And the winner is.....

Hello friends!

Ok so I lied, I decided to draw names today. I decided to do the old "paper in the hat" style drawing with 11 names "in the hat".

The winner is................................................

Maggie Towne!!

Congratulations, Maggie! 

I am e-mailing you now for your mailing address!

Have a wonderful weekend all!

Much love,

Genea

Spinning my wheels

Hello friends!

Wow what a week! It's been one of those where the days go by and I wonder what I got accomplished. I would say a good portion of my week was spent working on my submission to 500 rings. I am pleased to say that even though things fell through with the first photos that my other friends came to the rescue and got some really fantastic shots!

So if you are one of what I call the "pressure cooker" types(people that work best under pressure at the last minute) you could still squeak by and get your entry in. You have 5 more days ;)

So why am I here today? Well with the "lack" of productivity I felt like I had this week I thought I should get some new stuff in my shop. Remember the piles of things I told you needed to be photographed and listed? Well I got some awesome new goodies listed today. Wanna see?

New in the shop....

"Watermelon Whirl"    

If a picture was worth a thousand words, I would have nailed it here. Yeah, I know, It's f*ing awesome huh?! :D

"Watermelon Rind" my FIRST glass toggle ever! No, really, I made if before the one I used in my "Gold Dust" necklace ;) Suhweet huh?!

Flying Gravity Whirls - "Peacock" Oooo looky! "Dark" colors ;) You know I'm usually all about my aqua blue :D

"Asphalt Luminosity" If you were diggin on the "City of Industry" bracelet you will love these babies. That same cool slate gray and lemony yellow. Yahoo!

"Cream on Top"- Dreamy, creamy ivory. Soft and sweet.


Well I suppose I better see if I can start prepping dinner for the family. I invited everyone over for pita pizzas and a yummy mango ginger cream pie!

Now if only they would turn my damn water back on! A water main broke this morning at 8am and I have yet to have some water.  You know it's not all bad except for the fact you can't use your TOILET! Ack.

Have a great weekend!

Much love,

Genea

P.S. I will post the winner for the GPQ soldered charm tutorial on Monday! Hurry up and leave a comment. Today is the last day!

Never give up your dream

Friends,

Never give up your dream. All the sacrifices are worth it. Be your most authentic self doing what you love. I am here to tell you it will all happen when it's supposed to. Thanks for joining me on my journey to success.

Love,

Genea

Soldered Charm Tutorial GIVE-AWAY!

Hello friends!

Now who doesn't love a give-away?! Ok so with the latest release of my soldered charm tutorial in Glass Pattern's Quarterly I thought it would be fun to give away a copy! GPQ was kind enough to send me 5 issues so I thought I would share the creativity.

 Here is what the magazine and last page of the article look like.

 

Here is the charm I demonstrate how to make.

 

Here was the inspiration for the charm. I used the little cardboard insert that came with my gorgeous new comforter from Target :D 

So what do you have to do to win? Just leave me a comment and tell me why you would like to learn the technique and how you would incorporate it into your design. Please also include your e-mail so that if you win I am able to contact you! 

Please post from now through March 25th for your chance to win!

The winner will be picked by using random.org.

Good luck!

Much love,

Genea

Bead Soup Blog Party jewelry now on Etsy!

Hello friends!

I am excited to announce that all of my gorgeous designs for the bead soup blog party are now available in the shop! I loved all of the pieces I created, but with the overwhelming positive response to my pieces I thought it only fair to offer them up for sale in my shop :)

 

"City of Industry"

 

"Gypsy Forest"

 

"Gold Dust"- the most beloved of all of my designs :D This one was my very favorite too!

  

"Chocolate Blooms" as seen in my soldered charms tutorial in Glass Pattern's Quarterly Spring 2011!

 

Here is the back side of the charm. Stay tuned as I will be doing a give-away for this issue!

Well I hope you are as excited about these designs being offered as I am to offer them! If the lengths aren't quite right on these pieces some may be adjusted larger or smaller. Please e-mail me if you have any questions.

Now that my brain is completely fried I am flying out of here for the weekend. Well, not really flying, but running out of my computer chair to go hang out with mom :)

Have a terrific weekend!

Much love,

Genea

We're in some Treasuries! Check 'em out :)

Hello friends!

Just thought I would share the treasuries in which we have been featured. I always love to check out what other artists are doing :)

"No time to say hello, Goodbye!"  I just LOVE Alice in Wonderland so I am always excited to show up in these treasuries :D The cheshire cat is my favorite character. I even have a tattoo :D

This tattoo is of the Cheshire Cat from the Norturnal Wonderland rave flyer back in 2000. It says "P.L.U.R," which is the "raver code". It stands for: Peace, love, unity, and respect". 

 "Rainbow Bright". You all know that color is my passion so I'm also super excited to show up in super rainbowtastic treasuries as well :D Don't you LOVE that rainbow soap?! So cool!

Ok well I'm off! Lots to do!

Have a fantastic day!

Much love,

Genea

Days have been different

Hello friends!

Just a little update about this and that.

The days of old.....

So let's visit my used to be typical morning....

Mmmm delicious coffee in the Typhoon mug I snagged from my sister(they don't ship to the US anymore :( )

Ricky's latest masterpiece for breakfast :D

Firing up the torch to make KICK ASS BEADS :D

Glass headpins in the kiln. Yes, it's blurry. I didn't want to melt my camera. It is a steamy 968 degrees in there!

Since we are on that subject... Here are glass headpins in their natural environment.

See why I can only fit 3 sets in there at a time? They totally FILL the kiln. Can't get them too close together or they kiss and that means no good headpins :(

Ricky dearest and me. Ah boo, I sure do miss seeing him daily :(

The days of new.....

So my days start out a little bit different now, but they are still pretty cool.  I saw Georgia this morning. She stopped by to pick up some lampwork beads to go with her new beaded bead creations.

 

Aren't they absolutely GORGEOUS?! She knew she could come to me and find some nice limey greens  for her necklace :D I can't wait to see what she makes!

Today I received THIS in the mail :D

The bead I won from Pixiebug's give away during the bead soup blog :) Didn't Chris do a beautiful job? :D

Here you can see my bead in it's new home in my printers tray on the wall. Recognize any other famous beads? ;) My new beady will sit here comfortably with it's friends until I make it into something.

This also came in the mail on Friday! Glass Pattern's Quarterly Spring 2011 with my soldered charm's tutorial! :D:D:D I was lucky enough to have gotten 5 copies from them so I will be doing a give-away for one this week. Just trying to figure out how to set it up. Any suggestions are welcome. I need to find one of those number generator thingies so it can pick the winner.

Here is what I made for lunch. Just cooked them on 400 for 10 mins. They were f*ing delicious. I guess I could just live on eggy scrambles and pita pizzas until Ricky returns ;)

See look! Not that bad for you either :D This was clipped from my sparkpeople.com account. The first column is the calories, second is carbs, thrid is fat, and last is protein. Sorry it's teeny. If you click on the image it will get normal sized in another window.

Thank God there is family......

Yesterday I was feeling pretty poopy and grumpy. Mom invited me over for grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup :D It's silly, but it was really nice to go to mom's and eat such a simple, belly warming and heart warming meal :)

While I was there she asked me to do a few "fixes" to her jewelry. Unfortunately it took me WAY longer that it should have since she didn't have the same supplies or tools. This made me want to rip my hair out and scream. Gotta love tasks and pms... She did feed me chocolate though so that helped ;)

Here is one of mom's fringe necklaces with Czech glass, stones, and my ammonite bead from the class I took with Andrea Guarino-Slemmons. Don't inspect it too closely it was my learning bead ;)

On this one I took some silky cord she had and just simply knotted the pendant to the necklace. Mom wanted me to add the focals to her necklaces.

Mom is also the collector of my "bucket beads". These are my seconds. She is the ONLY one that gets them for her own jewelry making. The "Florbital" on this necklace is a little whompy incase you were trying to figure out what was wrong with it. It has a few stubby petals too. Still a pretty bead though, and I bet you wouldn't have noticed otherwise, right?

So for this necklace I had to get creative. As you can see there is already a center bead. I ran nylon cords through the center of the florbital, knotted it, ran them through either side of the center bead on the necklace, knotted those ends to make stoppers and then strung seed beads and dangles to the cords to make them blend in with the rest of the necklace. They are the little fringies with the little bit of cording sticking out on the left side you can see them best.

Well I guess that's all for now. Even my "short" blogs tend to get wordy and long. Hopefully you made it through this one.

I'm still blog hopping too btw. So I'll get to you eventually ;) Oh yeah, speaking of blogs. I made my cup of soup button for Lori's site today. Here is what it looks like.

It's cute huh? I like it. You know who I am and what I make. Some simple fun wing dings and some very artistic and challenging bead-inside-a-bead-hollows ;)

Ok I'm really going now...

Have a great day!

Much love,

Genea

Dealing with Negative+Mean-Spirited People by Mayi Carles

Hello friends!

I know, I'm not supposed to be working. I just hopped on to look at my blog and saw this post by Mayi Carles from heartmade blog. This post had such a wonderful message I felt I needed to share it with you all right after reading it. 

Dealing with Negativity+ Mean-Spirited People

With our recent plans to move I had hoped I would have received more positive energy on the subject, but that hasn't completely been the case. Now it hasn't been to the extent of the situation in her post, but the  post was very helpful in dealing with negative reactions. 

Much love,

Genea

A few quick words and Etsy shop update!

Hello friends!

A few words before I get into my posting about what's new in the shop today....

Ok so I am not the best blog follower so please, PLEASE don't take it personally.  It's not that I don't care, I just don't have the time :( I am still working on balance for my business and as it is now I need to find a way to cut down on internet time and find more ways to spend more time creating. I want to give each and everyone one of you my special attention so I do my best to respond back to you. If you wrote to me and didn't get a response I must have missed it. Please know I would never ignore your messages, or posts to me intentionally.

Also wanted to share Rebecca's post about her latest bead purchases and some glass headpins she ordered from me like the ones I used in my and Mary's Bead Soup swap. Hop on over to her blog and see all of the pretties she picked up :)

NEW IN THE SHOP....

Ok so excuse the mass loading of items in the shop. It is terribly over due so to make up for it, I tried to stock it full today. I seriously have piles of beads and jewelry to load into my shop, including my jewelry from the Bead Soup Blog!

 

Tornado Candies-Twirly Raindrops- "Sea Spirals"

 

"Moonstone Dew Drops"

"Spring Opals"

Wing Dings "Berrylicious" Ok peeps this is it. That really pretty transparent pinkish purple on the left and the one purply one in the middle. I don't have much of that glass left. If you love it, don't wait too long!  When it says odd lot I may only have a few rods of colors and when it's gone, it's GONE. Sad for both of us :(

Wing Dings "Sea Sparkle"

Wing Dings "Juicy Watermelon" Same thing here. The pretty streaky pink glass is almost gone. I'm down to ONE rod :(

*Whew* and I'm off! I've worked my little tush off this week and I am taking the next 3 days off!(If you make a purchase I will send it out the same day. It just means other work related stuff). Have a wonderful weekend!

Much love,

Genea

New Beginnings- Moving to Portland, Oregon

Hello friends!

I have been waiting for this day.... Now that it's finally happened I am waiting to wake up. About a year ago Ricky and I decided that we wanted to move to the Pacific North West(PNW) . We were thinking Portland, but wouldn't have been upset to move to Washington either. 

So why Portland? Well for several reasons.... Ricky is a personal trainer and health is very important in that area that means lots of opportunity. Kansas City isn't really the healthiest area. It's also the 2nd greenest city in the entire world! You all know how much I love my little green planet! So what's in it for me? Well this area is also a HUGE glass area! The arts are very important! Bullseye and Uroboro's factory's are in Portland and moving there I will be only 2 hours from Frantz Art Glass and Creation is Messy! Talk about AMAZING!

I think I am still in shock. I mean just 2 short weeks ago Ricky decided to just start applying in Portland. He got an overwhelming response and off he went on a place to seek our fortune. Now here we are. He will be working part time at the YMCA doing classes and working full time at 24 Hour Fitness. I will be in the glass mecca. It's just really incredible!  

So the next few month's I will be living here in Kansas City while he will be living in Portland getting things ready for us. I was hoping to get out there in two months, but I am thinking it will be when our lease is up June 3rd.

I just want to thank God for the many blessings he has brought into this amazing life he has in store for me. 

I want to thank all of you for your prayers, positive thoughts and encouraging words. It means the world to me!

Thanks for sharing this adventure with me!

See you soon!

Much love,

Genea

Winter Enchantment- Art Beads blog - Genea Beads

Hello friends!

Well I don't know if you are getting spring where you are, but it sure still feels like winter here in Kansas City, Missouri!

It's been nice that it's been cold since it took me until now to get my Art Beads blog completed. I was swamped with the Bead Soup Party and I am definitely not a "multi-tasker". I always HATE that corporate term. Multi-tasking just means doing a million things at once crappy instead of one thing at a time well done. So now that my soup design was complete it was time to work on my Winter Enchantment blog WELL :D  

Mom ended up coming over to bead with me :) Since she already had her beads picked out for her fringe bracelet it was easier for her to travel here. One never knows what one will need for a mixed-media asymmetrical bracelet, you know!

Here was mom's bead mat with all of her fringe beads layed out. See all of the Genea Beads :)

Here is a pic of mom beading :) I really love beading with my momma. I hope you get to enjoy creating jewelry with someone you love. It is really nice to create with another person!

 Yikes! Is this what your bead table looks like when you are creating? Every time I think of how messy my desk gets when I create, I ALWAYS think of Creation is Messy(they make awesome glass rods). I always think it's just the perfect name because, well creation IS messy!

Here was the first design. I liked it, but the hollow on the right was uncomfortable. It just didn't sit right. I was bummed because I really wanted to use the Hill Tribe silver simple flower bead caps. The caps were actually a bit more rounded, but they stuck out on the sides of my hollow bead. I thought "Hmmm... I wonder if I just put them on my bench block and give them a few taps to make them a little flatter..." Guess what? It worked! See how they fit nice a snug on the bead? Cool little trick you can use if you ever run into that problem. If it's not working out, hit it with a HAMMER! Lol, if only that trick worked for everything :/ Oh well ;)

 

Ah there we go! I took out the hollow bead and stuck in a lovely Hill Tribe lentil that was an orphan in my bead box. Lentils are always such comfortable beads to wear and it fit in just fantastically!  Now for the supplies I ordered. I got: 2mm seamless sterling silver rounds, 2x2 silver crimp tubes,  Hill Tribe silver flower stamped round bead frame, and silver plated round links on round cable chain.

Don't you just LOVE the pieces I got from Art Beads?!  I LOVE the round stamped Hill Tribe bead frame! Of course you knew I would like it because it provides "negative space" which I find terribly visually appealing, oh and it's HILL TRIBE! ;) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the loopy cable chain! When I saw that Art Beads was carrying it I immediately remembered seeing Lorelei use this very same chain in some of her pieces. I remembered loving not only her jewelry, but oh that chain! It really has a wonderful "soft" feel to it. The loops have this amazing movement to them that is just really incredible :)

Do you like what I did with the square bead frame? I wanted to use it in a different way so I used jump rings to hold the sides and strung a headpin through the bead holes to hold the inside lampwork bead and drop a Hill Tribe dangle from the bottom :D I love doing clever unexpected things with jewelry parts ;) 

Oh and here is the back side. The soldered charm I made is of course, two sided.  So something else you definitely can't tell from the picture is that all of teh little round lampwork spacer beads are actually this really dark blue glitter. It appears black, but its a really sweet odd lot glass(figures, right? Me using odd lot glass ;) called Dark Blue Aventurine by Bullseye.

Well I hope you enjoyed my design process and my product review! Why not hop on over to Art Beads and nab up some of these fabulous products?

Much love,

Genea

**Disclaimer I have received these products free of charge by Artbeads.com. I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received.**

Still Hoppin'

Hello friends!

If I have not posted on your blog, I'm comin', promise. Still blog hoppin'.

Much love,

G

SPRING CLEANING SALE! 50% OFF SELECT ITEMS!

Hello friends!

Are you feeling the clutter in your house too? Spring is always a great time for cleaning and I figured my Etsy shop needed some tidying up as well! This is the FUN sort of cleaning, right?!  So what's on Sale? Take a gander at this fab collage I made in Picasa to find out :)

Here is a link to the SALE section of my shop.

Happy Shopping!

Much love,

Genea