This is a cross-over post from my other blog...Hot Coffee and Musings - Check out the photos on that blog!

For the last couple of years my studio has been plagued with leaks. One problem spot was in a built-in shelf unit that stuck out from the rest of the addition. This was covered with a flat roof that butted up against a wraparound porch and the roof of the main portion of the house. My darling husband has kept this patched, and most of the time under control. That ended this winter.

The shelf unit became very mouldy and mildewy. I could no longer work in there and resorted to storing a lot of my beads in other parts of the house. Not an easy thing to do and no one was happy with me!

Last Spring, right around tax time and toward the end of my final forensics season (another sad story), the leak got worse. My darling husband looked into re-roofing that portion of the house, but there were other leaks, too. We finally decided that the whole thing needed to be done.

This became one of those home repair nightmares where everything keeps getting worse.

Tear off, which should have taken a day or two took a couple of weeks. There were four roofs up there... four! Deck-shingles-shingles-deck-shingles-shingles.... A new deck had been placed over an existing and rotting deck. In places, the roof was rotting from the first deck out. The valley where a phony roof line was created had been tarred through to the first deck beneath the final layer of shingles... this was a mess that has consumed most of our summer.

We now have a new metal roof. The roof line has been extended over the entire length of the house taking in my studio. I now have a covered porch. No more shoveling snow from my oxygen tanks in the winter.

The roof over my studio spans the entire width of the house. My studio, which is only half the width of the house, will connect to an addition...but that is a project for another day.

So, I am remodeling some. I lost my office at the college and have decided not to pursue another coaching position. I have a new (old bookshelf) for my communication texts and am sorting through the years of office supplies I have accumulated. I'm a couple of behind schedule as far as getting my act to together with the jewelry and beads... but I have a new dry roof over my head and more time than I know what to do with... Time to get to work

Where have you been?

Coming soon a detailed explaination of what I have been up to. A dark tale of roofs, job interviews, college students coming home, and other adventures... Tune in for more information...Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

Look for pictures and Etsy.com updates as soon as I can set up my studio again...another dark tale.

Summer Resolution

The spring semester ended last week...grade are in...JAFAX is past... I should be up to my eyebrows in beads in Michigamme at this very moment but the best laid plans have gone awry.

I have had a tough time getting things together for posting the past few months. My studio has suffered some water damage, I had a terrible winter schedule despite only teaching two classes, and then spring hit and I had to move out of my office at work. Woe is me. I still don't have my photo booth set up so I'm taking pictures on my desk! Lovely!

Time for some bead therapy!

I am working my way through some unfinished bracelets at the moment. I started the striped one during the winter and decided to finish it with a roundel bead closure rather than a clasp. I'm not sure I liked the vertical peyote. It left a raw edge so I put some picot edging where needed to hide the threads. I love the colors!

The little free-form bracelet will be finished with a clasp. It is very narrow and I love the twist in the middle. It lays wonderfully on the wrist, but alas, is very small! Too small for me.

I'm really excited about the upcycle jewelry that I am designing. The charms are beautiful and I love the combination of brite and natural copper with the bottle glass. I will have about twenty of these done by the end of next week and will post on Etsy soon. The one pictured here is made from a St. Julian's Sparkling juice bottle and it is a lovely shade of green.

Olive oil and wine bottles are a rich olive green, but my favorite are the brown beer bottle beads. It is a rich clear brown that I have not found in rod glass. I have a whole case of Leinenkugel to play with once emptied.
I also made some in blue and clear. The clear I have decided to etch for a frosted look and will treat as "white."

I am trying to decide on how to attach the clasps. I have plans to make some clasps from copper wire and tie the ends to form a loop to attach the clasps to. I also brought some copper ends for a more formal look. I may even wire-wrap the ends with thin copper wire. So far, I've tried all three and am not completely thrilled by any of the final products.

The copper jewelry has been coming along fine! I spent a couple of weekends earlier this spring sorting through my lampwork beads and putting together sets for earrings. The copper is some heavy duty wire that I got from my husband after an electrical project. I flattened the wire with a hammer, shaping paddles at each end. The beads float on the center of the paddle. I finished the earrings with copper ear hooks. These are waiting for the photo booth!

Let me close with a brag... I sold my first bracelet on Etsy.com. My white RAW bracelet was purchased for a wedding. I am so excited! I have never had a "stranger" buy one of my pieces before and look forward to many more...It feels good!

Etsy: Updating my store

I have ignored my Etsy store for many, many months and decided that I either had to 1) Do something with it ... post items for sale; or 2) Let it go. I lurk around Etsy a lot and see a lot of artisans who do very well, at least they have a lot of sales. So, I decided to give it try... again.

Beading Daily doesn't highly recommend sites like Etsy because they believe that a lot of the viewers are other artists and crafters. That may be true. I find that most of the people who ask about a necklace that I'm wearing or a project that I'm working on are fellow crafters. We appreciate the work that goes into making a handcrafted item. But fellow crafters can't be the only people who visit Etsy.

I realize a lot of the reasons I have so much inventory is that I get bashful about promoting my work. I know my friends who read this will find that weird, but it is true. You put yourself out to show off your items and face critique and criticism. Now some of this is valuable. I appreciate it when one of the gals at the local bead store, Bead Culture (www.beadculture.com), comment on my work and offer a suggestion. It's another thing when someone suggests that they can buy something just like that at Target.

What's been posted... to the side of the blog I have added a quick preview to my Etsy. There are four bracelets in the shop right now. When my order from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads (www.firemountaingems.com) arrives I will have some of my new bottleneck bead necklaces to post. I'm really looking forward to working on those.

So, as we come to the middle of the third month of the year... I am slowly fulfilling my promise to myself for the new year. Now... I just have to figure out what to do with the website... but that is for another day. I have a bracelet waiting for me to finish.

From the kiln...

February has been cold, that deep dry cold that we get in Michigan. Chapped skin, cold feet, and a chilly studio. Actually, my studio has been too cold to bare on most days. Even the space heater can't keep up. In the last couple of weeks the temperature has been high enough to torch once.

Just to have the chance to play with glass I put some "bad beads" in the kiln to slump. Wonky beads make great cabs. I'm pleased with the raw results.

I still have some cleaning to do. I will shape with the grinder and take off any bead release that was hiding in the hole. The purple one in the bottom corner cracked in the kiln. I have plans for the pair!

This bead cracked around the hole taking it off the mandrel. I'm thinking about cutting the smaller end off and rounding it for a circular cab that will have the darker swirl at one end and the ivory at the other.

This is one of the better shaped cabs to come directly from the kiln. This bead was made of Bullseye glass and pressed in a lentil mold. It was misshaped and had a small fracture. Now it is a beautiful cab...almost ready for use.

This one has an interesting crack. I really don't know enough about glass at this point to diagnose, but I think I may have mixed glass. There might be some Bullseye glass mixed with Morretti. I made this bead quite a while ago and at that time was experimenting with using Bullyseye glass in the torch. No matter... it will make a nice fish tank decoration.

Last Sunday, when it was actually warm enough to torch I made a couple of hearts and some smaller beads that I plan to use in a bracelet. Everything needs to be cleaned, and I have time for that today since it is too cold to work back in the studio much longer. As much as I love winter, I am really looking forward to warmer temperatures.

Where has January gone?

My best made plans to be productive this month got set aside by back-to-back three day trips with the forensics team. I have a few things started and have finished one project - to a point.

I made several pink fused glass tiles a while ago. My plan was to make a tile bracelet, and I still might. I have several tiles.

The focal in this pendant is slightly larger than the other tiles so I knew it needed its own creation. I thought about just gluing on a bail, but I really like the look and feel of cabochons enclosed in seed beads.

I've done this a few times with beads. This is the focal bead on a bracelet I made last year. This is a bead that is enclosed in 15s and incorporated into a free-form bracelet. This bracelet is currently on consignment in Michigamme.

This weekend I actually have time to torch, but it is so cold I'm having problems with my flame. I haven't had it on in two weeks. So....Current projects.... I have nine wonky beads in the kiln. I'm hoping to get some nice cabochons to play with. I also have some beads sorted for free-form bracelets, blues and purples. And, I've started a sweater vest for myself.

Finally, I need to update and post some items on Etsy. My stash is getting pretty full again.

Last week of break...

My goal was to make the most of my last week of vacation. I actually got some torch-time in a couple of days and finished several bracelets. It feels good to get back to work on the projects I had to set aside last semester.

The bracelet above is a free-form peyote stich with a glass bead closure. This is my favorite project and I have finished five, completed three, and have three that need a clasp. It's nice to see the stash box filling up.

I also made dozens of the RAW bracelets above. These were given as gifts to my daughter's friends, my friends, and I have a few in the stash. The pattern is from a bead magazine I left in Michigamme, so I'll have to give credit-where-due when I retrieve the magazine in April.

I am inspired to join a challenge at Wetcanvas. There is a Valentine's Day challenge to create heart beads in the glass forum. I'm usually just a lurker but I make some pretty cool heart-shaped beads. Last week, I even learned how to make one with a verticle hole.

This one looks a bit "wonky." I had a bad experience with a dot so I just wrapped it in stringers. My son thinks it's cool!

This one represent the usual hearts I make. I let them drip and ooze to a long point and then gather that in a twist. I like the way the colors come together in the spiral on the twist.

That is something that I like to do in a lot of my beads, such as the "storm" in the center of this bead I made in August...the last time I was on the torch.

Check out at my Flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superiorbliss/

Beaded Ornaments

These ornaments were made for children, Christmas 2007. At the time my most successful attempt at bead embroidery. I got the idea from the Bead Embroidered Star Ornament at Beading Daily http://www.beadingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2007/12/12/bead-embroidered-star-ornament.aspx. I found the moose image online as a peyote pattern and drew the Tree of Life and butterfly free-hand.

This year I made three more ornaments, much more original. Above is another butterfly-theme ornament for my daughter, my oldest son got a "Day of the Dead" skull and the other son has a video game icon.

Happy New Year!

I've been interested in improving my bead embroidery skills. I made a bracelet which I haven't finished, dabbled with a couple of brooches, then decided to focus on ornaments. Following the success with the 2007 ornaments I decided to try dolls.

The first one completed is the Water Goddess. She is made with Japanese and Czech seed beads 15s, 11s, and 6s, with pressed glass embellishments. All of the beads are sewn to stiff Pellon interfacing which is backed with turquoise Ultrasuede. The Water Goddess now resides with my dear friend RMF.

My goddess goal is to make ones representing the elementals, months of the year, and then go one from there. The Fire Goddess beading is complete, I just have to finish backing the piece.