Only one picture today. Pinks lots of girly girl pink beads with raised pink stringer. I am not a pink girl but I really liked this color combo.

Hi these are a couple of special orders that I finally got finished up today. Sometimes it takes me a while when it is for a specific person or reason. It just seems harder when I don't have to be specific. I know that is not a good thing and I am trying to be much better about it. Sort of a goal for this year.

Some new beads for your viewing pleasure. Called "Black and White and Red All Over". One of the days this last week when I was in the barn I jsut started with the black frit and making it on the white beads and I got that very old joke in my head and then all I could make that day were black, white and red beads.

Hi since I was not home yesterday to make any new beads and since I was up till midnight last night and did not get any old beads photographed I thought that I should show you what my friend Mary did with yet anouther of my beads.

I just have to show you all the new jeans that my mom just sent me. She did all the embroidery on them for me and I get to wear them tomorrow for an evening show I am doing in Mitchell, SD.
It is called Women in Blue Jeans and if you check my web site www.tanyamcguire.com you will find a link to the show.

I also want to show you these new beads but, they are so hard to photograph. I just love all the textures and colors that come out in them you really do not see it in the pictures. I decided that they remind me of petrogliphs. And they are so much fun to make that I want to make more.

Another bracelet from my friend Mary that uses my beads in amongst all that fringe. She sure gets more work done than I do.

My friend Mary just sent me this picture of a bracelet she made with my beads. It is very frogy don't you think?

Hi again, I wanted to show off some of the new sets of beads I made with the beads I have been making lately. I really like the middle set with the etching, it looks so organic and luscious. The other picture is the new rack that my hubby and I have been working on. I am going to use it this week and if it works the way I think I am going to make another one. Always looking for that better way to display and set up for shows.

Hi I thought I would show you some of the new etched beads I have been making today but boy was it hard to get decent pictures. I really do not like them but it was the best I got. I also make this huge new lentil yesterday and love how it turned out.

This is the few little focal beads I managed to get made yesterday, I have a few more in the kiln now. I want to do some mix and match sets with these once I get part of them etched. Oh and I made an awesome focal lentil today I will have to show you tomorrow.

Well good morning hope everyone is warm and has power. We have been told all weekend we would get snow and other than a few flurries it has pretty much been nice and sunny just amazingly cold. It is -2 out there now and the Internet says it feels like -32 because of the wind. Do not know if I will go to the barn today or not it is so cold I might just stay in and do inside chores. Hubby and son are both off again today so there is lots to do.

Well I have a new obsession. I have been working on these the last few days. I made a few of them last fall and I wanted to make them in every color but have just now gotten to making them. I am etching some of them as you can see by the top picture. I made some focals to go with some of them for sets today but only a few things did not go well in the studio. It was cold out there and then my son and husband kept running in and out so that my feet and fingers never got warm and the glass kept popping all over the place. I finally just quit.

I know I know it has been forever since I had new beads. Sorry! My hubby and I spent the weekend working on a new display rack for my trays of beads for shows. It isn't done or I would show you but it is taking a while to paint the little edges. These beads were actually done last week and it just took this long to get the pictures because of all the drafting and cutting and of course shopping for wood. It is amazing how expensive wood has gotten and how little choice is out there. The extensive rebuilding along the gulf coast is a big part of the reason so I guess I should be glad I can get anything.

Thought I would show off some new beads and a bracelet I finished up tonight after having it sit on my work table half done for a week. I really like how the beads came out the silver dots are lots of fun. And after all the comments about the green beads I guess I am naming this bracelet Frog Skin.

By the way just so everyone knows I am just like most everyone that has emailed me about my New Year's Resolution I fall asleep when I drink a beer too, so I think it will be really hard to drink more. Oh and the last beer I had with a very large meal gave me a horrible hangover without ever giving me a buzz so I do not think it would help much with my creative juices.

I have to tell you all about our dinner conversation tonight. My son has a friend over working on a science project and they were at the table during dinner making rather silly conversation which is just about normal around here. There was some discussion about what we were drinking ( I usually have tea with dinner) and Brandon says something about my needing to drink more beer. Now wait there is a reason.

He says that all really famous artists were either drunks or drug addicts.

Okay so we discuss that I can not drink more beer because playing with fire while drunk could be hazardous. Jeff (hubby) also starts to try to come up with famous artists who did not have problems. He comes up with Norman Rockwell and Brandon goes to the computer to check, only to find out that Rockwell battled depression his entire life and his first two wives committed suicide. So we again go back to the idea that it could be dangerous to torch while drinking and Toby (the friend) says that of course that many of the really famous artists worked in less dangerous mediums. Brandon however notes that painting huge paintings require scaffolds and one too many could cause a fall. So here we are back to the fact that famous artists drink or do drugs so I guess I am going to have to start drinking way more than I have been.

Think I should make a New Year's resolution to drink more?
What a way to get famous though.

I told you I was obsessed. And I still have dozens and dozens of colors combos I want to try out. But today I sort of got tired of making them so I will probably do something else for a few days.

Well more bright spirals. I think I have been carried away with these the last few days. I made some more today I can not seem to get them out of my system I keep coming up with more colors I want to see together.

My friend Jodie has been making hearts and inspired me to get off my duff and get some made for the upcoming Valentine's season.