Back On the Torch

After I returned from Bead & Button, I thought that teaching 3 classes during the week would be enough torch time for me for awhile. After all, I just about wore myself out getting ready for and doing the show. But toward the end of the week I just had to get back into my studio to make something. I started out with what was most familiar to me - yes, a leaf bead. A lovely deep olive green oak leaf with some nice contrasting dichroic glass, which I always use sparingly. It's funny, every time I take a bead out of the kiln I visualize how I would use it in a finished piece. Sometimes it's jewelry, other times it's a fiber piece - maybe a vessel or perhaps a bag. This oak leaf would definitely become part of a necklace. I even have stones that would match it perfectly!

After I put the leaf into the kiln, the ocean called to me. I made another one of my seaside beads, but this time I flattened it into a tabular bead. I added some froth to the edge of the water on this one, and after looking at it several times over the next few days I got even more ideas for my seaside beads. I'm getting very excited about enhancing these beads and I'm also thinking that I need a trip to the beach very soon. It's been ages since I've visited the ocean! Maybe I'll take mom for a drive out to Half Moon Bay when the weather warms up a bit.

I've added both the oak leaf and the seaside bead to my Etsy shop. Saturday I had such a nice surprise - I taught a class all day and when I got home, I saw that both of the seaside beads that were in my shop were destined for new homes - one to a very loyal Etsy customer, the other to one of my students who is also a bead customer. And my loyal Etsy customer, who has a great name - it's Shirley, of course ;-) - also purchased the only raindrop leaf I had. More of those will definitely be coming over the next few weeks. Gosh, I have so many things I want to accomplish in the glass lab before I go to Miami in July!

I also put a few other beads into my Etsy store today. This bead came about during my "red phase" - for some reason, I just couldn't stop making beads with red glass. I even made leaves that had red in them. I don't use red in the glass lab very often, but I sure got hooked on it for awhile. I was going to keep this one for myself - I have some brecciated jasper beads that would look fabulous with this bead - but I resisted the urge and now have it available for purchase.

The other bead that I listed is another oak leaf bead. I decided to try a different background for this leaf. My friend Nanette from Scorpio Beads gave me a lovely board of unfinished maple quite some time ago, and I thought it might look nice behind my leaf beads. Here's the picture from my shop listing. What do you think - should I stick with the maple or the plain background?

Well, now I think it's time for a cup of blueberry tea, a bit of seed bead work, then off to bed. I have a busy week ahead of me. Hope all of you have a happy and creative week!