Almost Wordless Wednesday & Bead Table Wednesday

I bought myself this on St Paddy's day... I thought a green Orchid was a most appropriate gift... And since it's still thriving after 2 weeks it doesn't look like it's going to commit suicide because it didn't approve of the move!

And on my bead table... (OK it's the floor) is my prize from coming second in the tassel challenge.... The prize took 31 days to get from CA to a small Canadian Island off the coast of ME! That is a new record for me for parcels coming from the US... someone didn't like the way Sig wrote my address... but you can clearly see that what they rewrote is exactly what was there in the first place!

This was the tassel and 'chain' that I won with... here's the link to the original challenge!

Starving Jewelry Artist Carnival Blog.... " Who and what inspired me...."

Back in the mid 90's before we/I wasted 5 + hours a day playing on the computer I was a flat glass artist... I made stained glass birds... leaded panels and large fused pieces... then I took a hand formed metals class class at Series in Red Deer think it was '94and saw some glass beads in the teachers show case made by Heather Trimlett.....   I'd already met glass beads at Pilchuk in '91... but they didn't inspire me to make my own..... 

Scroll back in time to '94 and  read about my attemps to make beads on a hot head! http://www.fireballbeeds.com/bio.html

Heather's Beads still inspire me I'd love to make hollows that are as neat as hers.... Although I'm now lusting after taking a class from this woman too...  Jari Sheese  She's teaching in FL in April... but she's teaching Easter weekend.... There are lots of cheap flights down mid week but the flights go through the roof to get home after Easter Monday... So that class isn't in my immediate future!

Some day I may even take a class from Jerry or Heather.....  In  '95 I got a video made by Kate Fowle  .... So I try to blame all my bad habits on her! Four  years ago I actually did get to take a class from her in CT....

What I can't get over is what you can get on the internet now...  I actually had a computer in '94 but I certainly didn't have an internet connection... and could scroll through pages and pages of beads....

Wonder how different my beads would be if I'd started off actually knowing what a bead was suppose to look like rather than spending 5 years locked in my studio by myself making wonky glass blobs!

The beads scattered through out this post are my latest listings on etsy and have no relevance to the blog!

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!

J3 Jewelry
BeadSire
FamiLee Jewels
Bead Sophisticate

Almost wordless Wednesday

This was the gold that I found at the end of my rainbow last week!  I just love those little gold plated seed beads... Guess I should have paired them with green in honour of St Paddys' Day but I've always thought that Red & Gold were the perfect duo!  May have something to do with the fact that my music teacher only had red, gold, blue and silver stars.... So I'm used to seeing ruby red with gold and saphire blue with silver

Starving Jewellery Artists challenge for the month was to use GOLD... well this is gold fill or plate or something but it still LOOKS like gold ....

ABS March challenge.. Sacred Spring

Nave Nave Moe (Sacred Spring, Sweet Dreams) by Paul Gaugin 1894, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

This month our inspiration for the ABS Challenge  was  Sacred Spring, Sweet Dreams.  The artist Gauguin was inspired to paint this by the bright colourful primitive cultures that he encountered after moving to Tahiti in 1891. 



I loved the bright red's and yellows in this paining.. I made a red and yellow murini to decorate my lampwork beads with and used bright copper beads and wire as accents!  I love spring  my first crocus was in bloom yesterday!

With my floral focal I tried to pick up some of the other colours in this months palette.. I had fun cutting and hammering copper sheet and wire to make the 'links' & beads.  There are also a couple of copper and sterling beads , some chain maille and some coppper plated Mykanos clay beads, and my lampworked beads and spacers.

Oops it's THursday...

NO beady  pictures for Wordless Wednesday or Bead Table Whatever...  I spent the weekend .... trying to deTrojan my computer...  Did it work sort of... One of the things I've lost is my automatic spell Checker.. I can not spell or type so  BE PREPARED FOR ERRORS!!!!  Most of my .exe files are also missing so loading programs is a creative experience... and I've lost 2 years of glassrod emails...  that would be 2009 - 2011... why would I loose 2007 & 9 when I can loose the current stuff!

Yesterday when I should have been posting pictures I was on the mainland going to the dentist... I cracked a tooth months ago ... but was waiting for the weather to improve before I booked an apointment....  Well I went ... the fillling glue... whatever you want to call it lasted less than 4 hours... actually it's worse now than it was as there is now a sharp corner gashing at my cheek!  Am trying to book another apointment.. today or tomorrow before my cheek turns into hamburger... but I want to talk to a person not an answering machine... I don't want to give them a chance to ignore me!

 However here's a couple of spring melt progress pictures... I took the first one last wednesday... becuase the grass looked like a giant green heart... What's more appropriate for St Paddy's Day than a giant green heart?

And this one is today.... I actually think we might have spring this year! Happy St. Paddy's Day and enjoy your green beer!

Bead Table Wednesday

This is more or less what my 'Bead Tray'  looked like last night when I finished the bracelet!  This was a 3 day project and inspite of cutting off over an inch of the spiral core .. I think it is still too long!  I really like the toggle though and can see lots of uses for it in other projects!

(The pink you see showing through the 'spikey beads' is part of the spiral weave base.

Pink

I've joined an international blog group called From All Corners... Once a month they come up with a one word theme and we send them a picture... March is Pink....  I do still have that hibiscus.. It doesn't have very many leaves anymore but it still flowers once or twice a year!  I keep moving it around the house trying to find it a happy spot...  I actually think it's the erratic watering that is doing in the leaves not the location!

Tired of Bead Soup?

I took a class from Stephanie Sersich in Rhode Island a couple of weeks ago...  I've been practicing my off mandrel Star Fish ... This one came out of the kiln yesterday... I think he looks like he's dancing!