Hot Spring, as usual, in sunny Arizona . . .

(Studio Move - - all my glass crap piled up in my dining room/new studio)

Well, it seems like we are entering the summer season already here in the great Southwest. I think we may of had a week, maybe two of spring.

The Glass Craft & Bead Expo in Vegas this year was fun, as usual, and met even more new glass people again this year.

I have been back home now for almost 2 weeks and have decided to basically re-vamp my whole house (what was I thinking???). I originally wanted to move my upstairs, small bedroom studio downstairs into a larger space (our dining room) and utilize the 2+ torches that I have (one BIG move!). This would then open that bedroom space so that my youngest son could have his own room (move #2). Also in the mix is fixing the upstairs shower which hasn't been working for almost a year (revamp #1) and then finding space for all the existing dining room furniture into other rooms of our small, limited home (revamp #2). Ugh!! Talk about hard labor!! Geez!

Needless to say, I started about 5 days ago and I have almost moved all my glass stuff down from upstairs. What a project!! Everything is unorganized and just piled up wherever I could find some space, but soon I will have all my shelves set up and things will start falling back into their proper places.
I can't wait until it's finally complete. I am already getting the itch to torch!

Being Lazy with the Blogging . . .

Geez, I have been lazy with the blogging lately. I originally started this blog sort of as a diary of my day-to-day adventures as a self-employed glass artist.

Times can be trying, financially, these days, but you know . . . I wouldn't change it for the world! I feel so fortunate to be able to do what I love for a living. I am still trying, and hopefully one day soon, I will become more than just another "starving artist". It's gotta happen one day, right? At least that's what my supportive hubby always tells me.

I know I have the talent and the unique bead and glass ideas. I just may need a little more practice and experience. Actually, in this realm of glass art, I don't think you can ever stop learning or experiencing new things, which is one reason I love it so. I guess mostly what I need is just more time out there, promoting, submitting pictures to magazines, etc. I really would like to start working on a glass video and maybe a tutorial for the Flow - - something I have wanted to do for over a year now. Maybe soon I can get to that (so much to do!, so little time.)

Meanwhile, I have been playing with some of Brad's wonderful Striking Color glass. For those of you who are unaware of this glass, Brad makes it himself in small batches, it is quite expensive (100.00/pound) and is only available sporatically when he completes a batch. For more info on this, you can go to Lampwork, Etc. and search "striking color". Brad posts on LE when he is having a sale on either Etsy or Artfire and you can try and snatch a pound or 2 if you're fast enough - - this stuff is awesome!

Who Loves Pikmin?

I hope everyone had a nice holiday season and a fun New Year celebration. I spent a lot of pre-Christmas time creating gift items for my family members, so now I feel a little behind the gun with creating items for sale in my on-line shops and upcoming shows. Since the holidays are over now, I am hoping to get back in the studio and start creating, creating, creating!

The biggest, most time-consuming project I did as a Xmas gift this year was creating a whole set of little Pikmin characters for my son. We both love the Nintendo Pikmin game and he's been wanting some of those little plastic guys which are sold overseas. I searched the net, but they are dang expensive so I decided to make him his own little glass set. He now has all the Pikmin, some bulborbs, some bulbmin and a water dumple. There were also some extra Pikmin which are not in the picture here since I didn't like the way they came out and re-did them. I also tried to make Olimar (the space man), but he cracked. Maybe I will try him one day again, but for now at least, my son has a set he's really enjoying.

So now that it's 2011, it's time to get back to work. I hope everyone has a wonderful 2011!

Jeannie

Happy Halloween!

Well, it's almost Halloween and I have not made one dang Halloween bead this year. But that's okay, I've been working on other stuff. Making rainbows for my daughter's fundraiser, goddess and "guydess" beads and practicing more with all the silver-infused rods that I have. I am determined to get this down, one way or another!

It's hit or miss with a lot of the silver colors I have. Sometimes they come out great and other times . . . ah, not so great. I will get this, tho!

Happy Halloween to everyone out there - - hope you have lots of fun this year!

Cooler weather is upon us, what does that mean? More torching!!!

Finally the weather has been cooler and it is a great time to fire up the torch and get moving again. I am currently making rainbow beads for a fundraiser that my daughter is having next month in San Francisco. Along with this, I am also making some for myself and my website.

In addition, I have been playing around with the Striking Color glass that I have. I think I am finally getting the hang of it and am starting to produce those gorgeous, multi-colored hues that they create. I still have a little practicing to do, but hopefully I will be consistent enough to be able to start selling some of these beauties.

On the home front, we have 2 new additions to our family. Dexter and Lucy came to us recently. They were found by a friend-of-a-friend who couldn't take care of them. They are such wonderful and loving dogs that I can't believe someone would just abandon them, but it seems no one is looking for them. The person who found them checked at the local shelters and on line and I also was searching all the lost and found ads, but no luck anywhere. They are 2 sweethearts, although Dexter does like to chew on my son's toys (naughty boy!). I hope they like it here and live many happy and healthy years with us!

Weather is Getting Cooler . . . . Finally!

It's October 4th and the weather is finally starting to cool down from the triple digits here in AZ. It should be around 93-94 degrees today, but the rest of the week will be in the mid to upper 80's. The nights will also be cooling down to the 60's here, which will make it real nice for torching. I am excited to be getting back on the torch after the last few weeks away from it.

Meanwhile, I have been working on a new business card design and am hoping this one comes out nice. I would like to make 2 copies of this card, this one and also another with a more simple bead on the front, maybe a liquid swirl bead or a heart. Hope it goes over well!

Days Fly By . . .

Can't believe it is almost October here in AZ and it's still over 100 degrees every day. It is nicer that the nights and early mornings have been cooler, but geez! 104, 109, 106 - - I'm tired of this dang heat!
I haven't been on the torch for a couple of weeks now, which is very unusual for me. I am usually on the torch just about every day, or at least 5 days per week. The main reason is that it's just too hot, and without central air, my upstairs studio is unbearable. The other reason is that I have been a little under the weather lately. 3 out of 4 of us in the house have felt ill and I seem to be very low on energy and ambition lately. I also believe that my childhood RA is coming back to me as an adult (which is rare, from what I read) and have been pretty worried about what may happen in the coming years if this is true. One of the symptoms of RA is fatigue, so feeling out of energy lately is also a little frightening.

I am hoping that cooler weather will come our way soon here and that my energy level will rise to it's normal level so I can get back to work. I still have many new ideas I want to experiment with on the torch, especially for the MythosCon which is next January. At least I have some time before this show comes around.

Hope everyone is well in your households. And I leave you with a picture of a Cthulhu pendant that I made last week. These are not glass, but are polymer clay with genuine ruby eyes. At least I did something creative, although it's not glass. I made 4 of these so far, along with several of my other eye pendants like in my last post.