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.

September Already?

Wow, I cannot believe this year is almost over! Been so busy with my artwork, family and daily life.
We are going to head into fall sometime soon here in AZ (I hope!). It's still been over 100 degrees here and I cannot wait for it to cool down a bit. I just hope we have some nice fall weather before we run into the bone-chilling, cold nights.
I recently had a booth at CopperCon, which is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention which is held every year. This was it's 30th year here in AZ and the event was great fun. I think this was the perfect fit for my hubby and I since he loves going to the Sci-Fi conventions, but I don't think he particularly likes sitting with me during shows. This allowed him to go off and experience the readings, projects, discussions and events of the convention while still helping me (and giving me much-needed breaks at my booth). I was also able to go off on some fun events with my son - - we saw a japanese sword demonstration and made a cool hat at the "create your own hat" event for kids.
I am definitely planning on doing other events like this - - Sci-Fi conventions, ComicCon events, etc. You meet a lot of great, new people and it's also good for expanding my glass art to a new group of people.
My next event scheduled is MythosCon, which is a large part of the Sci-Fi fans. I don't really know much about the genre but am learning. It all started with H.P. Lovecraft stories way-back-when (the 1920's). Lovecraft created a legend (or Mythos) about a race of creatures that "came from the stars" and ruled this Earth a long time before man was even here. The creatures are evil beings, hideous, and they are just waiting for the right time to rise up and control this world again. There are also secret cults of people who still worship these creatures. In all of Lovecraft's stories, these creatures occasionally come out and "play" with us humans, usually not in a nice way.
Very interesting, and I am reading Lovecraft again, amoung other writers who also have written about the Mythos, both during Lovecraft's time and up to current times. Lovecraft himself encouraged other writers to expand on his ideas and legends. The Mythos is even popular enough that there is a RPG game, sort of like Dungeons and Dragons I am guessing.

So, I am moving to the "dark side" and creating new items especially for this show. I hope the Mythos members like them! I really enjoy making these pieces, which are a mixture of my glass eyes along with Sculpy clay and paints.