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.

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!

“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!

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!