Orange Passion Pendant Renews My Interest in Making a Bead

Look! I made a bead!

Okay, so what’s so special about that, seeing as how I am a lampworker after all?

Well, I gotta tell ya that I may be the only lampworker on the face of the earth who never practiced making those 100 spacers or perfected a simple round bead. I suck at it. I discovered sculpting, my beads grew and grew larger until they became sculptures, and I rarely try to make a wearable piece any more. . .

One of the rules of marketing for an artist is to always wear a piece of your work if at all possible, so I try to keep one or two wearable overgrown beads to wear. Yesterday, I sold my favorite one, and I figured it was time to make a new one. That’s it in the picture, and I gotta tell ya I am pleased with it! It’s only about an inch long, but it sure packs a nice bit of orange-y pizazz.

Whoops, I gotta run! Gotta fit in some torching time today. . . and methinks, I’ll be making one or two beads just for the fun of it!

AngelinaBeadalina is running behind yet again and so instead of leaving you a clever message here will just say: www.angelinabeadalina.com for links to my blog, my Etsy shop, and my BeadArtists.org gallery pages.

Are Your Creative Ways Set in Stone?

This is the Wayward Spirit of the Rock, and she just taught me a lesson about creativity and not letting your ideas of what is “right” be “set in stone.”

We found her fossil rock, Mother and I, one late winter afternoon. On the verge of spring, we were looking at one of Mother’s bigger flower gardens, talking about where she might put the dahlias this year, bending down occasionally to sift through the pebbles and rocks covering the pathways. Eventually, of course, the treasure hunt for pretty and unusual rocks among the pebbles takes over the conversation.

When I return home, I find myself thinking about the spirit in this fossil, wondering what he or she looks like if you’re allowed to catch a glimpse. It’s fascinating, this idea that every rock, every plant, all of it, they have their own elemental spirit within. An elemental akin to the faeries and pixies but not quite the same. . . and here is the sweet and delicate but wayward spirit who came out of the flame when I thought of this rock. Yes, she is wayward. No, the photo is not askew. I kept moving her while the epoxy that fastens her to the fossil dried. I would stand her up straight, she would lean. I would prop her up, once wedged between the kitchen wall and the handle of the coffee pot. . .she would lean.

Finally, I got her message. All is not as you think it should be. All is the way it should be. I was trying to set her in a stone, but what I was really doing was trying to follow what’s set in stone– keep the figure standing straight or laying down, but not leaning awkwardly. Ha! There is nothing awkward about her! She is standing as she wishes, a spirit hovering near her rock, a spirit flowing and moving with the waves of nature and time.

Angela Greer Garren, aka AngelinaBeadalina, chases her writing muse around the computer so she can bring you updates from her glass sculpting studio (aka the breezeway, recycling center, boot rack, and mommy’s workspot). You can see her creations in her BeadArtists.org gallery pages, her Etsy shop, and at the Argonne Gallery in Kirkwood, Missouri.

Sculpting the Essence of the Female Form

This is Essence. She’s not all there physically, but she is really all there and then some when it comes to the essence of beautiful strength. She evokes so much feeling when I look at her, even though I’m the one who helped her out of the flame yesterday.

She is one of those pieces of sculpting that is boiled down to the essence of an idea, and I am so happy with the curve of her calf, the rounded back of her thigh, and the movement of her shape. She is why I will go back to the torch, even though today at the torch was less than inspirational.

It’s the excitement of potential that draws an artist to the flame in the face of certain failure, ya know.

AngelinaBeadalina sits in front of her torch, beseeching the glass gods for another one of those days of sculpting in the zone She writes about her glass and family adventures, shamelessly plugs her Etsy shop, and loves to share pics of her work.

Bes, Isis, and I Have a Creative Discussion

Bes is a funny little Egyptian god. Look at a carving of him and his squatty body topped with big round-cheeked face, and you can’t help but laugh. He’s also funny in the hard to figure out sense. Is he good or bad? Helpful or mischievous?

Isis and scarabs always distract me when I look up Egyptian art and artifacts. Bes, I glance at, smile, and continue browsing. Somewhere along the way, I got the idea that he was more of a cute devil than a devilish cutie. . . so I’d leave him alone and go torch a scarab or an Isis or maybe even an ankh.

Yesterday, I stopped and read this caption under Bes’ picture in a children’s book, Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Leon Ashworth:

“Another god who protected women was the cheerful little god of the home, Bes. He watched over women in childbirth and kept the family safe from evil spirits, snakes, scorpions, and other harmful creatures.”

That was enough to convince me that I needed to sculpt a Bes bead. I’ll be putting him in my Etsy shop, but I just might have to make another one just for me. . . who couldn’t use a cheerful little reminder that someone is watching over their household?

AngelinaBeadalina cruises library books and surfs the net, looking for ideas to torch and sculpt with glass, hoping to find interesting themes to jazz up her blog her Etsy shoppers. and entertain

Has Anyone Seen My Torch?

I’d like to report a torch missing in action. Um, actually, I think that should be a torcher missing a torch that is not in action! Snow days and kindergarten cooties have made my torching days few and far between these past two weeks. Times like this bring home the advantages of working at home, though. When the Mommy is needed, she is right there without having to juggle schedules and make last minute calls.

Of course, this does feel a bit like juggling to me, anyway, simply because I love doing what I do. Melting glass is a fulfilling creative outlet with plenty of potential for satisfaction and confidence-building. After a couple of weeks with very little torching, I’m beginning to think that it is indeed an addiction, as well as a fulfilling creative outlet with plenty of potential for satisfaction and confidence-building!

What have I done to get my glass melting fix? I’ve been scouting out other glass artists on Etsy and putting links to their shops in my blog. I’ve been randomly posting names of other glass artists’ galleries in the daily message I put in my own BeadArtists.org gallery pages. I’ve been drooling over the gallery on Lampwork Etc.

Oh, and one more thing– I actually made a bead instead of a sculpture! Believe it, or not, AngelinaBeadalina remembered how to make a focal bead instead of letting the glass grow and morph into another sculpture. Wow, that felt weird but good.

Now, I’m ready and waiting to melt more glass as soon as the opportunity arises. . . and the break is building my enthusiasm for that opportunity!