Getting Ready for Rochester

Wow, I can't believe that I'm leaving for Rochester, NY in 3 days. I also can't believe that time has slipped by so quickly... AGAIN ... You'd think that after all this experience with that time thing, I'd be used to it by now.

The International Society of Glass Beadmakers is having their annual conference, called "The Gathering", in Rochester this year, which is why I'll be on a plane at 6 a.m. Monday morning heading east.  We have a 1-day bead bazaar at the Gathering that's open to the public.  If you're in the Rochester area on July 31, please come by the Rochester Riverside Convention Center on Main St. and stop by my booth to say hi!

Here are a few items I'll have with me for sale.  A few beads in my "Mudcloth" series...

And a brooch that I made on a piece of my handmade felt - with a lovely bird by Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  I'm hoping to have a few more of these finished before I head to the airport.

I've been a member of the ISGB since 2000, and I've been to every Gathering since then except one.  I wasn't going to miss this one - but getting to Rochester from the San Francisco area isn't easy.  Not much choice when it comes to flights, and the cost was horrendous.  Ah well... next year it will be in Louisville, KY - a much easier destination!

So today I have to do my high tech work, tonight I'm teaching a class, but tomorrow I'm dedicating the entire day and evening to making as many items as I can before I pack up on Sunday.

That's the Friday scoop.  If all goes well, I'll have a few more pieces to show you before I take to the skies.  Now I'm off to high-tech land - and you folks go have yourselves a happy and creative day!

Oh... and PLEASE don't forget to vote for Beads of Courage at the Pepsi Refresh site - we need your help to get into the top 10, and we're almost out of time.  Thank you so much!

Give It Away Give It Away Give It Away Now...

My friend Carol of Sand Fibers is about to achieve a major milestone. She's on the brink of having 1000 sales in her Etsy shop - woohoo!! She might even be there by the time you read this blog post.

To celebrate this event, she's having a major giveaway. Yep, a bona fide freebie! Well, almost free. You have to visit her blog and "do stuff" in order to participate. But hey, how can you possibly live without a Sand Fibers original? I love my Hugs & Kisses cuff! Without further ado, here is where you'll find Carol...

Go ahead, click on it! You know you want to... Get yourself over there and join in the celebration!

Big Event Today and Tomorrow!

Come one, come all!! We're having a 2-day event in San Mateo at Aanraku Studio in San Mateo, CA to benefit the Beads of Courage program!

SGB Norcal members, hospital staff, children undergoing treatment, and their parents have all been invited to attend this big two day hot glass fest, and yours truly will be there with didymiums, Plays With Fire baseball cap, tools, and a helping hand.

Here's the fine print:

Friday Sept. 18th, 10am - 8 pm: Bead making demos & challenges, bead shop, free jewelry making sessions
Saturday Sept. 19th, 10am - 3pm: Bead making demos & challenges, bead shop, free jewelry making sessions
Saturday Sept. 19th, 6-8 pm: Dinner and live auction, plus Sharon Peters demo.

Tickets are $30 per person for a delicious Italian dinner catered by Bucca di Beppo, complete with desert and wine!
There will also be a live auction of beautiful handmade jewelry during dinner, and an event closing glass bead demo by Sharon Peters to finish off the evening!

To order Reception Tickets: call Lena (925) 872-4276 or Aanraku: (650) 372-0527

Directions To Aanraku Glass Studios
(Parking Garage Info down at bottom)

41 South Railroad Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94401
phone: (650) 372-0527 email: aanraku@bayareastainedglass.com

From 880 South:
· Take the Hwy 92 E/Jackson St. exit, to the San Mateo Bridge; Cross the bridge
· Merge onto US-101 North toward San Francisco
· Take the E. 3rd Ave exit, and go West. Go under the overpass and loop around onto 3rd Avenue.
· Go straight, cross a couple intersections, and turn RIGHT on Delaware.
· Turn LEFT on 1st Ave.
· To get to the studio: Just before the railroad tracks, turn RIGHT on S. Railroad Avenue. If you cross the tracks, you’ve missed it.

From US-101 North: aim for San Mateo, and :
· Take the 3rd Ave exit, and go West. Go under the overpass and loop around onto 3rd Avenue.
· Go straight, cross a couple intersections, and turn RIGHT on Delaware.
· Turn LEFT on 1st Ave.
· To get to the studio: Just before the railroad tracks, turn RIGHT on S. Railroad Avenue. If you cross the tracks, you’ve missed it.

From US-101 South: Exit at 3rdAve going West & follow directions above.

PARKING:
You probably won’t find a spot in front of the studio.
Here are the two closest parking garages, both 1 block away, and cheap (bring quarters!)

1) Cross the tracks. Enter the Public Parking garage on the LEFT. You’ll have to walk a block down Railroad to reach the studio. (OR)

2) Cross the tracks. Turn RIGHT into the Cal Train station, follow the driveway and enter the underground parking garage at the end of the drive. Take the stairs at the end of the garage (closest to 1st Ave). You’ll have to walk a block down Railroad to reach the studio.

"If I Had a Hammer..."

... as Pete Seeger wrote all those years ago... "I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening all over this land."

Well, I DO have a hammer, much to my surprise and delight! Cindy Wimmer of Sweet Bead Studio had a blog giveaway that I blogged about a short while ago. I was completely blown away when I discovered that I had won the embossing hammer that was part of the giveaway. A great big whole-hearted THANK YOU to you, Cindy! Looking forward to hammering all over the land. :-D

And this morning while enjoying my cuppa, I opened up the latest Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazine that came in the mail yesterday and staring at me was an article by Cindy. You too can make this gorgeous "Concerto" necklace of hers!

Check out Cindy's blog for more of her work and generosity!

Today will be a torch day for me - first one in a long time! Last night I finished felting and fulling my ocean vessel and today I'll be making some beads to add to its surface.

Here's a look at both sides of the vessel after it was laid out in the wet lab.

During the fulling of the vessel, I ended up removing some parts of the coral as well as the "stem" on the kelp. I was unhappy with the way the kelp looked, and I have an alternative that I'm going to try. Right now, the vessel looks a whole lot different than it did when I took these pix. And when I finally finish it, it will look WAY different!

This is the largest vessel I've made so far - it stands 8 inches tall and is 6 inches wide. I'll start embellishing it this evening - can't wait!

And now the torch is calling me. Go have yourselves a happy and creative day!

Inspiration Monday

It occurred to me once again that I tend to get caught up in my "have to do's" and "should do's" (hmmm, should there be an apostrophe in there or not?), and my opportunities to just let go and have some creative play time are rather limited. Right now I have 3 fiber art commissions to work on as well as 3 in-progress projects. I'm thinking that if I pick a few things as inspiration for the week, it just might get me out of my comfort zone and nudge me to explore something new.

I keep lots of pictures on my computer as well as file folders full of printed material. Today I'm going to choose a few things that I hope will guide me this week in my creative endeavors.

For my fiber inspiration, I've chosen a few photos that I took last summer when my good friend Amy West and I went to San Francisco to see the Chihuly exhibit. I didn't realize that flash photos were prohibited, so I managed to snag a few before I was chastized by the exhibit police. I was really taken by his Basket series - maybe because I had just started making fiber vessels - and here are two of them that really inspire me.

Maybe I will combine elements from both of them into a single piece. I have some "stuff" that I've been wanting to use, but up to this point I hadn't had a vision for it - now I do! I'm not sure if I'll create a vessel or something different - I'll let the mood of the moment dictate what comes of it.

For my glass inspiration, I had already decided what I wanted to "play" with. These are some royalty-free stock photos that I found, which I will use to guide me. Since the next show I'll be doing will be in Miami, I thought that an ocean theme would be appropriate. And today is rather hot, so these pictures make me feel good in MANY ways!

Wow, I want to jump right in! But the area of the Pacific that's closest to where I live is just too dang cold to do that. A nice trip to Hawaii would be lovely right about now...

So that's my inspiration for the week. It might take me more than one week to get to it, considering my commissions, in-progress projects, and the fact that I'm teaching classes on two evenings. You folks will just have to keep me on my toes!

And finally, a wonderful jewelry artist - Cassandra Graham of Wilde Jewels - posted a picture on her Facebook page. She purchased a set of my leaves at the Bead & Button Show, and she has been very busy since she got home. Here is the set of leaves that Cassandra purchased at the show.

And here is the necklace that Cassandra made using my leaves to accent a wonderful focal bead by Wayne Robbins.

Thank you, Cassandra - you rock! If you've never seen their work before, you absolutely must visit Wilde Jewels and Mountain And Robbins.

And now I'm off to the kitchen to play with some food. I have no inspiration for that task, so I'll just have to rummage around and see what I can come up with. (Yes, I ended my sentence with a preposition - bad Shirley!)

Now go have yourselves a happy and creative day!

From the Bench at Lavender Cottage

I've been making and selling lampwork glass beads for 9 years, and I still get all giddy when I see what other folks do with my beads. It is so much more satisfying to sell a piece of my hand made work to an appreciative buyer than it was to spend countless hours developing software that may or may not end up in the hands of clients depending on the "decision of the moment" of upper management. Ah, but I digress...

What a lovely surprise it was to see the wonderful work of my cyber-friend Cheryl Van Dyck of Lavender Cottage in which she incorporated some of my beads. This is my "Sun Worshippers" bead that Cheryl purchased from my Etsy shop.


Cheryl came up with a brilliant design that I find intriguing. I really admire folks who can do "asymmetrical" so successfully! Here's her glorious finished pendant, which she calls "Spring Celebration".


...and you can read her article HERE. Thank you Cheryl for really bringing these beads to life! I look forward to seeing more of your work inspired by glass beads.

Be sure to visit Cheryl's shops on Etsy and 1000 Markets, she's a wonderful metalsmith!

Still On the Planet

Contrary to popular belief, I haven't dropped off the planet. I've been in the glass lab, the bead lab, and the wet lab getting ready for my next show. Why do I do this to myself? The show starts in about 2 weeks and I've got so much to do I don't know which end is up. I guess you really can't teach an old dog new tricks...

If you happen to be in the San Francisco Bay Area on February 27, 28, and/or March 1, come to Stitches West 2009 in Santa Clara! It's an amazing show - you'll be overwhelmed for sure. I remember the first time I attended Stitches West. It reminded me of the first bead show I ever attended. I walked around all day with my eyes like saucers and my jaw a bit slack. So if you need an eye candy fix, come check it out! I'll be in Booth 935 with my part-time biz partner Nanette. Our collaborative business is called Flames & Fiber and we'll have lots of handmade glass beads, jewelry, and fiber creations. I'll be selling my felt work, beads, and jewelry - Nanette will be selling her beads, jewelry, and glorious hand-painted silk scarves.

Here's Nanette at the show last year, getting her morning caffeine before the doors opened. You can see some of her scarves hanging on the wall behind her.



Nan and I began collaborating about 4 years ago, quite by accident. We were at one of our monthly beadmakers' meetings, sitting at a table chatting. She spread her beads out on the table, I spread mine out, and then we just looked at each other with our mouths hanging open. Unbeknownst to each other, Nan had been making flower beads and I had been making leaf beads. Immediately we started matching up leaves with flowers, having a grand old time. She gave me a few flowers, I gave her some leaves, and we went off on our merry way. A few weeks later, Nan asked me if I would be willing to collaborate with her on a jewelry kit. She had designed a gorgeous slider, incorporating one of her flowers and three of my leaves. That was the start of our creative explorations together along with an ever-deepening friendship.

Here is our Flames & Fiber postcard.



So come on down to our little garden - booth 935 - for a visual feast and some fine shopping.

And now I'm off to the glass lab to clean yesterday's beads. Have yourselves a creative day!

Spam Nation

My Weekly Rant

It's amazing how quickly spammers and hackers find ways of disrupting one's life. I've only been posting on Twitter for a short time, and now I see that someone's perpetrated a scam out there. Fortunately, that one didn't impact me. But over the past few days someone has started spamming my blog comments with nonsensical garbage that included links to commercial websites. Looks like they were hitting only my posts with a label of "jewelry". I guess my settings weren't tight enough, so hopefully that's fixed. We shall see...

I had a similar but much worse problem with my email account. It's been hijacked more than once, and someone was sending out tons of email spam using my email server. So I got "blacklisted", and now when I send out emails a lot of folks don't get them because their spam filter blocks my server address. I don't know if it was my email server that was turned into a botnet or if it was actually my laptop. What next?

The year 2008 was the 30th anniversary of spam - well, at least the cyber-spam version of spam, i.e., lower case spam. The only spam I've ever enjoyed is the spam that I saw on TV during that wonderful episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus that first aired in 1971. So let's hear it for the world of spam.

Oh, and if you're wondering where I got this picture of the 70th anniversary of Spam (that's upper case spam), I actually own this can of Spam. How could I resist a nostalgic can of this stuff? Spam had its 70th anniversary in 2007. That same year, Tang celebrated its 50th anniversary - so where's my commemorative jar of Tang?! I never saw one of those in the grocery store. Somewhere in my "archives" (perhaps the back of a closet?), I have a poster commemorating the 100th anniversary of Dramamine. Of course! It has a picture of a roller coaster on it, and I'm a hard-core coaster fan. To find out more about lower case spam, check out this article: Origin of the term "spam" to mean net abuse

Finishing Old Projects

OK, on to other things. I'm still working on the necklace in which I've incorporated some of my leaves but I HAVE finished the 2 lariats. Here they are. These pix were done on the scanner - not that great. When I finally get some pix of them hanging on someone's pretty neck, I'll put them into my Etsy shop.

The first is my "Blush" lariat, in colors of blues, greens, peach and coral.



The second is my "Winter" lariat - the colors are predominantly brown, silver, sage, and a pop of aqua. The colors are very metallic, and the leaf is actually sprinkled with dots of fine silver.

And now I'm off to continue with projects. I'm hoping to show you some new woolies soon - gotta get my felting fix! Until then, have a productive creative day!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! It's that time of year when folks make resolutions, then spend a bunch of time trying to stick to them. One of my resolutions is to give thanks to the Etsy folks who include me in their treasuries by way of a nod back in their direction on my blog. I am borrowing my method of doing so from Carol Dean Sharpe of Sand Fibers. You absolutely MUST see Carol's work. Her Green Bargello Hearts Peyote Cuff is one of my favorites.

All About Treasuries

Here are the treasuries that include items from my shops.

andeesigns included Vineyard Oak Leaf Bead Part Deux in her Treasury West


andeesigns included Napa Oak Felted Vessel in her Treasury

Thank you Andee!! Visit andeesigns for beautiful jewelry such as this prehnite and gold freswater pearl necklace. Yum!

_____________________________________________________________

Blue Lagoon Beads included Dusk Nouveau Felted Vessel in her Treasury
Thank you Angela!! Visit Blue Lagoon Beads for jewelry and lampwork, such as this gorgeous set of cranberry beads!

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Finishing Old Projects

I'm very happy that I've FINALLY finished the second scarf that had been sitting on my work table forever. I blogged about it in November, vowing that I was going to finish it that day. Best laid plans, and all that... I must say, I'm very pleased with the result and I'm ready to start on my next fiber project. Here's my finished piece - full shot, and a detail picture.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to list this scarf in my Etsy shop. It's interesting, I had my first scarf listed there for awhile. I put a high but fair price on the scarf, and after it had been there for a few weeks I got the following message from someone. "I think this scarf is stunning, but at almost 10 times the cost of most of the others listed on etsy, it's way out of my price range.". Wow!

This got me thinking (that's a dangerous thing...) and I decided to do a little checking. When I searched for "nuno scarf", I found 333 of them. I sorted them by price, then I determined how many of them fit into the category to which this person was referring. From there, I saw that my scarf was at least 10 times the cost of 37% of the nuno scarves listed. That meant that my scarf was NOT more than 10 times the cost of 63% of the nuno scarves on Etsy. Are you with me? I also found that my scarf was not the most expensive nuno scarf out there, but it was right near the top. I noticed that the bulk of the "expensive" nuno scarves were more than half the price of mine - without the same level of complexity.

So what does all this mean? Nothing, of course - I was mostly just curious. However, given the equation of "10 times the cost of most of the others listed on etsy", had I charged "the cost of most of the others listed on etsy" to which this person was referring, I would have gotten about $2.00 an hour to make it. Criminy, does anyone in this country get paid $2.00/hour? I sent a response to this person that said, "Thank you for your kind comments. Glad you like the scarf.". I mean, what's a girl to do? Not everyone knows what goes into making a piece of fiber art.

Here's a footnote to this story - the person who sent me the note has no items for sale, hasn't sold anything, has no feedback, has no favorites, has no information in the profile, and has been on Etsy for about 10 months. Hmmm - just a rabble rouser? And on a final note, I love that first scarf of mine so much that I decided to keep it all to myself. At $2.00/hour, I figure I'm worth it. :-)

Starting New Projects

Now I've got to determine whether my next fiber project will be another scarf or some smaller items. I have several scarf ideas and I've started creating components for one of them, but I've got a show coming up in a few months at which I'd like to offer some small felted wearables, perhaps some pins. I'll have to think about that a bit. Meanwhile, I have several jewelry projects going on. Here are my scarf components and another jewelry WIP (it will be another lariat).

And on that note, I'm going to sit in front of the TV and finish up this lariat. Ciao-der for now!

New Works In Progress

Well here we are in the heart of holiday season. It took me a few days to recover from all the food that I prepared for Christmas - and we're still working on it! I'll try to remember that next year and cut down on my baking activities... Tonight will be the last night of my holiday food extravaganza. My birthday was yesterday, my stepdaughter's birthday was last Tuesday, and we're going out to dinner tonight to celebrate. There's a restaurant in Oakland (CA) that I'm very fond of, so we're all going to dine at Doña Tomás. Normally I don't care all that much for Mexican food, but this restaurant is wonderful!

Even though the big holiday crunch is over, I've managed to retain my ambition regarding projects. I've got several of them in progress, so I've decided that Mondays will be Works In Progress day.

I made a lariat out of the autumn leaf bead that I posted about earlier - the first lariat I've ever made - and after test driving it, I've decided to make several more. I raided my stash of leaf beads and pulled out a few that I think will look nice. The problem will be getting good pix of them. Here's the first one I'm working on. The colors in this piece are beautiful but very subtle. I put the piece on my scanner, but the colors just don't show up well. The leaf bead is a mixture of gray, amber, and some very subtle hints of blue. The veins are black, and the leaf has a few smatterings of fine silver dots. The bead above it is a mixture of blue and deep olive green, encased in clear with a few very faint blue lines around the circumference. The body of the lariat is done with various sizes of seed beads in rootbeer, iris peacock, silver, charcoal, light sage, and transparent aqua with a greenish cast to the center.



























I must be in a neutral mood these days - the second piece in progress is done in very similar colors but I'm thinking about livening it up with a bold splash of red. This will be a short necklace, and I'm thinking about attaching this center piece to a chain rather than beading the whole piece. We'll see how it goes... Along with my leaf and accessory beads, I've included some Czech glass leaves, a few wired coral beads, and some wired labradorite beads. I can't wait to test drive this one! I think it will look fabulous with a "little black dress".




Earlier today I was looking at the Etsy Treasury that was used to create the front page I happened upon, and when I hit the big blue arrow to go back to the Treasury I saw that it had come from Treasury West. I also saw that the blue box was just about to appear, so I managed to create another treasury. Here's my latest curation in Treasury West.

And now I'm off to work on these jewelry projects so that I can finish them up and get them into my Etsy store. Hope you all have a creative day!

Time Vacuum...

Have I ever mentioned how much of a time vacuum the computer can be? I knew this when I was in the midst of my geek career - how soon we can forget! I spent the entire day changing my website around. I was planning on making beads today, but noooooo... And to make matters worse, this is the 2nd time I'm writing this blog post. I wrote it, previewed it, hit the "Publish Post" button and the dang thing went out into the stratosphere. Told me I couldn't publish without a valid ID. Fascinating - what sort of cyber-critter ate my ID?

Several of you folks have signed up for my newsletter over the years and I've had a horrible time with my emails. Folks just don't get them, so my newsletters only reach some of the people on my list. I've decided that for now, no more newsletters. What does that mean? Well, I'll be putting all of the information that would have gone into my newsletter here in my blog. If you'd like to get up-to-the-minute (or at least up-to-the-week) news about Jumping Jack Glass, just subscribe to my blog and you'll be able to know what's happening before it actually happens! No more missing my shows due to lack of communication. No more missing out on bead specials. And you can actually sign up for my classes before they're full!


Well, tomorrow, I absolutely HAVE to make beads! So perhaps you'll get to see pix of what comes out of the kiln. In the mean time, I'll leave you with a work in progress. Here's a bracelet I started the other day. I haven't decided what kind of clasp I'm going to make for it - I'm still deciding whether or not I like the components the way they are. I got these 2 chunks of coral at the Intergem show over Thanksgiving weekend, I made the hollow bead (yep, it's hollow) a long time ago, and the round stone is "African Turquoise", which is actually Jasper. Any comments? Suggestions? Should I rearrange it? Go back to the drawing board? I'd love your input, I'm just not sure about this one. I do love the "chunkiness" of it, though.




Until next time...