Hoopin' and Bead Fest Prep

Hello friends!

I am always shocked by how fast the time has been flying by! I have been chained to my lampwork desk making beads like a crazy fool! I kinda freaked out when I laid out my trays to see what beads I wanted to make for the show. It doesn't look like much does it? Well not to worry! I have LOTS to make between now and then. I need to pull out my show table and get my set up all worked out as well so I can see how I want my display to look this year. It will be pretty similar to last years set up with a few changes ;)

 Infact I thought I would take a short break and offer up a tray sale on Facebook. Just a nice sampling of some of the beads I was making for the show all in one place. I did sell a good amount of these pretties yesterday, but there are still some amazing beads left!

Here is a shot of the entire lot of beads I had for sale yesterday.  Here is what I have left...

"Eye See You for All of the Beautiful Things You Are" Teal XL focal - $65

Rainbow Batiks "Teal" set of 7 - $64.50

Desert Serpent "Purple Peacock" Large focal - $38

Desert Serpent "Mermaid" Large focal - $38(Shiny, normally sold matte)

Desert Serpent "Mermaid" small set of 3 - $38(Shiny, normally sold matte)

From the Inside Out "Crimson" small set of 3- $38(ONE LEFT)

Spiral Earth Stones "Purple Velvet" stone textured small pair- $24(3 available)

Rainbow Batiks "Orchid Rose" set of 7 - $64.50(SOLD OUT)

Desert Serpent "Purple Peacock" small set of 3 - $38(SOLD OUT)

From the Inside Out "Sahara" small set of 3- $38(SOLD OUT)

Here's a shot of the back side of the beads.

I have also been working on getting my kits ready for my Wooly Wire "One-oh-FUN" class that is RAPIDLY SELLING OUT! So be sure to hop on in and grab yourself a spot for class. Details here. Here is a shot of the bundles of silk students will get to pick out for their class necklace.

Here are the designs we will be making in class in case you forgot what they looked like ;)

I've been making it a point to click pictures in my studio while I work. I forget that not everyone knows what it's like to be a lampworker. We do all of our daily routine stuff without a second thought. 

Here I have some colors laid out to make a sunflower bead for a dear friend. This is just the beginning step. I took more photos while I worked, but I will post those later( I gotta keep you coming back somehow, right? ;)

I have had the extreme pleasure of reconnecting with my dearest friend, Sean. I have enjoyed the pleasure of his company along with getting to watch him dance(Hooping technically). He is one of those people that has this thirst for life and is so full of light. One of my favorite things about him is his love of music. He is forever catching a beat and just moving to it. I really admire his free spiritedness. Here you can see him hooping at Drum Tribe this past Monday. Isn't he amazing?!

I have even been entrusted with one  of his very first hoops to learn myself. *Insert heart here*

It inspires me just watching the iridescence glide along the hoop as it moves :D

Here's to my new adventure....

xo Genea

A Glimpse into my Days and the birth of Stache Art!

Hello friends!

I always have so much to tell you. I swear by the time I get here I could have written about 4 blogs to tell you about everything that is going on. So I guess get ready for a long one! 

So I guess I feel the need to tell you a little bit more about my life and how my days tend to go.

I am, yet again in another transitional period in my life. As you may have read I currently live in Olathe, Kansas just 15 minutes over the Missouri and Kansas border on the Kansas side. Ricky and I moved here so that he was closer to his work. Unfortunately that job situation ended up worse and worse until he finally quit. He started up a new job that is just down the street from where we live now so it's nice that he doesn't have a crazy long drive. As soon as our lease is up in April we are looking for a house to rent again! I am over this apartment crap.

 Anyways.. that was the back story. So let's fast forward you to my weeks now... 

My studio is at my mom's house in Kansas City, Missouri. So I spend 2-3 days "up north" creating beads. I do wish I had more days in the studio because when I am not there creating beads that is all I can think about ;) Here is a pic of my humble little "Bead Dorm". I work and stay in my old bedroom.

When you enter the room you will see my sleepy spot to the left. You can see my little work area in that far right corner.

Here is the rest of the room. As you can see my work area is at the far left corner. 

**Just a quick side note** Now, just so we are clear. You don't see a ventilation hood. I have a double fan that goes in the window for exhaust. You may see it in the background of my bead photos. This is NOT proper ventilation, so please don't set up a lampwork studio like mine and say you saw it was ok to do that here. ;) I would never suggest my set up to anyone that wanted to work in glass. This is just how I have to work for now until I can do my entire set up. PLEASE be safe when you set up your studio. For proper ventilation please check out Andrea Guarino-Slemmon's web page here. Sadly, I have this same ventilation set up ,but it's in a box until I am in a more permanent studio :/ Moving on...**End side note**

Here is the view out of my "lampworking" window. This was taken last year, but it is almost looking the same about this time of year :D I love the view! It relaxes me to see trees and a soothing environment outside of my window. I call mom's back yard "The Canopy". It reminds me of a canopy in the rainforest or something. That wonderful feeling of being under lots of trees protected from the world outside. 

On the right you can see my second window and all of my glass in boxes on the floor. Someday I will have a nice sturdy glass shelf with all of my glass in separate cubbies all labeled. *dreamy sigh*

Here is a close-up of that corner. You can see my poor vent fan sticking out of the banana boxes on the right side of the photo. My double burner for pickling is on the floor(no I don't plug it in on the floor to use it :P)

Here is the view outside of the other window. Pretty huh?

Here is my bathroom. This across the hall from my "Bead Dorm". Where I get to hose off my crustiness after a long day of bead making ;P

While I am at the KC studio I only have an ipad and phone for my communications so if I have long messages to write I save those for the home pc since I can hammer out messages and chats so much faster from there on a *real* keyboard. So if you dont' see things I say I will post up right away this is why. If I do forget or if I miss responding to your message, please send me another one! It's totally not intentional. Mobile devices are awesome tools to stay connected, but sometimes I miss things! ;) This is also why there is a 1-2 business day ship on my Etsy items ;) If I am in the studio I am not with my Etsy shop stock ;)

Here is my little work area in Olathe. My bead desk, and all of my shipping stuff. One day it will be more organized when I get more fixtures for sorting, but this works for now.

This is where I am right now typing to you. So when I am online you can imagine me here going *clickity clickity clickity*

So now you can see how I spend my days in and out of the studios. It's hard. I have trouble transitioning. It's like being on vacation and then arriving home. You have to transition to one place and then it takes at least a day or two to transition to the other, then repeat.

SO WHAT IS THE OTHER NEWS??

Well, geez, I have lots! So I will try to give you the short version(insert laugh here). Well for starters I had the extreme pleasure of my veiled cane glass being featured in GG Glass' ad!!!

How flattering is that?! This is the necklace I was inspired to make since Bead Fest Philly and just got to recently! 

I was inspired to work with some silver glass and I created these new INCREDIBLE focals! They are all SOLD OUT. I hope to get more glass so I can make more soon. Speaking of selling out, that has been happening a lot with my beads(again YAY so flattering!). So if you want to snag some I would suggest watching my Genea Beads facebook page for previews! :D

THIS has been where I have been spending ALL of my creative energy last few days!

 So while I was at Hobby Lobby picking up some supplies these chip board moustaches were "talking" to Ricky. 

He picked up one and then we headed to a thrift store to look for some other supplies. Ricky did collages back in highschool and was inspired to create some with a moustache as a base.

That night while I worked on a crafty gift, Ricky sat at the table and worked on his FIRST art piece! He found an M.C. Escher book at the thrift store and thought it was perfect for his first collage. I am so proud of my little artist :D

He was really excited about his M.C. Escher moustache collage!  He titled it "M.C. Stacher"!

Didn't it turn out amazing?! I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE M.C. Escher. I fell in love with his work in high school and have loved him ever since. So after this first piece Ricky was hooked and talked to me about creating an Etsy shop!

So what would any good artistic wife do?? Well create her husband a shop along with all of the necessary pieces!

I got to work on Ricky's shop banner. His favorite color is baby blue so we used that for the base color of the banner. 

Next he needed an avatar so I had him pose for this photo using my palm tree shower curtain as the back drop! I love this photo! It really captures Ricky's personality :D

Every good business needs a logo, right? So I fumbled my way around photoshop and created this logo for Ricky! I LOVE it! 

Of course Ricky also needed a facebook business page too, right? So I hopped on and created Stache Art's facebook page!

You know how much I LOVE packaging, so I HAD to go get Ricky some good moustache packaging supplies!

You need to have "Thank You" cards too so we picked up blank kraft cards! I stamped each one with a moustache stamp on the card and envelope while Ricky worked on his second piece!

This one is called "Stache Dynasty"! 

It has a wonderful Asian art theme with sumo wrestlers on down to Buddha!

Each of his works have a moustache "signature" embellishment and are signed and dated by the artist!

Here is Ricky's newest piece. He is working on a vintage style mini stache that will get a little hanger on the back so it can be mini wall art! 

So if you have not already stopped by Ricky's fanpage or shop, stop on by and show some love by "liking" the page and sharing with your friends!

Thanks so much for stopping in to see what's been up in my world!

See you soon!

xo Genea