Catching Up and a Plea for Help - Updated

Here's an update to the story of the animal shelter in Las Cruces, NM. - looks like it's an ending that's not so bad.

Doña Ana County won't transfer evidence dogs to shelter

Now back to our regularly-scheduled programming. I was so busy preparing for the Bead & Button Show that I got way behind on posting Etsy Treasuries in which my work was featured. Here are the treasuries along with some lovely items from the curators' shops.

voscollecion included my Lush Felted Vessel in her lovely treasury "FRESH TIME".

Thank you Karina! Be sure to visit her store for some lovely glass and silver jewelry, such as her turquoise glass and silver ring. That would fit perfectly in her treasury!

Funny the way the universe works - when I went to the listing in my Etsy shop for my vessel to get the link for this post, I saw that it sold today!

PaulaArt included my Saburu Felted Vessel in her treasury "It felt natural".

Thank you, Paula! Please visit Paula's shop - she creates some wonderful mixed media art and collectible clocks such as this Slice of Time clock!

And now it's time for me to head out to the wet lab to work on the "raku" project that I started yesterday. I'll leave you with my last picture of the B&B Show. My friend/collaborative partner Nanette took this photo of me in my booth, peaking out over my "Dr. Deans". After I reached that "magic age", I developed a severe case of trombone arms and can't see a dang thing close up without my magnifiers. I have no idea what I was looking at, but Nanette caught me by surprise. Hey, that girl needs a haircut!

Now go have yourselves a happy and creative day!

Creating the Milky Way

Well, I couldn't wait any longer. Pam's "Milky Way" bead was calling to me, so I spent the day in the wet lab yesterday. While I was out there, I happened to look into the family room. I guess I wasn't the only person who was in a creative mood. Here's my 85-year-old mom Yvette, crocheting away with our senior citizen fur kid Peanut keeping her company.


Here's a sneak preview of the Milky Way vessel. The body is mostly finished - I just have to add a bit of fiber embellishment after it's dry. Then comes the bead work, with Pam's lovely focal taking center stage. I haven't figured out how I'm going to bead the vessel yet, but I have lots of ideas floating around in my brain. And then I'll create a vessel with the other bead that Pam sent me, which you haven't seen yet. Thanks for all the inspiration, Pam!


After laying out all the fibers and felting the vessel flat, I took a break before I started the sculptural fulling process. I guess Peanut decided she didn't need to supervise mom anymore, since mom was trucking right along.


Now I'm going to switch gears and head down to San Jose to teach my bead making class at BAGI. Have yourselves a wonderful evening!

BRRRRRR!!

Dang, it's cold out there...

OK, all you folks who live in 4-season locations have no sympathy for me, I know - BUT... Since having moved to the San Francisco Bay Area 30-some-odd years ago, my blood has thinned considerably. So this arctic blast we're getting is doing a number on me. I was putting trash out last night and by the time I got inside, my nightly blueberry tea ritual was more appealing than ever! We've got snow all over the Bay Area. Check it out in the pix posted on SFGate. I'm particularly fond of this one in the Carmel Valley - that's a bit south of me, and snow is very unusual there as well.

Snow in Carmel Valley

Now I'm tempted to load my fur kids into the car and haul them off to the hills to see this strange white stuff we call snow. To my knowledge (they're both rescue pups), they've never seen it before. This could be fun - but it'll have to wait until tomorrow, I'm going to be cooking up a batch of beef stew before I go teach my class tonight. They're probably just as happy where they are. After I finished my breakfast this morning I went back into the bedroom to make the bed, and there was Peanut - playing in the snow was not on HER agenda...

And Niki is STILL in her "waiting for the mail to come" spot in our front room...

Once again, tonight is the last night of my latest 4-session Beadmaking 2 class. This one went by so quickly - we had classes 2 nights a week rather than one so we wouldn't bump into the holidays. So we'll be doing some complex twisties, floral cane, and applying flowers to beads. This has been such a fun class - I'm really glad that these students have joined our SGB Norcal group! I'm bringing my camera with me tonight for sure.

I'll probably be making more "color of the year" demo beads tonight. Yesterday I did pull out some of my yellow glass, but I noticed that I had a leaf sitting on my work table - a real one sent to me by the wife of an old college buddy of mine from Connecticut. Rather than do a bunch of yellow beads as I had intended, I made a leaf with my yellow glass layered with several other colors. I think I'll send this leaf bead to my friend who sent me the real deal. She'll get a surprise for sure! Here's the real deal along side of my leaf bead. It was a real challenge keeping this one from cracking without overheating it, but it was fun. I'll be doing more of these for sure!

And now I'm off to the kitchen to get my stew going. I have to leave for class in 2 hours - yikes! Have yourselves a warm and cozy evening!