New Pendant

I just wanted to show you a pendant made from one of my new Modern Art face beads. 

Work Table Wednesday

 

I made a necklace similar to this one back in June of 2012.  You can see it here.

 I really liked the texture and how it sat just below the collar bone.  So the other day I decided to make something just about like it but of course had to make some beads first.  I just got it all finished up.

 I of course made a pair of earrings to go with it.  I so love the red and black and for some reason these earrings feel sort of Oriental to me.

More new beads........

...............are coming out of the kiln every day almost.  I have to stay in the studio to stay warm.  The kiln and the torch seem to do a better job than the furnace when it barely gets above 0.  These are some of my modern art face beads, a couple of which I want to turn into necklaces before long.

Work Table Wednesday

 Here are some new lentil beads that I have made this last week.  These are the ones that were still laying on the kitchen counter today. Sometimes my work table is all over the house. (I dry the new beads on the kitchen counter after cleaning them.)   I have been making a bunch of these big lentils for my upcoming shows which I can not believe start in less than a month. 

I think this one is my favorite out of this latest batch.  I always seem to have a thing for red and black.  I wanted to show you just how big they are so you also get to see my wrinkly pink hand.

No fear Doodles

 This last Friday's post for the Fearless Friday group was about being afraid to ruin your art work.  I have to admit I hate to waste glass when I am making beads but if a bead goes south so to speak I rarely put it in the dunk can, because I just turn it into something else (with hot glass you really can't set it aside and come back to it later).  Even if I just add lots of stringer and make it a mix of colors I usually can make a pretty decent bead.  Only if I break the bead release do I have to abandon it.

When it comes to drawing though I am a lot less comfortable.  So this weekend I have been making fearless doodles with a permanent marker on book pages.  I have been wanting to try this ever since I saw this pin on Pinterest.  I have made probably 30 pages in just a couple of hours and then I went ahead and painted them with watercolor.  There wasn't a single one I trashed.  Some of them please me more than others but all of them are fun and bright.  I also played fast and furious with the watercolor to find out things that I liked and didn't and I have found I like it when you use lots of water and it bleeds and puddles.  Might not be what someone else would like but I do. 

There was only one problem with the drawings and that was that I had gotten a book at the library sale to tear apart and paint on and when my hubby came home and saw what it was he was really sad I had torn it up because it was on South Dakota soil conservation and his office only has one copy of the book and they had been looking everywhere for other copies.  I did get to tell him that the library had one more copy and he ran right out and bought that one to take to work. 

Fearless Friday

I know it is not Friday although my days seem to be getting mixed together and I have for some reason the past couple of weeks not always been able to tell right away what day it is.  I have been working on this post since last Friday for the Fearless Friday group and have just not been ready to publish it.  Maybe that is another fear.  The words I use and the way I think sometimes don't come out the way I want them. Before all that though I thought you could use a little eye candy.

These are a few of the flower sets I have been working on.  I have been making sets of flowers for kits too so lots and lots of flowers in all this cold.

My last Fearless Friday post I told you I was afraid of heights, well this weeks post is supposed to be about what all our fears are.  I have been trying to sort them out.
- I am afraid of heights. Rarely does this stop me from doing things it just takes me longer and I don't enjoy the view from the top as much.
- I am also afraid of bridges, especially bridges over water.  I have not had a panic attack (believe me stopping your car in the middle of the causeway is not a good thing) since my son was 4 and I vowed that would never happen again when he was in the car.  I have learned to deal with it and now only sometimes does my chest tighten and my fingers turn white from gripping the steering wheel.  My husband also doesn't think it is funny any more and doesn't make comments.  He offers to drive if he realizes in time that we are coming to a big bridge on one of our many regular long drives but if he doesn't catch it I do okay.
- My husband very much wants to retire and I did not realize until thinking about my fears that I am terrified by this.  I have been trying to figure it out and I think it comes down to money.  That my business will no longer just be money to use to help out my family or for vacations, but that we will need it to live. Or live the way we have been.
- The money thing kind of leads to the fact that maybe I am actually afraid that my work is not good enough or that what I make people will not want.  I didn't really think that I had this kind of fear but maybe?  I do know, I have had on my list of goals for a long time to be published and I sure do not work towards that goal in any way.  I have had a few things published but it has all been just dumb luck.
- I am afraid of losing all my creative mojo and just becoming a production bead maker.  I have been doing a lot of that lately.  (Kits are fun to design but man making the beads takes a lot of work.)  So I have started to do more work in an art journal so that I get to play with paint and other supplies. I do think this is helping as I seem to be having some new ideas the past couple of weeks. 

I am sure there are other things but this post is already long enough to put you to sleep so I will try to think about them and talk about them some other time.

Work Table Wednesday

I have been trying to get ready for my first show of the year.  It is not until next month in DesMoines, but the days go so fast that I am sure it will be here before I know what happened.  These are some new bumpy disk beads that I have carded up like buttons.

I really like this set with all the bright colors.  I could just see these down the front of a black sweater.  You can really see the bright yellow bumps in this picture.

From the wreckage of my table in the last week I have been able to get a few more row counter bracelets finished as well.  Stitches South in April is also coming up very quickly.

Work Table Wednesday

 I truly hate to show you what my work table looks like.  I realized yesterday that I was once again working on just a tiny little spot on my table.  I swear I do not know how it has gotten so messed up once again.  I try and try to keep stuff put away and still this is how it looks.  Today instead of cleaning it up like I should have I spent the day in the studio making more beads.  Really trying to get my trays filled before February.

 These are some of my poppy flowers made with the new metallic glass.  I just love the colors that come out when you play with it a little.

I think it looks so much like Raku pottery.

Fear or Fearless

Sorry for the absence, I guess my goal of blogging at least three times a week was really a miss for December.  I of course was sick for Christmas, however we still went and had a grand time with Brandon.  We played cards and Risk and just hung out.  The weather co-operated and we had sun and dry roads both going down and coming back.  Even sick I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. 

Since then though I have sort of been hunkered down trying to work through some stuff for the coming year.  I have been really trying to plan and think about how I want things to go.  I am not the best at thinking about things.  I have been making beads for 10 or 11 years now without really having a plan on where I want my business or my art to go.  I have been working on setting goals for the last couple of months, but you really need to know what you want in the first place before making a plan to get it. 

All that being said I have been following Kristal Norton's blog after finding her one day when I was looking at things about Art Journaling.  She has started something new called Fearless Fridays and I have decided to try to work along with her.  She plans to give prompts each week to get us all to find and confront our fears.  I honestly didn't think I was fearful until I read the post and started thinking it through.  Granted I have fears like being horridly afraid of heights but I have always tried to face them and work through them.  (When I was younger I went repelling and rock climbing knowing it would take everything I had to step off the edge of a cliff.)  I really need to figure out what it is that I do have fears about so that I move forward instead of standing still. 

I have been making beads during all this and promise to show you some soon, very soon.