Glass Palettes- Color Comparisons- Corals and Blue and Green Glasses

Hello friends!

As you may have seen I got some new glass thanks to you! Yay! So one of the first things I like to do is melt the glass. I always say "You can never judge a rod by it's color". It's true! You have to melt the glass to see it's "true colors". You may be surprised. So I did just that with my new colors. Then I had to take the other colors of glass I had to see just where it fits in the color palette of similar colors.

Here you can see some of the gorgeous green and blue glasses. Okey Dokey is one of my very favorites because it shifts from seafoam to aqua with hints of green. Earth is a lapis blue with streaks of dark green teal. Green Cave looks like a darker Okey to me. It's more olive with a bit of a deeper blue almost more turquoise.

Oh and the CORALS! Some of my very favorite batches of glass. I am really glad that these batches always turn out different. As you can see we wouldn't have such pretty glass if it didn't. In fact I am amazed that anyone can make glass in the same batch color at all. Little things like the humidity can change an entire batch of glass. Crazy huh?

Tequila Sunrise was one of my favorites. One of my very first "unknown odd lots". When I first collected glass I had no idea there were even odd lots. I fell in love with coral instantly with it's swirls of pink  swirled in with coral and hints of a soft orange. What's not to love? Some of my other very favorites are Vetrofond Poppy, Peach Coral, and Sunny Mango. I really love the "blushy" corals that have a lot of variance in them. 

I made these little tests for me to see where the glass fits in the color palette, but I thought others could benefit from my tests. They sure are pretty all together huh?

I hope you enjoyed learning some new things about glass and enjoyed the eye candy.

See you soon!

xo Genea

Turned To Stone Part II & "Artful Additions"

Hello friends!

Wow it's been a whirl wind week. I have seriously had every day run into another with just going, going, going from day to night! It's been craziness. This is totally not the norm for me.  I am, of course, stoked about these NEW stone beads and some other little "artful additions" I have added to my shop. 

Here are the new beauty's in the shop. So if this is where you want to jump off the ride and run to the shop, you may ;)

Wing Dings Beach Stone- "Black Lava"- your classic black pair of stone wing dings. Perfect for everything!

Wing Dings- Beach Stone- "Coral Rainbow Leopard"- Yum! Just look at all of that luscious rainbow color on that gorgeous bright coral!

"Coral Peach Silver Thread Serpent"- Wow is that a mouthful :P You can blame my long names on my art teachers. In school they always made you title your pieces ;) So this baby is pretty gorgeous! I textured some of it and left spots of it shiny along with the rainbow bubble buttons. I just LOVE coral glass. It has some gorgeous peachy coraly pinky spots to it that aren't as vivid if you etch them. This heart has it all, shiny, stone and matte with a beautiful ribbon of silver running down the center and black stripey serpents up the sides!

Wing Dings- Beach Stone- "Electric Lime Silver Thread Jewel"- Again with the everything you could want on a bead! Oh and lime green is my favorite! I am so excited about how well these translated over from my glass headpin design like them. In fact I even made earrings with the pair I saved for me! 

OMG... up aren't these to die for?! The gorgeous ear wires and water color washed hoops of violet and blue are from Miss Fickle Media. The incredibly detailed spiral antiqued coins are from Starry Road Studio. Aren't our beads incredible together?! It's like they created these beads to match without ever knowing it. 

and now for the "Artful Additions"

So here is the back story on them....

So you remember that time when I had to wait to re-set up my lampwork studio after moving right. I didn't make beads for several weeks. Well I got stuck on making these adjustable recycled sari silk necklaces. They really speak to me because they are not only amazingly beautiful, but they are recycled and  I like to imagine the store the clothes would tell. Like maybe this outfit was worn on a date with their love or they wore this outfit in some beautiful exotic place... Well I just fell in love with the necklaces for their beauty and simplicity so I just kept making them. Each was so pretty I just HAD to try the next color and before you know it I had made 50!! LOL. So that leads us to this listing...

18-20" Recycled Sari Silk Necklace- Here is what the necklace looks like. You will receive ONE necklace in this style of the color of your choice. So these necklaces are great if you just want to buy a bead and wear it right away or they can also be embellished in whatever way you choose! How sweet is that?!

Here is the color palette from which you have to choose. Yay!

The next "Artful Addition" I have is the "Wooly Wire Bail Upgrade" option.

As you know, I LOVE Wooly Wire! So I made up several of designs using this bail technique. 

"Wooly Wire Bail Upgrade"- So this is how this listing works. You will need to purchase a focal from my shop, I will take that focal and wire-wrap it into this amazing wooly wire bail for you! You can then wear it as is, add a dangle, or even use this piece in your design! Yay! How cool is that?! This is great if you just want to wear something right away or you need to pick up a gift ;)

Do you want a smaller style focal? You can also choose to have a small Wooly Wire bail created as well like the one below!

You then have your choice of What Wooly Wire you would like for the bail here.

Here is a finished you can have when you shop for these wonderful items in my shop! Yay! Look at that instant customizable gift!

 I would love to hear your thoughts on these new "Artful Additions"! You can also stay tuned for these as TUTORIALS! So if you choose you can even make your own. I am working on those as we speak and hope to have them up soon.

Stay tuned for more beady awesome!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo Genea

Turned into STONE- Shop update

Hello friends!

I am excited to share my new beads with you! Don't you love it when you really feel like you "nail" a design? I think I have finally gotten there with this technique. It's been a long frustrating process at times, but the more  you work at it, the better you get and the more you learn. It's true. The best advice I can give about lampwork is "Practice, practice, practice". It's so true. I think I learn something new every time I light my torch. 

So there was talk in some of the bead groups I am in about how it seems like no one is blogging as much anymore. The general consensus was that now people were spending more time on Facebook and Pinterest. I must say I am guilty. It is so easy to catch up on chats, photos and new work on Facebook that that is where I spend the bulk of my online time. So with that in mind, this will be a short and sweet blog. 

Here is a full shot of everything that I added to the shop today if this is where you "want to get off the ride" and get onto other things like Facebook and Pinterest ;P But, if you want to hang around you can see the larger individual images of the beads with a link and a little bit of chatter.

So I am SUPER STOKED that I can finally "nail" this stone textured design! As you can see I got some AMAZING shots of the glass as well! Thank God, cause I had just about given up. Can you believe I got these shots as the sun was setting? I don't get too much sun on our balcony during the day, but we get a bit of angled sun by the front door area. That is where I took these photos and quickly, I might add. The sun was dropping behind the roof tops quickly. Ok on to the beads!...

Beach Stone Spacers "Coral Peach".

Beach Stone Spacers "Mint" 

Earth Stone Droplets "Sahara"

Spiral Earth Stone "Sahara" focal.

If you remember awhile back this is the bead I used for my friend, Kathy's necklace :)

I was kind of keeping it a secret for now, BUT.. I just shot the tutorial for this necklace! I still need to edit the photos and write up the instructions, but this is something you will see in the shop hopefully soon :D

Beach Stone Spacers "Frosted Fibers"

Wing Dings- Beach Stone- "Frosted Fibers"

Wing Dings- Beach Stone- "Pale Aqua"- These are already SOLD OUT! I guess these were everyone favorites ;) Don't worry... I will make more ;) 

Wing Dings- Beach Stones- "White Sands".

Thanks for stopping by to see my latest creations!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo Genea

A Life Time of Stuff in Less than a Week.

Hello friends!

OMG! Are you still there? *waters friends* You didn't die on me from neglect, did you? It's amazing at all of the things that have gone on this past week. So I hope you are ready to read! Lol, you may want to take this opportunity to get another cup of coffee or tea.  Here is what I am drinking as we speak...

Bolivia Organic coffee by Parisi with coconut sugar and coconut cream. SOOOOO GOOD! Cup #2 on this rainy and cold day.

Now that I have sucked that down, onto my second favorite drink after coffee, kombucha!

I would have to say their "Lavender" is my favorite, but you know how I like weird things :D

Anyways, onto my stories...

So moving day was Wednesday. Um there were TORRENTIAL  DOWN POURS of RAIN. So naturally the day I have to move the weather is awful.... I will add here that Ricky actually had to switch his day off due to "close-out" at work(the day the weather was just fine). Moving on.. So we were at least able to borrow a friends truck and use our car. We loaded the bed, and the other book shelves and other paper board build "stuff-that-will-bubble-up-when-wet" stuff and the rain starts. We quickly unload everything and I come upstiars and wipe everything down for minimal damage. The rain picks up and is just coming down in sheets!

So we sit inside and set up the computer for the A T&T tech. He arrives, he has trouble with the connection, then we finally get the computer connected and the monitor is flashing spastically to which my hubby says it's the computer. I say it isn't the tech is just standing there. Not offering up any help at all. The internet is connected, but the computer isn't getting online. The tech rushes through his spiel ended by "Is there anything else I can do to help you?" We don't look at him, obviously pissed off about the situation. So he jets out. So we are like "Um YEAH, YOU CAN HELP US WITH GETTING OUR INTERNET WORKING ON OUR COMPUTER, THANKS" *scoffs* So we sit up here with the computer for awhile trying to figure out what is wrong. We call our friend Brandon to rescue us from our computer woes. So after awhile we figure out that apparently I had plugged our monitor into the "secondary" video card plug instead of the good one(Um there is more than one plug? Oops!). So crisis is fixed.

Back to moving we go. Well, not completely. Ricky had brought us some Chipotle to eat since we got a buy one get one in the mail(SCORE!). I unpack and put the coffee on since Ricky was none too happy that I had packed up the coffee pot before we got our morning cup before moving(Oops again!). So we have to wait for the rain to let up. We get a short break before it starts raining again. So we take that opportunity to access what to load and take over first. We load everything up and then unload it under the awning by the stair well. Thanks to my brilliant hubby(I knew I kept him around for something ;) ! So we unload our stuff that way for awhile. The rain lets up a bit and stops. So we quickly load and unload. Now mind you, this is from the bottom floor to the 3rd floor so every load up is 4 flights of stairs( I know, weird how that works out huh?!). So if you take a heavy load you want to die by the time you make it up all of the stairs, but if you take a light load you have to make more trips. UGH... Then I think to myself, "HOW DO WE HAVE SO MUCH STUFF?! WE DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY STUFF?! Then I think about just taking it all to the dumpster... lol. Then I keep loading and unloading. 

Oh and did I mention that I didn't pack up the whole apartment like I had planned? I spent my day packing up orders from my sale(THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!), making egg salad and chicken curry salad(which I will eat for lunch when  I am done writing this ;) and a little bit of packing. So here we are not even all the way packed taking the other "loose stuff" and packing it, then loading it. It takes us ALL DAY, I mean literally cause we lost like 2 hours waiting for the rain to stop. 

So the evening rolls around. My friend Lucas comes to rescue us. He stops by after work and helps us get the last 2 loads done. The boys go to take the dogs out while I start to unpack. I go to unpack the blender and mandolin slicer....You can already guess what I am going to say next....

I ended up picking it up UPSIDE DOWN and I feel the QUICK AND DEEP CUT. I immediately lift my hand up and pinch it as hard as I can and put my hand over the sink! I squeeze it as hard as I can while talking to myself "Put pressure on it:"! So I stand there squeezing my finger  with a napkin over it holding it over the sink holding it above my heart so the blood doesn't pump to it more. I hold it tightly while saying "Shit, shit, SHIT!". Eagerly waiting for Ricky's return to access the damage. 

I let go to check the cut and the skin just opens up more and blood gushes out. So I pinch harder. Ricky FINALLY opens up the door. I say "Baby, I fucked up! I cut myself with the mandolin slicer"! I take the napkin away and blood gushes out. I say to him "Tell me I don't need stitches". He replies "Babe, it's BAD, you need to go to the ER and get stitches. I handled it really well. I SOBBED.. and sobbed... We don't have health insurance, it's late in the evening. I can't afford a visit to the ER for my STUPID finger! Grrr. So I finally get my shit together while the boys look for the nearest hospital. I ask them to see if there is some Urgent care clinic somewhere. I can't see paying for an ER visit.. UGH and then I think of all of the sale money I just earned and how it would have to pay for my unexpected ER visit and I am just SICK! So the boys find the urgent care clinic. We get in the car and drive over. The bleeding of my finger has slowed, but everytime I take the damn napkin away it opens the cut back up and it starts bleeding. I squeeze the day lights out of my finger to get it to stop. 

So we finally arrive at the urgent care clinic.... IT'S CLOSED! UGH... It had closed just 45 minutes earlier. I  gently pull the napkin away from my finger and the bleeding has just about stopped. F* IT! It's better enough for me. Ricky tells me he will go to Walmart(just across the street) and get me the proper bandages and things for my finger. At this point I am just relieved that I didn't have to get stitches and pay all of this money for my finger! *WHEW* 

Here is what it looked like the next day. 

By now we are STARVING we hop across the parking lot to Mr. Gyro, one of my favorite Greek restaurants in the area. I get my fav, the Greek Salad and a gyro with no pita. We eat, and then I ask to go out for "ice cream" really Orange Leaf, this really amazing frozen yogurt place. I wanted some ice cream since I had a "boo boo"(it works for kids, why can't it work for me? :D). So we drop Ricky off to get the truck back to our friend and Lucas and I go out for some fro yo. It was amazing, btw. 

So we get done and Lucas heads back "up north" since he has to work the next day. Ricky and I settle in for the evening and we decide to make "snacky plates" and watch a movie. We cut open the large block of cheese and when Ricky hands me half of it the block of cheese JAMS DOWN UNDER MY THUMB NAIL(imagine the feeling of when you try to pull a staple out of a piece of paper and it goes under your nail, same thing). AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! Now I am injured on my left middle finger and my right thumb. I am hand "handi-crapped". 

I did, however have a good thing to my night besides some help, and some good food. My package from the lovely, Miss Love Art(Shanon LeVart) had arrived. I saved it as my "reward" for my hard work of moving :D

 I ended up hanging out the next day at mom's just chillin' since I couldn't work. I ran a few errands and cleaned beads while Ricky was at work. We ended up staying over night and then I kicked it with my sister the next day.

Here are are all of the INCREDIBLE things that were inside! This photo does NOT do them justice at all! Just look at all of these beautiful what I would call "water color washed" metals! So beautiful and the colors she achieves with the layering of different colors is amazing!  She even sent me a necklace, which I love! You can see her gorgeous work here in her shop. I am just so honored to have some of Shannon's work. I have lusted after it for a very long while! I can't wait to make some beautiful things to match my haul! Thank you so much, my dear, sweet Shannon!

So maybe you want to see "My little slice of Heaven". We call it "The Tree House" since we are up in the trees now :)

One of my favorite things about it, other than the immense QUIET( Thank God!), is the vaulted ceilings. Now normally I would call these a waste of space and high bills on heating and cooling. It's amazing how they just make it feel so big and open here. I took this photo while laying on the floor so you could see just how high the ceilings are in the kitchen/living room. 

Here is my bead table, right by the window, of course! Now I can leave the windows wide open without feeling like EVERYONE is just looking in. It's so nice. Oh, and the dogs are much more relaxed too without dogs coming up to our patio and people thundering up the steps.

Here is the view from my desk. Ok, so it's a parking lot, but you will notice the very large naked tree just outside the window that will be beautiful to look at once it starts to grow leaves again :)

The only bummers about this apartment versus the other one is that 1. the car port is BEHIND the building we stay in. 2. The mailbox is literally on the ground of a like 900 box mail storage thingy. 3. The water heater has been an asshole. The water was scalding hot when we moved in and when they turned it down the water has been cold. So pretty minimal(So glad!). 

Today I finally got to re-list some favorites that had not been in stock for awhile!

Here are the ones that are back in stock: "Biscotti Silver", Spiral Earth Stones "Black Lava Silver", and "Cream Silver".

I FINALLY got these recycled sari silk adjustable necklaces done. I received my copper lobster claws the other day in the mail. I sat up til 2am attaching them all! I will have these in the shop at some point. Oh and I will also be offering a tutorial on how to make them! I am working on edits now along with 2 other tutorials.

Here are the beads you will see coming to the shop this Saturday 4-27-13! Stone textured WING DINGS! Spacers, a focal and some headpins! I am SO excited with how well the wing dings took to their stone matte finsh! It's hard to tell how textured they are in the photo, but they are as textured as the coraly orange spacers on the top! They look amazing! 

I had hoped to make beads today and make more for the listings, but it was 32 today and on Thursday and Friday it will be like 66 so, yeah. I opted to stay at the "tree house" today and get caught up on all of this other stuff ;)

Thank you for stopping by!

xo Genea

12 HOUR FLASH SALE- 25% OFF USE CODE "springclean25" AT CHECK OUT!

Hello friends!

Well I decided to do a FLASH SALE today for 12 HOURS! Use coupon code "springclean25" at check out to receive your discount off of your ENTIRE purchase! From now until MIDNIGHT in the Genea Beads shop! **EDIT** You can use this coupon code in BOTH shops! Genea C-K Jewelry!

So why this sudden sale? Well a few reasons.. 1. This Ricky having to go back to that 45 minute drive twice day eats up gas. 2. I really NEED to place a big glass order to make beads(you know it's bad when you are almost out of basics like: black, ivory, and clear)! 3. We are moving AGAIN um, TOMORROW. So what you buy I don't have to move ;) 4. We have not had a sale in a little while so why now is as good a time as any ;)

So if you have been eyeing that special bead or beads maybe now is the time to jump on in and grab some Genea Beads! 

Happy Shopping!

xo Genea

Sacred Symbols- Yoga and Inspiration Shop Update.

Hello friends!

Well it's been an exciting past week! I may have posted that I had attended my first yoga class in about 9 years the other week. It was AMAZING to say the least. I was so inspired by my class that I did an entire run of Yoga inspired beads. Let's back pedal for a second to tell you the story ;)

So when I went to create these special beads I needed to find some pictures for inspiration.

Here you can see an 8 petaled lotus with an Om in the center.

Next I found a picture of a lotus.

Here is a picture of the Om I found. I am glad that I picked this style. If you look at the top photo you will notice the symbol is a little bit different. This is the one that spoke to me so this is the one I chose. 

I began to notice that this sacred symbol had found it's way to me on a few occasions. The bead had been gifted to me or I had chosen it for no known reason, just that it spoke to me.

Here are some of the beads I either chose or they found their way to me. I couldn't find the pewter pendant of Ganesh that had made it's way to me when I was about 17 so he is not pictured here.

From left to right and top to bottom: Polymer clay Om by Second Surf. I received this Om bead from Barbara in a trade we had done awhile back. Small metal Om- Mary Jane Dodd. This one I picked from the Art Beads Love Tour chain. The Spiral and the Triad I had picked up at a bead show. The Wisdom eyes of Buddha, Ricky had picked up for me at a bead shop in Portland, OR :) The tiny silver hamsa hands I picked up at Bokamo's home show. The bronze lotus bracelet focal I received from Staci. , and the Hamsa hand with eye I received from a friend at Christmas :) 

I thought it was interesting that all of these sacred symbols had made their way to me :)

Off to work I went working on my new run of beads.

 I made a few beads to re-stock in the shop before moving onto my new beads. There was something amazing about "drawing" the Om symbol. The strokes to make the characters were so peaceful and just flowed so well. So I did the first run of beads and then went back to tweak the design before going into a production run of beads.

Here was day 2. I was really cranking out those beads! 

One of the things I had in mind when I made these beads was to gift my yoga instructor Nici Krehbiel. I enjoyed her class so much that I wanted to make her a special something. I noticed that they jewelry she wore was very teeny so I created her a dainty set to go with her style. I am in LOVE with the sweet set I made for her!

So before I show you the beads, I will list some links so that you can read more about the symbols.

The Spirit of Water was a wonderful source for information on these sacred symbols.

You can read about the Chakra's here. You can read about the Eightfold path here.

I decided it may have been confusing which bead was which in the listings since most of them have a lotus on the front. So when I post them here you can see the front and back together.

I could have literally made these beads for days, BUT... I ran out of these glass base colors. So.. if you see something you like you may want to grab it. I am not sure when I will be able to order another haul of glass(even though I am SADLY over due!).

"Sacred Om Lotus" focal. This was actually the first design for this style focal. In the next designs I decided that I really liked the spotted raku underneath with a bold black Om. I am not sure if I will re-make this style.

"Sacred Om Lotus" small focal- I actually created this one for Nici. After I realized that she wore small jewelry I wanted to created a petite version of the focal just for her. I loved it so I made more :)

"Sacred Lotus" small focal- I created this more simplified version of the focal if just the Lotus speaks to you. 

"Sacred Om" small focal- I created this version more simplified version of the focal if just the Om speaks to you.

"Sacred Lotus" large focal in Plum- I tried a lighter color opal glass for this one. I think I like the darkest color best, but Karen told me she liked this color better ;) 

"Sacred Eightfold Path Om Lotus"- This one turned out incredible! I finally got my petals more rounded and not so sun looking. Just look at all of the colors! 

I hope you enjoyed my new designs as much as I enjoyed creating them! 

Namaste!

Genea

Restocked Shop- Image Style

Hello friends!

Ok I am posting to you from my PC this time. So you can expect pictures this time along with connected hyper-links, YAY! So I will just do a quick re-cap with photos and links for ya. I know, it's totally weird to see me here this often :P I felt like I jipped you all by not listing on Thursday so today is a re-cap, of what you have seen already pop up and the other beads I was able to restock :D

Ocean Urchin Egg "Ivory Rainbow Reflection"- Ok you don't get them in all in the listing, you only get one. These beads just looks so pretty in a pile I chose this photo. It also lets you see what kind of variations you can expect to see from bead to bead. 

Ocean Urchin Egg "Midnight Rainbow Reflection" -Ok you don't get them in all in the listing, you only get one. These beads just looks so pretty in a pile I chose this photo. It also lets you see what kind of variations you can expect to see from bead to bead. 

Spiral Earth Stones "Frosted Fibers"-An older favorite. I really love these beads. Simple and matches with everything with that old world feel.

"Desert Serpent" lentils- The design that inspired so many more variations. Gotta love the original child :)

Thanks for stopping by again. I will see you later on this week!

xo Genea