Happy New Year 2010!

I have taken some time to relax and catch up on things this past week. I should be back on track with my blogging starting Monday. I look forward to continuing to share my newest pieces and projects with you all in the coming year. Until then I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. May your Christmas be blessed with good food, loving family and friends.

Gift Ornaments

Today Mikey and I made Christmas ornaments. He made the four round ones that have names and dates for a friend. I made three for the kids and one extra. I had made it, but then my son said his friend would prefer a different color so I made another one.

As this is Christmas week things are hectic. I will post if and when I can. Happy Holidays!

Ornament Dichroic Glass Wire Wrapped Earrings

I went to finish the last pendant that has a matching pair of finished earrings. I was almost done with it and then I broke the 20 gauge wire where it meets to make the bail. Evidently I played too much with it while getting it to fit. I have to get more 20 gauge wire before I can try again. So I apaologize for not having any new pretties to show.

OH-I think I can share the earrings! Yes, I do have a picture and here they are, my "ornament" earrings!

AVATAR Is Amazing!

I just returned from seeing the new AVATAR movie. We watched the 3-D version. It cost more, but was really worth it. I can honestly say this is the most amazing movie I have EVER seen. It left me speechless with tear tracks on my cheeks. I found it to be a truly moving and spiritual experience. I grew up reading authors such as Marion Zimmer Bradly, Anne McCaffery and many, many more. My mother was true aficionado of science fiction whereas I tend more to the science fiction-fantasy genre. Even my mother would have loved this movie and she was extremely picky. At the end of the movie I felt connected to my late mother thru her love of sci-fi, mine and my son's. As I write this I hope that many will be profoundly affected by it as I have. It shows how all life (and more) is connected one way or another.

We are all part of this living entity we call Earth. We are all part of it's great web of life whether or not we realize it. As a whole we are still learning how to get along here and I pray that we can learn to live in harmony with the Earth and one another before we destroy it and ourselves.

To me one of the most amazing things about our current technology it has given us the the Internet and sites like Plurk, Twitter and many more. Here on-line we are equal. It destroys the boundaries of race, religion, sex, country etc; Instead we learn more about each other's cultures and beliefs.

Sadly I know that the web is also a place where others can find information to use and abuse, but I like to think that those who are learning for the better good outweigh those who are users and abusers.

Green Velvet Dichroic Glass Earrings and Pendant

Another set finished! Rich green and violet, handmade dichroic glass cabochons that I have wrapped in sterling silver. The pendant features a wire woven bail. The earrings are finished with sterling silver earwires. I really love the look of these woven bails. The dark blue in these is actually violet. Next sunny day I will take some more pictures and see if I can get the violet to show as violet instead of dark blue.

Mike and I are taking the boys to see Avatar tomorrow. I may not get a chance to post. So please forgive me in advance if I don't post tomorrow.

Pumpkin Spice Dichroic Earrings & Pendant

Here is the newest finished set! This is the pendant I had hoped to get wrapped yesterday. I had planned to list it and the matching earrings tonight, but had problems uploading the pictures. I'll try again later. I finally found a name for the blue set, Blue Dragon Scales Earrings and Necklace, courtesy of help from my on-line friends. Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions and your help!

My aunt left her eight month old border collie/lab mix for a playdate with our golden girl, Miss Lacy. We try to let them play together at least once a week. With all of our lovely rain my front yard is now a muddy mess. While my aunt and I were out shopping they wrestled and played in that mud. I came home to a "black" muddy golden. So I had to wrestle the poor terrified, 60 odd pound baby into the shower. To say she is scared of the shower is a bit of an understatement. She howled and cried throughout the process! I decided that my belated gift to my ex for his birthday was his bathed puppy.

Funny Puppies

I had my day all planned out. I usually do my wire wrapping in the evening. At the last minute I ended up doing a one on one stained glass session. So I didn't get today's wire wrapping project done and so I have nothing new to share today. My son just re-discovered these pictures he took and altered with his DSI last spring. As they are cute and funny I'd thought I'd share them instead!

Custom Ring & Aurora Borealis

Here's today's project, a custom wire wrapped ring that was commissioned. I'll be dropping it off tomorrow. I'm grateful to have managed several good color pictures of it!

I have never done any fusing where I've fused dichroic on top of dichroic or so I thought until I was taking a close look at this cab this morning. Turns out I layered blue-magenta-green clear ripple onto clear and then layered
black cherry clear ripple on top of that. Then because the colors didn't show I set it aside for a couple of years. So it has taken me a couple of years to fuse the slab onto white glass to show off the colors!

I finally came up with a name for this set today and listed them in my Artfire studio. I named them Aurora Borealis Earrings and Aurora Borealis Pendant.

Tears Of Gold Dichroic Glass Wire Wrapped Earrings & Necklace

Here is the newest set of listed pretties, Tears of Gold Earrings and Necklace!

I got these listed along with the Living Flame Earrings and Necklace and the Blue Ripples Earrings and Necklace. I listed them in both my Artfire studio and my Etsy store. The links for the items are for the Artfire listings.

I am so pleased with the new bails, shapes and colors. I only hope everyone else finds them as pleasing.

Fuschia Delight Earrings & Pendant

Here is another new set. It is in soft shades of fuschia. I love the soft colors. I listed the earrings and pendant earlier in my Artfire studio I also listed all these sets in my Etsy store.

I also caught up on my photography this evening. Now I can finish listing the rest of my pieces!

Chocolate Velvet & Sugarplums

I am still catching up on taking pictures, sharing and listing all the new items from last week. The newest pieces I'm sharing with you today is a set in 14K gold filled wire I started calling "chocolate velvet" as soon as I saw it cooling in the kiln, rich chocolate browns with copper fire. I have these listed in my Artfire studio. Chocolate Velvet Dichroic Glass Wire Wrapped Earrings and Chocolate Velvet Dichroic Glass Wire Wrapped Pendant.

I know that I shared the purple set yesterday but I thought it a bit difficult to explain which purple set I've named and listed. So here are my Sugarplum Earrings and Sugarplum Pendant!

Two More Sets

I have been MIA for the past two days. I spent the night with my aunt on Monday night. She doesn't have a computer let alone Internet access. Tuesday was spent running errands, delivering the Marketplace and is also Girl's Night Out. I had so much to do yesterday I didn't even get a chance to get on-line!

Anyway here are two more finished sets! Please enjoy. The first set has more purple in it than the pictures show. I will start listing tomorrow-or tonight if I don't have class to teach. I will be listing the earrings and pendants/necklaces separately. I will include the set pictures in both listings. If one desires to purchase them as a set I will refund the difference of a set price, $10.00 to $15.00 off the total price.

p.s. These are all still unnamed pieces! Have any hints or suggestions please leave a comment.

More Treasures!

Here is one of the sets from yesterday. I am really pleased with the effect of the wire wrapped bails. I finished four more sets today by getting the pendants finished. This leaves me at least five more sets to share now!

It's been a very long week for me. I am tired and cold so I will say "Good-night" now.

Dec 4, 2009 New Earrings

More of my new pretties! I did finish the matching pendants, BUT left the camera back at the show, in my booth, under the table. As I didn't wish to disappoint I am sharing the earrings now.

Today was the first day of a two day show I'm doing. This is my fourth year. Luckily for all us vendors our show was NOT listed in the free holiday shows & bazaars section of the local newspaper. We might of had all of two dozen shoppers today......

Ripples & Unnamed Dichroic Glass Wire Wrapped Jewelry

Wanted to take a quick moment and share the finished pieces from today! Hope you like! The first set I plan to call "Ripples" The color is very mesmerizing and soothing. I have no clue of a name for the gold ones yet. I have all the earrings wrapped and finished from that last batch of cabs. I am still working on the matching pendants though. I have to run, it's late and I still have to pack my toolbag!

"Untitled" Dichroic Glass Wire Wrapped Necklace & Earrings

"Living Flame"
Dichroic fused glass and wire wrapped necklace and earrings.

Finally I have these finished so I may share them! I love the color in these. When I look at these pieces I'm amazed at the beauty I have created. Rich colors and fine, complex details are set off by the heavy chain, clean lines and simplicity of the design.

These pieces will definitely have a mystical tale about them and how they came to be.

As of yesterday morning my life has gotten very busy with birthdays, company, trying to get new pieces done for my upcoming show, my dad's nasty cold, paper routes etc; I apologize for not posting and I may not get time to post again until Sunday. Then I will have more new pieces to share!

Day 30 Of AEDM Challenge-The End!

Today is the last day of November and the last day of the Art Every Day Month challenge. I can't believe it is over already. I've had a lot of fun and gotten a lot accomplished. This has been great for my blogging skills. It has made me blog every night I had access to a computer and the internet. I hope everyone has enjoyed my jewelry as much as I have enjoyed sharing it!

These are the slabs I fused up today. I made some more of that lovely aqua-blue shade and experimented with the same ripple glass on white and turquoise. I knew it would be stunning on the red. The brown & green piece is from the last of my colored glass capping silver dichroic experiments.

The cut out pieces from yesterday have been channeled and are in the kiln for one last fire polishing cycle. I didn't like the extra kiln firing I tried. I won't try that again. But now I know!

Day 29 Of AEDM

Today I spent the afternoon and evening cutting out those cabochons in new shapes. The first pictures shows the glass slabs marked with the new shapes ready to cut out. The second picture shows the Taurus III ring saw I use to cut out my cabs, my safety glasses and a beeswax based goo that helps to keep the marks on the glass.

After I cut them out I use the grinder to clean up the shapes. The third picture shows the cabs all cut and ground and ready for firing. I am trying something a bit different with this batch. I'm going to fire polish this batch then I'm going to channel them. Then I will fire polish them again.

Also I cleaned the stove-YUCK. And I made turkey and noodles from scratch. I make my own noodles using the recipe my mother taught me. I take the turkey carcass and boil it to get the rest of the meat off and make the stock.

Day 28 Of AEDM

I thought I'd share today's creativity. My latest batch of fused glass slabs! The red/silver/blue dichroic is just gorgeous on black. It's the one on the bottom right hand side, that lovely blue-green piece.

As soon as I'm done blogging I'm off to plan how how to cut them up into cabs! Good night!

Day 27 Of AEDM

For today's Art Every Day Month challenge project I did something really different today. I'm tired of doing the same old shapes-the same old circles, squares and triangles. So today I sat down with my pencil, my drafting templates and some pattern paper and drew up a bunch of new shapes in assorted sizes. Some of these shapes I have been wanting to do for a while. I'm really excited about using them tomorrow. I will also make up some more pieces of glass to fuse into slabs for future cabs. I've got some good ideas I want to try out. It's been a while since I've been this excited about glass fusing and it feels really good.

Day 26 Of AEDM

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving dinner turned out quite scrumptious. I fed us all well even if I do say so myself! I did the turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, jello fruit salad, corn, deviled eggs, cranberry-raspberry sauce and black olives. I don't like sweet potatoes/yams and so I don't make them. It is hard to cook something well when you don't like it. I keep telling others if they want them to bring them! My aunt brought a pumkin pie, whipping cream and a cherry cheesecake (pie). Her cherry cheesecake is my favorite. I remembered how to make the whip cream too.

Anyway enough with the food talk and on to my piece for the Art Every Day Month challenge. I made another cabochon trio necklace using chestnut brown dichroic doodle cabs, gold filled wire, beads and chain. I even managed to get it listed in my Artfire studio already. I have decided to call it "Chestnut Trio"

I do hope you will take a moment and check out my studio! I am offering free shipping for the holidays and have many different pretties who are looking for a new home!

Day 25 Of AEDM

My creativity for the day has been making a jello fruit salad for tomorrow and helping my student create a fused glass snowflake. Tomorrow after dinner I will put it on the kiln shelf for firing. I will also fill the left over space with something.

Today has been one of those days where it seemed I hopped out of bed and hit the ground running. I have put in a full twelve hours straight. My longest break may have been 15 minutes. Forty-five minutes if you count driving for fast food a break.

I cleaned the refrigerator out and scrubbed it. I then did dishes, swept and mopped. I then went into the evil cabinet where the plastic food containers are kept. I matched up lids with the bottoms and washed almost all of it. Also cleaned the rest of the cabinet out while I was at it. Then it was clean up the studio for class, gobble some food and teach class.

Until tomorrow night! I Send My Best Wishes for a Wonderful, Tasty and Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 24 Of AEDM

And here is today's goody! A trio of my handmade cabs are sterling silver wire wrapped together with Czch glass beads and suspended from a sterling silver chain. Notice the handmade dichroic design in the cabs. This lovely has yet to be named and listed.

I had hoped to work on stage two of Project A today, but didn't have enough time. :(

Day 23 Of AEDM

For today I am once again fusing glass for cabochons and a student project, the snowflake. I am re-firing the 12mm orange cabs. I like the dichroic color against the orange. So I am turning the bottom into the top. I am also fusing up a lovely piece of blue ripple dichroic and trying another on red opal again.

I am working on an idea that I think is really neat. I'm calling it "Project A". If it works I will be sharing it and if it doesn't I'll share anyway.

I did break down and take a picture of the shelf I'm so disappointed in. I knew the purple piece was going to be pretty. The blue green was a texture experiment. I did a dichroic doodle piece which is also good. The glass looks better in the picture than in real life. That extra piece of thin clear really distorted and flattened the ripple texture of the dichroic. There isn't much fire and what color I do see seems to be dull. I will continue to experiment though.

Day 22 Of The AEDM Challenge

I knew what I wanted to make today, but it took me almost two hours to find the correct combination of beads to do it. For a while I thought I was going to have to go to the bead store to get the right shade of beads. Then I noticed the gold ones over there in the box and the light bulb went on!

I think I will name this one "Purple Passion". The dichroic glass in this piece is the exact shade of purple as the crystal bead I used on the top of the bail. I guarantee that the rich blue-violet hue is absolutely stunning.

I received an order for one of my adjustable rings today. I went to the fairgrounds to check out this "big" three day holiday show. I chuckled to myself as I went past the booth of a couple I know who do embroidered dog collars, harness vest etc; Evidently they had split up yesterday so they could do both the show at the Senior Center and this one. As he was on his phone I didn't want to interrupt and I didn't see his wife either. Right next to this booth was my biggest "competitors". They are also friends and former students. My dad and I taught them the basics of fusing. As we were visiting the wife stopped in. She saw the "Heather" ring and fell in love! She was purchasing a pendant from my friends. She decided she wanted it to match the pendant she was getting. So my friend is going to provide me with the cab and I will make it into a ring.

Days 20 & 21 Of The AEDM Challenge

I finished this lovely pendant necklace yesterday. I do believe I will name it "Parfait" or "Berry Parfait". What do you think of that for a name? I think this pendant turned out quite lovely. I plan to get it listed tomorrow.

Today I had a show. We set up most of it last night. Finished the set up this morning before the doors opened. I did fairly well considering. This picture is of the stained/fused & slumped glass table. The three large butterflies in the middle are the ones I was working on the other day.

I don't think I'm going to do anything other than go to bed tonight. If I change my mind and do create something I will share it tomorrow. I have done really well so far, but I think after working a show I refuse to feel guilty about not creating today. I may make two tomorrow as make up though.

As for that picture I promised you.....That is the fugliest batch of fusing I have ever done. I tried capping the ripple with a third layer of thin clear glass so as to make full use of the dichroic glass. I believe it was just a bit too much. I really lost the ripple effect and the dichroic glass is just "lost" in the base glass.

Day 19 Of The AEDM Challenge Plus New Lesson

Here are the finished cabs from last night, er the wee hours of this morning.

I learned something interesting today and instead of being upset about it, I'm okay with it. About eighteen months ago I came up with the idea of making these colors when I created my "Windows" jewelry series. To make these I used silver dichroic glass. This gives me a wonderful, larger color range. Unknowingly I have stocked up on the Red/Silver/Blue version of the silver dichroic glass. This is not the silver I started with. As a result about eight of twenty one colors I made yesterday did not turn out to well. You can't see the dichroic at all in the red cabs or the orange. The pale pink and peach have no color at all, the lime is almost yellow. The two shades of red-violet you can't hardly see the dichroic in either. The good news is the backside of the orange cabs look really neat with blue-silver dichroic sparkling in the orange. I'm going to re-fire them with their backs up! This red/silver/blue actually gave the rest of the colors (except walnut) more sparkle!

I've decided I'm going to give the rest of the colors a break for now. Later when things are better and I can purchase more dichroic glass I'll think about it. I find this decision strangely enough to be very freeing! For the time being I will only have these "stock" colors in the 12mm cabs: hot pink, coral, yellow, amber, walnut, moss, forest, light & darck aqua, pale & deep blue, neo-lavender and med & dark blue-violet.

Out of the blue I decided to start experimenting with different colors of dichroic ripple glass on opal (solid) colored glass again. I put a shelf load of red, terra-cotta, persimmon and chestnut in to fire tonight. I am so excited to see the results come morning! I will be logging these color combos into my sketch book for future reference. I am playing with glass that I have. It will be nice to be able to go back and re-create my the favorites or to know what I need to order so I can make them!

As I now have lots of red/silver/blue dichroic glass to use up I will definitely start making more of the "dichro doodles" cabochons too!

Day 18 Of The AEDM Challenge

I started my day out by getting these butterflies cut out and ground. (day 18 of the AEDM challenge) I had planned to only make two of these butterflies , but ended up with three color combinations. The one on the far left is in shades of orange, yellow and amber. The middle one is blue and purple and the one on the right is purple and blue.

Then because it was sunny, dry and not to cold I decided to sand my kiln shelves off. I have been putting that dreaded task off for a while now. Three kiln shelves with the kiln wash sanded off of them and two customers later the shelves were clean. Next it was time to give them a fresh coating of kiln wash. I mixed it up and painted it on. Helpful hint-To speed up the drying process between coats I use a heat gun to dry the coats of kiln wash. I suppose a hairdryer would also do the trick, but have never tried it. This also works on molds as well!

For day 18 of the AEDM challenge I finally made up a shelf of 12mm dichroic cabochons. I have been needing to make these for a while. I received the dichroic glass I needed to make these at least two weeks ago. The kiln shelves were were ready to go and I needed to have them done by Friday morning. When I wake up in the morning I will have 184 dichroic fused glass cabochons. That is 268 pieces of glass! All hand cut, cleaned and arranged on that kiln shelf!

p.s. I finished this at one am PST. I have to go to bed and sleep before it is "tomorrow" to me. So expect another post for day 19!

(I'm sorry. I have no idea why the photos disappeared. Just added them...again.)

Day 17 Of The AEDM Challenge

I seem to be in the mood for rings. I made another one today. The pictures just don't give this lovely cabochon justice. It has such deep, rich blue shades in it. This is one of the cabs from my hoard. I set it in sterling silver. This one is my favorite of these wire wrapped rings so far. My ex came up with the name for this one, "Galaxy". It is truly fitting.

Day 16 Of AEDM Challenge

I went through my cabs a few days ago, trying to decide which one to use for my next project. While I was at it I put all my small, single cabs in one spot. Most of these cabs I have been hoarding just for the purpose of making rings!

This triangle one with it's angles was a lot more challenging than working with the round ones. With practice I will get better. I'm so used to working with finer wire than what I am using in these rings.
I will figure out a name tomorrow for this one and then get it listed in my Artfire studio. If you have an idea for a name then please leave me a comment!

Days 13, 14 & 15 Of AEDM Challenge

I had to slow down a bit and take a break. I went out Friday evening with a friend and Saturday I went to a craft show that I didn't get into because the time limit snuck past me and then went to the movies with my boys. But now I need to catch up and share what I have been working on!

I liked my blue "Twinkle Hoops" so much I decided to make a pair in gold with forest green cabs. Then I made some with silver lever-back hoops with moss green cabs. Then I decided I needed to be able to offer handmade hoops in sterling silver and 14K gold filled. So I made my first ever pair of 14K gold filled wire hoops using the mimosa (coral) cabs. They were so much fun I replaced the silver lever backs with a pair of handmade sterling silver hoops! I will be adding these to my Artfire studio in the next couple of days.

I also had to include a picture of the small stained glass panel I just finished.

Day 12 of AEDM Challenge

Here is my newest piece created for the AEDM challenge. I have named this one Aurora. A rich, multi colored dichroic glass cabochon in bright pink, gold and deep blue with traces of green and purple. I feel I'm definitely improving on this style of wire wrapping and am quite pleased with this one.

Day 11 Of AEDM Challenge

I managed to get another pendant put together for the AEDM challenge. I call it "Eclipse". Today is day eleven. I used one of my dichroic fused glass cabochons in black and silver. I wire wrapped it in sterling silver with another woven bail. This wire wrapping variation looks much better to me than the previous two. Now I just need to practice the technique! AEDM challenge is going to give a wonderful chance to do just that!

I also wish to share my newest stained glass project. I have gotten it all cut out and then ground the edges to remove jagged corners and sharp edges. This also helps to fit the pieces together nicely. Tomorrow I will foil it, solder it, clean, patina, clean and wax it. I'm excited to see it all finished and held up to the light!