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| They come from A Grain of Sand, beware!, there are lots of neat things there! |
Showing posts with label fireballbeads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fireballbeads. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Bead Table Wednesday
This all started with a free pattern from Bead & Button... I thought that the Peyote rivets were really neat so tracked down the 2 hole black bakelight connectors....
The original bracelet is all bakelight components... I made my own ring and my own 'rounds'... I 'finished' the top piece yesterday and really don't think that I want to continue the bracelet as 'advertised' because that would put the bakelight 2 hole connectors on the sides of my very tiny wrist... so I guess I have the makings of two nearly identical bracelets.. I can use my ring as part of my closure and make a few more frosted purple 'beads'
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Glass Artists helping out Hurricane Sandy Victims
A group of Artists on Artisan Whimsy have banded together to help out Hurrican Sandy Victims. The group we are donating to is UWSLoves (UWS=Upper West Side in NYC)
I will be donating 25% of my online sales to UWS from now until the end of November. So why don't you buy yourself a Thanksgiving or early Christmas gift from my etsy store and help out Hurrican Sandy victims.
Samples of items you can find in my etsy store
I would be happy to make this toggle in any colour (within reason) that you want! I will donate the 25% from all Custom orders that are paid for by Dec 2!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Bead Soups here! The Big Reveal!
Welcome to the 4th Bead Soup Party Reveal... there are 362 particpants from 5 continents and 21 countries... that's a lot of soup!
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| What I Received ! |
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| What the necklace looks like on a human, although there are family members that question the fact that I am human! I took this picture ..it's hard to keep a camera flat in a mirror.... |
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| The toggle got turned into earrings, since I had another one just like it and it was much to small for the finished necklace |
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| The necklace on a mini mannequin |
strand # 2 is free form peyote using blue nymo thread and any beads that I thought were even close to the right colour got incorporated into this strand!
strand #3 is kumihimo done with size 11 seed beads on sewing thread I think strand 3 took somewhere between 24 and 36 hours to do and after I was half done I really thought that one of the threads should have been blue beads .. but there was no way I was starting over!
What my partner Ann did with the beads I sent her is here (#288)
& here is a list of all the bead soup participants. (I'm number 23)
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Almost Wordless Wednesday & Bead Table Wednesday (BTW)
To see what's on my bead table... just click here ; although items from my stash have already joined the beads that Ann sent me, but you don't get to see those until the 17th!
OK this is going to be anything but a wordless post! The picture is a 13 inch fused plate of mine that is in my gallery.. and considering that I didn't move the plate the picture is much better than I expected!
Last week I got an invitation to a show in Saskatoon at the Craft Council Gallery call
'Treasures from the private Collections of Fine Craft patrons'
I got the invitiation because I have a piece in the show..
I feel extremely honored to be included, especially since I left Saskatchewan 10 years ago!
Think there are about 45 pieces in the show.
My plate is on page 7 the series is called 'sticks and stones' .
The significance of todays picture/plate is that it's a more recent plate in the series and one I still have access too to photograph!
Friday, February 25, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Book Report... 'The Art of Beaded Beads' Starving Artist Blog
I haven't done a book report since I was in High School.... and I won't tell you how long ago that was, but if my graduating class every had any reunions; I've missed 10, 20, 25, 30 and 35..... Actually, that's not entirely true I seem to remember rewriting a few book reports 6 years ago for my son....
THE BOOK 'The Art of Beaded Beads' Exploring Design Color & Technique
edited by Jean Campbell
Publisher LARK
I got this book last summer to help focus my new found passion for seed beads... And since I'm a bead maker, what could be better than a different way to make components or BEADS!
I run a gallery all summer and on nice days between customers I sit outside, so this summer I tried to turn a lap-full of tiny beads into a single larger bead. (slightly more successfully than spinning straw into gold...) .
The first bead I attempted was the tropical Bouquet Bead... First you make the leaves then you add flowers, the design calls for 3 flowers... I couldn't see the point of the 3rd flower as it would be on the bottom so mine has 2 flowers.
Then I moved onto the tetrahedron bead.... ("A shape with 4 triangular sides") I fell in love with these beads and made little triangles for a couple of weeks, they make great earrings.
Then I tried to make a Dodecahedron... There isn't actually a mistake in the instructions on this bead but the layout of the text instructions could have used a bit more thought... This bead took me 4 days and I will never make another one... It's lovely but....
I also tried the Sea Anemone Bead... I can't get this one to work properly even though it's suppose to be easy.... The shaping on this bead is done by changing bead size ... (Bead size trivia: Seed bead size is the number of beads that can be strung on an inch of thread, So if you have beads and don't know what size they are just string them and measure an inch! The Japanese ones will be exact, the rest you may have to sort out the wonky beads....) Yes this project called for Japanese Seed Beads, I only have Japanese beads in size 15, my 8's and 11's are just 'cheap' seed beads... which could explain why this bead is not working....
DO I like this book yes, although I'm not sure what criteria was used to organize it, as shape & style & difficulty of bead projects seems to be totally random. The book starts off with instructions on how to do all the basic 'weaves'...however, I found the instructions for individual beads to be more than adequate... knowing exactly what stitch I was doing seems overated! I can see myself attempting lots more of these beads this winter, the book features instructions for 40 beads. That leaves me 36 more to try!
I think one of the nicest things about making stand alone beads is being able to use them in an original project once they are finished... the great coloured images throughout this book are all of 'beads'. There are few examples of finished jewellery so if you do turn the finished projects into jewellery you have something that is uniquely yours!
Other member book reviews!
Galadryl Design
THE BOOK 'The Art of Beaded Beads' Exploring Design Color & Technique
edited by Jean Campbell
Publisher LARK
I got this book last summer to help focus my new found passion for seed beads... And since I'm a bead maker, what could be better than a different way to make components or BEADS!
I run a gallery all summer and on nice days between customers I sit outside, so this summer I tried to turn a lap-full of tiny beads into a single larger bead. (slightly more successfully than spinning straw into gold...) .
The first bead I attempted was the tropical Bouquet Bead... First you make the leaves then you add flowers, the design calls for 3 flowers... I couldn't see the point of the 3rd flower as it would be on the bottom so mine has 2 flowers.
Then I moved onto the tetrahedron bead.... ("A shape with 4 triangular sides") I fell in love with these beads and made little triangles for a couple of weeks, they make great earrings.
Then I tried to make a Dodecahedron... There isn't actually a mistake in the instructions on this bead but the layout of the text instructions could have used a bit more thought... This bead took me 4 days and I will never make another one... It's lovely but....
I also tried the Sea Anemone Bead... I can't get this one to work properly even though it's suppose to be easy.... The shaping on this bead is done by changing bead size ... (Bead size trivia: Seed bead size is the number of beads that can be strung on an inch of thread, So if you have beads and don't know what size they are just string them and measure an inch! The Japanese ones will be exact, the rest you may have to sort out the wonky beads....) Yes this project called for Japanese Seed Beads, I only have Japanese beads in size 15, my 8's and 11's are just 'cheap' seed beads... which could explain why this bead is not working....
DO I like this book yes, although I'm not sure what criteria was used to organize it, as shape & style & difficulty of bead projects seems to be totally random. The book starts off with instructions on how to do all the basic 'weaves'...however, I found the instructions for individual beads to be more than adequate... knowing exactly what stitch I was doing seems overated! I can see myself attempting lots more of these beads this winter, the book features instructions for 40 beads. That leaves me 36 more to try!
I think one of the nicest things about making stand alone beads is being able to use them in an original project once they are finished... the great coloured images throughout this book are all of 'beads'. There are few examples of finished jewellery so if you do turn the finished projects into jewellery you have something that is uniquely yours!
Other member book reviews!
Galadryl Design
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Jaws.....slurp
One of the Etsy Teams that I'm a member of made up this cute little story today
' You're Going to Need A bigger Boat '
TO get you in the mood here's the Jaws theme song!
And since I really don't like blog posts with no pictures.... here's another poor little dolphin capture forever in a bead!
' You're Going to Need A bigger Boat '
TO get you in the mood here's the Jaws theme song!
And since I really don't like blog posts with no pictures.... here's another poor little dolphin capture forever in a bead!
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