture paint in our master bedroom - yikes! I don't like texture paint! and it was covering all four walls. So you can imagine that my quest was to get rid of it! We knew it would be difficult and messy - we didn't want to sand it and we didn't know how to drywall. I hear drywalling is easy but you need to have some basic carpentry skills, we only have very rough skills - not enough to drywall and make it look better than the texture paint!

We used Ventian Plaster - a finishing plaster with coloring to makes it look like old Italian plaster - yup, it was a hard, messy, sweaty job but we did it and very happy with it! We just covered up that bumpy, ugly texture paint and have a nice soft pale yellow wall.

That job was the reason I neglected the office too long. Now I have a hard, messy but not sweaty job awaiting me in the office! I better get at it!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Glyph Series.....


October 19, 2006....I've finally gotten some good pictures of the Glyph series beads! I've been drawing with enamels on beads but I wanted to develop another way to "draw" with just the glass rods. This is the result! I like the way the beads have turned out. Lots of garbage beads on the way to this but definitely worth the learning process!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Logos and business cards....

October 17, 2006.....I should have a logo shouldn't I? I have business cards and postcards that I change yearly because as I continue to evolve, I don't want the same old newbie beads representing me. I don't consider the bead pictures to be a logo, though - afterall, they aren't the Nike "swoosh." I like the pictures of my work - I like the photo so people know what I look like and I like using my name - but all that is not a logo.

I'm going to have to think about this for awhile and come up with something!

Suggestions and ideas are welcome!

Monday, October 16, 2006

Lost weekend!

On Thursday, I was looking forward to a three day weekend at the torch. By 7 pm Thursday night, I was sitting at home with my son and the power was out. It lasted until Sunday evening!

Thursday night was a night of no sleep - the trees were bent over heavy with snow on the leaves that hadn't turned completely russet yet. They looked like wilted flowers in a vase. Around midnight, I could hear creaking and snapping as they finally yielded to the weight of the wet snow. Trees fell on our house (as far as I can see, no serious damage), a tree fell across our driveway and in the back yard. There was nothing I could do but listen and watch. Since the power was out, my son and I slept on the couches in our great room where we have a fireplace. I kept the fire going all night to keep us warm.

The next morning I awoke to a scene similiar to "Clobbered" (taken from the Buffalo News and photographed by Derek Gee). We were stranded because of the tree blocking our driveway and the 2 feet of snow. My husband was out of town in Michigan where the storm actually started. We spent Friday wondering if he would be able to fly home and trying to keep warm.

Friday night, we ran out of firewood but my husband made it home. He said it was eerie walking through the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport when the power was out - he had to de-plane on the runway and walk through hallways lit only every so often.

Saturday we drove an hour and a half to Rochester, New York and spent a few hours standing in line to buy a generator. Funny how you can bond in a crisis with people you don't know. We stood in line with a variety of other people from Buffalo or those who had family in Buffalo - chatting away as if we knew each other as neighbors. We were fortunate to get one of the 15 generators delivered to the store that day. It kept us warm for the rest of the power outage.

Last night at about 8 pm, the lights came back on. Happy and relieved, we shut down the generator and took it to a family member who was still waiting for power to come back on.

I didn't think about the "lost weekend" of glass. I was just glad to be warm again! I still have alot of trees to clear out from the yard - hmmm firewood for next year?

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Pink!


October 10, 2006....ARGH! That's me tearing my hair out over yet another shade of pink glass available! Do I buy this one? Do I already have it? Will it be pink after I work it in the flame? You're wondering, "hey, Cindy, what's the big deal? It's just pink!"

You're right - but in glass, pink is a hard color to achieve. I don't fully understand the chemical content of the glass except that the pink color is made with gold. You can burn it out and discolor it easily in the flame so it makes it a hard color to produce. Therefore, pink is a much sought after color simply because it's so hard to achieve. When a new pink is offered we all go running but will it keep its color in the flame? The only way to find out is to test the pink glass.

The test beads here today are lavendar-pink - I can live with it. I think the alabastro pink is the best though (that was the pink nude I showed a few weeks ago). Alabastro glass has a reputation for being difficult to work and incompatible (it will cause cracking) with other Italian glass so many of the glass bead artists avoid it. I did too for a long time - sorry I did. It's a lovely pink.

I posted a question to the glass boards and they're all just as confused as I am. No one has heard of the dark pink I'm working with (Super Dark Pink) so they post their 6 different shades of pinks that they have. None of them are the same! Oh no! Which of their six different pinks match the 6 different pinks that I have?!? You call yours "raspberry pink" - mine is called "super dark pink" or is that an odd batch of "orchid" that happens to be light? Is that the dark batch of the normal light pink that was made in the spring of 2005? Or is that the light batch of the dark pink made during the summer of 2006? Is that the "bubble gum" or is that the "cotton candy?" Is that the old streaky pink that everyone talks about with dewy eyes? Or is that the imposter bubble gum pink with the same stripe?

I'm confused!!!

So is every other glass bead maker.

Ahhh oh well! I'm telling you, we don't have to be confused. The perfect pink is here - it's alabastro dark pink!

Monday, October 09, 2006

Practice, practice, practice!

....that's what I'm doing with the glyph series. Some prefer not to do a design over and over again...I do because once I've mastered the skills necessary, I can start to play and create with the design. It's how particular series of beads evolve....another Glyph series bead today....this one is an animal of some kind....the Glyph Series are inspired by ancient cave drawings. I like the way I can take glass, apply basic techniques and make it took old and worn out. The bead is 14mm by 20 mm with a nice large hole - 3mm.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Development.....October 4, 2006

I'm developing in two ways....developing a series of beads, the "Glyph" series which is today's picture and developing myself as a business owner. First, the bead series, "Glyphs"....I've made some of these as donuts on a large holed mandrel - I like it but the technique of creating the glyph on the side of the donut is lost...the pattern created isn't recognizable as a "glyph" but is still very nice. It won't end up in the glyph series but is a lovely set of beads all on their own! This is a good example of the trial and error of development - it isn't what I had in my head, but is lovely anyways!

I recently took a business leadership assessment, the Enneagram. Very popular now within the corporate world - so I have to think about the results in terms of a self employed business person. Despite the focus on corporations, I found the results to be very useful and shed some light on how I approach the business end of things. It's all a process - I continue to develop in business and glass!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Good days and not so good days....

October 2, 2006....We all have good days and not so good days....the orange dot with murrini looks like it's not have such a good day...my lapis blue dot bead was just perfect with the murrini...the orange one is a little off - not completely but looks as if it's not having such a good day. I like the flameworked multi-layered dot beads slumped into a cabachon like this....the murrini in the center...so much so, I'm digging through my rejects bowl to find more!

Yesterday I thought I was having a good day at the torch....all the beads I made I liked....one imparticular was definitely "Bead Review" worthy - that is until I took it off the mandrel! It chipped around the beadhole - ARGHHH!! Not quite enough heat to the ends while I was making it - but it'll go into the slump line and I'm pretty sure it will be a great cabachon!

Off the the torch! Hope today is a good day for you - but if it isn't, you can always put it into the kiln and slump it!