MEGA BOX from Karen and Nellie!

Hello friends!

Ok so I am doing this a little backwards! I did receive a few more packages and goodies previously so I will for sure blog about those just not in the right order ;)

So today my MEGA BOX arrived from Karen and Nellie! At first when I checked the mail I thought it was the pair of Vibram shoes my husband had ordered. Upon picking up the box I looked at the address label and saw it was for ME :D

When a box this LARGE arrives at your house and you know there are beads inside, it's a GOOD day! 

Underneath a few layers of packing paper laid my buried treasures!

I pulled out my beautifully knitted scarf from Nellie and put it on as I dug through my box of treasures, clicking pictures as I went. Isn't this scarf GORGEOUS?! Not only did Nellie dye and spin the fibers in my scarf, but she also KNIT it and she even used my favorite ribbing so that the little "V's" go up and down :D Isn't she MAD talented?! She must get it from her mother ;)

OH..MY...GOD.... Are you seeing this?! Nellie sent me SKEINS of her beautiful hand dyed and spun yarn! They are so amazingly gorgeous! I don't even know what I am going to knit yet, but I will keep them safe and sound until I find a pattern I can work up. I will, of course get cheap yarn for the first project before moving onto my precioussssssssssssss ;)

Also inside the box was a sweet little plastic draw string bag with THESE goodies inside! Know what these are???

WOOLY WIRE(fiber wire)! and GOBS of it!! 

Here's a closer look! Pretty much every color you could EVER WANT. See my "Bright Earth" color palette match?! OMG! I LOVE them all! 

Here is a photo of the "Bright Earth" Wing Dings and the "Bright Earth" match in Wooly Wire! Not to worry, Nellie and I are working on making more wire and beads for your designing pleasure ;)

If that wasn't exciting enough, here you can see her color match to my "Ancient Pebble" series of beads! You can see those focals in my shop here.

Um HOLY AWESOMENESS BATMAN! Aren't they fantastic together?! Again, Nellie is SWAMPED at the moment, so you can expect some matching Wooly Wire in the nearish future ;)

Ahhhh and now for Karen's box! Isn't this beautifully wrapped?! I just LOVE batiked fabric and look at the sweet bee ribbon :D

I love that my friends know me so well. Did you notice the ties were blue and green silk? :D I love this sweet daisy card as well! Some of my favorite flowers!

Opening of the box.

Layer 1- Look at the gorgeous Black Raven clay, some "naked" and some with the print shiny! Some lovely curry colored patinated rings and what I call "ripe banana" looking glaze. Oh and a pair or coraly stars! I do LOVE coral!!

Layer 2- some gorgeous amber dust beads, beautiful copper sooty patinated pendant and rings, and this lovely sagey green on black!

 Layer 3- Some of Karen's sweet little flower connectors, some really pretty ivoryish and sagey forest green connectors and copper sooty patinated charms!

Layer 4- Some of Karen's AMAZING little charm drops, darkened jump rings, curry patinated hoops, and sooty black copper and I forget the other golden patina name pieces. Remember those pieces I got from the bead show awhile back? 

Layer 5- A little leaf focal, a yummy green and blue patinated brass charm, some sooty rings and s'hooks and a really pretty black and ivory stamped focal!

Layer 6- You can't really see the heart, but if you look in the top left on the rightish side you will see the blue grotto glaze. Inside is an AMAZING spiral stamped heart! OMG Karen needs to make more of those!! Love these ivory daisy stamped connectors, one of Karen's amazing lentil beads, and sooty copper chain.

Layer 7- Maybe you can see that heart better now? Kinda? Some Yucatan clay dings(my very FAVORITE glaze because it's green and blue and matched one of my favorite odd lot glasses, Okey Dokey Artichokey), some sooty hoops and some gorgeous verdigris color blended hoops and charm!

Layer 8- some sooty stamped thick rings, sooty chain, sooty hoops and sooty copper clay dings! 

All of my loot from Karen spread out on the table! Good things do come in tiny packages! 

Thanks so much for stopping by to see my new goodies! Now to get to work CREATING!

xo Genea

A Gift from the Heart- Starry Road Studio

Hello friends!

I was so excited today to receive a large box from one of my dear friends, Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio.

I was sitting on the back porch enjoying some sunshine when Ricky came to the back door to tell me I had received a box. The box stated "fragile glass" on the outside. Ricky had said "You got a box from Karen." I said "You mean Kathy?(assuming the fragile glass box was from her since I receive many a box from her with glass rods for testing). Ricky replied, "No, it's from Karen." Oh YES! I had remembered that Karen did tell me she was sending me some goodies. I was surprised by the size of the box as those of you that know Karen know how tiny her work is. I like to refer to small things I make as "Karen Size" ;)

So Ricky and I sat on our bead together as I carefully opened my box. As I uncovered the air filled plastic from the box a tissue wrapped bowl was FILLED with amazing little treasures!  One by one I pulled each little carefully wrapped bag from inside of the tissue wrapped bowl.

 

Oh WOW!! Mmmm Raven Clay(the black clay), one of my favorites!! Oh just look at the toggle! Oh and the bronze charm! and the patinaed rings!! The toggle.. the heart! Do you see how there is red glaze on a portion of the bead while the rest is left matte black from the bare clay?! So amazing!

I was so excited to finally see first hand Karen's "Clay Dings," inspired by my very own wing dings :D Isn't her interpretation AMAZING?! I just love that her inspiration took her to this amazing new design done "Karen Style"!

 

Here is a photo of our beads together. Karen's "Clay Dings" on the left and my regular size "Wing Ding" on the top and the "Weeny Dings" on the bottom. I owe the idea of "Weeny Dings" to Karen. During one of our many late night Facebook conversations she had asked me if I ever thought about making the "Wing Dings" smaller. OH.. no, I hadn't, but I surely could try!  I just love how we just keep "vollying" inspirations back and forth. 

In this photo is one of my favorite glazes Karen uses called, "Yucatan Green". Karen uses some of her special techniques to give the clay that earthy stone look. They are just so GORGEOUS!

 

As I pulled out each bag I carefully inspected them and passed them to Ricky. Wow, look at all of these gorgeous patinas!!

 

Ooooo look at this color combo! Wow, copper clay charms and some of them patinaed!

 

*dreamy sigh* Ooooo... Wow! Just look at the clay dings, and spirals and she even sent me some chain! Awww Karen knows how much I love the look of patinaed chain and in my favorite colors too! <3

I was just so touched by all of the wonderful little treasures that filled my bowl.

Now for the last part. I carefully pulled out the tissue wrapped bowl and unwrapped it. *GASP* I held the bowl in both of my hands on either side as if I were holding the clay as Karen did when she made it. I looked inside of the bowl at the glaze and how the colors faded from a beautiful minty sea green to the soft creamy tan. I flipped the bowl upside down and admired the bottom of the bowl. I flipped it right side up and gently touched the tiny 3 petaled stamp on the front. My eyes welled and I smiled. 

 

What a wonderful, wonderful surprise :) It really made my day!

 

I was so inspired by Karen's beautiful work that just as I had gotten everything unwrapped and onto my bead table my mind started flooding with ideas. I re-set my kiln program and hopped on my torch to experiment with some new ideas of beads to match all of the wonderful things Karen sent!

Karen, thank you so very much for sending me so many beautiful, beautiful things! I am so thankful to have you as my dear friend. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful conversations we have and all of the inspiration you give me!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xo Genea