Shipping Helper and New Beads

Chloe was home yesterday, making sure that her 102.5 fever from the weekend was seriously gone.  She was thrilled to be my shipping helper.  Can you tell she was excited?  She couldn't help but run to the mailbox.

She very carefully placed one package in the mailbox at a time.

I love the mouth opened in concentration as she is trying to get the package into the mailbox.

I also love the tip toes to get everything pushed inside the mailbox.

Aaaaaand done.

Last night I made a few more eggs and some smaller swirly eggs (below) using new frit that Kerry sent me.  At BeadFest, she said she had a bunch of frit that she doesn't use and would send to me.  

Oh.  My.  Stars.  

She sent me a shoebox FILLED with jars of frit.  I couldn't even sit and look at it when it arrived because I had to make a mad dash for the dentist with both kids.  When I sat down at the torch last night, I went through all the jars and decided on two to test out.  These look like little drops of honey or sunshine to me.

Here are the blueberries and cream eggs.  There is a bit of lavenderish purple in this blue and I LOVE it.

Lastly is a larger, funky hollow I made over the weekend.  I love that shimmery purples come out of the amber lines on this clear hollow.  Thinking I will make this into a pendant to hang simply from a ball chain, but I'm still mulling it over.  I really like the shape of this bead.

Eggs and Hollows

Here are the close-ups of the beads.  The eggs all got snatched up, so if you were holding your breath and crossing your fingers some extras would end up in the shop....well, you can exhale and wait until next week.  I need to make more now.  :)

And here are the hollows all cleaned out and ready to go.  Although they are simple in design and color, they were not the easiest to photograph.  So many reflections.

New Hollows and Eggs

I preferred to tell you about the beads I made in a video, rather than rushing to get them cleaned, etched and photographed.  Because I didn't want to make you wait any longer.  Because I'm just cool like that.

Happy Monday!

Big Hollows

These are big hollows that I have hoarded.  For months.  Some, maybe years. 

I just love their shapes.  And colors.

This is the largest one and can just barely be concealed in my palm if I make a fist.  I used ivory glass and a glass heavily laden with silver, which turned into gorgeous blues, greens, golds and lavenders.  LOVE!

This is a smaller, ivory hollow with lines of khaki reaching around the bead in arcs.  I love the outlines on each of the khaki lines.

This bead was on the front of our Southern Flames annual post card in 2008.  It was made on a quarter inch mandrel, so the hole is much larger than normal.  I used ASK-104 glass on this bead and adore these colors.  I have very minimal quantities left and hoard them most defensively.  If you come into my studio and look at them too long, I might have to give you a little nudge to move along.  Making custom beads with those colors gets mulled over for hours before I decide if I will make them.

And this is my favorite.  The color is this beautiful, metallic caramel.  Depending on the angle, there are great mother-of-pearl purples to be seen and the black wisps appear navy blue.  The background reminds me of Klimt's the Kiss.

On another note, while I'm thinking up new blog posts.....is there anything you would like to see?  

Do you have any questions for me to answer?  

Personally/emotionally/professionally/artistically?

Is there a step-by-step process for any of my beads that you're interested in seeing in pictures?

Or a video?  I could make a video.  Of what, I don't know.  But I could make one :)

Next week, I will take one post (or more, if you folks go nuts with questions) to answer everything.

Orphan Sets Coming Soon

LeAnn was nudging me this morning to pull together some orphan sets of beads for my shop.

I dug through my box of orphan beads and picked 70 beads to turn into seven sets.

I also pulled out some hollows and other focal beads that have sat in my box for I won't say how long.

I will say that I think I am now ready to part with these babies.

I think.

Here is a snap shot of what will be going into my Etsy shop after I finish cropping the pics I took and will try to get them all listed tonight.