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!

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....

Off to see the wizard...

This picture is just a simple "pleat" bead. There's been an ongoing discussion about them on Lampwork Etc in recent weeks. It's really just a "twistie" - an opaque paddle of glass in the center, with piles of transparent glass on both sides, then heated and pulled out while twisting - but the color choice makes it look like there are pleats. Cool, huh?

Anyway, I'm out for most of next week, taking a five-day class from the wizard, Loren Stump. I seriously doubt I'll end the week with being able to make elephants, though...I've heard he survives on cigarettes and Cheetos....should be an interesting week. Also, his classes go from 8am until 9pm, 11pm, midnight....while I don't have the constitution for that, I hope to at least stay in the game. There won't be any updates, probably....

Beads - obsession or cure?

Although I can't go into specifics because of confidentiality and all that, we had a student come in yesterday with a quite interesting problem. A problem that prompts today's title: obsession or cure? I remember my sister-in-law, Billie. A very odd woman, to say the least. She and her husband (my husband's brother) had already been married 12 or 15 years when Tony and I got married. Ten or so years after that, we found out that Billie had had a long-time affair with a man in their very small west Texas town. Apparently everybody knew, even the husband (they eventually divorced). Anyway, Billie was obsessed with recording music (back in the days of cassette tapes, remember those?), Elvis (no last name necessary) in particular. And I'm talking OBSESSED. As in that's all she wanted to talk about. Her apartment was stacked with recordings. You'd talk to her on the phone and she'd relate that she only had (fill in the blank) number of recordings to go before she had EVERY SINGLE SONG in whoever's music catalog. But, several years after they were divorced, Billie was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And then music was all she had. No, it didn't of course cure the multiple sclerosis, but it provided her with a modicum of mental health through the roughest times.

So, beads. In many ways, beads are pretty much all I think about. I see a flower arrangement - oh, what colors of Moretti could I use to reproduce that? I see ornamental ironwork - oh wow, that would make a great scroll pattern on a bead. And all that's even before I sit down to look (drool) over the beads on Ebay, the beads on Lampwork Etc., even the beads on my desk (yes, on my desk - you don't really think I leave all my beads at home, do you?). I think I could safely say that yes, beads are my obsession. But after a rough week, all I can think about is getting to stay home for the weekend and make beads. I doodle new patterns in boring meetings. Beads get me through the rough, and sometimes tough, days, through the week. They're also my cure.