Sunday Photo

Funny Friday with Stain Boy and Fabulous Links

Stain boy is one of Tim Burton's earliest animations so in preparation for Inspiration Week, here's a short for adults....



About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy got the 411 on some very cool new metal stamps. Though these can also be used with clay as well.

Art Bead Scene
The Art Bead Scene begins a new monthly feature - the ABS Carnival Blog! Let the Carnival begin!

Beading Arts
Do you want to try lampworking? Cyndi's been busy at the torch again.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Cindy takes a bead shopping trip to the Great White North and almost passes out!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie unleashes her grumpy feelings with a little rant and a bead sale!

Jean Campbell
A mystery package is the catalyst for this creative challenge. Up for it? You could win a free book!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew shares his feelings about the awesome new Spring issue of "Stringing" magazine.

Coffee Talk: Next week, Inspiration from Tim Burton

Last November, I went to NYC for Thanksgiving. We packed so much into a few days, I haven't blogged about all of my adventures. Most importantly, I didn't have a chance to blog about my visit to the MoMA and the Tim Burton exhibit. Since Alice in Wonderland comes out next week, I thought I'd do an inspiration week on Tim Burton, a modern surrealist.

Last spring, I did an inspiration week on Dada, Surrealism and Salvador Dali as part of the creative process in developing the Surreal Rhythms beads. A style of bead more in the flavor of Dali and Miro. There is a more modern take on surrealism as interpreted by Burton and his many films. Walking through the MoMA exhibit, I was really inspired to see what modern surrealism looks like in film and art and wanted to write a few posts on the entire experience.

Have you gone to an art exhibit that inspired you?

A Slash of Blue for Rings n Things

Let's just start out with my disclosure of material connection and then on to the good stuff.

I was so excited with the Rings n Things goodie bag I just got, I literally ran to my work bench and made this necklace. I combined the shell pearls, fresh water pearls, and crystals with my lampwork beads to make more of a good thing....borrowing a line from an Emily Dickinson poem, I'm entitling this "A Slash of Blue."

Squeeee!! Rings n Things is readin' my mind!

I'm sooo excited about the most recent goodie bag from Rings n Things! It's like they're readin my mind or something!

Remember the other day when I posted about my new found love, shell pearls mixed with my lampwork beads and crystals? So when I got the goodie bag, guess what was inside?

Yup! I squealed with delight! Shell pearls, fresh water pearls and crystals!

Guess what I'm gonna make with them?

Squeeee!



Ooops and let's not forget my disclosure of material connection!

More IS More

I've been checking out necklaces lately at Kohl's, Etsy and Anthropologie. I'm smitten with the necklaces full of large and small pearls. I kept thinking why not make one with the orphan lampwork beads I have? Each time I go to the torch to make glass beads, I make single colored beads to go with whatever multi colored beads I end up making. Well, I have a whole slew of single colored beads and they are just right to combine with the shell pearls I picked up in New York City last Thanksgiving.

I just love this look - it reminds me of the saying, More is Less but here More is More. This more is simply beautiful and is up at my Art Fire Shop.

Sunday Photo

How Cute is THAT? and Awesome Links....

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

How cute is that??? And how awesome are these links.....

A Bead A Day
Are there color combinations that are always in style? Black and white seems to fit that description.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy reminds you about a thriving jewelry community and how to keep up with news on her site.

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene teams up with Margie Deeb for a color challenge.

Beading Arts
Cyndi's new bead embroidered necklace has everything but a name!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi restrings a strand of cheap plastic beads with a wristlet. Repurposing is great!

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Inspired by the color of summer gardens in a seed catalog, Cindy creates a new bead.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Celebrate the many uses of Ice Resin with Melanie's blog latest blog series which highlights some of her newest works

Jean Campbell
Jean reviews Margie Deeb's (pretty fabulous) Spring/Summer 2010 Color Report.

Jewelry & Beading
Have you heard of Zulugrass? Find out about the wonderful industry that's helping to support the Maasai, and enter to win a piece!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei is still a little nervous to try her hand at using resin. But the pendant in this necklace turned out nice at any rate.

Snap Out of It Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Jean is embroiled in a conundrum--help a girl out!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Working with Jill MacKay's new line of decorative bezels, Andrew experiments with resin and takes advantage of the bezels' deep walls.

Where was I? Favorite place for bead shopping and a reaction

(Photo Credit)

Where was I? Do you recognize the city? I was in Toronto, Ontario! I live in New York State but when I need a big city fix, my city of choice is Toronto. It's less than 2 hours away and is full of all the urban-ness anyone could want.

New York has Fifth Avenue, Toronto has Bloor Street - which is where we stayed in a boutique hotel my husband reserved through Priceline. Living so close and going so often, we use priceline and come up with wonderful hotels but you have to be willing to stay at different places and wait until the last minute to make a reservation. This time around, we stayed at a charming boutique hotel on Bloor.

But the street the bead lover has to visit is Queen West. In one block on Queen West past Spadina are 5-6 bead shops sprinkled in among the fabric and notion shops. Queen West is part of the Fashion District. The Teen loves Queen West because of the indie music shops and outsider fashion.

Here's a shot of the block I'm talking about, you can see The Beadery in the picture.

I'm on a strict no-bead diet but I allowed myself a very limited amount of money to purchase a few things. I haven't bought turquoise in a very long time so I picked up a strand of turquoise drops. Since turquoise is the color for this season, I thought I'd pick up a couple of strands of the ceramic beads. Next to the turquoise were the etched "eye" beads that sang when held next to the deep rose beads. Bing! I'd hit my limit in the stones bead shop! I bought the beads and out I went to the next bead shop.



When I'm on such a limited diet, I look for the unusual, something I don't have that will enhance my lampwork glass beads. Bing! I fell in love with the wooden flower and bird beads and pendants.


Reaching down to make my selection of these light weight lovelies, I almost passed out. I'd forgotten about the warning from my doctor to stand up slowly because of the migraine medicine we were trying. A blood pressure lowering medicine, it lowers my normally good blood pressure to avoid the migraines.

I stood for a little bit wondering what would happen if I passed out on the floor with my husband and The Teen up the street in a music shop. I got my bearings and took my selections to the check out.

I love the flowers and the birds on these charming wood pieces. My concern is that they're very light weight and may not lay as well as I'd like if I put only the wooden beads in a necklace. Interspersed with glass and stones, they'll lay quite nicely.

I stayed well within my teeny bead budget and had a great time. I could have stayed the rest of the afternoon tramping through every single one of the bead shops and then added on the notions but it was not to be. My traveling companions had had enough of sitting in a coffee shop waiting for me.

Once home, I didn't feel myself. The lightheadedness of the bead shop returned and persisted along with feeling like I couldn't breathe.

I spent yesterday in the emergency room. I had several tests and blood work taken. They were looking for a heart "incident."

Everything came back normal. No "incident."

Seems my blood pressure was too low and I was having an allergic reaction to the migraine medicine. Stop the medicine and stop the symptoms.

So today I feel much better. I've got to get to the post office to mail some orders, take some pictures of a necklace I made and make some beads!

I think Toronto is a great place to shop for beads - it's now on my list of favorites. I'll skip the light headedness next time, though.

What's your favorite place to go bead shopping?

ABS Carnival Blog! Beginnings....

While you're figuring out where I am, I thought I would double post the Art Bead Scene's Carnival Blog. The ABS Carnival Bloggers are an dedicated group of ABS readers who have written a post this month on the theme, "Beginnings." I know you'll be as excited as I was to read each blogger's interpretation and how beginnings impact their art and creativity.



Holly explores the source of creativity and where might it really begin?. A swirling spring creek gave her pause to think. (Photo courtesy of Holly.)

Our intrepid Carnival Blogger, Kate, delves into the inspiration to the found in the theme "Beginnings" Read her post and you'll feel inspired too!

Lime Green Eggplant Leaf by Kate.

Mary Harding writes a thoughtful post on the beginnings of art bead and shows off a lovely necklace (see below).



Many of us have an abnormal stash of art beads. I'm sure you'll find kindred spirits in Jen and Kelly who share how their obsession with all things beady began.

Meanwhile, Lyn Foley is striking out into uncharted territory, she has begun a new endeavor in mixed media. Lyn shows the beginning of her new piece in her sketchbook (see below):



On Christine's aptly named blog, Intuitive Sparks, she generously shares a tutorial using one of her artist made lampwork beads which embody the power of a beginning.


(Christine demonstrates how to create a wire spiral.)

Beginnings can mean false starts and Michelle Mach shares with us how beginning a design can be the hardest part.

Sometimes, a beginning can suprise you and doesn't come from our magpie nature to collect shiny things. It can come from a new life. Marcie, a talented seed bead artist LaBellaJoya writes about the beginning for a new addition to her family.


(Turquoise Blue beaded bead by Marcie.)

Beginnings mean so many different things. What does "Beginnings" mean to you?

The ABS Carnival Bloggers have just begun! We'll be posting monthly on the Art Bead Scene and writing about a secret theme. We're always happy to welcome another dedicated Art Bead Scene reader to our Carnival Blogger Group! Interested in joining? Please send an email to Cindy saying you'd like to join.

Until next month...the Carnival Bloggers bid you adieu!

Where in the World is Cindy?

Where in the World is Cindy?

Sunday Photo

(King Tut

Funny Friday and Fabulous Links!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Apparent Trap
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

A Bead A Day
Need a quick gift or new piece of jewelry for work tomorrow? You can't miss with black Econoflex Softflex wire!

About.com Jewelry Making
Ever thought of applying for a jewelry making grant? If so, here is news about how to do so as well as some important tips to follow.

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene Unveils the February Monthly Challenge - Luna Park by Vestie Davis.

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Avoiding work by showing off some new jewelry pieces and other eye candy

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi attempts to explain how one necklace turns into two.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
An addition to the Grunge Bead Series - Grunge Faux Bois!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie shows off the necklace she made for the Bead Soup Party: a delicious blend of stone, pearls, glass, ceramic, and brass ingredients.

Jean Campbell
Jean did a little product scouting in Tucson...check out her favorite finds!

Jewelry & Beading
Cyndi has a great giveaway going on: TWO gift certificates for Murano glass jewelry!!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
The connection you can have with a customer, is a treasure. Collaborating on a necklace, Lorelei and JoAnn create a wonderful keepsake.

Snap Out of It Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Book review by jean: feel like learning new techniques? Try this new text with fab photos!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Using components from Artbeads.com, Andrew creates a Valentine's Day worthy necklace named, "Not Without".

The Teen Turns 18...how'd that happen?

My son (otherwise known on this blog as "The Teen") turns 18 today. How'd' that happen? Seems like I had him yesterday but I think it's always going to feel that way. Best day of my life. I'm so lucky to be Mom to such a fine human being. He's a great reader and one of his favorite writers is John Green so I've posted his vlog on Paper Towns. (I was cinematographer on the in vlog movie shoot.)

Happy Birthday! You're made of AWESOME!

Keeping Inspired....

As I mentioned yesterday, it's the time for seed catalogs. There's alot of inspiration to be had in them, the flowers of Thompson and Morgan English seeds.

Or you can hop on over to Moosey Country Garden to take a look at their "Colour in the Garden" for more spring time inspiration while it's still winter. The pictures below are courtesy of their website.





How are you keeping inspired while the world in blanketed in white?

The Victorian Garden Bee Skep Focal Bead

February is when the seed catalogs arrive to remind me spring is not far away. Always a welcome site in my mailbox, I look forward to seeing warm sun and rich red tomatoes even if it's only in a picture from one of my favorite catalogs, Cook's Garden...



I'm reminded of gardens planted in the Victorian Style and brought back to life by expert gardeners. One of my favorites is the Pilgrim's Rest, an award winner at the Chelsea Garden Show last year.

In Colonial and Victorian times, keeping and encouraging bees in your garden for pollination was common and a bee skep like this one from Bee Craft



It's this tradition and a wishing for spring to arrive that inspired by latest polymer clay bead creation, The Victorian Garden Bee Skep.



Even if spring isn't here, I can create beads that remind me that eventually, spring will arrive.

Sunday Photo

Funny Friday and Fabulous Links!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

About.com Jewelry Making
Catch up on the latest jewelry web news from contests to free tutorials with this handy list of links.

Art Bead Scene
Searching for a way to achieve an etched metal look? ABS has a free tutorial for you!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Are you a follower? Barbe has a giveway for her blog readers.

Beading Arts
A beautiful glass bead becomes the focal point of a Valentine's Day necklace!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi did "knot" stress out making this new necklace!

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
With the help of Vintaj brass, Cindy whips up a set of tethered butterfly earrings with her bronze floral charms.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie reveals the delicious ingredients she received for the Bead Soup Party.

Snap Out of It Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Kim Miles! Who makes prettier Valentine's day, or "just for yourself" gifts than Kim? Wait til you see what she has up her sleeve...the Ace of Hearts, so to speak!

Strands of Beads
Melissa is giving away a $25.00 gift certificate from Artbeads.com this week!

Grunge Beads- Faux Bois in Color or Noir

Thank you for all the lovely compliments on the grunge beads! I've decided to dedicate a page to them on my website so check them out. I put up the Faux Bois pendants first, one in black and white (noir) and the other in color.





Which one do you like best?

Flying Ace

Last week, the studio was at 8 degrees - needless to say, I wasn't able to get in there and melt any glass. Yes, the hot kiln helps to warm the studio but once the outdoor temperature goes down to 35 degrees, nothing will heat it. So, in my never ending quest to keep fingernails instead of biting them down to the nubs because I can't melt glass, I'm happily kneading and rolling polymer clay.




I'm calling this one, Flying Ace. I love the little propeller and wings. I've thought for a long time that my gear beads needed a bead-pal to go with it and Flying Ace is just the bead to do it! Hey, if you're name has Ace in it, you know it's gonna be good!