February challenge- Experimental ART!

Sometimes experimenting with an art form other than the one you spend much of your time with opens creative doors. I love glass and working with it but even so, it can become ho hum if I let it. So, this next challenge involves stepping outside your glass bead box (or whatever artistic outlet you have) and into something way different. Painting, weaving, watercolors, drawing....whatever. Just give something else a try other then glass, beads and jewelry. Oh, come on. If Dale Chihuly does it, so can you!

I'll be posting some of my experimental work at the end of February and I hope you will too.

Loosen up. Have fun. Get crazy....................then post your experiments on our flickr group.

Here is How to Enter:

1. Create a piece of art of two based on theme of the month....February 2011 theme is EXPERIMENTAL ART.  This challenge is to encourage creative growth so don't make beads or jewelry.........experiment with something different!

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.

Broken, cracked, loved, unloved, test batch, beautiful and even ugly

These are the characteristics of beads that make it into my misfit bead box. I just can't toss them away.....I have used these misfits to make some amazing "other than jewelry" objects and today I will be using some to make what I hope will be fantastic! I'll post my creation later in the week once finishing touches are put on :)

So, what do you do with all your misfit beads? When people come to visit my studio they love to paw around in this box to find treasures........ I have know idea what they do with these items but I'm happy that they find something to take home & be creative with.

2011 Resolutions

This is a picture of a chandellier Peter took while in Turkey. He is an international speaker now and has been going on some fasinating trips.

2011 Resolutions
I'm a bit behind on this I know, but extra time to think about it is a good thing...right? So, here are my 3 simple things that I will add extra focus to for 2011;

Biz wise:

1. Sometimes the universe speaks to you and to me its been saying, "slow down and focus". So, this year I will be focusing my attention to working smarter rather than working as fast as I can. I want to do what is within reason to do instead of trying to do it all. Hard for me to do but I will give it a good try.

2. Inventory. I'm really going to work at stocking up. Rather than racing to get orders filled or booth inventory at a good level, I will be working on creating a body of work and then cataloging it too. This really goes into my first goal of working smarter.

3. A website re-do. This one might actually be hard since I have to rely on someone else to get things done. A new site is on the horizon however and the goal is to have it ready by summers end.

Family:

1. More family time is always a good thing. Lets see if we can get a few of those mini vacations planned that we didn't do last year.

Other Stuff:

1. Working with other mediums. I love to paint......so maybe I'll paint a little more.
2. Cooking. Did some of that last year and maybe I'll do a bit more this year.
3. Take lessons. I teach all day and I love it. But, its nice to be the student too so I plan on taking a few more classes in whatever strikes my fancy!

What Resolutions from 2010 Did You Keep?

I was just going back through my 2010 posts to do a year in review here on my blog. What really caught my eye right off the bat was my 2010 list of resolutions. I quickly read through them and was happy to see that I really did stick to most of what I wanted to accomplish in 2010. Here is a quick re-cap;

1. I really did take a bunch of classes this year. Here is who I took lessons with; Trey Cornette, Brad Pearson, Melanie Mortel, Hadar Jacobson (pmc)  and Kirsten R (putting photographs on beads)

2. I did really put more effort into my blogging and etsy shop.....still need to improve on the website. I'm actually thinking of putting a "buy now" button to see how that goes.......who knows.

3.  My studio is still messy but it is in much better shape then at this time last year. Some things you just have to give into and a chaotic work space, for me, is one of them.

Under Family Things..

1. Nope. We really didn't do many mini vacations as we had planned. Conferences and jury duty kinda took care of that.

2.  Yes, we took plenty of motorcycle rides and that was a blast!

Other stuff....

Yes! I finished up knitting projects but also began new ones that need finishing. We had more get togethers with friends as planned and I did take a few cooking classes with friends.

So, I feel that I did a great job at attempting to really attain all that I wanted in 2010. This new year still has me thinking but I hope to outline a 2011 plan soon!

Buttons

I have a bunch of buttons in my etsy shop ready for sale. I love buttons :)

Murrini Making

I've been infatuated lately with making murrini. I think its because of the classes I took last year where in many of them, we used murrini. This one is currently in my etsy shop.

I use any color combination that I think will work. I have a "working box" of rods that I chose my colors from and this box  is over flowing with delicious colors. This too will be in my etsy shop as soon as I figure out a name for it :)

3 Beautiful Things

1.  I'm an early bird. I love getting up early even when I don't have to. It feels like I'm getting extra time in.
This view seemed pretty to me at the early hour of 5:30 the other morning.

2.  Sometimes just simple words or phrases mean so much. Often the negetive statements really get your attention since they can be shocking or unexpected and often are plain melicious. But when you do get some kindness tossed your way, WOW......it is a moment to delight in. I have had numberous kind words said to me recently from both students and adults.......feels great. A beautiful thing.

3.  Walking. I love to walk. It is a great meditation. I take long walks as often as I can. In the warmer months...it is daily. In winter........frequently. Sometimes the wind and cold is too much for me. But, I've been walking a lot lately and yes, its a beautiful thing.