Growth

The theme for the Carnival Bloggers this month is Growth...

Well that's obvious to anyone that lives North of the 45th Parallell ...NEW GROWTH! Little green plants, crocuses, daffodils, everything that signifies longer days and warm weather...

SPRING = GROWTH!

But this blog is suppose to be about art beads..., not crocuses and daffodils! So were does Growth come into MY Art Beads... well I started in '94 on a hot head.. and made very wonky not terribly round beads for quite awhile... once I moved onto a Nortel Minor they got more round but they were still on the small side.... I actually made round beads almost exclusively until I met a Lentil Press in 2003?.. I think that's about when I bought it... but it still made small little beads... Flat round small beads instead of donut shaped round beads...

My first big bead that wasn't a workshop bead was Thanks to my cat Duddley.... He used to hang around the bead studio while I was working and I guess he got tired of the boring little round beads that I was making every day... One day he jumped on my lap took his head and pushed my left hand so that I smeared glass from one end of the bead release to the other... and being of a frugal Scotch/Irish heritage I had no choice but to make a bead that size.... Here's Orange Blossom Special.... (yep I still managed to get my floral theme in there!)



I've never looked back!

ABS Carnival Blog... Passion

Passion .. I asked my DH what I was Passionate about, thinking…he’d say something like making beads, jewellery, maybe even knitting… something like that… What did he actually say…” that I was Passionate about my cat Zoom Zoom”… Well he (Zoomies) is awfully cute and very affectionate as long as I’m wearing Polar Fleece….


Since I didn’t get the answer I wanted I tried again… second answer was “your Garden” Ok I’ll buy that … I spend most days in the summer pulling weeds edging gardens… moving plants looking at flowers and wondering what I can buy next year that will do better. For those of you who don’t know me I am stuck here, 7 days a week from mid June to mid Sept as I run a small Gallery featuring work by Canadian Women… and unless I can get my DH look after it for a day… I’m it as far as staff goes! I have a baby monitor in the gallery and receivers all over the house… so I can make beads… and garden… and do chain maille…


My beads… I’m self taught… back in the mid 90’s… there was almost no info then… no pictures of other peoples beads… no nothing! Every couple of years we would drive to Washington state and buy glass from Mike Frantz, (he was still operating out of his garage in those days...) One year he had a floral plunge bead in his display case… I had to know how it was made… He sold me a tungsten pick and I came home and attempted to make them…This is an early one… (That worked!)











I refer to them now as flower garden beads…































My first soft glass instructor was Leah Fairbanks… (I loved her class.. would highly recommend it to anyone who makes beads!) That first class was actually way over my head … but I took a weekend class from her again a couple of years ago and moved my flowers from inside the bead to the surface…












I really do love flowers… I grow Orchids in the house so that I have flowers year round… But when it comes to my beads flowers can be any colour and shape... I have never tried to make an orchid on a bead I probably never will, why muck with perfection!