Randomness

Hello friends!

I bet you have been wondering where I have been right? Well I have been working(or well trying to work) on some testing, beads and another idea to make a business page more informative. That has been what has been taking up my time. I got a set and a pair of beads made last week which didn't seem like much of a listing so I opted to wait until this week. Normally I would post beads tomorrow, but as I have said I have been working on different things and have not gotten as many beads made to sell as I would have liked.

I got a bunch of cane pulled so I think I will continue tomorrow what I wanted to get done today. With all of the cane already made, stringers pulled and glass sitting on my table I will be able to get right to work tomorrow. I will be excited to see how the different canes I made effect the designs on different color glass bases.

That has really been most of what has been going on. I wish I had more exciting things to report.

Oh yeah I did get my beads from artbeads.com for our summer blog! I need to get some beads made to go with the ones I ordered. I have to think up some designs. :)

Here is the picture I owed you of "Gold Member" my Mini CC torch :D Isn't he amazing?! :D I am totally in love with my torch top marver as well! It is set perfectly so I can just roll my glass into barrels and all that fun stuff. It's super spiffy 'cause if you flip it over it has 3 size round marble molds for shaping! :D My set up wouldn't be complete without my old style Creation Station! It was seriously like one of the BEST tools?( if you want to call it a tool) I have ever bought!

Here is a picture I forgot to share with you from the other week. My hubby presented me with these AMAZING rainbow roses! Yes, they are dyed, but they really are THAT vivid! :D They make my eyes happy :D
Here is the baby sparrow we rescued from my aussies. I was sitting outside with Amanda while she was smoking and we saw the dogs sniffing the ground very excitedly. We heard a few peep peep HELP ME's and rushed over to get them away. We brought him inside and took him to the emergency vet. Sometimes if they have room they take wild animals if they have room. I couldn't get him back in his next. I am thinking it was in this hollowed out part of a branch in my Silver Maple tree which is monstrous!This is a picture of my Silver Maple without leaves in fall, but you get the idea of just how HUGE it is!I saw this little guy a few nights ago too. I a pretty sure he was dying. He wasn't really moving around. He was chillaxin on our shovel out in the garage. Maybe he ran himself too many times into the lightbulb thinking it was the moon. Poor guy. He was pretty anyways. I had never seen a moth like him. He was a bit more yellow than the picture.

Well that is about all for now. Hopefully I will have some beads to list later in the week.

Have a great week if you don't hear from me!

Much love,

Genea

Large and In Charge Organics

Hello friends!

I had the best intentions of getting to you yesterday, but alas life comes up as it always does. I didn't manage to get my photo editing finished until 10pm and by then I was pretty OVER doing any descriptions and posting. So here we are mid-day and I am refreshed from my crazy photo edits. It's always amazing to me to see the images that come out of a camera. All of the organic focals and beads I made have SO much detail on just every inch of the bead. I wanted to make sure to take TONS of pictures so you wouldn't miss anything. I did my best, but there is really nothing like holding the beads in your hand to examine all of them!

NEW IN THE SHOP....
Just a reminder with these and everything you see here you can click on the image and it will make a larger image in your browser window. Today you will ESPECIALLY want to give all of the pictures a zoom!

I just got my new Mini CC torch set up and thought I would give some BIGGER beads a whirl. The tremendous amount of heat makes Raku sing and makes creating big beads a breeze. There is so much radiant heat that you don't have to worry about parts of your bead cracking from getting too cold!

Ancient Tablet "Goddess"- a base of velvety black is decorated with silver leaf, rainbow raku, silvered ivory webbing, bubble button raku dots, twists, twirls and creases and finished off with embossed spirals! I would have to say that this focal is my very favorite! I am totally in love with spirals!A size image.
Views of the back side.
"Goddess Coins"- a black lentil base is stamped on both sides with a spiral making a coin shape. Spots of rainbow raku are twisted with silvered ivory and silver leaf.
"Goddess Coin Bracelet"- lentil spiral coins make up the base with size 13 faceted seed beads and spacer beads that "float" over the top and end with a wave spiral sterling silver clasp. Beads are decorated with rainbow raku, silvered ivory, silver leaf and magic!Another close up view of the bracelet.

"Ancient Pebbles"- a set of 5 teeny black spacers with wiggly lines of silvered ivory and spots of rainbow raku. Perfect as an addition to projects, dangles or fun earrings.
Ancient Tablet "Serpent Corazon"- base of curdled and feathered dark ivory is accented with dark velvety black ribbons, striped cane serpents, silver leaf, raku splatters and rainbow bubble button dots with twists and whirls. The shape of this bead kind of looks like a mottled heart and the stripey canes look like snakes. This focal really speaks to me as well. It is a close 2nd favorite! There is so much detail, color and texture to this focal! It is just incredible!
A size image.
The back side.
One more close up image to show details.
Ancient Tablet "Mortar"- names for its resemblance to sand. This was the first bead of the series and is more rectangular and "tablet" shaped. The golden yellow base has splashes of silver, whirls of silvered ivory, spotty splatters of Raku and Raku rainbow bubble button dots, thin lines of black ribbon, rainbow dichro and textured creases. There is just SO much to look at on all of these focals! There are little worlds in each one :)

An image for size.
I just LOVE that speckled wave of Raku on the bottom left side! Yum!

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?...

Well Ricky has been kicking our asses with our work outs! We have all been meeting in the yard and exercising! It feels great to be working my body hard and getting some sunshine! We are working with kettle bell weights and it is just amazing how much it works your whole body! You can get more details about our works and join us in getting fit by following Ricky's blog.

All of the crap in the air has me feeling like shit today. I guess the allergens are high. Ugh. It was so nice not to have allergies growing up! It's pretty cold outside today too. It says it's 70 outside, but its only like 60 something inside and my hands are freezing! I will warm up soon with our crazy work out we have today so no worries on that.

Well it's just about time to work out so I better get on my exercise gear and get my sweat on!

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

NEW "Gravity Bubble" hollows

Hello friends!

Well I did, infact survive my husband going out of town for the week. I am surprised at how busy I was! I managed to get some beads made and spend lots of time with friends. The week just breezed by and Ricky will get back in town tonight :D It was so much better than the first year he had to go to Vegas for school. It will be nice to have home just in time for the weekend :)

As busy as I was I managed to get a few days of bead making in. I talked with Melissa on the phone and she had told me how everyone at Bead Boutique kept oogling her necklace made with my flopped hollow beads. With that in mind I decided why not make more and offer them for sale? Good beads, of course ;) So off to the torch I went to make some hollows.

The interesting thing about the set of hollows on Melissa's necklace is that they were the pre-design for my "Florbital" hollows. So the beads I made are the swirly sides with the transparent middle.

NEW IN THE SHOP....
"Gravity Bubbles- Rainbow"- This super BUBBLY fun set of 7 - 20-22mm hollow beads are made in bold rainbow colors of: red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, cobalt and amethyst. This set is big enough to make a super funky chunky necklace. The sweet thing about hollow beads is that they are BIG without being heavy. Their reflective surface makes them just as amazing as those large glass "Gazing Globes" people put in their yards :D

"Swirly Rainbow Spacers"- Original name, I know. These cane spacers are a nice variety of rainbow colors in: red, orange, coral, yellow, lime, grass green, teal and cobalt. Spacers add interest to designs or make great earrings. This particular set would make a fantastic addition to the above set of hollows.
"Gravity Bubbles-Spring"- When I made those kiln fulls of hollows I just kept grabbing transparents and cane glass and just kept making whatever. When everything came out of the kiln I was excited to find that these beads all went together remarkably well for not being a planned color combo. Beads are: pink, lavender, pale green, lime, and teal.
"Swirly Spring Spacers"- this set of 6 spacers are in pale springy colors with a few darker colors to make them pop. Colors include: purple, periwinkle, grass green, pink, aqua and teal. Spacers make great additions to sets or for fun dangles and earrings. These spacers would go awesome with the above set!"Vino Noir"- A fun set of different shapes for designing fun. A "Gravity bubble" in ruby wine pink with swirly black sides, pink discs with swirly black rings, 2 swirly black spacers and 2 ruby wine pink spacers. The possibilities are endless!

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

I got my TORCH!! So now I officially have all the pieces for my Mini CC! I still need to have the boys build me a hood so I am debating on if I should set up the torch now or wait. I thought about doing it while Ricky was gone, but I can't crank off the regulator and stuff. If I set up just the torch I will just be able to work faster and larger. I will wait to work with the enamels and silver until I have a hood up and have a particle respirator. I need to do some research to see what is going to work the best.

So I am a total goofball and decided to name my new torch. Want to know what I named it? "Gold Member" after the Austin Powers movie LMAO. It is goldish colored and looks like a penis, right? lol

I got a chance to check out Genevieve Flynn's studio where I will be doing a first friday show in September. Genevieve makes GORGEOUS silver work! Her studio is right in the art district right on Oak street. I asked for the latest show date to give me time to make a bunch of new awesome work with my new set up. It's going to be a blast. I will post a reminder later when it is closer to show time.

OH YEAH! I forgot! My "Vortex Oasis" necklace will be featured in Bead & button in Feb 2010 in their "my designs" section! I have to send off the necklace before October of this year to be photographed in their studio! Isn't that exciting?!

Well I suppose I should go. With the time I have left I may be able to get my house cleaned before my hubby comes home!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Much love,

Genea

More rainbows

Hello friends!

I have some more rainbowy Raku beads for you today! I figured since Kim nabbed up the last lot of them I should make some more and well Raku is pretty so it was pretty easy to keep making them ;) So why don't we take a trip over and see what is in the shop...

NEW IN THE SHOP...
"Elements of Life"- a fun little set of 5 lentils on one of my favorite backgrounds for Raku, Red Roof Tile. This particular batch has these lovely streaks of mustard yellow along with it's normal terra cotta color. The symbols are: earth, fire, wind, water and heart. The rainbowy colors include: violet, burgundy, teal, amber, chocolate brown, midnight blue and more.
"Green Girl Tye-Dye"- This little girl got her name after earth day and with the variance of colors Raku makes it makes me think of tye-dye shirts. I figured a nice earthy yellow ochre base would be a nice touch to the vibrant colors of Raku. I would have to say this is my favorite set out of all of them. I like all of the different twisted, poked and raked designs, oh... and COLOR :D
"Mystic"- This set had all of the magical elements like a Goddess, healing hand, and evil eye along with a few spotty spacers to finish it off. I had first thought to combine this with the elements of life set, but then decided to keep all of the magical stuff to it's own set ;) lol Besides, if you like both together you can always get both sets ;)
"Rainbow Daisy"- a fun tye-dye looking raked rainbow daisy is 5 petals on the front and 4 on the back. Spacers are spotty raku. When I made the other set of lentils this bead didn't quite fit into a set, but it was so pretty I thought it would make a nice mini. I mean why not make a cute pendant and earrings, right? :)"Rainbow Leaf"- a simple line drawn leaf with a stringer twist decorates the front and back. Spacers are Raku spotted. Again, this little bead didn't really make it's way into a set, but WOW! Can you believe all of the COLORS? It was too pretty to just stick in a bowl so here it is with 2 little spacers to make up a sweet mini set :)

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?...
Well I wish I could say more exciting stuff, but not really. lol. Just all of that fun stuff like yardwork!

I just heard Ricky call me for dinner so I guess this will make my entry short and sweet. I mean do you want to keep a man waiting that just cooked you some yummy bow tie pasta with chicken in delicious 4 cheese rosa sauce?! Me either! :D

Have a fantastic night.

Much love,

Genea

Artistic ideas belong to no one single person

Hello friends!

I just HAD to share this link. I found it through Andrea Guarino-Slemmon's post on FB. The Artistic Timeline by Michael Deming. His post talks about how all art is essentially "borrowed" and how even if you share you techniques with students they will never be able to do your work, and to keep art evolving. This is such an incredible post. Please take the time to read it and be enlightened :)

Much love,

Genea

Inspiration all around you

Hello friends!

I had the best intentions of getting this finished yesterday, but Holly and Brandon ended up stopping by to drop off some dog food and look for some deals on moving trucks. So I can't pass up this part without telling you one of my favorite quotes. "The path to hell is paved with good intentions". It just always seems like such a fantastic quote about intentions. Ok so since that is out of the way....

Well my good friend, Kim came to visit me yesterday and picked up a bunch of beads so unfortunately for you all I only have 3 sets to offer this week. I know you are probably curious to see what she bought right? How about a little peek?

THE FOLLOWING ITEMS ARE ALREADY SOLD....
WOW! Just look at this collection of Raku beads! So you may have noticed that all but one set of these were listed last week on Etsy. I can't wait to see what Kim makes up with these amazing beads! So I would like for you all to meet "Sedona". This is a newish color released by effetre. Isn't it AMAZING with Raku(not that that is hard to do since Raku is amazing on just about anything). The rod itself is kind of this dusty rose color, but as you can see after being worked in the flame you get all different colors! There are pinks, purples, hints of brown. Just AMAZING! I got some really GORGEOUS colors with the Raku as well. It's strange how that all works out. I think this set got the most intense colors and shifts out of all of the sets. I can't wait to get my new torch hooked up. All of that extra heat makes for some INTENSE Raku colors! :D
Kim also snagged this awesome set in intense dark blues, and teals by Creation is Messy. I used: Cornflower, Fremen, Mermaid, Great Bluedini, Leaky Pen, and Pulsar.

Now that you may be heart broken about what you missed why don't I move on to some things that are still for sale?

NEW IN THE SHOP....
ALL OF THESE ITEMS ARE CURRENTLY FOR SALE. So in the future, just so there is no confusion, anything with a hyper link to it means it's for sale.

These 3 sets were inspired by a re-usable cloth bag that my friend, Amanda bought for me. The colors were pretty funky so I dug in my stash of Bullseye glass to find the perfect colors to match.
"Heart Burst Tabs"- This set of 5 creased tab beads is in colors of: petal pink, lilac, mulberry, bubble gum pink, white, and lemon yellow. The creased base has a flattened dot with a raked heart on top and flattened dots on the sides. The back is creased with no texture on the back for comfort in wear."Window Stripes"- set of 6 round stripe beads encased in clear in colors of: lemon yellow, white, mulberry, petal pink, bubble gum pink and lilac. These beads have so much depth with their base of clear and stripes on top. When you roll the beads on a surface you can watch the stripes of glass move. It's like when you are in a car with the sun shining through the trees and it does that strobe light effect thing. lol. These would be great with the above set with the stripe beads inbetween the tabs. "Heart Burst Tab Mini"- 1 lemon yellow based creased tab is accented with a flattened mulberry dot and bubble gum pink raked heart. On the sides are flattened dots of white. 2 bubblegum pink spacers are added for the perfect little mini set. This set would make a fun ring and pair of simple earrings. OR... You could always add it with the above sets for a few extra beads when designing :)

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?...
I thought you might like to see "THE necklace" actually on a person. I dressed up Holly when she was over the other night. I took about 3 pictures of her and she kept blinking! This was one of the pictures where her eyes were the most open. lol.Here is a profile pic. Yes, I know, it's blurry, but again with the blinking. I wanted to try to catch her off guard when she was talking with the boys in the other room. You may not have noticed right off, but the earrings are actually hanging through her gauged ear holes. She has clear silicone gauges and the ear hook actually goes through the holes. It looks pretty cool considering that when you gauge your ears you lose all ability to wear pretty hook earrings. That is exactly when I let mine shrink back down. Well that and the gauges smell like funky belly button! *blegch*

Anyways, not too much else is going on. Well nothing earth shattering.

I was really excited to get an old printers tray from my friend Sue and Jim! I have it hanging on my wall with some of my lampwork beads and beads I have collected from other lampworkers :D I should take a picture and show you.

Well I suppose I should get to it. I have to run over to Holly and Brandon's and help them move.

I hope you are having a awesome week and enjoying the warm weather of spring.

Much love,

Genea

SALE in the shop on Easter and other stuff.

Hello,

Very quick update. Sale on Etsy. Some Easter stuff and a few other beads. Genea Beads Sale on Etsy.

Enjoy!

<3 Genea