Oh how I love..........

..................computers. NOT. I have spent most of the day fighting with a new piece of software that my hubby downloaded last night. It ate my email and several other things for dinner, and this morning had my brain for a snack. After about 6 hours I finally got a tech support number which was not easy to find and the tech support person took another 2 hours to fix the problem. All's well that ends well I guess as it is all back to working for the moment. With that problem fixed I started on another. My Web Site. I have been avoiding it forever because the soft ware used to build it is no longer supported and because my dear son did all the work the first time. I have gotten it a little ways this evening so you can hop over there and check it out if you would like. Just click on the pretty purple words.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

I am sure I will be very busy the next few days and there will not be a lot of new posts here on the blog. I just wanted everyone to know I hope they have a warm and happy holiday. We will get to see our son and that makes me very happy as I miss him terribly. These beads are more beads I need to turn into jewelry for our challenge. Can you tell I am way far from done.

Busy

That's how I feel right now, very busy. I got in a little torch time on Monday and was playing with enamels again. Yesterday I was grocery shopping and baking for Christmas with my son. I did send some of the goodies to the neighbor. I am hoping to get in some more time today and I am still working on the second big necklace. Busy, busy.

Pendants

These pendants really do not meet the challenge pieces that our week of making beads was supposed to go for but the other day after laying out the beads for the next big necklace and making earrings.................
............I started playing with the left over beads. (Yes I think I made way too many for my two neck pieces I had planed.) These pendants just started popping out and I was having so much fun.............
.........I just couldn't stop. I think the biggest reason was that after working so long on the one piece I just had all these ideas. I will tell you though that after wire wrapping all those tiny beads my hands were tired.

Driving home.

We went to Aberdeen today to go to Betty's Loft. A great yarn shop that is unfortunately closing. While driving home I was playing with the camera in my phone.
All of these pictures were taken while driving down the highway. The camera was set for some special effects and I am so wishing that my actual camera had this feature.
I just love the colors and really there was very little light. Within the next 5 minutes it was totally dark out.

Earrings...................

...............were needed to go with the big necklace. I did kind of get carried away though.
My plan when I started the bead making part of the challenge was to make sort of a series of jewelry that while the pieces were not the same they had the same theme. The big necklace from yesterday is actually only one of three that I have planned.
So I do need more than one pair of earrings that have the same theme.
I do however think these tiny ones are what I would put with the necklace. The necklace is such a statement piece that too much of an earring isn't really needed. If you need any at all.

It has been a long week................

............but it is finished. For all to see............Alice's Garden - Down the Rabbit Hole.
I am loving the new stacked cone flowers and have plans for another piece using more of these.
I am afraid that I am not doing all that well at making up all the beads from last weeks challenge. I have about 10 more pieces I want to work on for this weeks challenge so I am guessing it will be January before I get finished. But that's OK I will have lots of new pieces to show you at the spring shows.
I think this piece came out a lot like a sculpture too.

The first piece............

...............of the jewelry challenge is done. I am loving how much this looks like a piece of sculpture, but it really is a bracelet.
Now on to the next piece.

A little bit of this and that.

I finished up the booties that my cousin wanted for her grand baby. She had to go to the store for the yarn and then send it to me. They are headed off to her the first of the week.
And here are some parts and pieces that I started for the jewelry challenge this week. I had to get started a little early since I am so slow at seed bead work. I hope to have at least one piece ready to show you tomorrow.

Beads

I think I finally have enough Alice's Garden beads for next weeks jewelry making challenge. I wanted one big wow necklace and I think I may have gone overboard. There are probably enough beads for a couple of big pieces, with some earrings and things to go with them.
I also etched some beads from the last challenge yesterday. Just a few that called out to me to have that soft matte look and feel. I just love the long one on the left.

I also etched some rings that I have been making and sitting back to be etched. I have some jewelry ideas for some of them, that kind of spin off from some of the pieces I did last year. We start our next challenge on Monday. We are going to be making jewelry out of all the beads we made this last week. I may just have to start tomorrow though because I can hardly wait to start on some of my ideas.

Wow I can now post to the blog with a text message

Waiting.

That is what this scarf is doing waiting. I finished knitting it and it is waiting for next week and it's fabulous scarf dangle to get made. The second day of challenge beads were a lot like the first. I made more in the different colors so I have enough beads to make up some really cool pieces. Can not wait to start making the jewelry.

First beads from............

..............the new challenge. I told you the other day that my first day of making beads just for me to make jewelry with was kind of hard. My mind seemed to be all over the place. These are the beads I made that day. I seemed to bounce from one color and shape to another.
I did make some little cones that you can see in front of this picture. Cones are not really a new shape, lots of people make them I am sure, but I had in my mind to stack them to make another element in my Alice's Garden pieces.

Last one.

One last bead from the last challenge. I for some reason really like this one and may have to turn it into a piece of jewelry when we go on to the week of no new beads just new jewelry challenge.

This weeks challenge of making beads for new jewelry was not going well yesterday but I think is better today. This morning I sort of managed to visualize some of the jewelry I have wanted to make it just all of a sudden kind of gelled in my mind. The problem I have now is having enough time this week to make all the beads I am going to need.

A few more beads............

...........from the last challenge. It is a good thing I had them to take pictures of because honestly the new challenge is not going so well for me. I spent the entire day in the studio and I am not really sure I made what I want. I mean they are good beads but we are supposed to be making wow pieces of jewelry and I am not really sure that is what is in the kiln. I usually work the other way around make beads and when some come out I am in love with I make jewelry from them. Today I was trying to make beads to fit into jewelry ideas and I am not so sure it is working.

I did want to give you an estimate of the number of beads from the last challenge. I have at least 60 huge lentils,17 long beads and of course there are other beads I just did not count. That is a lot of beads without getting out a single new rod of glass. I did however.............

.............make one truly ugly bead. Rather than throw it away I thought I should show you just how ugly it is.

Our first challenge is over but.............

...................I didn't really finish. I managed to use up one whale of a lot of glass making all those huge beads. If you look here you will see what it looked like before we started and I have to tell you I really did not take picture of it all. As you can see by the mostly empty tray I pretty much used up one kind of glass. I did not even get started on the second kind of glass though so I guess I will have to go back to this challenge later on.

Today we started a new challenge of making beads to use in some great new jewelry pieces. I had to spend my day running errands though so I will have to start tomorrow.

Not such a good day.

Not much got done. I was working away and poof no more gas. It pays to have an extra tank but you have to have it full to be able to use it and since we were really hoping to get moved I was holding off filling it up. Some of these poppies are headed for Etsy here in just a little while.

More big beads...........

but at least these are a little different. I was having fun with the Genie Bottle shaped beads. I will tell you one thing big beads use up a lot of glass faster than small beads but man has this challenge been a lot of work. I have been at the torch much longer days than usual.

Attention problems.

I must have had enough with the lentils because I could not concentrate on one shape. I made a few little beads to try to get going again and then a few big lentils. I did however...........
.............start making some big long beads these are 2 inches or longer. I used to make these long beads all the time but for some reason have not done many in quite a while.

More huge lentils.

Including my favorite so far the red and yellow and orange one on the right. Of course I like them all but that one is my favorite.

I thought you might.............

............need a break from all the lentils. I have been playing with some more enamel. I still have not exactly found a way to make it mine but I am working on it. More lentils tomorrow.

I might be...........

............addicted. I am having lots and lots of fun though. I am just loving the mixing of all this glass. It has been a while since I was just playing with color and design. I have however not come close to using up all of the piles of glass. I have not touched a new rod in a week though.

After...............

two full days of making very large beads my table looks worse than when I started but the rest of the studio has a couple fewer piles.

Day two.

Well here is day two of the challenge to use up all those rods. I have to admit I have really been having lots of fun with this. I did not realize not allowing myself to get out new rods would make me think through the colors that were already on my table.
I worked almost seven hours this day I was really on a role.

No new rods of...........

.......................glass were used in the making of these beads. That is the challenge, to use all the short rods and already used rods that are cluttering up the studio. I decided to start out making my favorite shape. This lentil is huge but I love the shape. I wear a bead shaped like this all the time and it just lays so nice. It also shows off lots of fun colors of glass and designs.
This is the first days work. I did not realize that I had that many pieces of pink and purple out and laying around.

Happy Holiday

we have been doing chores around here the freezer has been defrosted and my slippers are done we will see if i make this pattern again or find something different have a wonderful holiday

What I have done............

...........with Kate McKinnon's kit. A few months ago I ordered Kate's new kit and this is what came. All those lovely lovely beads were accompanied by that really fun bug. I am not the fastest seed beader but I have been playing and making the triangles in different patterns.
I actually have some ideas on how I am going to use these and they are frankly addicting cause I want to make more. They do take me a really long time though most of a day at least.

These Kate had been wearing as rings and they are really fun on your fingers the 6 pointed one fits my thumb and the little one in the back fits my Pandora bracelet. I so want to make more of those.

I did start on the studio clean up, use up short rods challenge but the beads are in the kiln and not cleaned yet so hopefully I will show you those tomorrow. I really had fun making things with colors that I don't use a lot. Any way you will get to see soon.

A Challenge

My friend Jodie and I have been talking about challenges and we have come up with a couple. Jodie asked the other day if I was going to take the challenge of using no new rods of glass until our torch tables were cleaned off. I did not have the heart to tell her that my torch table looked like this. But...............
............that was because it was so bad I just moved the pile to places around the studio like this pile and jar in one place. And .....................
.........this tray of one kind of glass. And..................
...............this tray of another type of glass. And ..........................

................yet another pile. I am sure there are more piles of mess in that room but my camera battery was getting low taking all the pictures. Jodie has posted pictures of the beads she has made just with short rods the last couple of days on her blog so you should go check them out. Starting tomorrow I am going to begin working on the mess of short rods I have made and see where it leads me. I will be posting pictures as I get them done so check back. I am sure to really meet the challenge will take me longer than it does Jodie she is just much less messy than I am even of her torch table looked worse to start.