Back from vacation & making new beads

I've only been back from vacation for a few days and had to replace a propane tank before firing up my torch again. That has created a separate set of challenges which I won't go into here, so I'll just stick to showing you pics of my latest beads :)

Below are some black base beads with white dots covered in cranberry fuschia swirls. Has been awhile since I've done the white dots on black, but this is the first time I have used frit on clear to swirl over the white dots instead of plain-Jane transparent rods. I like the end result very much!


Some old Spiral Dance frit used in these beads with the same technique as above. I like the glittery, sparklies that came out :)

Some of Val Cox's Gypsy Skirt frit helped make these beads. Instead of clear, I used a pale transparent pink. But I think the pinkness of these beads came more from the frit than the glass.

And lastly a set of cranberry swirls with white cores that Cristi asked me to wrap in silver dots by using fine silver wire (the silver is 99.99999% pure). Lemme know how you think I did, ok?

Arizona - February 2009

Ok, a quick post with a few pics from our trip because I know some of you want to see :)

My two favorite guys when we ate lunch at the Farm in Tempe. Great little sandwich shop in the middle of a pecan grove. They also had a great artist's studio & small farm for produce & chickens at the end of the orchard. Fun afternoon!

Who knew midgets from my family would ever be able to jump on their own to reach the monkey bars?! My boy did and he was able to swing his way all the way across!!!

The kids took turns sleeping in our room or on the floor with the Grandparents in their room. Bean insisted on moving the sleeping bag into the closet when she slept with us in our room :)

Owen playing the archeologist at the Southwest Science Museum in Mesa. He had fun brushing aside all the rubber pellets before finding several 'fossils'.

Uncle Mike with my Grandma Eloise

Home Sweet Home

We were in Arizona for a whole week and loved every minute of it with our family in the warmer/drier temps. The grandparents (Todd's folks) spoiled the kids rotten with love and daily trips to the swimming pool. Todd and I got plenty of time to rest & get our health back from the flu. We shared delicious dinners with my Uncle Mike, Aunt Gail and cousins on several different evenings. And my cousin Jesse schooled Owen in the fine art of winning at Super Mario Kart.

We (all of the girls --> moi, Chloe, Grandma Eloise, Grandma Sharon, Grandma Suzanney and Aunt Gail) went to the Great Fair in Fountain Hills yesterday where there were 400+ vendors/artists. It was a lot of fun and great weather for walking around all afternoon. Chloe picked out tie-dyed hats for Owen & herself, but I didn't find anything to buy other than Dippin Dots, Funnel Cakes and Ginormous Hot Dogs. It was a fun day! I wish I had a pic of the fountain that went off for ten minutes at the top of every hour. I'm betting it shot up a couple hundred feet into the air.

We are home now and the kids are in bed. Glad we have a day to rest & unpack before getting into the daily grind of work & school again. Although it would be nice if we had another week of vacation to spend in Arizona with our fam or just chilling on the homefront. It has been close to 3 weeks since I've been on the torch and I am suffering serious withdrawal. First on the agenda tomorrow is to change out propane tanks when I run up to the grocery store to buy milk & cereal for the kidlets.

I am determined to get a coupla hours on the torch tomorrow making beads with new/different techniques. I have long been wanting to make black beads with white dots covered by transparents. Those have been on the mental To Do list for months (ok, years) and I just haven't gotten around to it. Not a particularly difficult technique, but they look so cool. I want to make some new color combo twisties. And I want to play with more of my frit that I bought a month ago from Val Cox.

I just bought a TON of frit last night from her and I'm so excited because Sabrina said she was shipping it out today. She ships Priority USPS, so it might come Monday if I'm lucky or Tuesday at the latest. I can't wait!

After I get the camera unpacked & pics downloaded, I'll post a new blog with pics of beads made by ASGB (Arizona Society of Glass Beadmakers) artists that inspired me. :)

Raising Arizona

We made it out to Phoenix as a family, without eating our children on the plane. Todd was just too exhausted and I worked on blocking out the five screaming bebes in the surrounding rows. The girl child is back to her normal self and the boy child ditched his fever as of this morning. Both make a concerted effort to tell me their strep throat is ALL GONE, so they don't need to take any more medicine. Granted, if I was having to chew up those fowl smelling amoxycillin tablets, I'd be campaigning an end to the meds, too. Todd is still hacking & coughing and my fever disappears for only a few hours before returning. Blech. At least we are with a wonderful set of grandparents to help watch & entertain the kids while we crawl back into bed and sleep.

In spite of remaining under the weather, we have immensely enjoyed the excellent Phoenix weather and spending time with family. Sunday night we went over to my Uncle Mike & Aunt Gail's home for dinner and hung out with the cousins. Yes, that's my Aunt Gail on the very left in the green shirt & specs who taught me how to melt glass back in 2005. She was the instigator of my addiction to playing with fire and making beads....I can't thank her enough for igniting this passion! My cousins and J's girlfriend are on the left. My Grandma Eloise (she doesn't look 90, does she?) and my Mom are front/center with Uncle Mike in the middle looking over Grandma while we're holding up the squirmers on the right.

We got massages tonight which were awesome. If you live in the Mesa area, or even within a 45 minute driving radius....you should make an appointment at Simple Cure Massage Therapy. Their hour long massages were forty five bucks and the massages were really an hour long (ok, both therapists went closer to 70 minutes with both of us). It was a small shop with only two massage rooms, but the therapists delivered phenomenal massages!

Leaving on a Jet Plane....well, maybe

our bags aren't packed and laundry has yet to be completed. This is typical the night before leaving on vacation.

But Todd caught the flu, spiked a 104+ fever on Monday, got rid of it on Tuesday, it came back to 103+ on Wednesday leading to a trip to the doctor for a shot in the butt and a 5 day supply of Tami-Flu. Last night, the girl child revved up a little fever and earned herself to a trip to the doctor's office this morning and a positive Strep Throat test. Tonight, the boy child sported a temperature climbing over 100 and a sore throat. I have felt like crap since Monday, with sporadic fevers and negative energy, which surprisingly returned today (perhaps from drinking all of Mary's highly touted Hot Lemony Pledge...aka TheraFlu). All of the above health issues one on top of another....not so typical. Vacation or not. None of it typical. Todd NEVER gets sick. Never.

How on earth are we going to all make it to the airport tomorrow evening to fly out to Phoenix for a week??? That remains up in the air. In the meantime, please think good thoughts for us with better health and safe travels.

Aaaaaaaannnnnnd, check out S. Kate's FaNtAsTiC copper work in the pics below. She is a prominent stitch marker designer/seller on Etsy as Spindle Cat Studios and has recently opened a new shop called Copper Musings.

Kate made my day today...she sent an unsolicited, surprise gift! It was a pin similar to the one in the pic below (I had wanted to take a pic of it today because the sun was out, but work was crazy and I didn't catch a break after getting back from the doctor's office with C this morning). It was the first pin that Kate made with one of my beads and she said she felt it should live with me. I was so touched! You can bet your ass I'll be proudly wearing this flying out to Phoenix, whenever that might be :)

Granted, she has recently bought a TON of my beads which is thrilling in itself, AND requested custom beads which were fun challenges, but Kate has sent me pics of so many of her new creations using my beads. I have fallen in love with her work & really enjoy seeing my beads used so differently than how I would ever put them into jewelry.

I am in awe of her wire wrapping skills. I have tried my hand at it and know 1.) how difficult it is and 2.) that I supremely suck at it. LOVE LOVE LOVE the pair of earrings she made below: I can't wear earrings, but if I did...these would be an absolute favorite worn ALL The time!!!!

This Weekend

Here are two sets of beads I have been busy making for Kat.  I love the look of raku on black, especially when it is etched.  I varied my technique a little this time and ended up with more blues :)

Kat also wanted the raku on beige.  What do you think...does this qualify as beige?

I LOVE this purple frit from Val Cox and melted it into clear rods to wrap around the light sky blue beads.  This was a color combination request from Chloe this past week...

More of Val's purple frit, but melted on top of white frit before swirling through clear beads.

And then silver melted on top of a Vetrofond Strawberry glass.  Quite a reaction happened between the silver and the glass, which you can see in the dark lines connecting the dots where the silver wire melted in.  This was a practice round at re-familiarizing myself with melting silver wire in the flame before I make a set for Cristi.  Hoping to get time on the torch to do that this week before we leave for Phoenix on the 14th (can't wait!)

We had temps in the high 60s with sun most of the weekend (cept for when I took pics this afternoon!  grrrr), but I took advantage of the warmer weather to 1. open the windows in the house and 2. take pics of beads to list in Etsy this week.

Counting down the days

Just eight more days until we head to Phoenix for a WHOLE WEEK with family and I am so excited!  I can't decide if I'm more thrilled about the warmer temps (in the 70-80s!!!) or seeing our fam....I'm leaning toward the latter, but the 80s are a close runner up if you know how I freeze, dress in layers and blast my space heater every year when Atlanta weather drops into the 50s or below.  I'm such a wimp.

Here is my Bean child from last weekend when she wasn't sporting hives.  Which is to say, she hadn't been at school that day because it was Sunday.  The hives have reappeared every day after being in her classroom for a few hours.  Every day since Jan 26th, the girl child has popped unbelievable hives from eating pineapple in her fruit cocktail (school didn't realize the new brand had pineapple in it).  She got a double whammy that day because her teacher brought in a fresh pineapple, chopped the top off it and stuck it in a petri dish on one of the kids tables.  Anyone who knows four year olds think that they would be inclined to touch something new?  Didn't think so.  Four year olds just don't touch new items.  I didn't see that until Tuesday night, so she had a good two school days to soak it in and play in it.  Gah!I think all of the kids rolled in it & then touched EVERYTHING in the classroom.  Kudos go to the assistant teachers for cleaning EVERY surface in the classroom to help get rid of the pineapple & stop her hives.  Tomorrow I take her to my doctor who eliminated ALL of my food and animal allergies through accupressure.  Yep.  All of them.  They haven't come back in over four years.

I have been playing with adding silver wire/drops to my beads and expect to have pics this weekend for an updated blog.  Right now, they are hanging out on a mandrel over my kitchen sink.  I take longer washing my hands just so I can look at them :)

Today is my Friday.  Taking a vacation day tomorrow to become reacquainted with my torch in the morning before I take Chloe to the doctor.  Thinking torch time in the afternoon is out as the girl child is begging to watch Sound of Music after her nap tomorrow.  Which is cool.  Any day watching Julie Andrews is a good day.  Sure beats work!