The Elk.

Just when I was getting ready to lay out with my book the other day I saw the elk! They migrate around here so it's not a big surprise to see them, but they haven't been around for a while, so it was nice to see my old friends again. I think they spotted me too!

A good book.

The self employed deserve two days off a week, right? Since I worked Saturday, and half of Sunday, I think I should enjoy this Monday of warm weather with a good book. Besides, it's supposed to get cold and rainy later this week so I should enjoy it while I can. And I'm currently addicted to a new book called Someone Knows My Name, by Lawrence Hill...So the decision is made, blanket in the grass, good book, maybe some ice tea. Sounds like a perfect day to me!

Beautiful day.

It was such a beautiful day today it was hard to work! But I really needed to get some beads made so I forced myself into the shop for some one on one time with my torch. So tomorrow, after some bead cleaning in the morning, I can take the afternoon off and enjoy this wonderful sunshine. Get back into the garden and get the peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and artichoke starts in that we bought last week. I can't believe I'm excited about gardening. I'm never excited about gardening! It's amazing the difference a raised garden bed can make!

New Colors!

I've been gone for a couple days visiting family and got a chance to go by the glass store to pick up some new colors and it is so exciting! I can't wait for tomorrow to see how some of my beads turned out! I should have them listing on etsy sometime in the afternoon.

Yeah for beads!

Here's some new beads I put on etsy. I really like the colors in these, and the tiny bubbles make me think of being under water.

I've finally gotten back into the rhythm of bead making and have really been enjoying it. It's just too bad I still have those taxes to do! It's the first year that I've been married and am filing joint, so now I don't only have to deal with myself whom procrastinates, but my husband, who's even worse. Oh dear...

What a difference a day makes.

Feeling much more peppy and upbeat today. The energizer bunny finally died so we went to town and filled her up and stocked up on some much needed groceries. It's hard when you live an hour from town, you don't want to run to the store just for milk! So now with a full tank of oxy and a full belly I'm ready to get out there and create. Oh, and with a new attitude I've found my funky beads are funky in a cool way. I guess my husband was right after all. ;)

Blahbity, blah, blah.

I don't know if it's the weather or what, but I am just feeling so blah! Our oxygen tank is at this never ending point where it looks like it's going to run out any second, so you don't really want to get started on anything big, but then it just keeps going. It's like the energizer bunny. So I've just been messing around and trying new color combos, and this morning when I looked in the kiln, oh, what a disappointment! My husband thinks they're cool though, so maybe it's my mood that's clouding my judgement. OK, enough of my rant, I've got some funky beads to clean.

Back to reality.

We've finally made it home, and I'm glad to say the travels and shows were a success! My husband received first place in glass at the Scottsdale show, and I am so proud. All the hard work really does pay off! I'm anxious to get back to the torch and make some beads but it looks like I have to wait until Monday or Tuesday when we can get more oxygen. What to do in the meantime? Oh right, taxes. I'm such a procrastinator!

I do however have some new beads coming up this weekend on ebay that I had made before I left. There's a link on the upper right of this page. :)

On the verge of a freak out...

Well I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed about this big trip. I am looking forward to it, thinking about warm weather is enough to put me at ease, but nasty little creeping worries keep popping up in my head too. The main thing is the economy and the uncertainty of how much the art market is going to be affected. I know we are going to have to test the waters sooner or later, I mean this is what we do, we're artists, we have to get out there and sell our work. But to drive all the way to Arizona from Oregon, and be gone for the whole month? What a way to test it, we're diving right in! Alas, I try to keep the faith. My husbands work is beautiful, and he always gets a positive reaction at these shows so...now I just need to pack.

Dark Night.

I realized yesterday that I never use black. And I don't know why, because I love black. Actually, it's probably because black, and dark dense colors take more heat to work and when they're molten they are really blinding! So I would get tired out pretty quickly. ( I am such a baby!) But now that I have my new torch, the black melts down like butter! And as far as the blinding issue, I just need to remember to flip down my dark lenses, duh! These Dark Night babies are going on etsy.

My Kiln is Possessed!

Oh! What a day! It's enough to drive me insane! My stupid kiln has a mind of it's own! I turn it on, set it on my usual holding temperature, then bang out of no where it's ramping up to over 1000 degrees! WTF?!? So I turn it to low and it won't settle down, finally I just had to turn it off. And this continued all day. I'd turn it on to low, it would get crazy hot, I'd turn it off, and on, and off. I could barely go inside for a drink of water for fear it would get raging hot and ruin all my beads! My husband thinks we just need to change a switch...I hope he's right!

Sorry this is so grumpy. On a lighter note, I do think I made some cool beads today. I'm looking forward to seeing them tomorrow! :)

Wild Wind.

Wow, let me tell you about the wind we had last night! It was scary! I probably sound like a freak being afraid of coyotes, and wind. I never used to be afraid of the wind... But last night it was blowing so hard, and these huge trees are in our backyard, and all I could think about while I was lying in bed was what if one of these huge trees came down and fell on our house! Morbid, I know. But it happens! And these are BIG trees, the pictures have no scale, but my husband guesses 100 feet tall. But luckily, they're still standing tall and strong and the winds have subsided.

On to the beads...or lack there of. We had to go to town today, which is a total chore, an hour each way, so I didn't get to make any beads today. But I still have time to clean the ones from yesterday so I guess I better get to it!

Something Different.

Yesterday at the torch I was feeling a little bored and decided to play around and try something different. I made these beads called Caribbean Cooler that are going on etsy. Sort of a throw back to my soft glass days when I used to do lots of dots and bumpies.

Well I'm on my way out to the shop now and I have no idea what I'm going to work on. Any suggestions?

Dance Baby, Dance!

Here's another set of hot beads called Heat that I've put on etsy. Rich tones of coral and orange in these babies.

I was thinking about what to talk about today and I looked at my cork board and saw a quote that I like. You've probably heard something similar, but this one speaks especially to me.

"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like no ones watching."

The last line in particular I love because when I'm out in the shop making beads I dance all day long. And sometimes I get pretty silly, but it's so much fun!

Collective Unconscious

Here's a set from yesterday called Mosaic that I'm putting on etsy. It seems I've been working a lot of the warm colors lately, and for whatever different reasons, people have been attracted to them. Maybe we all just long for a little heat after a long winter, or maybe it's a collective unconscious.

I love this collective unconscious idea. When I was in college I waited tables at this little organic pasta restaurant. (I'm craving pasta just thinking about it.) And we would go days with out serving one item on the menu, say the pesto for example. Then all of a sudden, one night, I would get over ten orders for the pesto! It was so weird. Everyone was thinking the same thing. World peace anyone?

Slow, Slow, Slow

I am sooo slow today! I was thinking I may get out to the shop to make some beads, but with the rate I'm going I don't think it's going to happen. My usual routine is to spend the first half of the day cleaning, photographing and listing my beads, then the second half of the day I'm out in the shop making them. Well it's almost noon and I haven't gotten out to the shop yet to even see how yesterdays little babies turned out! Oh well, it is Saturday after all. OK, enough chit-chat, I'm heading out there!

The Beads and the Life.

Here's a set from yesterdays batch that I thought were neat, but they were so hard to name! Usually when naming my beads I look at them and try to quickly associate with them, but this morning I was stumped and kept thinking about spicy exotic food! You'll see more of this when you see another set I'm listing called Creole. (I guess I'm hungry.) So I ended up calling them Toasty because they're all the warm colors of a roaring fire. They'll be going on etsy.

Now on to the life portion of the blog... So we have this coyote that has been hanging around. When I first saw it I thought it was so cute, out in the field, hunting for mice or what ever. But then I realized it was watching our house! And then I thought what if it's stalking our cats! THEN, I worried about the walk I take down to the mail box every morning. (It's a little less than a quarter mile down a wooded driveway.) My husband assured me the coyote is probably more scared of me, but still. What if it's rabid?!? Ok, now I'm just being an alarmist, but I'm carrying the machete with me none the less. Ha!

What the?!?

Surprise! This is one of the reasons why I love boro. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with bead making, this may be technical blah, blah.)

So I was making these beads and I was going for the blue greens, but I threw some persimmon in there for fun. I always flame strike, instant gratification I guess, but I figured if I didn't flame strike the persimmon wouldn't come out. Boy was I wrong! That color popped like no other!

These surprise babies are going on etsy.

SUPER SALE!

I've started a super sale in my etsy shop. Since I'm closing shop for March, (details below in Mondays post), I've decided to offer free US shipping, $2 international shipping, and put lots of sets on sale up until then. Since I'm holding off on ebay until after I get back I should have lots of new bead babies in etsy.

Sitting, waiting, wishing...

It won't be long now, the oxygen is on its way! I did manage to get one bead set called Fruit Fizz made yesterday before it ran out. It is listed on etsy.

Mt. Bachelor

Here's the pictures I took of Mt. Bachelor. This is probably 1/5 of the ski area.












I'm pretty sure you had to hike to ski down this hill. I can't believe so many people did! It inspires me to make some wave beads!

Grrr...

It never fails! The darn oxygen is out! Whenever I'm really excited to get out there and make some beads we run out of oxygen! Now I have to wait until tomorrow afternoon, so sad. :(

Last ebay auctions, for a while, that is...

I'm looking at my calendar, and I've realized the auctions up this week will be the last ones until the weekend of March 28. I will still be listing beads in my etsy shop until the end of February, then it will be closed as well. I will be traveling with my husband to Arizona to help him show his work in two art festivals. The first is the Carefree Art and Wine Festival March 6 - 8 and the second is The Scottsdale Arts Festival March 20 - 22. If any of you are in the Phoenix area I'd love to see you there!

You can see my husbands art work on his website:

www.joshuarodine.com

Home Sweet Home

We finally got home last night, and it sure was nice to sleep in my own bed! After snowboarding in Bend, we headed over to the coast to celebrate some friends birthdays. It was beautiful. Now it's time to get back to business...I've missed my torch! :)

Oh My!

I am so tired. I didn't get any good pictures today because it was snowing and there was low visibility, but I will say that that mountain kicked my butt! I had quite an adventure in deep powder in the trees which was just a bit too much. I kept getting stuck, and lets just say it was very frustrating! Lots of profanities...But it was still a great day!

Vacation!

We made it! It was a snowy 5 hour drive, but we made it to Bend and now we're getting ready to hit the mountain tomorrow for a day of snowboarding, and luckily it's been snowing! I worked really hard over the weekend so we could go on this trip and now it's paying off, I can relax. But I still feel like I'm able to work, sort of. I mean, I have my lap top and a portable printer, and all my beads and packing supplies if I need to ship while we're here. I'll try to get a good picture of Mt. Bachelor tomorrow and maybe one of me catching some air...Ha! Just kidding! I did buy some wrist guards today though so I won't risk an injury that will keep me away from the torch! :)

Stress Case!

I'm a stress case this morning! I've been running around like a mad woman trying to get my beads packaged and in the mail before the mailman comes and whew! I think I did. Now I can relax and get to my least favorite job, the bead cleaning. Fun times. I wish I could just make beads all day. If only I had a neighbor kid that needed to make some extra money! ;)

Here's a sneak peek of some of the beads I'll be listing this week.

Ahh, Sunday Morning...

Oh Sunday, usually my day to relax. But not today, as I sit here enjoying my morning coffee, I'm also preparing mentally for a very productive bead day. It will be, it will be, it will be!!! Ha! Yesterday was such a gorgeous sunny day it was hard to be in the shop. But today it's cloudy, sooo...

I usually try to take the weekends off, but the beauty of your own business (usually) is you can create your own schedule, and my husband has been bugging me about this snowboarding trip to Mt. Bachelor in Bend, OR and, well, it was his Christmas present so I guess I better deliver! :) We like to do these things mid-week. Beat the crowds and save some bucks. So weekends? Work, work, work!!!

Shop Pictures

This is where the magic happens. Ha! What a mess right? It's organized chaos, no it's just chaos! But it seems to work for me!













My Husbands work station is just as bad! He didn't want his face in the picture because he said he was too scruffy today! Hilarious!











This is the view from the shop. That's a very sad looking garden space in the foreground. The elk keep jumping over the fence to get in and now it's falling down!

Did I mention we're an hour from town. It has its ups and downs. Peaceful, but a little lonely. We've been here for four years, it might be time to head back to the "city".

Back to the Blog!

I've started to get into reading blogs, I know I'm a late bloomer, and decided I would do my own. Put a life and a face behind the beads. I hope you enjoy it! :)