I have been inspired to etch designs onto metal surfaces after reading the book "Semiprecious Salvage" creating found art jewelry by Stephanie Lee. I found a picture of the moon and wrote this poem on its surface. My "experiment" did not quite work out like I wanted. What I learned though was that etching works really well with stamps using permanent ink, not so well with laser toner and acetone.

I am really drawn to affirmations and this poem was one that I needed for myself at this point in my life as a mother and a wife. I printed it out and it is taped next to my computer where not only I can read it, but my HUSBAND can read it too. After all.....he might need reminding too that I am a treasure. Never let anyone take you for granted. If I am the moon, he is the SUN. I better get a SUN poem posted on the wall next to it for him. :)

As an artist, you cannot stop playing with different aspects of your creativity. I am always trying to evolve my art and implement new ideas and techniques into them. I am using clay with my mermaid tails and electroforming them. I love the metal with the glass. Here are a few pictures of some of the projects I have been working on.

At this moment I am busily getting ready for THE BEST BEAD SHOW down in Tucson, AZ this Sept, 11-13. I will be there on the 12th and the 13th helping out my friend Sheila one of the instructors at the event. I will have some of my beads available for sale also. They will be the Mermaid Tail, and the Spirit Tree Pendants. So hope to see some of you down there and meet you in person. :) I will post more details as soon as I find out more on Monday. This has been a last minute sort of thing.

I thought I would share the technique of cleaning tarnished pieces of silver that you might have lying around. If you are anything like me you might have a TON of things that are in need of a little elbow grease. If you lack the time to buff the tarnish away...have I got the solution for you! A friend from my lampwork group had shared a technique with me a while back about how to clean tarnish off of silver using things you might already have at home. Get ready here comes the instructions..

Materials:
Casserole dish
Aluminum Foil
Baking Soda
Tarnished Silver
Boiling Water
Elbow Grease

Instructions:
Line the casserole dish with Aluminum foil. Lay your silver on the dish and sprinkle with the Baking Soda. Pour Boiling Water over it and agitate slightly.
The Tarnish literally POPs right off it.
Apply a little elbow grease cleaning power, rinse and wear.
WaLA!!

I have caught the Mixed Media BUG. I still have a great LOVE for all things Glass, but I am having a difficult time managing my time wisely to arrange for torch time. I have a busy life involving children, housework and the proper feeding and caring of a husband. :) LOL. To torch it requires preheating my kiln, and arranging time to be undisturbed. I cannot put my bead down while I separate my children from arguing. Melting glass is equivalent to balancing honey on a stick. If you set it down it will either distort horribly or drop right off the mandrel.

I have found that using my beads in other ways has been very rewarding and does not require my undivided attention. Painting, drilling, gluing, and sculpting are my new friends. Although making beads is my main squeeze.......torch time is limited at least while school is out for the SUMMER.

Another venture I am having so much fun with is copper electrofoming. So much fuN!! Here is a mermaid that I made with that technique. NO torchtime required...except for the tail, although I had her tail for some time now...ready for a new body.

I have joined the ipod hype. I have resisted for awhile now and I am finding it VEry amusing now to listen to music while I am working, playing, everything! I am in love with the FREE podcasts they have on itunes. I just bought Lily Allens new album and am enjoying it very much! I hope you all do too!

I have added a playlist music player to this blog. I hope you find it amusing. HAPPY VALENTINES! My husband is reluctantly PAINTING my kitchen/family room for my valentines present. I will post pictures as soon as it is done. I have only had to wait for almost 4 years! So natuarally I am very excited. PAINT away.......

Hello thaRR!!

I have recently adopted a new black lab mix dog for our family. Our kids LOVE her very much. She is so gentle and patient with my kids. Our little doggie does not appreciate all the LOVIN' that our new dog does. She loves following my daughter with her leash on. Most importantly, she needs walks and it encourages me to be healthier and go walking more.


What a cutie pie!



On the BEAD FRONT.... I have been experimenting with the "use" of lampwork beads. They have to be good for other things than jewelry?! Right?! I made up a few experimental business card holders and have glued some beads onto some mixed media type jewelry pieces. I have not had much time to play around with the torch and assembling the beads together. Just keeping my family fed and cared for has been taking up most of my energy these days. I am making it a point to play around though. This Thanksgiving I lassoed my family into experimenting with decoupage light boxes. They ended up being decoupaged shoe boxes..and we lost interest after a few layers of newspaper as the base coat.

I pulled a lot of my art supplies out and spread them over the dinning room and there they have sat since Thanksgiving waiting for me to play some more. I did make a brass decoupaged piece with some costume jewelry paired with my beads. I do not know what to think of it yet. It is always more grandiose in my head than when I actually produce it. haha! I am hoping to make some vintage inspired pieces with the 20's feel to them. Art deco.....costume jewelry paired with modern lampwork. I am hoping to pair my beads with findings that are more common to find, but at the same time unique and beautiful. A lovely project comes to mind. I might write an article about my brass piece on my website. Every new "inspired" creation has to go through all the rigours of quality control before I offer them for sale. These pieces are lovingly being worn and tossed and somewhat abused by myself and my daughter to see if they pass the QC test. haha! Sorry about the image quality. These pictures were taken a minute ago as I am writing this article. I have to have pictures...don't I?


We will see if this tangent of mine survives or not. I am planning on incorporating new types of materials into my collection. there are really awesome polymers, resins, metals, etching, enamels, PMC... to name a few. I have them all spread out on my table, so let's see where this takes me.

Well....October is fastly approaching which means HALLOWEEn and DAy of tHe DeAd will come around. I am always thinking of new ways I can make beads..new designs..energy...flow....

Sometimes as an artist you can get trapped in a cookie cutter mold making mode, and only make ONE design. This is O.K. I guess... I know many artists make a living at selling their "design". It is always good to have a style or look that is all your own. I do have my butterfly hearts and my mermaid tails...

This year I have been playing with "Bright" celebration colors inspired by the Day of the Dead. I also am drawn to the pretty lady skeletons called "catrinas". I would love to make beads that adorn the necks and hats of the fine ladies. Here is a look at a few "unfinished" brooches that I have made just for catrina admiring people like myself. I can't wait to make some more beads!

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.