SOO......I have not written in awhile, but I have good reasons! I have has some minor setbacks dealing with the c-word. CANcer! But before you are shocked or upset by this news....Remember that I truly feel that there is a purpose for everything and that everything somehow fits into the thing we call LIFE. And this is just one of the small roads that I have to travel down. The fortunate side of all this is that the cancer I do have is a very CURABLE cancer and have been VERY surprised to find out how common it is in women. I have a thyroid cancer with a 95% CURE RATE! SO seE!!!!! IT is just a MINOR set back. I am getting over all the things that I have to do to BE DONE with it.

I have had 2 surgeries and am going to have radiation probably sooner than later. BUT in the meantime....I have made some LEMONADE! As you all know...(I hope) I donate beads to an organization called Beads of Courage. I started to make my doctors and nurses some special purple hearts for themselves. Normally the hearts are given to children with cancer at the end of their treatment to help signify their triumph over cancer. SO..since I make the hearts myself, why not make some for the doctors themselves who happen to treat the patients with cancer?

I thought this might be a nice gesture for the doctors. I owe my life to 2 doctors so far... my primary doctor and the surgeon who removed my cancer. THANK YOU!

I went down to the Bead Expo here in Phoenix and helped man the ASGB booth for part of the day. This is me..HELlo thar!!

I must say that it was not like working at all. I had a fun time meeting many interesting people and talking with friends and other bead artist. I hope to see some of the people that I spoke with either at the ASGB meetings or at Fire and Friends Z Art Studio.

I am glad that our group was able to have a table to promote our group. I know that I have gained much confidence and inspiration to try new things becasue of my group. I love the partonage. This group of ladies gets along so well with one another that every experience I have had with this group has been a positive one. :)

Right now I am working on getting together a presentation for my group about the history of Lampworking. I have been finding pictures of ancient beads and I would like to try and reproduce them. Our whole group is going to be able to participate too. I am also looking into different styles of making "FAKE" patinas on glass to make their pieces look very old.

So far I have thought that Baking Soda, Enamels, and Etching might do the trick. I am planning on writing an article with pitures of the final results. I will post a link to my webpages article section when I am done. In the meantime if you are interested in my lampwork group.....here is the link to their official website. A work in progress.....

http://www.azsgb.org/

This is a picture of the ASGB case at our booth.

Here are the first 2 skull beads I have ever made. It is such a process coming up with a new design. They are not quite what I wanted, but now that I have them cooled down and ready to examine, I have found the design elements that I am going to run with.

Fridas unibrow is a bit "bushy" haha. triangular nostril vs. smooshed up one. The silvered stringer has to be in a deeper ivory color and with more silver foil in it. I prefer the lips raised vs. melted in.These girls take some planning too. I used various sized and styles of stringers to make the various features on their faces and hairstyles. TBecasue they are each individually handmade and take some time to make their price is going to be adjusted accordingly. HOWEVER.....I am going to put the Frida skull up for sale on my website for a bargain price of $23.00 since her design is not quite where I wanted to go with my design. She will be wire wrapped and ready to wear as a pendant. Be on the lookout for more beads in the Dia de los Muertos style coming from me. :) I will be sure to keep you all posted.

Here are a few other beads that I made last night as well in the LATIN style. :)

I just found this Day of the Dead festival in Hollywood. This might be a fun event to try to get into. I can't wait to take my skull beads from the kiln and clean them up. I definitely will post pictures tomorrow. The main idea of my work in this genre is to make it "prettier" or more girly. I want those skulls to scream GLAM.... haha

This is the festivals website:

http://www.ladayofthedead.com/gallery.html

Our ASGB meeting was this last Sunday and it was a great meeting. I decided to participate in a 3D floral exchange this last time and I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. There were 12 people participating and that meant 12 beads to make. Urgh!! I just can't commit to 12 of the same beads, so I made a few different types of flowers so I wouldn't get bored. I even made 2 of them vessels. I am definitely going to participate in the next exchange. The exchange is "food".

Here is my lovely necklace from the Beads of Courage Inspired event held on April 4th. Isn't it lovely? the fund raiser made quite a bit of money for the program. Our ASGB calendar raised $1000.00 alone on just auctioning off the donated beads from it. Woo hoo!! I can't wait to get working on the next years calendar for 2009.

This is a great program VERY close to my heart.