Sidetracked

Sorry, I promised pictures of what I was making this week, and then I got sidetracked.

Here's this week's worth of beads:



Not much there, I'm afraid. Today would have been a perfect day to get out in my garage and work because it's nice and warm, but I'm still in sidetracked mode!

Thankful for Heat

The electrician has come and gone. I paid $250 to teach the electrician that a melting outlet can indeed smell "fishy". He had never encountered such a thing, but now he has something new for which he can look or sniff when troubleshooting. I think he should have paid me for the education, but I'm just happy the problem is fixed and didn't require tearing up any walls. In fact, I am truly thankful. Now we can be warm again.

Here's today's set of beads...

Happy Thanksgiving to you all tomorrow!

Show and Tell

Between the holiday crunch I'm feeling (already!) and life's little challenges (I have to call an electrician today because I'm pretty sure we have wires melting in our wall. Ack!) I've been getting a few beads and pieces of jewelry made. I've had a few commissions for pieces come in all at once, and that's exciting, but now I really need to get to work.

Here are a couple of sets I've made recently:



And a pair of earrings I made:


I'm working on a necklace to match.

I still need to experiment with photography techniques. I'm looking at a couple of setups on eBay for this. For example, photographing earrings laying down is probably not the best presentation. These earrings are so dainty and sparkly in person, but that just doesn't come across in the photo. Better lighting may help.

Off to work!

More Dots and Stuff

Dots Dots Dots

As promised, I'm posting the dotty fruits of my labor yesterday. I still need work on the dots so I think I'll do some more on my next torch day.

Oh, and see that swirly bead in the center? That was a dotty bead gone bad. So, no mistakes only a new opportunity, right?

Torch Day

Monday and Thursday are the two days I've designated as Torch Day. I marked it on my calendar, and I'll not be making appointments, lunch dates, or any other plans for those days.


I did get on the torch yesterday, but not for hours like I had planned. The wind was howling so badly yesterday that by the time I had finished my first bead making session my garage was filled with leaves. I had to sweep it out!


Here is yesterday's bounty from the torch, not even cleaned yet. I'm really happy about the fact that the beads are pretty uniform in size and shape. That only began to come easily to me after making lots and lots of simple beads. That's one thing bead making has taught me. Practice really is the only way to get good at something and it really does pay off.

Success!

The garage cleaning went better than I expected. It turns out I was able to stack stuff in his part of the garage (effectively making his garage cleaning job more difficult, I'm afraid) leaving enough space for me to clean up my workspace. I just have to wheel the lawnmower outside when I decide to work. Small sacrifice.

Anyway, while I was cleaning I found a handful of beads I had made a couple of years ago but never annealed. It gave me the chance to figure out how to program my kiln again. Thankfully, I took good notes the first time I had to learn how to do it.


Besides annealing a batch of beads, I actually managed to turn on my torch for an hour in between appointments today. I made three. whole. beads. My bead making muscles need some retraining, but a lot came right back to me. I can still make 'em round. I'll also have to relearn a lot of things. I kept it simple today, but I'll have more time to experiment tomorrow.

It makes me beyond happy to be back to doing this!