Purple

 Z-99 headpin/thingamajigs. Building up inventory for BABE! 2011.

SRA - finally did it

#V45 Aja Vaz... :)

P.S. Thanks to Yee for posting about it, reminded me to get a number. Here is the link about the importance of having customers know you're a self-representing artist.

The shop will be closed for one more week since hubby is home from his deployment and we have lots of family to visit.

life in general

Life regularly gets in the way of best intentions, here's a recap of the last couple of months:

-hubby is home safe- yipppee!
-been scrabbling to get work ready for the Louisville Gathering for the ISGB.

-attended the Gathering for the first time, although I've been a member of the ISGB for 5 years.

-had a table at the Gathering and sold my work, how wonderously fabulous it was although I felt like a chicken running around w/o its head getting set up..it was a tragic comedy of errors that probably had my booth mates shaking their heads at this frenetic and weird woman talking a mile a minute. (special thanks to Cherine and Hannah..and Mary and Barb, lol)

-met so many people I've admired for years and can't wait to attend next year's 20th Anniversary in Seattle.

-my baby boy turned 3!

-visited with my family.

here's a few pics:

(blogger is fighting me, so this is all for now)

New Work

I've been in a metal etching fog the last few days and here are some of the beads that benefited from it:This first set will be going up on Etsy soon, I'll post an update when it goes in the shop. The two little clear beads are solid but they look so sharp capped and cored, the beadcaps are out of Copprclay that I made ages ago and found them in a container and picked some beads to fit- voila!
This trio will be getting shipped shortly to somewhere special and I'll list (or re-list in the case of the mustard bead) them on Etsy when I get them back.

Aaannnd They're Up!

Going up today on Etsy: Apologies for the somewhat blurry photos, I really need to figure out the settings on hubby's little Nikon..or figure out which camera I need for the business.

Shop Update for Apr. 1st and 2nd

New work going up shortly in the shop:Surely I'm not the only one who loves the colors together in this trio? *slurp* These will be slightly discounted since the two smaller ones were chipped due to my aggressive cleaning..d'oh! Doesn't affect the bead, just makes them less than perfect. Oh, oh- love the bead caps on this one and the crackling is superb. Had a hard time letting go of these capped and cored hollows, so luscious but hard to capture on camera.

Shop Update for Mar. 28/29th

Are you still there? Have I scared you away due to my poor, neglected shop never being open? If not, great! I'll be adding new work over these next few days by editing in batches the hundreds of pictures of beads that have been languishing in wait for me to get the shop re-opened. Here is a quick review of this set that will be listing tonight and into tomorrow, time permitting:

And Another

pic by my wonderful Sis-in-Law:I'm not sure how everyone else who sells online does it- when you take pics do you also think of how the layout will look on business cards, postcards, etc? Since Etsy uses square images for the products, that is the way my pics usually end up cropped. Or maybe you take one or two pics that is a little more..artsy? The plan is to try and take a couple different layout shots for the sets/focals that really set my heart aflutter and save them for business cards..after all, who doesn't like options?

Post Tumble Etching

My Moroccan inspired beads after tumble etching overnight:The more I inspect them, the more imperfections I notice. Practice, practice, practice.
Hopefully I'm not the only one that likes this new direction.

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.

Nesting

My lovely sister-in-law was nice enough to play around w/ her new camera using some of my beads as practice macro shots. Hubby leaves soon, so just the pic:

Tumble Etching Beads

My Mr. is home for some R&R, so this will be a quick post :)
My first try w/ tumble etching was a big FAIL- never use the Harbor Freight grit sampler to etch beads. I ruined a whole bunch of hollow focals, maybe they can be saved when I get my sandblasting set-up ready to use. The two beads below are a few that etched well in around 8-10 hrs. The hollow fumed focals still have very tiny shiny spots from the crackling of fuming, I assume. The ribbed beads didn't tumble etch well since the valleys stayed shiny while the ribs etched well. They are on deck for sandblasting. I'll try and get some pics up for the visual peeps among us.

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 :)

BABE! 2010 and Beads

BABE! was a hit and I'm looking forward to next year's show. Even w/ travel expenses and shipping my work, it was still worthwhile. How lovely it was to see repeat customers and getting to meet new smiling faces.

I ran out of business cards before lunch on Sunday and now know to hold a few back so if there is some who like to grab multiples, they won't take all my stack.

The booth shots were, unfortunately, quickly taken on Sunday since I forgot my camera on Saturday when my table was freshly arranged and all my beads were there. These show a table considerably picked over.

I also got to spend some time with my dear friend, Ann- we spent a day in SF and shopped at the Ferry Building w/ lunch at the Slanted Door. Yum!

This was just a quick shot of us at the BART station before I had to dash back to Mary's house to drive up to Oakland and get set-up before the show.
Now to relax and decompress for a day or two and get ready for the holiday travels.

The work that didn't sell will be going up shortly on Etsy- as soon as it gets to me by mail. Just keep a look out on the blog and I'll update before adding to the shop.

Beads and 100 Followers :)

This past week has been a whirlwind of travel, meeting new people, and trying to get ready for the show next month. Just noticed that I have 100 Followers for this blog!- thanks for your interest and here's to showing you work that continues to grab your attention. Met up w/ some wonderful beady people over the weekend and look forward to our next Carolina Firefiend meeting. One member generously let me borrow her Jim Moore press since my Impress Bead Liner was too slim to fit my big beads inside to core and cap. (these three beads above are a few I've done so far, before running out of bead caps) Another is going to tumble etch some of my hollows to see how it compares to my usual acid etch method.
Thank goodness my wonderful cousin is nearby and willing to babysit my little man, making it possible for me to go to these meetings.