New Home for LavenderCreek Blog

Speaking of changes and moving, I’ve created a new glass blog!  I won’t be posting here anymore, but I’ll leave this one up for awhile since there are some good articles here, I’ll eventually move them all over to the new blog and then close this one down. From now on though, I’ll be posting all of my updates on the new blog.

You will find the new blog here.

 

P.S. If you are a subscriber to this blog, I’m sorry but you will have to re-subscribe through the new blog. I haven’t been able to figure out how to transfer subscribers.

Moving with the Times and Listings on the Bay

Today I’m doing administrative stuff…I gotta say, I really hate it, but it’s a necessary evil.

With all the latest innovations in social networking and options for running an online business it is so easy to get left behind in the dust, if you don’t run along with the rest…I wish it wasn’t such a necessary part of my world because I don’t really excel at it! I just wanna make the beads!

I’ve resisted all the changes and advancements for a long time but I’ve come to the realization that I can’t do that anymore…gotta move with the times and all that. So this past few weeks has seen many changes in my little world; I joined FaceBook, that was a huge one for me! I’m dumping my old primitive mailing list and designing one where I can integrate pictures and links and other goodies more easily. I think work on my website or maybe even a totally new look will happen in the not too distant future…

Keeping up with the times is ALOT of work, let me tell you!

Before I get back at it, let me show you my latest up on the bay…

“Calypso’s Garden”

 

“Gaia’s Teardrops”

That’s about it for today!

 

 

Inspirational Monday: Jeanie Tomanek and a Few New Beads

I haven’t posted an inspirational image in a while!

“Seed”

Jeanie Tomanek is a favorite artist of mine. Her work is an exploration of the Feminine archetype, often inspired by poems, literature, folktales and myth. Her paintings have a very ethereal dream-like quality. Her women are pale, white and ghostly, they often bare scars and imperfections which, Jeanie explains in her bio, symbolize the struggle to become. Her work might seem dark to some, but I think her work is quite powerful, one could meditate on the imagery in a manner similar to that used with Tarot cards, the themes are deep and meaningful.

I chose this image because it so aptly expresses for me some feelings that I’ve been experiencing lately, the stirrings of new life (no, I’m not pregnant!) and hidden potential (creative ideas) that is very near the surface. It also perfectly expresses the unseen events of winter and the spring to come, the hidden and powerful potential lying just beneath the surface of the lifeless, cold and hard earth.The struggle that this new life endures as it reaches for the world of light just above…

If you’d like to see more of her work you will find a large online gallery on her website, here.

Also…

Here are some of my latest beads on Ebay!

“Dreaming of the Sun”

“Desert Daisy”

“Gourd Venus”

So that’s all the beady goodness that I have for you today. More tomorrow!

Black Marble Set and Hot Tip!

TGIF everyone! Thank goodness, this week has felt kind of stressful for some reason, it really wasn’t, just felt like it… I’m glad the weekend is finally here.

I’ve got a couple new beads to show you and also a hot tip, something that I’ve been dealing with for several months now. Ok first the tip :O)

When I began lampworking nearly 6 years ago I, like many beginning lampworkers, began by organizing and storing my glass rods with rubberbands to hold them together. DON’T do this…NEVER do this!

As many of my fellow lampworkers have found out the hard way, rubberbands dissolve over the years and what you will find one day, is that they become like partially chewed gummy bears and they weld themselves onto your glass. This is really gross and will cost you valuable time scrubbing and de-gumming your glass. Save yourself the heartache and the headache and use pony tail bands instead. Those  will last forever and won’t make a total MESS of your glass.

I got this tip from my Aunt Susan who was horrified to see the state of my Reichenbach rods. She worked on them  for hours…thank you Auntie!

 

Ok, onto the beads!

First a focal set I just listed on Etsy.

Black Marble

 

And last but not least …Ned the Naughty…you’ll find this mischievous little Christmas elf up on Ebay this evening.

Ned the Naughty

Ok, that’s it for today!

 

 

 

 

First Light

I love being the first one up in the morning. It didn’t always use to be that way, believe me! I was a true night owl for most of my life, even worked graveyard shift for nearly 10 years. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to really appreciate the stillness and newness of first light…waking up with it…not going to sleep with it! There’s a big difference.

This time of year is probably my favorite; the blanket of early morning fog that hangs low over the fields and floats wispy among the trees in the forest and hills surrounding our home. The dew hanging on the thousands of intricate woven spider webs in the meadows. The smell of early morning in the fall…

Geez…when did I become so introspective, even before my first cup of coffee??

Anyway, I’m up before the roosters and I’ll be heading out to fire up the woodstove in a few minutes so I don’t freeze my butt off in the studio. I feel a set coming on…weird I know! But I did buy a new press or two over the pass few weeks, they need some breaking in  :O)

Here’s a few beads that I listed this morning, Ebay and Etsy. Have you seen my Etsy shop by the way?…it is FULL. No really…it is! How cool is that?

Yes, you’re right, my photos are becoming a bit more artistic… I was getting really bored with them and all the blank space. I hope you like them…I do!