Just around the corner- Moving Day

Hello friends!

I can hardly believe the day is almost here! When I look pictures of my new city my eyes well up and my heart swells.

 

Here it is, my dream come true and we are just a few days from being on the road leading us there! Ricky and I used to sit on the couch and dream about these days. Dreams are achievable, but only if you NEVER give up! I really love that first image I found. I came across it accidentally, or well maybe it was just the perfect message put out there for me to receive. 

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE MOVING SALE.....

 I hope you got an opportunity to enjoy the moving sale :) I closed up the shop temporarily until we are done moving. I need to get everything packed up(what's left in the studio) and get ready to go! I will re-open the shop as soon as we arrive and I locate the nearest postal place :) I am really hoping to sort out a studio spot quickly!

BEADWORK STRINGING SPRING 2011...

On that note of re-stocking I have just been informed by Lorelei that corrections on crediting me for my beads made with her fabulous jewelry have been made. I will be getting more of those items made as soon as I get set back up, so please bear with me as I go through that process :)

 

Coffee bracelet and earrings by Lorelei Eurto.

 

"Transparent Trillium" by Lorelei Eurto.

WING DINGS FLYING INTO BEAD AND BUTTON....

I have had the extreme pleasure of having my beads whisked away to the Bead & Button show! My dear friend, Yvonne of My ELEMENTS will have them for sale at her booth!

 

Wing Dings.

 

Some NEW goodies to check out a the show from My ELEMENTS.

Well off to pack everything up!

See you in PORTLAND!!!

xo Genea

MOVINE SALE! 50% OFF! 3 DAYS ONLY- MAY 24-27TH 12AM!

Hello friends!

Everyone loves a sale, right?! So why not have one with a hefty discount?! Less for me to move, sale for you! WIN WIN! Now you can pick up that piece on you wish list!  Ok so technically the sale is 3.5ish day,  but who's counting? ;)

Well get to shopping before someone beats you to your favorite piece! Enjoy!

XO Genea

p.s. all orders over $100 will receive free insurance.

NEW Coffee Themed Beads in the Shop!

Hello friends!

I did it! I did it! I wasn't sure what the day would hold, but since it was BALLS HOT and humid today that meant no lampworking. So instead I roasted on the porch just long enough to shoot some photos for listings!

I was totally in LOVE with the beads and NEW headpins I made for mom's birthday! Incase you didn't see them, here is her set.

Pretty f*ing amazing if I do say so myself!  Well you all know I love coffee and I love you, SO I made more!

So what do I have in the shop for you today?

 

Perfect Cup "Butternut". I do wish the picture wasn't so grainy, but for some reason this baby wasn't cooperating with me inside or outside. I assure you, it's awesome ;)

 

"Coffee Bean Mixxer" featuring my NEW sculptural coffee themed glass headpins and coffee bean dotted bead!

 

"Coffee Bean Blend" set of 5 sculptural and droplet headpins! A coffee bean, paddle with coffee bean accent, paddle with heart accent and 2 spotty drop headpins! Wowee!

Shop sale announcement coming this week!

Have a fabulous week!

Much love,

Genea

Genea Beads Cup of Bead Soup by Lori Anderson

Just a quick Hello friends!

Lori Anderson just posted her Cup of Bead Soup blog she made with my beads! Here is a teaser of what she made!

 

To see what else she made, hop on over to her blog. She got stumped on one piece and is offering it up for someone else to create something fabulous! Hop on over to her blog for your chance to win!

Good luck!

xo Genea

MOVING May 31st!

Hello friends!

Well it's official! Ricky has his plane ticket to KC on the 29th of May at 12:33am. We want to leave KC on the 31st and need to arrive in Portland within 2 days. I have been madly searching for some sort of cheapish vehicle to rent to go cross country and drop off in Portland. I am looking for a van/ suv of sorts to transport my studio stuff, our dogs and ourselves. The cheapest I have found is like $800 and that doesn't include gas. Anyone know of anywhere? I would love any help you could give me.

Oh on that note. I'm thinking I should have a sale to help with moving costs. What would you like to see on sale in the shop? What discount would you like to have?

Hope to hear from you soon!

Much love!

Genea

GIVEAWAY AT THE ART BEAD SCENE BLOG!

Hello friends!

Be sure to stop by the Art Bead Scene Blog for a chance to win some amazing art beads! Here is a little teaser to get you over there!

Good luck!

Much love,

Genea

Too HOT so stockin' the SHOP

Hello friends!

Wow two days in a row! That must be some sort of record. Well I am going stir crazy while trapped in the confines of the "cool" basement. The a/c is out here and it's balls f*ing hot and humid in Missouri today. What temperature is that exactly? Well it's 86 degrees with a high of 93. Ugh... I will be SO glad to be moving! I am much more of a cooler weather creature.

Anyways.. since I am stuck inside and can't bear the thought of turning on a hot torch, hot kiln,  hot concentrator, or hot soldering iron it doesn't leave me many things left to do. I figured I would list a few more things in the shop and then maybe sit down and design something? I am in need of some funky anklet. I have a few, but they are OLD, and when I say OLD I mean one has a basemetal clasp with some czech glass beads and seed beads LOL. So I'm sure my ankle would like a pretty new mixed-media adornment of sorts. Lime and aqua, of course. I wonder how the rubber o's would feel on your ankle?

ANYWAYS..... I suppose you want to see what I just listed, right? Right.

 

"Bits of Rainbow"

 

"Blue Skies & Sunshine"

 

"Sea Lime"

OMG and this blog is "short and sweet"! Well how 'bout that?! lol.

Well I'm off to russle up some grub for lunch.

Enjoy!

Much love,

Genea

What you've missed and a tragedy

Hello friends!

It seems like I am behind again with everything that has been happening. I had so many things I wanted to share with you like what awesome artists work I saw at the Brookside Art show and the cool stuff at Bead Blast, the new awesome stuff I made for mom for her b-day, the awesome new clay pendants I received, and then the sad news like losing another friend this year....

So bear with me here while I attempt to fill you in with what's gone on while still keeping your attention to the end of the post.  So I will try to post more pics and explain less, I think that should help....

BROOKSIDE ART SHOW...

Here were my favorite vendors at the show: Susan Speck- she had AMAZING whimsical pottery that looked like it came out of a woodland/wonderland tea party! So awesome!

Melissa Finelli- she had really amazing metal smithed pieces and had them all out to try on. I was really impressed by this part because her pieces were several hundred dollars and generally when you approach these booths everything is  behind glass. It was really awesome to pick up things and put them on :)

Pat Bolgar- her pieces were SO amazing! Her polymer looked more like "fine" clay pieces and she also used pmc. I loved her awesome "etched" looking pody pieces.

CHoffnagle- This girl was not only super sweet and darling, but her pieces were awesome! Metal smithed and clean with color on the inside. I asked if it was enamel. She said "No, it was laminate" it was her special technique :D Pretty sweet, I was impressed :D I did want to ask more details to appreciate the technique, but just stayed satisfied with the answer and admired her work.

MOM'S BIRTHDAY....

 

Here is Mom, myself and my sister Nina. Yep, we look related, right? lol. I swear I was milk man's child. ;) Na, not really. I totally look like my dad, but anywho.... 

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch with mom. Nina and I split a Kobe beef burger, sweet potato fries with garlic aoli, and Adam's peanut butter cheesecake! YUM!!

 

These were the chocolates I HAD to buy. Surprised?! lol. They were not only bright and beautiful, but very tasty as well!

 

This is what the spoiled mother received for her birthday gift.  The very FIRST accented headpins I have made. A coffee bean, a paddle with a heart, and a paddle with a coffee bean.

 

Here's a detail shot of the headpins. Don't worry, I'll make more and offer up some in the shop. :D

This is a detail shot showing the coffee bean dots on the beads :D I really love the idea and they turned out SO freakin' awesome! I'll make more of these coming up too, so stay tuned.

 

Here was a pair of earrings I made with the new styled beads. I had thought about saving these beads to offer them up in the shop, but my muses thought they should be earrings. I need to get these listed, so if you are interested they are $55 and I can list them for you now incase you can't wait for the listing when I have more stuff to offer...

RE-LISTED WITH A FEW ALTERATIONS....

Ok so with moving and all I couldn't find the brown I originally used for the coffee color inside the cup so the coffee is a bit more red brown than the pic, and the headpins are made on 22ga instead of 24. I didn't have time to order thinner wire before I leave on Friday(tell you about that later...)

BEADS AS SEEN IN BEADWORK STRINGING SPRING 2011 DESIGNS BY LORELEI EURTO.

 

Earthy Blend Spacers

 

Morning Cup

Spotty Droplets

BEAD BLAST SHOW BOOTY....

 

Here's what I got. Not much, but I mostly went to visit. The batiked ribbon, bottle cap lentil, and tart flower were from one of my VERY FAVORITE shops, Glass Garden Beads, lime and aqua silk from Riverstone Bead Company, metal cut peace sign heart, Bokamo designs, and glittery plyers from a local bead shop, I forget their name at the moment :(

 

These are really kick ass! I loved the sun. I guess this cap is a local brewery in Minnesota :D The owner of the shop, Kathy creates these bottle caps, the metal cut out flowers, and the tumbled glass bottle pieces. She is so stinkin' talented!

 

The tart flowers were different colors on both sides.

 

Ok, so I didn't get these at the show, but Yvonne of My ELEMENTS just got these AMAZING new color rubber o's and I just had to share. :D

NEW CLAY PENDANTS I RECEIVED....

 

OMG... That is all I can say! These clay pendants were like receiving gold coins AND I even got a piece of fresh baked banana bread! These gorgeous pendants were created by the amazingly talented, Cindy Buehler . Here is her Etsy shop, which she is thinking about closing, so tell her NO!! ;) She is doing more shows and thought she might close up the shop.

I couldn't receive all of these amazing pendants and not make something for Cindy, so I told her I would make her a mixed-media somethin' somethin' :D I was also thinking about giving away one on my blog as soon as I get all this other stuff ironed out.

THE PASSING OF ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL PERSON....

 

This is my friend "Big Mike", Michael Clark. He was killed by a drunk driver May 5th at around 2am. He was doing some late night computer gaming with a friend and decided to go out to grab a cheeseburger. He was hit by a 21 year old drunk/on drugs driver going 90.

Here is a link to the news so you can see his car and hear the story. Mike was 24. This was a totally tragic incident. Mike was one of the most amazing people I have had the pleasure to meet. I will miss his loud heart felt laugh and his gigantic big bear hugs that were followed by a few wiggles from side to side before being released. He was always there for me when I needed him and I will always be grateful that I out paths crossed on our walk in life. 

Please, Please, PLEASE, DO NOT EVER let your friends drive drunk :( 

Much love to you all, 

Genea

Pat Frantz Dichro Tutorial- My beads

Hello all!

I thought I would share my experiences with you about Pat Frantz new dichro tutorial I received a few weeks back. It took me until just now to get a chance to work on the beads, but I really enjoyed learning something new! Mad respect to dichro bead makers.

Working with dichro takes patience and time. You have to gently heat dichroic glass, glass side facing the flame crystal side facing away. Little heat exposure burns the crystals and the clear they use for dichro gets scummy easily. Also when working with dichro a good bond has to be made with the bead base and dichro or else your glass will crack. It's a wonder people can make beads with it, huh?! lol.

Here is a you tube video Pat did to show you how to make a dichroic lightning bead. She makes it look so effortless! ;) This awesome video should help as a visual aid to demonstrate how the glass is applied to a bead.

Here were my first attempts. I didn't have the proper glass for the tutorial for these beads, but used what I did have on hand before getting the glass in the tutorial. The bead on the left has rainbow 2x 1/4" strip dichro and triton double helix. The bead on the left has rainbow 2 1/4" strip dichro and corkscrew dichro. Both pieces are on a base of Tuxedo.

Here are all of the beads from my first attempt making all of the tutorial beads. I botched the first plain dichro bead and used up the whole strip of pink and had to use other assorted strips of different colors to try out the technique. I didn't do so awesome not burning the dichro! Oops! As dichro melts the crystal layer curves upward pulling itself towards the torch flame and exposes the sides. This is why it's very important to heat the clear side that faces the flame and gently push is down and spread it out to protect the crystals.

You can see I cracked my off mandrel pendant as well :( I did this in the final steps when trying to heat off my punty(a punty is a temporary glass handle(usually it can be metal too) used to hold glass while doing off mandrel techniques. In this instance the tungsten pick I was using to hold the pendant through the hole on the top actually stuck to the glass! Whoops! I was frantically trying to push off the pendant into the kiln before it cooled too much before realizing it was stuck. Bummer cause it was really pretty too!

I ended up cracking my ruffly bead second from the top too. I am thinking I didn't get a good enough bond with the dichro and the base bead.

The top zig-zag bead turned out awesome!

 

Here is a close up picture.  You can see all of that pretty "oil slick" effect I got with reducing Triton. If you look at the blue zig-zags you can see the shimmery red orange dichro that lies on the top. It's such a cool bead to make and see it all come together. It pretty much has a blanket of shimmer on top of the core design! So cool!

Here is a close-up photo of the back side of the pendant I cracked from it getting stuck to the pick and cooling too much.

 

Here is my last attempt re-doing the beads I messed up the first time through the tutorial. I managed to get the pendant made, but I ended up trapping some scummy clear under my top layer of square patterned dichro. Dang!

I ended up cracking my ruffle bead again too! Drat! It didn't show the cracks until the next day after annealing. I must not have gotten a good bond again. 

I did FINALLY get my plain dichro bead all encased without scum on that last try too! The color is SO pretty!

Well I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences. If you lampwork I hope you will go on over and pick up Pat's tutorial and give it a try!

If you want to see the thread I posted on Lampwork Etc. to hear what other people had to say and see how their beads turned out, visit the link here :) Show me your Pat Frantz Dichro Tutorial Beads.

See you soon!

Much love,

Genea