Simple Evolution

My Bead Soup partner from last year was Nan Emmet of Spirited Earth. She makes wonderful ceramic pendants and beads (not to mention really, really cool spirit rattles).


This picture is the first necklace I made with her cute starfish pendant. meh. I was going for simple and just got blah. So, I turned to my favorite reason for working with metal - the hammer. :)

I beat the hell out of some copper, made some dangles, and voila - simple without the meh.

Not So Shiny

My goodies from yesterday have been patina'd and finished up, all ready for my show next weekend in Lake Odessa. Putting a patina on copper brings out so many wonderful colors.

All Shiny

Here are some of this week's goodies, all tumbled and ready for some patina.

The piece on the right is another one created with my funky discs. The piece on the left I created with some lovely boro beads from amie3. She has some yummy beads.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the post-patina pics.

Stormy Weather

We had some nasty weather blow through last night. We were more fortunate than many of our neighboring counties, as we only saw some bad lightning and thunderstorms. I do love watching storms come in. The DH wasn't home, so I stood on the porch and snapped a couple of pictures. :)

I am preparing for a show next weekend, Art in the Park in Lake Odessa, Michigan. I've been creating goodies after work, and by the time I'm done at night the sun is down and I've been unable to take pictures. I'll talke a bunch this weekend and share.

Recent Work

To make up for my absence, I thought I would post some pics of my recent work.






I designed this necklace with some boro beads I won from the spectacular Lori Anderson. I am having so much fun with copper and patina. The colors are never quite what I expect but are always what I need (cue the Rolling Stones).





Lately, I have become addicted to making funky, not-quite-round, discs. I primarily use soft glass, but I am in currently in love with Gaffer Chalcedony, Gaffer Blue Chalcedony, and the traditional raku. The chalcedonies and raku have always been vexing for lampworkers. They can produce a wonderful range of colors all within one bead. They also can produce blah colors. I love them all, good and bad.



This is a finished piece I sold at a show in Kalamazoo a couple of weekends ago. I think it shows the variety of chalcedony (these discs are blue and regulary chalcedony).

Still Having Problems with Blogger

I took a break from blogging for a couple of weeks; between Blogger issues, stress at work, a couple of shows to prepare for, and a couple of custom orders, it just was too much.

Everything is under control, except for my Blogger issues. When I log in, my blog doesn't show that I am logged in. I can click on 'sign in' and it takes me to my dashboard, but I still am experienceing problems commenting on any Blogger blog.

Feh.