Starving Jewelry Artist Carnival Blog.... "Tell us the story behind your business name"

I've been a full time artist since 1988... so, I've gone through a few names... the first name that got registered was "Black Hole Glass"...  Not sure what year that was first registered, but it lasted until I left Saskatchewan in 2001... why Black Hole... actually my husband came up with that name, he claimed that my studio was a big black hole in the community that sucked in all his tools...  there was a lot of glass sucked in too... but you've already seen pictures of that!

In 2000 I decided that making glass wasn't enough I wanted to sell it too!  So I bought an old building on the beach at a local inland salt water lake (where we already had a cabin) Once we got rid of the pink and green ice cream parlor paint... I opened a seasonal gallery which was suppose to be called the Beach Hut Gallery... however any time the business showed up in print or reviews it somehow got changed to Beach Nut...

Spending summers at the beach was a wonderful way to spend  5 summers ... but 18 months after I opened the store we moved 2500 miles East... I actually commuted back to the Beach for 3 years... I would go west in June and my husband would drive out and pick me up in September....  But in 2004 I sold the building ... (it's now a cute little cafe called  The Village Perk and moved my stock home to New Brunswick and combined the glass studio and the gallery into one business called Fireball Gallery And Studio... I think my beads look like little fireballs... so the name was a no brainer!

Why am I Islandgirl on Etsy.... who knows.. I was a buyer who started to sell.... but I DO live on an island (10 miles long and 3 miles wide... 20 minute ferry ride ... no bridge!)

Check out the Starving Artists Blog  to see what other members are doing and learn interesting facts about  Jewellery and Gemstones!  and here's the links to other members participating this month!

O'Refined 
Sophi
Galadryl
Family Jewels
Bead Sophisticate
Paintinbyfaith
J3Jewelry
Northern Girl Jewelry
BeadSire

Almost Wordless Wednesday

This was my soldering exercise this month ... I wanted to see if I could solder all the tiny loops (23 gauge silver) at the top of the hearts without melting the hearts into blobs!

Hearts are all my lampwork/flamework.

Come check out this piece and the other entries for The Starving jewelry Artists Feb Challenge....
February's challenge is to make something that you love, that represents love, for Valentine's Day.

Bead Table Monday

Attempting to knit a scarf using seed beads... I get to knit 2 or 3  rows then I get to move beads... I started with 220 inches of beads and I use about an inch of beads every 4  rows.  Think this project may last quite awhile!
The triangular 'seed bead'  beaded beads will be earrings and a pendant... Not yet how I'll work the pendant!

Bead Soup Tease

OK what's this.... It's my 4th attempt at a seed bead bail... number 1 was abandoned after 3 rows.. number 2 was finished and got an overwhelming UGLY... number 3 was sewn on ... become part of the finished necklace then got the UGLY vote and was cut off number 4 got sewn on to the focal and then I realized that there was no way off putting the pendant onto the 'chain' and I decided it was easier to remake this bail then it was to try and add thread to sew it on ....

My toggle and one of Lisa's felted balls ...

This project was way out of my comfort level, I like glass and wire!

Total panic set in last week when I lost the focal for 3 days... I had actually started to wonder if the disc was coloured steel and had been carried off by my cat.. we have a magnetic cat door.... Searching snow banks was not high on my list of fun activities!  Where did I finally find it... inside the couch. 

One WOrld One Heart Winner

Friday Feb 18th 2 pm Atlantic time....

Drumroll....

 I just put  #'s 1 -131 through Random.org and got #15 which is Fat Dormouse from the UK... she will be getting the heart bead and one or two more beads... providing she answers my email... I actually picked 4 numbers so if she doesn't respond within 48 hours I'll use the second number.....

Thanks for participating in the final OWOH!

I'll post a picture of  the extra beads when I figure out what they'll be!

Edited .... Saturday morning... Alison lives in France not the UK.. I didn't look beyond her email address and she has contacted me!   AND... I actually won something useful!  I got some hand knitted dishclothes  from kath001 in Texas!

Almost wordless Wednesday

Isn't this snow pretty!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

MY finished tassel.... Here's a link to all the finished tassels so far, deadline is feb 11!

Bead Soup has arrived!

This is the picture that Lisa posted... of what she was sending me... I did have the pearls figured out but made them the wrong colour! Now that I know what everything is I can see some of the beads in that picture!



Lisa used to be a card maker... so I displayed what she sent me on top of the card she included with my goodies.... The felted balls are made by Lisa...



This is the toggle and the focal... I do have ideas but I have 20 days to figure out which of my many ideas is going to work....

And to see what I sent Lisa click on her name!



This was my view out the window while I was photographing the beads... isn't it pretty!

Art Bead Scene Blog: January Monthly Challenge Winner

Art Bead Scene Blog: January Monthly Challenge Winner

I won! OK so it's just a random draw but I've been wanting to try my beads on silk cords and arent' those polymer clay beads awesome!!!

Scroll down to Tuesday Jan 25.. for my blog on this challenge & my entries!

And since I really can't stand having a blog post with no images... here's a close up of my 'copper bead'!

Bead table should be wednesday.. I made it Monday... and I'm doing it on Tuesday....

Look what I found on my bead table this week.... Actually my bead 'table' is a wooden tray.. with a custom polar fleece and foam insert... and yes it was abandoned on her blankie so what should I expect. This picture was actually taken last week... as soon as the sun comes up (April... May?) I'll add a picture of what I made with that strand of tiny pearls (which took 4 weeks to come from China... but they came!)



Pearl beaded beads are just over .5 of an inch.