I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Hi everyone! I wish I could send each and every person who supported me and my art this year a big, juicy, glorious Christmas card, but the task would be insurmountable! So instead, I made a holiday card as my banner for this blog. It features my favorite set of beads, the Mod Baby set that was inspired by my son's pacifier.

I sincerely hope that everyone has a fantastic holiday season. I hope that it is full of all the good things in your life, and none of the bad things. I hope you are surrounded by friends and family (if you want to be!), and I hope that you enjoy each cookie, and bite of turkey (or ham or lasagna, or whatever you eat for Christmas!), and savor the piney smell of the tree and the glow of the lights.

Me? I hope it snows like crazy! I'm in Richmond, so it probably won't, but I can still hope for it. We're getting our tree tomorrow evening, and we'll be celebrating this Saturday -- a little early, but it's our 'family Christmas' and my kids will get to celebrate with their grandparents. My dad lives in Florida, so it's not often that we get to 'do' Christmas with him. I'm so looking forward to it all. This is my week to bake and make sure we have all the food for Saturday, so I'll be busy with that. Not much torch time in there, but that's okay. There's plenty of decorating and baking and wrapping and even a little bit of shopping left to do, so I am happy.

I love Christmas!

Talk to you all soon!

A month!?

Whew, it's been more than a month since I posted to this blog. I know all of you are waiting with baited breath to see/ hear about the latest fun from me (haHA!), so I won't keep you waiting much longer. I did make some changes to the blog layout and design, though, so it's not like I haven't been here. :)

Let's see....my muse took off until the week before Thanksgiving, so getting ready for my show at ArtWorks gallery the day after T-day was a bit of a rush job. However, I did regain my creative mojo in time to develop these designs:


That's the 'Bar Bangle', a design made with silver and colored copper wire. And also beads, duh! Next up is this:

'Orbit' earrings. I'm a sucker for blue (and red!) glass, as you can probably tell. I do use other colors, though....like in this pendant, for example:

Tiger Stripes pendant, strung on a steel cable neckwire.

They're going up on Etsy today, so if you are interested, grab 'em! As always, if you are in Richmond, VA, let me know and you can avoid paying shipping and I will meet you in town somewhere to give you your goodies!

It's going to be cold today, so let's all pray for snow....especially you, Jen, out in Minnesota, where I am sure you already have snow. We'd like some, too, so share, ok? ;)

I don't have any more shows on the agenda, so there will be plenty of time to make beads and jewelry. My goals for the winter include getting on the Etsy shop and listing more items. I'm applying for at least one show this spring that I know of so far, so once my schedule gets firmed up, I'll let you guys know.

Thanks for all your support in 2008, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in 2009!

Rain in the forecast

The weather forecast around here is calling for cold and steady rain Saturday morning. I will not be at the South of the James market on Saturday October 26. I am also not at market day on Saturday November 1.

My next market day will be Saturday, November 8th, in time for Christmas shopping to start! Look for Christmas goodies....snowmen and snowwomen pendants and earrings, Christmas trees, mittens, and all kinds of winter and holiday items!

I am working on a line of other beaded products, like napkin rings and wine bottle stoppers, so hopefully I will have some of those, too, on the 8th.

As always, let me know if there is anything you would like before my next market day. I am taking limited custom orders before Christmas. My Etsy shop should be updated by the end of the weekend, too!

New posts and good stuff elsewhere!

I just finished a post on another blog about medieval glass. Some of you may know about my interest in historical glass. I had started a blog called The Medieval Glassworker as a way to keep my research together and communicate with a wider audience, but I have neglected it almost since I started it. Well, I added a post today, and am thinking I am going to be a lot more regular about posting there. Anyway, go check it out!

Another cool thing I found a while back is the Art Bead Scene blog. There's a lot of good information and inspiring design over there.

And have you seen this place? Beaducation is awesome! Online jewelry classes whenever you want to take them. I've taken a couple of the free classes so far, and they have been terrific! The video is excellent quality, and the pacing of the instruction is really good. I recommend them, for sure.

So there you have it, my recommendations for today! I'll see everyone at the market on Saturday!

I'm really excited!!

Yesterday, I met with Ellie Coyne, the volunteer coordinator for the Thomas Palliative Care Unit at the VCU Medical Center here in Richmond. She had seen my work on a friend of mine (hi Cosette!) and liked it. Ellie asked Cosette if I could make glass butterflies for a fundraiser for the unit. I sent her some samples, which she liked, and yesterday, I took some more to show her. We refined the design and colors some more, and now I will make five pendants for the unit to sell at their next fundraiser in November. Ellie plans for these to be sort of iconic and representative of the unit, so we are sticking to a small palette of pinks and purples and some yellow, so that they will all look similar. Ellie's plan is to have me make the pendants periodically throughout the year, and eventually have a display set up on the unit so that families and loved ones of patients can purchase them to support the unit and have a remembrance of their loved one who passed on.

I'm working on a design for glass butterfly cabochons that can be turned into tie tacs or lapel pins for the gentlemen, as well. Can't let the ladies have all the glass goodies! ;)

I'm really excited about doing this, partially because hospice services are close to my heart (my mom and aunt are hospice nurses), but also because I am happy to be supporting a great group of people who make this stage of life easier on all involved. And hey, it doesn't hurt to have my work associated with such a prestigious hospital system, either.

I'll post some pictures of the butterflies as I complete them, so you all can see what I'm up to. I'll also let you know how you can purchase a butterfly to support the care unit, too, if you like, once we get going on the project.

Now, I'm off to order large amounts of pink and purple glass!

Update!

I know I've been slack about updating this blog....I've been busy making beads! Well, more or less. I did write a post for Watch Me Create, which is online here for the next little while, so go check that out if you haven't already.

It's difficult for me to start thinking about Christmas, what with Halloween and Thanksgiving not even over and done with yet, but such is the way of things in retail sales. I've been slooooowly starting in on Christmas stuff....random candy canes here, Christmas trees there, stuff like that. I still can't wrap my head around it yet, so it's been slow going. I'll get holiday goodies done in plenty of time for Santa's visit, though, so no worries.

My market schedule is getting firmed up for the next couple of months, though. Not getting into a holiday show bummed me out in a major way, but another jewelrymaker who has gorgeous stuff didn't get in either, so now I don't feel so bad about it. Here are my plans for those who want to know...

South of the James Market (Saturdays 8am to noon, Forest Hill Park)
October 11 (this date is tentative as of today), 18, 25
November 8 and 22
December 6

ArtWorks Gallery
Day After Thanksgiving Art Affair
November 28, 10am to 10pm

After all that, I'm planning on taking a break through at least February! Seriously, though, my work will be available through my Etsy shop pretty much from now til forever.

ANyway, that's the update from my end. Hope to see you out at the markets soon!

Rejected

Ok, so I won't be doing the Handmade Holiday show in Richmond this year. I guess there were 50 applicants for 23 spots, and 28 of the 50 were from jewelry people. Jewelry is tough -- it's competitive, as a lot of people make jewelry, and it's hard to stand out in a crowd. I'm sure my pictures were not that great, either, so that didn't help. It's hard to represent yourself in only three photographs. I'm sad that my lampwork was considered but not desired, but maybe some other opportunity will open up. I still have the South of the James market until at least the beginning of December, so that's something. I also could put a lot more time into the Etsy shop, so I guess that's what I'll do.

At the torch the other night, I made some more Halloween goodies....some dotty earrings, some bones, a cauldron bubbling with potion...and I also made some leaf beads which I may turn into a necklace, or I may just sell individually as pendants. I can't decide.

Barring terrible weather, I will be at the market this upcoming Saturday, so look for me and all my fun stuff this weekend!