Wow, another weekend shot to heck!!

I try to spend some time every weekend working on my beads, or making jewelry, or something creative. This weekend was no exception, aside from the fact i had an audience for my first bead. My son was here visiting and got to watch me set up and make my first bead of a two hour session last night. It is a beautiful SW inspired swirly bead. I am so in love with the SW colors right now and how they play together an make interesting things happen. My base bead was ASK Tribal Turquoise, I added Effetre Dark Ivory, some Silvered Ivory Stringer (SIS), a bit of coral stringer, and let them all play together. After I thought they had done their jobs I did some swirls with a clear stringer, and popped that bead in the crock-pot. Then I moved on to Transparent Effetre Amber, rolled in Ocelot Spot frit and rounded up nicely. In fact I liked it so much I did five beads with this combination. I followed that with another trans amber bead, wrapped in silver leaf, dipped it in the ocelot spot frit and wrapped a single strand of clear stringer around it, and rounded it up, then squished it into a rectangular shape. I think I like it. Gosh, I love playing with fire. I hope you like what I have made.

The next session at the torch will have to include some skulls and things to match socks for a sock bead exchange I am in. Then I have to think about what sort of animal I can sculpt with hot glass. I am in an animal exchange, too. Yikes, nothing like pushing myself to grow, huh!!

One World One Heart-CLOSED

Well, the crazy gypsy caravan ride that is One World One Heart, the brain child of Lisa Swifka has come to an end for this year.
Drummroll please . . . the winner is: POLINKA from France. Now all she has to do is choose heart or skull bead, and the print of her choice from my Etsy art shop, Xhule.

POLINKA, if you did not get my email, please let me know here.

Here are a couple more skulls, I can make them pretty wild and colorful, too. Click on the photo for a closer look.

Another week gone, and here I am

Another week of 2009 gone already. Amazing how fast this crazy world spins on its way. I got back on the torch Friday night and made three beads, made three more tonight. Hoping they turn out okay. Friday night I made an organic bead and tried making a swirl in the glass (my first attempt) which kind of worked, I also made a shell, the lip is a bit odd, but more interesting in color due to the Vetrofond Painted Desert glass I used. The final bead I made was a skull, special for my granddaughter Athena. She is a girly-girl and a tomboy. She loves all things skull, and her favorite color is blue or turquoise, hence the color. I wrapped a clear base bead in goldstone stringer and encased that in clear, then I pressed it and shaped it and added its turquoise eyes and bow and little Silvered Ivory Stringer teeth. I had a ton of fun making them, what do you think? Tomorrow I will try to get tonight's batch photoed and posted, too. Until then . . . have fun. If life's not fun . . . you're doing it wrong.

Sunday night, where did my weekend go?

Yesterday while Tess and I were off shopping for both houses my phone rang and it was Lifeline calling to tell me dad had fallen and the ambulance had been called. We had a cart full of stuff and really needed to finish and pay for the things and take them home. So we called Eric and he ran over to be with dad. He found him on the floor with his hand bleeding, and rode with him to the hospital. We ran the groceries home and met them there. By the time we got to the hospital dad had gone to xray and was in fairly good humor. His ribs are bruised, his hand has a horrible tear in the skin (he is 89 and has really fragile skin), his glasses were in pieces (he landed on them), he had a skinned spot on top of his head, and his left knee is skinned a bit too. Kind of like rug burn. Aside from that and being stiff and sore today he came through it pretty well. It scares me so much when he is alone. Not a fun thing at all. He is really weak and has a hard time getting around even when I am here to help him.


I actually did get in a couple of sessions of bead making, the first batch was horrible because I had to torch turned up too high and pretty much smoked them. The second batch is great, but my favorite one cracked right down the middle. I will try it again, though, now I have a handle on how to do that sort of bead. Here they are, I had hoped to have a bit more time and energy for bead making, but the stress of dad falling and the fact we are both getting over a cold kind of prevented that. Dont forget you can click on the photos to make them bigger. Of course the photo at the top is of the smoked batch, so you can probably skip that one.

Paul and Natane brought a turkey over to bake and we all watched the Superbowl game. Except for a side trip for Tess and I to buy a few things at Safeway while the sale was still going on soda. (four 12-packs for $7.99, how can you beat that!!)

The other exciting thing that happened was me getting my SRA number. It means I am officially a Self-Representing Artist in beadmaking!!! Yea!!!