Translation from Mind to Making..

My mind is a sometimes dizzy place, with way too many thoughts bouncing around and then going off on tangents..which then forces me to work backwards towards my original thought similar to that guy in Memoir.

This idea of 'leveling up' (Scott Pilgrim reference, sorry lol) has been on my mind and using raking w/ stringers has been something on the back burner for a while now.

I finally decided, "what can it hurt?", and just jumped in w/ no planning. Turns out, for me at least, that every d'oh! moment eventually leads to improving my technique. The first d'oh! happened when I dropped one of my brass micro shapers on the concrete, and wouldn't you know it, it was the supa sharp pointy tip that hit the concrete and caused a slight kink on the end. Which worked great at raking the stringers today!

The next time was when I blew a hole out on a hollow big hole bead and I was determined not to chuck it since I'd already spent 20 min. making it. Once I patched the hole, it had an interesting raked edge that my squirrely brain stored as an idea for later on. There's been a few other instances but I don't want to bore you or me listing them all.

While the execution of the idea is still a little rough, perseverance will now be my friend until I'm satisfied.

I'll try and get pics tomorrow after they're done tumbling.

Pile of Hollow Big Hole Bead Lovlies

I hope I'm not the only one that loves these- still debating on whether to just core w/o beadcaps or do the whole she-bang w/ coring and double beadcaps. Sell them separately or in a set? Having a hard time making up my mind on this one..perhaps you can help me decide.

Z-99 Experimentations

Time has certainly flown during my absence of blogging. Didn't mean to be gone and have the shop closed for so long- time moves differently when a spouse is deployed and the New Year wasn't as big of a deal as his R&R coming up will be. I've been experimenting when it's warm enough in the studio to fire up the torch, here are a few:The beads above are made w/ a hard to find glass- Z-99 Purple Rose Special. The Zimmerman family has stopped production and decided not to sell their glass recipes to the industry. It is a wonderful and reactive color, these beads were made on a base of Effetre White- yep, just white- w/ various frits and powders added.

Not to worry, I'm still in love w/ making my organic hollows. Here is a set that hasn't been etched yet:
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and shared it with the ones you love. This gal knows better than to make any resolutions, but perhaps we'll be seeing each other a little more frequently at this space :)

And Again..two more sets for Etsy

These look nice together- totally by accident that I put that strand of encased crackled beads together and after setting them next to the hollows noticed how nice they look together..hmm, I can see a new set in the future w/ a mix of matte and encased beads.

These will be going up shortly on Etsy :)

Going up Tomorrow on Etsy

ETA in Etsy shop ---> after breakfast, before laundry :)

Updating Etsy Today

Right-o, off to start adding work to Etsy, then off to enjoy the rest of the day :)I love the striations and reactions from the Red Copper Green in the set above- top left, third down and bottom.

Missing the beach and hearing the ocean..

Totally groovin' w/ the colors in this set..love the reds.

Briefly Surfacing

Just wanted to show some pics of the beads I've done in the last day or so:
Ok, back to the torch while Z is napping..more pics later.

Slow Progress

I feel like the tortoise instead of the hare trying to get my inventory built up for my first show next month. But I suppose since the tortoise won in the end, this sort of progress is good. My Etsy shop will be lacking in love and new items since most everything will be going w/ me to Oakland.

After making these and falling in love it reminded me of a friend saying she could never work in an animal shelter since she'd fall in love w/ all the animals and want to bring them home. My beads have metaphorically morphed into cute animals that I don't want to let go, lol. But just like at the animal shelter, these beads need good homes, too. :)

One possible reason I may not want to let them go is due to the amount of work invested into each one. The beadcaps are made by me as is the bead and then they're cored after all the prepping is done on the tubing. At least an hour's time is put into each bead- this isn't including the times in the kiln for annealing the bead and firing the bronzclay.

Now I'm just waiting on more sterling and copper tubing to come in the mail so I can get more made. Ordered from Metalliferous and they were super nice and had awesome prices!

I've been field testing a smaller peg w/ my Impress Bead Liner and it's mucho easier adding bead caps instead of trying to just core the bead. I'm not sure why, maybe it's just me. Doing beads like this also makes me think sterling tubing is a little more 'elastic', I guess you could say, than copper. Or maybe I just need to compensate and cut the copper slightly shorter. Anyhoo, it's still a work in progress, but I'm so glad to be able to make this style that has been stewing in my mind for a while now.

Let's just hope they do well at the show..

More Work

Another BIG focal that has been cored w/ bead caps in Bronzclay. I had to grind on my Impress Bead Liner to get it to fit, lol. After about 30 minutes of futzing around and learning about carbide grinders, it finally fit *snugly* into the press.
The sterling silver cored big hole bead is up on Etsy. Love the colors! I'm crazy about the blue and mustard look together.

Etsy Listing for Aug. 27th

Just listed these on my Etsy - the colors are great in these, prolly my favorite set so far.

Vine and Crackle Hollow Set

Another set destined for Etsy, let's hope it sells like the others. I'm running out of hollows to list..must torch later. These have been etched and I love the sound they make when they rub together, kind of like stones.