Post Script

Some enameled snowflake jewelry in honor of the forecast for the first measurable snow of this winter in the Triangle region of NC.   Thank God we do not live in Boston!

I have been toying with enamels and metalwork since last winter and have scheduled several courses over the next year.  I really hope to reach a point when I make most of own findings with copper or metal clay.

The One-Eyed Beader or Oh, the Insanity!

I realize it is time for my biennial blog  post.  I always mean to do better but life gets in the way...

For the past month, I have been recovering from eye surgery.  After the first few days, I grew bored with my confinement and had to think of some way to entertain myself that did not violate these restrictions:

1) no bending over
2) no lifting over 5 pounds
3) limited light exposure

Needless to say, I was also hampered by the hazy 20/200 vision in the affected eye.

Then I thought what about those boxes of seed beads and books with luscious seed beads patterns that I had collected over the years before I realized that one could not make seed bead projects for profit.

Beadapolooza

So I was off!  Making little peyote tubes into  beaded bead earrings a la Kathy King like a maniac.












Then I gathered up the courage to try a simple project called Easy Big Sky Earrings in Artistic Seed Bead Jewelry by Maggie Roschyk.  It was a little challenging at first because I had never done any stitch besides peyote, but soon I found brick stitch is not bad.   I am a little hooked on these earrings even though they are way too "formal" for me and cannot be sold because I prefer to make minimum wage for my efforts.  I still hope to have time to finish  a coordinating necklace or two before I return to work, but I am currently stalled by learning to make embellished peyote toggles.

Someday I hope to master Right Angle Weave, but I think that is still a distance dream.  

A Valentine for My Mother

I always post a few new glass hearts for Valentine's Day and this year I have been running behind due to the complications of life.   I started writing my blog a few years ago so my mother could see a little of what I was doing since she could no longer travel to visit me.  She died somewhat unexpectedly over the Christmas holidays, and I have been trying to come to terms with this loss.  

 I think my mother really would have liked the new direction my glass is taking. She loved the gemstone flowers of Faberge at the Virginia Museum of Art and the glass botanicals of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and this passion has definitely influenced the evolution of my style.

Thank you, Mother, for exposing me to such beautiful things.  These Valentine hearts are for you.

Passion Flowers!

I took a wonderful class at Arrowmont this August with Sara Sally LaGrand, and it added yet another dimension to my MGPD- multiple glass personality disorder.  I have 10 more shows to go this fall season, but I cannot tear myself away from working on these whimsical pins and pendants.  I have such a passion for them I have dubbed them my Passion Flower series.

Bunny Time

I am getting my rabbits in a row for the Spring Festival in Southport next weekend, April 5-6.

Valentine's Day may be over, but the hearts keep coming.

The hearts are so much fun that I just keep making them. Here are a few of the batch I cooked up the past week. I don't mind having extra inventory since they were popular last year at the Cherry Blossom Festival- now just a month away.

The weather has for the most part been fueling my floral obsession with daffodils blooming in January for the first time in my memory. Mother Nature threw us a curve ball on Monday with a dusting of snow. The yard pictures were both taken last week. The first on Saturday, the second on Monday.

I have also been obsessed with making kumihimo necklaces and bracelets and have started using a bit of borosilicate glass because it makes nice organic focals for the kumi.

AND, as if I didn't have enough to do, I took an earring class Saturday with beading wizard Kathy King and learned to make her special style of "beaded bead" earrings. I think they will be a spectacular accessory for my kumi necklaces. Kathy may have created a monster.

If it's hearts all the time, it must be near Valentines!

It seems so predictable, but I am always surprised when I become obsessed with making floral hearts this time of year. Here are a few of my new offerings.