Sleeping Brutus

Brutus cuddling up at the end of the table to take a nap among my cabochons!

I forgot to take pictures to share, but I do have this one I took with my cell phone. Our booth was in the shade until the afternoon. Brutus was tired of the cool, damp grass. So he crawled up into my ex's lap and then onto the table where he proceeded to plop himself down in the middle of my cabochons for a nap.

Once again I didn't make my fortune. I sold just enough to pay for the gas to get there and my booth fee.

We enjoyed a short visit with our friends on Friday. The drive was very lovely and the area we were in was beautiful. I took my ex and our son out for dinner on Friday night.

Going On A Road Trip To The Locks

The Sternwheeler/Portage Days at Cascade Locks is this weekend. My hearty helpers and I are going to give it a try and see how it goes. So I will be gone thru Sunday this weekend.

This is one I am trying on a recomendation. I do know this has been going on for at least fifteen years as I have black powder friends that attend. I was also told in Febuary that the motels were already booked for this weekend and that the news reported the event as cancelled due to the weather last year and although it wasn't, there was a very good turnout.

We are leaving tomorrow morning and hope to get there at a reasonable time. We will set up the booth, tables, etc; Get our campsite and then hopefully go surprise our friends!

I look forward to a fun, exciting and long weekend. The show is open from ten am to nine pm on Saturday and ten am to five pm on Sunday.

Just wanted to share some close-ups of the cabs now that they are all "cooked". I really pleased with them.

New Batch of Dichroi Cabs!

This is what I have been up to this week. Making up a new, big batch of dichroic fused glass cabochons. Included are my ideas for using frit and my experiments in "scribbling" on dichroic glass with a sharpie!

The frit cabs are the ones with the speckles of colors. I wasn't real happy with most of them at first, but fused the pale ones onto a white base and "Wow"! Now they have this lovely, opalescent sheen and the colors show better. I look forward to pairing some of these with precious and semi-precious gemstone beads. I actually have beads picked out for the red/orange/amber cabs.

The cabs with the images on them turned out absolutely amazing in my opinion! I just can't get over how stunningly elegant and classy they are. I definitely plan to do more "scribbling" on dichro!

In this batch I've finally included some cabs for the "Bling Rings", bolo ties and money clips I've been meaning to make for way to long. I'm excited to finally be able to offer some men's jewelry for sale. Just a little bit late for Father's Day though. Now I just have to remember/find where I stashed those ring blanks for the Bling Rings!

"Peachy Keen Wire Wrapped Dichroic Earrings"

Well this color is a champagne color, but google does not like that word so...Peachy Keen they are.

I love how these turned out and look forward to making some variations of these. 14k gold filled spirals are wrapped with 14k gold filled fine gauge wire and accented with tiny CZ rondelles to make the posts. Champagne colored dichroic fused glass cabs are wrapped in 14k gold filled wire and surrounded with more of these CZ rondelles for a glamorous, romantic feel.

Aztec Suns Wire Wrapped Dichroic Earrings

Aztec Suns is what my son said I should name these lovely earrings so I did. These lovely earrings are based on a tutorial I purchased from Solivio on ArtFire. She has several other lovely tutorials for sale in her studio. In using tutorials I learn how the components of the designs work together. First I have to learn how these designs work before I can start designing my own.
Also I usually have to adapt the designs for use with my dichroic fused glass cabs.

I love the challenge of intricately wire wrapped and woven jewelry like this. I look forward to making many more! I have a lot of beautiful glass beads that I hope to use in some designs and eventually plan to switch to semi-precious & precious gemstone beads entirely. I don't have a lot of small rondelle beads so I will be concentrating on purchasing this style of gemstone beads first!

I have been working on passing the "Lovely Blog Award" for a week now. I think if I would of realized how much time and energy it would take to pass it onto fifteen other blogs I would of thought twice before accepting it. I think fifteen is really too much work and the number should be no more than five! Such is life. So anyway here are my last five picks for the lovely blog award.

1. Misti Kallas Designs for her sense of humor about life and motherhood!
2. Pocket Totes because I love her totes and purses!
3. Gemheaven because I love her jewelry.
4. Eclettica The Ateliar for a fun and entertaing read, for her absolutely amazing wire wrapped jewelry and of course the lovely pink blog influenced me also!
5. A Dollie A Day for her wonderful, in-depth articles and fabulous dolls.

Violet Dichroic Photos Blue

Just a quickie today. It has been a long day at the market and will be an even earlier morning as I help deliver our local Sunday paper.

Just wanted to share a picture of my newest pendant. I haven't even thought of a name for it yet.

I have learned a lot (and I mean a lot) about photographing dichroic glass in the last nine months. The camera "sees" color wavelengths differently than the human eye. This particular color of dichroic glass falls into that category. This is the only color I have fused that I cannot get the color to photograph as the human eye sees it. We see it as a deep, rich violet color like the bicones on the right. The camera sees it as this deep blue, under sunlight, daylight bulbs and flourescent lighting. I think this is one color that needs professional lights.

I have set this cabochon in a sterling silver, wire woven setting with sterling silver and faceted peridot beads.

Blue Dragonfly Dichroic Necklace

"BLUE DRAGONFLY"


Due to the fact that the newest computer updates overloaded my computer, I was unable to go hunting for the last five blog award recipients.

I have finally caught up on my picture taking so now I can list new pretties in my studio. I have many new wire wrapped and woven pretties to share. I hope they will meet with your approval.

I'm sorry to make this so short, but tomorrow is Saturday and that means its a show day! I have to finish up my chores and get to bed.

Dichroic Pendants & Blog Awards

Coral Dichroic Pendant

I am now including a ribbon or cord with every pendant I sell. Having put one on every pendant has really added a splash of much needed color to my display. And gives them all a very nice finished look. I have tried to color coordinate the necklace to the pendant when ever possible. I used some Lion Brand ribbon yarn for several. I love how the variegated ribbon yarn brings out the colors in the pendants like this one.








Now back to the next five of the fifteen Lovely Blog Award recipients.

6. Creative Things by April Monds where she shares what she & others have been up to.

7. Wildwood Flowers shares her hand painted wooden jewelry and other artists work along with her journey in life.

8. Glasstastic Treasures features the day's AF Crazy Train rider along with her fun & lovely lampwork beads

9. Simply Shiny shares this weeks fabulous finds, ArtFire Studio Owner Profiles and what is going on with her studios/shops.

10. Bella-Sweet shares her romantic finds and her lovely jewelry with us. She also has a love of soap, toiletries and candles.

Ten down and five to go!

Just a quick post! I found myself sidetracked by the next pair of earrings I wanted to make and so have been busy working on them. I did finish the pair I was working on previously. Unfortunately it is late and I am too tired to take pictures.

I have found three of the next five blogs I plan to pass the lovely blog award onto.

Monday Surprises

Wow, today Monday has been an exciting day for me! I received the "One Lovely Blog Award" from 2 Good Claymates ! I have been wandering around reading blogs and am just blown away by all of the lovely and fascinating blogs out there! I have decided this could be a big job! So I am going to pass it on five at a time in three installments.

So here are the rules for the One Lovely Blog Award

1. Accept the award
2. Post it on your blog together with the name of the person (or persons) who has granted the award, along with their blog link.
3. Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered. (And don't forget to contact them that they have been chosen for this award.)

And the first five lucky recipients are-

Mugsy's Celtic Collections Her intricate Celtic knotwork and fantasy painting are detailed and amazing. Best of all are her Dragon's Eggs. Enchanting and fun!

She's Batty Designs, I love the journal look of her blog. Great pictures, garden news and easy to read.

LaDeDa Creations, keeps us up-to-date with all of the latest going-ons at ArtFire as well as featuring other artists and their studios.

Beaded Bauble has lots of pretties. I enjoy seeing what other artists are up to.

Glass Gardens Whatnot is a blog full of lovely flowers, gardening, fun finds, current stained glass projects and much more.

Dawno listed my blog in her Sunday blog "Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around The Beadosphere" ! Another unexpected honor.

And to top all this lovely goodness off my best friend called me to tell me she is moving back here to Bend this summer! We go way back to our freshman year in high school and she is into jewelry making and wire work also. It will be so nice to be able to see her and share ideas and designs without having to wait several weeks or a month or more.

Dichroic Glass Jewelry-New Looks

New pieces! Azteca was a fun piece to make. Originally I had planned to only put one row of beads on. I ended up filling the piece in up to the cabochon which actually worked out very nicely and attached the cabochon to the back and hides where it is attached. This is a new style and I love how it turned out. I look forward to making some smaller pieces as this one turned out fairly large.

Dichroic fused glass is know for it's bright, bold, eye-catching vivid colors. I tend to hear the occasional comment about how lovely it is, yet it is to bold for to wear. So for all of you out there that like small and subtle I present another side of dichroic glass to you, Green Lilies!

Dichroic & Gold Image Pendants

"The Feather" "Seahorse"

One of the new things I have been experimenting with is gold decals fused into the surface of the glass. The images are 22k gold decals. These are images on a thin film glued onto a paper backing. When dipped or soaked in water the glue loosens allowing the decal to slide off the paper. It can then be applied to the cabochon. All wrinkles are carefully pushed out and and excess water is blotted of. After the decals have dried the cabochons head back into the kiln for another firing. This firing fuses the decal to the surface of the cabochon.
I think they are turning out quite lovely. The feather is for sale in my ArtFire studio,
Willow Walker Designs. The Seahorse will be listed soon.
I received the decals and the pods the Christmas of 2007 from my Father and due to unfortunate circumstances was unable to play with them any sooner.

Emerald Squares Dichroic Jewelry Set

I finally started listing some of my pendants and earrings as sets. My sets are a great deal as they cost less as a set than they would separately! I've been working on it for over three weeks now and finally managed to take some new pictures the other night. I also edited some of my pendant listings to include the ribbon or cord necklace and some with chains.

As for my veggies I think most of them will survive thank goodness!

Time Flies

I can't believe how the time flies past anymore! I have had a new experience lately. Had my first visit to the Kahneeta Hot Springs with a good friend. Enjoyed the trip and would love to go again. The drive was lovely with everything greening up since it's Spring.

Have started a campaign against the weed in the yard and have freed a long border from the crabgrass. And have re-planted the glads that were there. Need to replace some of the plants that used to be there. Chrysanthemums, lupines, painted yarrow and lilies to name a few.

Planted the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and onions about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks ago. They looked so good this morning. The tomatoes had blossoms and green tomatoes from small to good sized. Peppers were twice as tall and starting to blossom. The lemon cukes had doubled in size and one of them was blooming also and almost a dozen red onions were up. we had a good thunderstorm with hail and rain. Our house was in the area that was hit the hardest. We received about four inches of hail. It hailed for over twenty minutes. It tore the flowers off of the irises and ripped and shredded foliage. My tomatoes have enough of their leaves to survive if they don't/aren't frozen. The cukes, same story. The peppers are shredded.