The bags are packed...

I'm literally ready to walk out the door. The bead cart. The other two carts holding various sundry items such as table covers, display signs, and all the sales-related stuff. I have my just-in-case chair sitting there; the small TV tray that becomes a work table. The floor mats.

So of course now the burning question is, "What did I forget?" LOL Hopefully nothing, I'm a pretty organized person. I do have to get by the market to get some fruit, and I guess something for sandwiches. Although maybe I'll just say "screw it" and eat the unhealthy, expensive stuff there. One less thing to carry, to worry about. I do remember, though, the ONE YEAR I decided to do this - they were out of everything by 10am the first day, had nothing the second day! So, I guess I'd better plan for those sandwiches.

See y'all soon!

Almost ready....

for the SABOS show!

So now I'm going to launch into politics for a minute. IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY POLITICS, OR DON'T FEEL LIKE POLITICS SHOULD BE AIRED IN PUBLIC, THEN DON'T READ ANY FURTHER. Also, do NOT email me to tell me you don't like my politics. I don't really give a flying fig, okay? (And, yes, I do get emails from people telling me this, as if they thought they could make me see the error of my ways.)

Gee, that paragraph is almost politics in and of itself, isn't it? LOL

The SABOS show is coming at a time when I could really use the money. Those of us who do "art" do it first for the love of it, but also because we really don't have a choice, if that makes sense. For me creative enterprises are as natural and necessary as eating, sleeping, breathing. Many artists do try to eek a bit of money from it - if not profit, then enough to permit us to continue to do it (remember, it's like food for us, just as necessary). My "bead" bank account is depleted from supplies, tools, and, of course, classes. Classes are not a true necessity, I guess, but the other half of me is all about education, and I guess I take it seriously. But, I digress. I know that many of you don't have extra money to spend. The bead forums are full of chats about Ebay sales, Etsy sales, craft show sales. As in there are NO sales. And, no matter how you (or I) slice it, beads just aren't a necessity. I would never expect you to buy beads rather than food, or gasoline. So, as much as I'm looking forward to SABOS, I don't expect it to be a financially good show for me. I'm afraid it won't be a good show for many of us, and many of the people there make all or part of their living selling their art. If you can't afford to spend money at the show, don't. But, please DO stop by to see me, and to see all the other vendors you know. Tell me my beads are pretty. Tell me that "that woman 3 booths over has wonderful things for sale." Tell me about the new artist on the back row with so much talent for beadweaving. If you can spend a few dollars at the show, do it with glee and thankfulness. If you spend some with me, I'll appreciate it, and know that it's hard-earned money for you, not to be taken for granted.

Beads, beads, and more beads

Beads have truly taken over my house. This has been the case for some time, of course, but I think I'm more acutely aware of this fact when I'm preparing for a bead show. I keep everything in those nifty little semi-disposable Glad containers, clearly labeled, of course. Yes, scoff at me for my Monk-like (as in Tony Shalub)tendencies, but I'm an organization freak. Anyway, now I've got little containers of "sets," "earring pairs," "vertical focals," "horizontal focals," - an almost unending supply of those little marked containers. So, what's the problem, you ask? Well, none of them - NONE of them - are priced yet. There's even the "to be etched" and the "needs additional finishing" containers - which contain beads which have to have other things done to them BEFORE they can even BE priced. Believe it or not, I actually begin to think I'm tired of beads at this time point before every show. It's their "everywhereness," I guess....

Can't wait to be home tomorrow to work on the "have possibilities" container!

Sounds of silence....

Things are (hopefully) returning to a bit of normal today. We've interviewed about 150 undergraduate tutor applicants in the last three days. I feel every single one of them this morning....We have to do the interviews in the late afternoon, after classes are over, and of course the Center's business continues as usual. Which means my workdays for the last three days have averaged 11-12 hours. We do group interviews, but between the introductions, the competency exams, the "mock tutoring" exercise, and the debriefing/selection process, we're talking 3 hour interviews at a minimum. I'm tired. I'm cranky. I feel old! LOL

Still getting ready for the SABOS bead show. I have pretty good amount of stock, although no new bead weaving patterns as I had intended. I've said, "maybe next time" so often that I'm not even going to say it again!

Beyond swamped...

But there are pictures! No time to "talk" today, so enjoy. Oh, I may put these in Etsy - not sure yet - but if you see something you want, email me. You KNOW my prices are reasonable! And ya know ya want 'em....

Last of the dot face

Here's the dot face, pretty much finished. Truthfully, I can't remember if he tinkered any more after I took this picture. He probably did, as it's in his nature as a perfectionist. This definitely falls under the category of "something I'll never do," but the experience of watching is well worth it. Just knowing what CAN be done if you want to badly enough (and, practice enough, too!).

It's a gorgeous day here. The nights have been exceptionally cool, the days pretty cool, too - in the high 70s. I know that summer is right around the corner, but I'm enjoying this while I can. I'm off to Blue Moon tomorrow, so don't look for another update until Friday or Saturday.

Later!

Ha ha - fooled ya!

Told y'all I was going to take a few pictures over the weekend. You didn't really BELIEVE me, did you? As always, my intentions were good, but peeps, there's only so many hours in the day. Even though Tony was gone, and I had the house to myself, I still had to do a little laundry, a little (very little) gardening, a little vacuuming. Friday evening I spent pricing beads; Saturday morning the gray had to be covered - again. (I'm thinking (not very seriously) about just letting it go - now really, don't you think that having to cover roots every three weeks is just ridiculous?!) So, the little of this and little of that turned into a LOT of stuff. I did get quite a few sets of Theresa's cow and cow-titty beads made (you'll have to ask her...). Also some killer pandora beads for ME ME ME.

Anyway, I'm at work today and tomorrow, then off to Blue Moon Wednesday and Thursday. I'm actually gonna pick up the paperweight I made in Loren Stump's class. Andrea is a hoot, looking forward.

More face

At this point, the face is really starting to come together. I chose this photo, even though it's a bit out of focus, because it shows both the face and the back of the skull. Remember that the entire underlying structure was formed out of clear glass.



Tony is off doing bowling stuff this weekend, so I hope to get a lot done. I have most of the sets I've made strung up, but they need to be priced; all of the focals need to be sorted and priced. I also want to etch a few, because there are always customers who prefer that look. I also bought a nice little bottle of wine....for after torching, of course! My best intention is to take a few photos, too. We'll see where that goes....

Dot face, two...

Time's limited today, so I'll just let the picture do most of the talking.



At this stage, the skull is fully formed (gee, I sound like a physiologist, don't I?). In this step, the base is being coated with pink. The reason the glass looks so "wormy" is because Loren swirls the glass as he's applying it - almost making tiny brush-like strokes. This prevents regular or organized-looking streaks from forming, as would happen if the glass was just swiped on. Basically, it makes the glass look more like skin and less like glass.

Have I mentioned that he has a commission to do a life-sized Cher in glass? Yes, THAT Cher.

The "dot" face and other stuff

Over the next few postings, I'll share pictures of what Loren Stump calls the "dot face." Why dot face? Well, I'm not sure, because there weren't any dots used that I could see! Here's the face as it's just beginning to be formed - at this point all you can see is the vague shape of a skull. And, yes, it's formed completely in clear - it will be overlaid with color in the next steps.



On MY bead horizon, I've been busy busy busy making beads. I have a show coming up next month (yikes!) and a trunk show - I think - in July. This whole weekend I had to do mostly "production" work, which for me means spacers to go with all the sets. Every time I spend a weekend this way, I PROMISE myself that "from NOW ON I'll make these little buggers as I go." But, I never do. It's just so much fun to make pretty beads....but, really I think the spacers make the set. So, from now on....

Look at that hair!

Just a quick minute today - I was going to post a couple more class pictures, but still going through and editing. And, every time I look at this picture....



I think, "Look at that gorgeous hair! It's prettier than mine!"

Have a great weekend. I'm torching tomorrow, getting ready for the San Antonio/SABOS bead show.

Faces, Part Deux

In theory - and I'll be quick to point out that this not - at ALL - how mine looked, this is what we did in the Stump class with the face canes. From the canes (see yesterday's entry) we sliced a piece off - probably about 2mm thick. We then formed a skull shape, off mandrel, from pink glass (the same color as used in the murrini face). The little sliced faces were warm in the kiln; we picked them up with hemostats and applied them to the "face" of the skull. After that, it was a matter of stretching the murrini face a bit to cover the skull's face, then sculpting in details. No, not easy. For me, anyway. Loren also demonstrated what he calls a "dot face," which is made completely differently. I'll have pictures of it later.

Might give the kiddies nightmares....

Is this just freaky looking or what? These are all our little faces made from murrini canes; they're about 3/4" in diameter, on average. They have to be annealed because that's really quite large - otherwise they'd self-destruct.

These have to be made in several parts. You make the eyes, the nose, finally the mouth. These pieces are put in the kiln and brought up to a bit more than 1000 degrees - hot enough to reintroduce into the torch without disintegrating, but not hot enough to slump. To make the face, you first pick up the nose - the center of the face. Start adding pink glass to the area just above the nose; add the eyes. Continue adding glass to build the forehead. Then, come back down below the nose, start adding glass that will become the upper lip, and finally add the mouth. And then, yes, the chin. At all/any points you're shaping, shaping, shaping....After the face is together, you attach "punties" - basically glass handles - then heat the glass bundle until it will flow enough to be pulled out into a long shape. The magic of murrini is that the "picture" you've created remains the same, just reduces in size. There were 10 people in the class, and the reason you see so many faces is because you get several 3" to 4" segments from one pull. The segments can then be used to go into a larger piece (see the murrini on Loren Stump's site) or sawed into little face slices with a glass saw.

67.75

hours of instruction in five days!

The Loren Stump class was amazing. I'll have a few pictures in coming days, but what a giving, enthusiastic, energetic teacher! The earliest we got through was Thursday night at 10:45 (class started each day at 10am) and that was the night Blue Moon hosted a "Meet Loren Stump" open house. Truthfully, I think he would have preferred that we (the class) stay after everybody else went home, but thankfully others rebelled with me! LOL On the last night, when everybody was finishing up their paperweights, we didn't finish until 1am (as in Sunday morning). That day was particularly special as Al Janelle came and hung out all day. Al and Loren apparently go way back, and although Al hasn't made beads in quite a few years, he was full of tips and stories. I got to know him just a little the year he was president of the Austin Bead Society - it was the same year that I handled bazaar publicity, so we met a couple of times. A genuinely nice guy.

Jim and Rose were also incredible. They kept us fed - which in this case meant three meals a day! - and full of snacks, soda, and water. Loren is already scheduled for next year at the same time.

Here's a picture Jim sent out of all our paperweights in the kiln. I *think* mine is in the second row, 3rd back. I'm picking it up in a day or two.