New in the Shop!

Hello friends!

Wow has it been awhile since I listed. It feels really good to be back in the rhythm again!

 

"Grape and Raspberry"- a gorgeous sampling of the pretties pinks and purple droplet headpins on copper wire :) I am almost out of these pretty odd lots so grab 'em while I got 'em!

 

"Jaw Breaker" opaque and transparent spiral headpins made to match my "Jaw Breaker" hollow bead and disc set that was published in Glass Pattern's Quarterly 2011. The red is more red than it appears in the photo. 

"Jaw Breaker" wing dings! Bright bold colors like the teeny jaw breaker candies I used to buy when I was a kid :D Also made to match the "Jaw Breaker" set that was published ;)

 "Love the Bean" and ode to coffee and my love for it. Made in awesome earth tones.

Well that's it for today! The sun is shining with warm weather and a nice breeze. I'm off to walk Leeloo before the sweltering heat and humidity return to Kansas City!

Have a fantastic weekend! 

See you soon!

Much love,

Genea

Artbeads.com Blog - "What's Old is New Again"

Hello friends!

I LOVE my piece I made for the most recent Artbeads.com blog! I blame this burst of creativity on not being able to create while I was moving and the sudden release of stress after being temporarily settled again. *blissful sigh*

I got so many great shots in the sunlight today I am posting several of my favorites :)

We will start with this one. I made all of the lampwork beads based around the colors of the Retro Copper Coin Bead Heart-Lock. I immediately fell in love after spying it on the suggested categories! I thought at first I would add some hints of red, which is NOT my favorite color at all, but I have been warming up to it. After receiving the beads I was enamored by the color and style of the lentil and just HAD to make things to match! I also LOVE this antique brass soaring bird link , this AMAZING loopy antique brass-plated round link round cable chain and Tierra Cast brass oxide pewter lock and key toggle they were perfect compliments to my design!

 

Here is a close up of one of the twisted rose beads I made to match and can you believe  I found a use for the crappy 591068 transparent pink! lol. 

For all of you that aren't lampworkers they passed this transparent pale "pink" off on us. Excuse me if it looks peach to me, but whatever ;) lol. So finally there is a use for it! It was a lovely "vintage" colored glass.   

 

Here is a close-up of the other twisted rose bead I made using CiM unique Desert Pink 511957-2. The thing that I LOVE about CiM is their amazing additions to the color palette. This unique being on and Sepia being another. It is one of my very FAVORITE CiM colors and again just perfect for this design!

I tried out 2 different style leaf glass headpins. The first try is the hp on the right. I thought it was too pointy for the design and really loved the design on the left best for this piece.

 

Here you can see the leaves in action. Don't you LOVE them dangling from the loopy brass chain?!  Oh if you didn't already notice in some of the photos the crystals look blueish. They are Swarovski's "Cantelope" crystal. They are the perfect vintage pink hue. They do shift in different light so just keep that in mind when designing ;)

 

Here is a full view of the necklace. The other components I used were: 4mm antique brass fancy end cap ring, 1.5" antique brass plated 23ga hp's,  4.5mm antique brass plated 21 ga jump rings, antique brass plated crimp ends, and 3/8" organza black ribbon.

 

Here is another shot of the necklace with the key side of the lentil showing. I was really stoked that we could pick items from every category as I have literally NO brass components and they were just the right metal for this piece! I was really lucky to have a scrap of sari silk that was the tie for another bundle I purchased from Mudhound Studio on Etsy. It was the perfect color to go with the brass! I used the black ribbon to do my little knot ties of ribbon over the top of the sari silk. I really LOVE the way the ribbon looks cut to points. I was also SUPER excited to find that I could string my lampwork beads on the ribbon as well! It was stiff enough to string through the hole and thin enough to fit the tiny 1/16th(2mm) bead hole :D Super sweet!

You can see on the right how I made loops of brass chain that go on either side of a lampwork spacer knotted on organza ribbon :D Schweet!

 

Here you can see the necklace worn. I have the perfect porcelain skin tone for this vintage style necklace :D I named it "Love's Locket" :)

I hope you are inspired and go check out some of Artbeads.com's awesome new booty for your designs!

**EDIT** Here is a shot of the altered design. Just moved the clasp "right side up" with a little tweak and some crimp covers.**

Much love,

Genea

**DISCLAIMER** I have received these products free of charge from Artbeads.com. I am reviewing these products honestly and have not been paid for my endorsements as it pertains to products received.**

And now back to your regularly scheduled life....

Hello friends!

*sigh* Ahhhh what  a relief! I turned in my keys to my land lords today! It felt good to give them back knowing that I am one step closer to my move to Portland! I am safe and settled over at the parent's house, the dogs are finally adjusting to their new temporary house, the studio and internet are set up! Hooray! I finally feel like my life is somewhat back to "normal"! 

Just a few more weeks until I see Ricky and his family in Fort Collins, CO and before ya know it I will be moving again, but to my permanent place in Portland! How exciting!!

Well I thought I would just stop in for a quick "hello" and a "I'm finally back," post :)

See you soon!

Much love,

Genea

Where the hell have you been???

 

Hello friends!

How are ya? Don't worry, I have not forgotten about you :)

So I guess it's safe to tell you what's been going on now. Lately my plans have been changing by the minute. Crazy for a planner type personality. So what's the news and where have I been?

Well incase you didn't know, Ricky is working in Portland, OR while I am here in Kansas City, MO. The original plan was for him to come back and help me move out of our rental house and then to Portland once our lease is up. So what's changed? Well I got a chance to talk with our land lords and asked to get end our lease a bit early. They were super awesome and agreed. I will be MOVING into mom and dad's for the remaining time that we originally planned to leave(end of May).

Why this sudden move? Well it's been super challenging to run a house hold with 2 dogs on my own. Mad props to the single mom's out there, or everyone else running shit on their own!  So we decided it would be best to make a quick move into mom and dad's so that we could save up some money more quickly to tie up loose ends in KC and move on time. So I have been busily packing up what I'm taking(my studio, bed and just a few kitchen items), listing on Craig's list, and moving stuff over to mom's car loads at a time. 

I decided on a week's time to get this all done because 3 weeks really is way too long to drag this on. So anyways, long story short, I've been doing all of the moving stuff to get into mom and dad's. So this is why you have not seen any listings or heard from me here.

I hope to get moved, and get this place cleaned and cleared by weeks end. I will be re-setting up my studio over at mom's as well, so you will see new work from me before my move.

So since picture posts are much more fun, I will leave you with some designs I have created over the last little bit :)

Stephanie's necklace.

 

Kathy's necklace. You may have seen bits and pieces of this on BTW, but if not. Here is the completed necklace :) I love how it turned out! I had been planning it for quite some time and am so pleased with the results!

 

My sister's 25th birthday is today. Being an artist people generally get creative gifts from me. I asked my sister what she would like for her birthday this year to give me an idea as to where I should start. She said she would like a sister themed wall art or a wing ding necklace. Being a gifter I couldn't help doing both! 

I was excited to go to Kinko's and have them resize my photos in mere minutes on beautiful quality photo paper(don't use real photos for soldering, they will melt!).

 

My sister's most recent favorite colors are purple and turquoise. I used BE glass for her heart since I had some really gorgeous purples. The charm photo is one of us smiling and hugging and one of us making faces. My sister and I have this things where we randomly make eye contact and make crazy faces at each other. Why do we do this? I don't know,but we do and it's silly, so the charm is showing the silly faces side. I attached a lobster claw so that you can flip the image to which ever you choose. I finished off the designs with "sis" in a soldered charm with scrabble tiles. "Sissy" would have been pushing it. You can tape around the tiles to spell words, but it's harder to keep a nice smooth soldered line the longer the text gets.

Anyways, there is the not so quick blip of where I have been all this time.  See you soon! The rough part is almost over!

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Much love,

Genea

Genea Beads now at The Bead Shop- Overland Park, KS!

Hello friends!

I am excited to announce that Genea Beads are now available at The Bead Shop  at 9009 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS, 66212!!

If you're local stop on by and see their great new glass goodies or plan a trip out!

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

What I see isn't what you see

OMG why didn't you tell me? I just realized after being on my dad's computer that is set on the largest desk top setting, I look like the damn 20 dollar bill! LOL I didn't realize my picture was THAT BIG. I'm totally not a narcissist ;)

Peace, Tranquility & Harmony on the Waves of the Ocean

Hello friends!

I am excited to be typing up this post. Ever get inspired by something you have made? Did it inspire you to make many pieces? Did you have just the perfect things to match? Well I did on all accounts so I was enamored with the results! These pieces lead us to my next shop update below :)

NEW IN THE SHOP.....

 

"Peace, Tranquility & Harmony"- She is the one that "started it all". I have been saving her for something special and this seemed like the perfect creation for her. I based all of the other bead designs and colors below on her :)

 

I love this quote too. It came from one of my tea labels. I have always loved quotes and words of wisdom. The image and quote just seemed perfect for each other :)

 

"Waves of Wisdom"- I matched every hue I could see in the charm to these glass colors. I was SUPER excited to use some of Creation is Messy's new glass colors: Appletini, Atlantis, and Rainforest :D I just LOVE their opal glass. It's SOOOO pretty!

 

"Waves of Love"- while making the lentils to match I had this fantastic idea to create a heart with twists and ruffly waves. I am so pleased with this design and photo. This really is a PHENOMENAL  bead!

A perfect twist in the center of the back to complete the design while allowing the back to be mostly smooth and comfortable to wear. I rarely put textured design on the backs of my beads for this reason.

 

Wing Dings "Waves"- of course you knew I had to make wing dings too. The really amazing thing about photographing in the sun is that not only does it flatter the glass the best, but these colors are a PITA to photograph indoors. The colors always geek out the camera and come out all wrong. Also you can see how the different styles of beads effect the colors of the glass. Notice that the colors are darker pressed like this than the ones that are encased? Very cool!

 

"Ocean Droplets" glass headpins- DUH, you knew I would make some of these, right?! I mean how can you have all of these pretty matching beads without the matching headpins?! :D

"Ocean Opal"- Mmmm Kryptonite, one of my very FAVORITE CiM colors! I just love this dreamy seafoam opal. It's SOOO pretty! You know what is a design without a few matching spacers too?!

Ok now we are going to do a little exercise. Ok close your eyes, wait, no read this first, then close your eyes ;) Ok so... close your eyes, now envision these beads, now envision a super fantastic mixed-media necklace with all of these parts. Pretty f*ing amazing huh? ;P  That's what I think of when I see all of these parts. I mean they could all work together separately, but they sure are pretty together!

WHAT ELSE IS NEW....

Well here it's been over a month already since Ricky has been in Portland. It has been a "short" time, but it does feel like he has been gone for a long time. 

Weird how that is huh? I have been doing pretty well since he's been gone, but I sure do miss him. I do feel like I have a part of myself missing. It's like losing an appendage. Sure you could live without one arm, but it just doesn't feel quite right, yanno? A little piece of my heart is missing. 

On a similar note I have been "weeding" out here at the house. I have had it on my mind as I have been drifting into sleep. If I didn't already tell you, we are going to "dump" everything except for studio stuff, the computer and of course, the dogs.

Now why would we do that? Well Portland is exactly 1,794 miles away. Here is the map so you can truly appreciate the distance properly ;) HOLY CRAP! Driving time is 1 DAY AND 4 HOURS! So now think about gas prices, and renting a truck. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah... meh. It's crazy expensive. Honestly we have a lot of things we have acquired and nothing that's so important we can't live without it yanno? The purge will be nice for so many reasons. I mean why spend 4k to haul old crap when you could spend 4k on new stuff?! Exactly! 

So weeding, weeding, is what I'm doing. Mom and I are going to have a garage sale and then donate the rest. If you think about it, that means less to pack and that totally makes it easier to clean! 

A LITTLE VACAY....

WHAT?! Seriously, you're moving and going on a vacation?! Well sort of... Ricky's dad is graduating with his masters in Seminary so they are flying us out to Denver, CO for 4 days to celebrate! It's also going to be Ricky's sister, Amie's B-day. So they are flying all of us from Kansas City, to Cincinatti, to Portland to all be together in Denver/Fort Collins to celebrate :) So not only will it be amazing to have the family together, but I will also get to see Ricky in 39 days!!  Not only that, but after seeing each other for that quick vacation just a few more weeks and he will be here with me in KC to move! Woo hoo!

Well I suppose I should be off.... I still have many things to do today including motivating myself to either make beads still or go on a walk even thought it's 48 when yesterday it was 90. Blegch. lol

Have a wonderful week!

Much love,

Genea

GB Cup of Bead Soup on Lori Anderson's bead table

Hello friends!
Shhh... it's the weekend. I'm not supposed to be "working", BUT.... I had to share with you that Lori Anderson of Pretty Things will be creating a piece with my cup of bead soup!

So what did she get? Ok I totally stole Lori's photos since the ones I took were pretty craptacular, so thanks Lori!! :D

 

Rubber o's, enameled chain, lucite ring, and rubber tubing by My ELEMENTS, bag is recycled sari silk available from Jess Imports.

 

So what's so awesome about the beads I sent her? Well most of the glass I used was "odd lots". Incase you don't know what they are, odd lots are glass that has turned out different than it's original formula. They are usually amazing colors and there is only ONE batch of glass like it. That's it, period, dot, THE END. When it's gone, it's GONE. 

I used amazing odd lot glass from Bullseye.

Some of the glass in these beads is from my "Freaky, Streaky, Striker" pack that was purchased at the ISGB gathering that was in Kansas City in 2006, so this glass is LONG GONE.

I can't wait to see what she makes! Stop on over to her blog to see what she had to say.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Much love,

Genea