Bead and button inspired Sculpting Glass and a side job…

In my last post, I showed you my last murrini, “The running man” bead. Yes, that is me, hurry hurry, busy, busy, 24 hours…7 days…365 days a year….

In the back of my mind, I keep telling myself, when I get back from Bead and Button I will slow things down a bit.

SO, I get back from Bead and button, and the electricity is out. (The house smells like mold, and my husband is suffering from severe sciatic nerve pain; so he takes the kids to his mom and dads and leaves the house to suffer. Unplugging nothing, waisting hundreds of dollars in food, and my kiln box took a hit! ) (THANK YOU to Michael Crowly from the Glasshive for sending me a FREE part to fix it. He is such a great kiln builder.) The power remained out for 4 days! NOTHING slowed down!

And! MY MIND is RACING!!!

So, did I do good selling my beads at bead and button? I came out ahead. If I had gone solo and paid my way ANY more, it would have been a loss. I sold beads with 16 artists. The beads were beautiful. Your chances of selling with a group like that were decreased. Lots to look at… and the trays were stacked. it is a lot of work to see it all. And, just the fact that it is a “bead show”, people are there to buy beads. PRODUCT LINE stuff. Not really what I do. I do consider it, we’ll see. I am addicted to one of a kinders. My pieces look best when they are not smashed together too(I think).

I will do it again. And, next time I will do it different. I would like one or two partners; not 16. I will put my “jewelry” beads at the guilds table, and put my one of a kinders on my table, spread out like little sculptures. And, I will have many little sculptures created by then.

I aquired two collaboration projects I am really looking forward to. I definetly made some good contacts.

I am still making beads, but I am adventuring to sculptures (glass paper weights too) this summer. Wood,glass,concrete stuff…

And! No. I will not slow things down. I am taking a job doing shop drawings for an institutional casework company. Fumehoods, canopy hoods, stainless steel furniture, cabinets….The stress of NEEDING money can go away. I need to sculpt! I may just have to join my cyber sister program at Etsy; THE SCULPTURE PROJECT! The need to sculpt is strong!

You will see my beads at Etsy, or Ebay all summer.

And! I promise WMC a photo of a sculpture with glass SOON!

Pets and Portraits in Glass

I get a lot of requests from people asking me to create a bead that looks like their favorite pet or grandchild. Nothing makes me happier than when I really “nail it” with a favorite pet. Kidlets are pretty generic, of course. Blond hair, check. Blue shirt, got it. Strangely enough, people are way more particular about getting a puppy bead that actually looks like their dog. Maybe this says something about human nature? LOL.

I love getting photos of pets from my customers. It makes it easy to pick features that really define a breed or even an individual pet’s personality. I especially like tongues, for example. They’re fun! Lots of times, however, I’m just told the breed and then I let the muse do the rest of the guiding. I usually sketch out the bead before making it in the flame, especially if I’ve never done that particular breed before. Sketching helps my brain figure out proportions and it also helps me figure out the order in which I need to add the features. I learned that in a Sharon Peters class I took long ago.

Most dog beads start with a lentil bead base, believe it or not. I find the somewhat flattened shape to be good for pendants and the face features can be easily added to the base lentil. The bead pictured above is a Westie. I built up the features as large dots - two for the ears and three for the muzzle. Then I covered the whole bead with ‘furry cane’ which is a stringer containing white and grey, encased in clear. Next, I shape the ears with tweezers. Lastly, I add the nose, eyes and tongue before popping it into the kiln.

As for my muse, that would have to be my dog, Puppy. She’s a wonderful 8 year old dachshund that has very recently developed a back problem. We are waiting a few weeks to see if the problem gets better or worse since we don’t want to put her through a risky surgery unnecessarily. She still walks pretty good but her climbing and jumping skills have suffered. Keep good thoughts for her, if you can.

Pleasant Surprises Don’t Happen to Me Often.

After my recent show I crashed, as I usually do. This wasn’t a particularly hard show…it was local and the hours were not too early nor too late. And there was a Starbucks. Regardless, I slept for two days afterwards. I’m such a wimp. Upon returning after a show I always feel like I should be at the torch but I really don’t have a purpose. What the heck would I make? My next show isn’t until September. I guess I could work on orders.

As I sat down I wondered what would happen. I didn’t have designs in mind. I didn’t even have color ideas. I dreaded the thought of just sitting down and playing because that never turns out well for me. But, I sat my butt down anyway. And this is what happened:

More large, flat-backed medallions that more than stand alone. But wouldn’t a whole string of them, choker-style, be cool too?

Somehow the bright colors called to me…which they usually don’t. Simple forms on a grand scale.

They’ve already morphed into something else and I better get out to the studio to see how they turned out!

Lori Greenberg blogs about beads and the business of beads from her studio in Cave Creek, Arizona. You can see more of her beads at her web site: www.lorigreenberg.com.

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.