My Etsy Update

I've been making a big effort towards keeping my Etsy shop filled with new items. Today I've posted a few new brooches that are perfect for welcoming Spring (I love this one pictured above), some Pandora style beads and a Pieced Heart necklace....

This pin is a bit smaller. A great item to include in an Easter basket! Would look perfect pinned to a headband.

I love this glass. I can't remember which one it is?? Its either Double Helix or Dali Lama...hmmm, I hate when I forget what I've used! Anyways, please stop into my shop and get yourself something for Spring....Yes, its just around the corner!

3 Beautiful Things

1. Going to sleep with relatively very little snow on the ground and then awaking to find almost a foot of white untouched snow. I'm not typically a winter lover but it does make for some beautiful scenary. Bonus: Snow Day from school!

2. Shopping at Target yesterday and the Spring items were out in bloom throughout the store. On a wintery snow storm day it was simply beautiful to see signs of Spring.....bright colors, flowers, patio furniture...bathing suits. I love the month of March since it is the arrival of Spring!!

3. Sight. Most of us our so lucky to have our sense of sight. I work with a blind student and often have to stretch myself to describe things that are typically visual. The beautiful colors, the contrast of snow and sky, patterns, faces, emotions....etc......Its wonderful seeing all that our eyes can take in.

Whack Your Head Wednesday

See The Positive

#33 "The human mind," notes scientist W.I. Beveridge, "likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with a similar energy." When you judge new ideas, focus initially on their positive and interesting features. This will counteract a natural negative bias, and help yu to develop more ideas. What's positive about the idea?


~Roger von Oech's Creative Whack Pack

Silly Me~OWOH Winner

Gosh, with all that went on last week I neglected to post my OWOH winner! Using the random number generator the winner was..................number 219, Laurie Jackson! Her bracelet has already been mailed out  and I hope she loves it as much as I loved making it.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment during our Magic Carpet ride. I wish you all could have won.....but that would have been a very large order to fill! Hope to see  you all soon....I'll take a ride again next year :)

3 Beautiful Things

Even among the most challenging of times beautiful things exist.

1. The love people show towards each other during times of trouble. Our school recently lost a 7 year old little boy due to a shooting. People genuienly supported each other and the students family.

2. A ride in a new sports car.

3. Having fun Snow Tubing with family. Time spent together is always worth a million.

Whack Your Head Wednesday

Make A Metaphor

#26  Philosopher Ortega y Gassett: "The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man." The key to metaphorical thinking is comparing unrelated concepts and finding similarities between them. Example: what do a cat anda refrigerator hae in common? They bothhave a place to put fish.; they both have tails; they purr;they come in a variety of colors and they both have a lifetime of about 15 years. What similarities does your idea have with cooking a meal? Conducting an orchestra? Buiding a house? Raising a child? Waging war? How can these help you understand your idea in a new way? What can you compare your idea to?


~Roger von Oech's Creative Whack Pack

Pandora Beads

I have a very dear friend who convinced me to make "Pandora" beads a few years ago. She was a manager of a specialty shop that carried my work and is just always full of great ideas. So I made them and they sold very well. Then as things go, I fell out of love making them. I don't know why. I guess I just got bored. BUT, I've been re-invigorated to make them again! Here are a few of my new creations.

Photographing reactive glass is tricky.....at least for me. I know its all about the lighting but I admit I need more practice. Just note they do look so much more striking in person. And yes, these are silver cored.

I like these since they do not look like anything you can get retail wise from Pandora or Troll. Yeap. I need to work on my photography skills once again.

Well, I hope you will pop over to my Etsy Shop and pick up one or two of these lovelies. If your a Pandora or Troll person, you'll love the great prices!

Bead Soup is Now Served

Here is my bead soup creation. My husband remarked that its different then what I usually create but I love it. For me, the whole idea of a mystery bead soup mix is to push yourself into new places to see what happens.

The beautiful beads I received from my partner, Lisa,  had a vintage quality to them and the focal, in contrast, was more contemporary and highly textural. I sat with the beads and mulled around ideas until I came up with this. I was inspired by a fellow designer, Blynn of Recklace Necklace, who uses vintage elements in her work. I had bunches of these metal flowers laying around and at the last minute decided to use one as a focal.

Because I felt that the focal bead was so different from the rest, I decided to make more large holed beads with a similar feel. Each was different still but united by the blue/green range of colors found in the reactive glass. I linked them with a barbed wire type of link....at least thats what I call it.

I hope you like what I did with my lovely bead soup mix. This was great fun and really pushed me. I hope to be part of another Bead Soup party in the future!

Etsy Blogger of the Month

Our Blogger of the month for February is Tilt Creations! Congratulations! I hope you will take a moment to pop over and see all the wonderful handmade totes, backpacks, messanger bags and purses. I love the fabrics used too.....hmmm, they could even inspire me to make some beads using these fabric designs.

Sad News

I had fully intended on posting my Bead Soup necklace yesterday however early yesterday morning I recieved a very sad bit of news and it just rocked my world. I will keep this short and with just necessary detail: One of my first grade students was killed Friday night. If you are local, you have heard of this in the news already. He died at the hands of his father. I have been very emotional about this and am having difficulty comprehending how someone can harm a child.

Please say a prayer for this young childs mother and please be kind to others. You never know what type of hardship they are enduring or issue they struggle with. Its just to bad we people can't love one another. Empathy and compassion at least for today.

3 Beautiful Things

I'm really enjoying my Friday posts of 3 beautiful things. It really gives me the opportunity to reflect and focus on all that is right and wonderful in life. Its a shift in thinking......making more of the positive and less of the negative.

1. Yesterday was our Snow Sculpture Olympics held during art class. Thru an adults eyes the snow was terrible, unworkable and not enough. BUT the children embrassed the snow that we did have and created fantastic sculptures! It really was a lesson in making due with what you have and these 7 year olds really taught the adults a lesson. They figured how to make "unworkable" snow work. Thats why I love children.

2. Spend vs. Make. At the end of the each class a Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were presented to the teams with the most complete sculpture and who had all team members participating. It was hard to choose since everyone was involved and having fun. The night before I had shopped around for plastic medals but was surprised at how much they cost. I decided to just make them instead with tag board and glitter....cheap, easy. It was so touching at how thrilled the children were to earn these and throughout the day I saw them still sporting their medals.

3. I have a routine of treating myself to Starbucks once a week. Yesterday was my day. I see the same people getting their coffee everytime I go in. Ahead of me was this young guy. Very polite and friendly. We actually chatted with each other for a brief 3 minutes but discovered how much we had in common. Its nice to talk with people and connect even for brief moments.

Whack Your Head Wednesday

Slay A Sacred Cow

#39 There is a saying that Frederick the Great (1712-1786) lost the Battle of Jena (1806) meaning that for twenty years after his death, the army perpetuated his successful organization instead of adapting to meet the changes in the art of war. Many rules outlive the purpose for which they were intended. What rule, policy, or way of thinking has been successful for you in the past but may be limiting you now? What can you eliminate? What sacred cow can you slay?


~Roger von Oech's Creative Whack Pack

Bead Soup~ Still Cooking

Today is the deadline for having our Bead Soup creations ready. BUT...mine is still cooking! Components are made, the recipe has been formed, but more time is needed for the finishing. A cook can't be rushed so please pop over to see my results on Saturday since I have work committements until then  :)

Saint & Sinner

In early spring last year I began a body of work based on our own duality...good & evil or what I call Saint & Sinner. These are some hollow fine silver charms I made for this theme. I was recently watching LA. Ink and smiled when I learned that Kat von D was using this same theme for a new book based on her tattoos.

One side has a banner that reads Sinner for those moments when you're naughty.....

The flip side reads Saint. I love the old, kicked around quality I've given the silver too. Visit my etsy shop where I have this on sale later today.

Toggles

I really like my large glass & silver toggles. I've been creating these for maybe a year or so and each one has been more exciting to me than the last. At this point, I'm fixated on a more organic earthy quality to the glass work. To me it looks fitting for the silver that is at the core.

I like that both sides are nice to look at and that the glass also has silver embedded into it. The reactive glass provides another level of interest to the toggle too.

Since these toggles have some weight to them I use them as focal closures. You can see some example of this under Necklaces on my website.  I'm also considering offering these in my etsy shop. Do you think this is a good idea?

Plumb

These are a few of my newest beads....Plumb Bobs. I continue to use a more muted palette that includes some reactive glass, fine silver and silver leaf. The center one didn't photograph great....in real life its much more vibrant.

   

I really wanted to play with the idea of allowing the glass do its thing balanced with a certain amount of control...if that makes sense. Part of the beauty of reactive glass is what it does on its own.

I was inspired by Klimt's work, his color choices and the use of gold. Although there is no gold in these beads, there is a metalic luster.

Just having fun exploring a different side of me and pushing myself to do new work. I don't know if I've arrived anywhere yet but I'm on the road.

3 Beautiful Things

I'm going to keep my Beautiful Things post short & sweet this week.

1. Knitting. Last night was at a knitting class filled with about 12 women. Just the collection of all of us together focused on the same task and enjoying friendly converstion was great!

2. On Wednesday mornings I host a before school art club. Its an early start to the day for second graders but it soooooo wonderful to have a room filled, there are 45 students, with energy, excitement and focus. They love being there and I love hosting this creative club.

3. Young again. Today I had a student ask me how old I was. She said I looked like I was 26. What a beautiful thing :)

My Monthly Challenge~February

I like the idea of having a challenge of some sort. At times, the creative muse needs a nudge to get inspired. I really like Art Bead Scenes monthly challenge and I have tried my hand at posting challenges (I think I did it twice) but I always burn out....BUT, a monthly challenge sounds better than a weekly one as I had pathetically attempted.

So here it is, I am starting my own Monthly Challenge for myself and anyone else who would like to participate.

Here is How to Enter:

1. Create a bead or piece of jewelry that is based on the image/theme of the month. If entering a peice of jewelry, please don't just string beads but push yourself to explore new materials, techniques and ideas. Beads can be made from any material such as paper, clay, lampwork or seedbeads. Or anything else I may have excluded.....Its all about the beads!

2. Post your creation on our flickr group.

The purpose of this challenge is to find inspiration and to then inspire others by what you have made.

February challenge

Since I missed the January challenge I wanted to pop over to Art Bead Scene to see what the February Challenge was all about. I actually find this piece a bit more inspiring. Althought I did have ideas for the winter landscape from January's challenge, I was just to caught up in my dog's state of health to act on that one.

I hope to be out in the studio this weekend and I plan on creatiing some beads with this painting in mind. I also have to work on my bead soup project.

Whack Your Head Wednesday

Take A Whack At It

#49 You can't hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can't catch fish unless you put your line into the water. You can't make your idea a reality unless you take a whack at it. If you want to be a singer, go sing. Sing in the shower. Sing for your friends. Join the choir. Audition for a musical. Start now. As adman Carl Ally put it, "Either you let you life slip away by not doing the things you want to do, or you get up and do them." How can you take a whack at your idea?

~Take from Roger von Oech's Creative Whack Pack