New Earrings & Necklace Listed!

I have finally started listing again. It feels good to be able to say that. I'm hoping I am finally over/through my winter doldrums. I have listed these earrings and the necklace in both my Artfire and my Etsy shops.

Also probate is finally done and and I am now a homeowner again!!!

About My Supply Store, The Glass Goddess, Reason #1

The reasoning behind my supply store, The Glass Goddess is twofold, well okay it's threefold.

Here is reason number one-

I've had a lot of people ask me if I sell my dichroic glass cabochons or tell me I that I should.

I have to admit that I have a hard time putting my dichroic cabochons up for sale. I find that when I'm making them I am already creating jewelry with them in my mind! Those that I have definite plans for I put aside for my use. The rest I'm putting up for sale in my supply shop. If I decide I want to use a listed cab I can always drop the listing and use it. Also I have enough cabs to keep me busy for quite a while at the rate I'm (not) using them.

All of my cabochons are made using compatible fusing glass in a digitally controlled kiln. Quite a bit of work goes into the making of these and they are fired a minimum of two times.

I prefer clean, precise shapes in my cabochons. I think growing up in rockhound country has influenced my ideas of what a cabochon should be. Smooth, clean, polished shapes, rounded on the edges.

My cabochons start with me fusing dichroic sheet glass with either a base glass or top it with a clear glass "cap". I call these fused glass pieces "slabs".

I take these slabs and draw the desired cabochon shapes onto the slab. I take my time pondering and agonizing over the best, most efficient use of the glass slab in front of me.

I rough cut the shapes out of the glass slab using a Taurus III ring saw. As these are rough I use a grinder to clean up the shapes. If I think the cabochon is to thick I will use a flat beveling grinder to thin these cabochons. I do this more for earring cabs that pendant cabs to reduce the weight. I also grind a bit of a bevel on the edges to help round them out nicely during the fire polishing cycle. Once I've finished shaping them I switch to a channeling bit on the grinder. It grinds channel or groove that can be used for wire wrapping the cab. After all of this I prep the cabs for another cycle in the kiln. I treat the ground edges with a devitrification solution to ensure a shiny, polished finish. When the solution is dry into the kiln they go for a final fire polishing. When they come out I check them for quality. If I'm not happy another round of grinding, flat grinding and channeling will ensue.

Two New Ring Listings!

I'm finally back to listing! I've started with the newest "batch" of rings I've made up.

The first one is my Adjustable Gold & Blue Ripple Dichroic Art Glass Wire Wrapped Ring in sterling silver. I've used a larger cabochon in this one and so as to make it lay on the finger better I have slumped it so that curved to fit your finger. ;)

The second in my Adjustable White Opalescent Dichroic Art Glass Wire Wrapped Ring in 14 gold filled wire. I really wish I could of caught how intense the colors in it are. Their is a whole rainbow of iridescent colors in it, purples, pinks, coppery red-orange, gold, blues greens and more. It truly is prettier in person.

Also I realized I haven't announced that I am offering free shipping on everything in my studio-Willow Walker Designs for the holidays!

The past week and half has been a rough one for me with my new "real job" delivering papers in the wee hours of the morning, fighting a cold and trying (not always successfully) to get enough sleep to function. I do believe that once I get over this cold and have adjusted to a new sleep schedule things will be much easier. I do feel as if a lot of stress has been removed from my shoulders and I have more respect for myself now that I am a "productive" member of society. This will also allow me to have a steady income to get my teeth fixed, not to mention money for more glass and gemmies! :)

Blue Roses, Dichroic Art Glass Wire Wrapped Earrings

Here is today's lovely new listing for the Elegance Collection-Blue Roses, Dichroic Art Glass Wire Wrapped Earrings. A pair of of my handmade dichroic art glass cabochons in rich shades of blue and aqua. Wire wrapped into 14k gold filled frames and embellished with handmade gold wire roses. I've finished them off with matching handmade wire rose earwires.


I forgot to mention that the drawing for the giveaways will take place on November 10, 2010. The winning names will be posted here on my blog no later than November 11, 2010. (I do have jury duty November 2 thru November 15th. If for some odd reason I am tied up due to this I will draw & post the names as soon as I can!)


I'm only listing one new item per day due to the fact I watched to much Netflix and unintentionally used 75% of my monthly allowance in the first ten days of this month. (blush)

Catching Up

I am finally starting to catch up on my listings. Today I finished listing all of the two tone Modern Bold earrings after finishing the pendants. So now I can start listing the etched earrings, like these frolicing Blue Dolphin Dichroic Glass Earrings.

Don't forget that these are on sale in my studio, Willow Walker Designs! If you purchase matching earrings and pendant use the coupon code "SETS" during checkout to receive an additional five dollars off! Take advantage and start your holiday shopping early!

New Pendant Style!

For the most part I have tried to take it easy today and be lazy. As you can tell my muse had other ideas! Up till now I hadn't found a way to make swirly wire wrapped cabs. I came across a variation of the "traditional" wire wrapped cabs with swirls-but it wasn't quite what I was looking for and I didn't want to buy a bunch of wire for it either.

A week ago Sunday when I was at the Crook County Gem & Mineral show I picked up two new wire wrapping books. I must confess that I have a weakness for books...I always love to see how others do things and I figure the more I learn the more I can expand my creativity. One of the pictures on the cover that caught my eye were swirly wrapped pendants. I had looked through the books and decided I would pursue them more later. Well later was this morning as I was trying to be lazy. . I was so excited when I looked at the swirly wrapped dichroic pendants in the book and realized that they were built around a channeled dichroic cabochons!!! My muse took over and I managed to wrap two today! I found the instructions to be confusing-BUT I was able to figure it out enough to make these. My fingers are sore and my muse is happy!

These are listed in my Artfire studio! Blue Dichroic Glass Swirled Wire Wrapped Pendant and Purple Dichroic Glass Swirly Wire Wrapped Pendant!

Dichroic Glass Pendant-Landscape VI

Wow, what can I say? The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of busyness, traveling and more work. I have accomplished more in the last six or seven weeks than I normally get done in months! ;)

I am back to listing and have listed all my new rings and am working on the pendants for my new Modern Bold Collection. I plan to list this pendant tomorrow morning as a break from the others. This one is my "Landscape VI" pendant. This one was the last and lonely one of a half dozen I made several years ago. I've upcycled it by adding the 22 karat gold decal of a tree and a fancy wire woven bail. I just love it now!

Other News-I have been lucky enough to re-join the Artisan Jewelry Guild on Arfire~The last Saturday Market was slow but overall I did okay.~Had breakfast on Monday morning with my dad and his brother, sister and their spouses. My great Aunt on my dad's side is in the last stages of passing away. Aunty Jeanne will be sorely missed by all.~My Aunty was in a car accident on Monday morning. I picked her up, ran her around and took her home. She has a major seat belt bruise and is very stiff and sore due to the impact. Meanwhile her SUV is in the shop for body work.

Weekend's Work

To stay busy whiling away the long hours of the show this weekend I wire wrapped all these lovely pieces!

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Sadly it was another long, slow weekend. I feel the past two shows are probably indicative of the current financial climate in my area. I think that the slow sales I expected last summer have shown up for this one. My area's economy has not improved all that much and there still really isn't any work to be had. To top the whole mess off the unemployment benefits are getting close to running out, so who can afford anything extraneous.

Slideshow Of New Images Pendants!

It's seems as if my blogging is starting to become hit or miss with all I've been busy doing getting new product for the summer show season. My muse was a bit slow this spring. Combine that with having a short timeline cut in half I have been very busy playing catch up. I am getting there though and here is the proof-a bit of what I've been getting finished. Enjoy!

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Show Time!

Just wanted to take moment and share pictures of my booth set-up and displays!
This weekend is the start of the Central Oregon Saturday Market. This is the thirty sixth year it has been running!

Also sharing a close-up picture of my new earring display racks with my new "fancy" Modern Bold pendants and earrings. I really hope these do well as I really like making them!

Disappointment Equals More Work

Here are the finished cabs. Upon closer examination I had to re-channel about two thirds of these and treat them as if the had devitrified. I etched them and have applied a boraxo solution to correct them.

Also note to myself-Do not EVER mess with my favorite fire polishing cycle. I may use a digital control box on my kiln, but the temperatures and holding time have been determined by my experience over time.

I etched the "doodles" I had ready. Here are the results. Unfortunately I didn't leave the etching cream on long enough on two of my favorites. I like the hearts, green fern and the swirls best. I definitely think some of my doodles are better off done using some resist paper.

I have more glass fusing into slabs in the kiln too.

Cookin' In The Kiln!

I'm cookin' tonight, glass that is! This shelf of beauties are cooking as we speak. This is the final stage in the process. A trip though the kiln to give them a nice smooth, polished look and feel. The bottom picture turned out blurry, but the color of the white cabs is good.

As of tomorrow morning they will be taken from the kiln, wiped off and all ready for packing! Some will be sent off for others to have fun with while others will go into my supply shop and the rest into "The Hoard". I plan to have the completed orders ready for shipping by Monday.

BUT I'm not done making cabs yet. I have more slabs yet to fuse and more cabs to cut! Still haven't cut into the big piece of rainbow ripple on black! And then there are the confetti cabs I plan to make and some out of that lovely pink and green glass. ;)

New Cabochons In The Works!

Here's what I've been working on the last couple of days. Cabs, cabs and more cabs! With more planned in the near future. These are all ground and ready to channel. (except for the one uncut one in the picture) I plan to start channeling these cabs tomorrow.

The cabochons in this first picture are available and I can bear to part with them.

The cabs in the second picture I would really like to keep, but can probably be talked into parting with!

And as for the third and final picture-Hands off!!! These are MINE! ;) Although I can make more of the red and white cabs.

If you are into wire wrapping the channel around the edge can come in handy. Also different styles of wire work may not need the channel, but tend to hide it for the most part. Of course for those setting pretties in silver and gold-who will ever see the channel once it's in the bezel?

In the very back of the last picture you can see a few un-ground cabs. I will get to them tomorrow. I am letting the "ink" outlines set up a bit. I think squares are the hardest shape to do. Keeping them square is a real PITA! The more I have to mark & grind-the smaller they tend to get.

More WIP's!

I've been working on some new pendants. Four are free hand, three are stickers and the last one is off a collage design.

The glass slabs are the rest of my work from yesterday. Now these are all ready to cut into cabs!

Today has been a very busy day. I also found out that I will be getting up at three am on Tuesday mornings along with Sundays to help dad with a paper promotion. Fifty extra papers that have to be bagged and given out to people on our paper routes. For the next two months.

"Modern Bold Collection"

I finished all but four pairs from the start of my newest jewelry collection. I'm calling this new collection "Modern Bold". These pieces are all about color. Bold, striking vivid colors. These pieces will definitely make a statement. These are also great conversation starters. Now all I have to do is take pictures and I will be able to start listing them in my studio. This is just the start of many of the colorful ideas I have for this collection!

I spent the rest of my day marking cabochon shapes onto glass slabs for cutting. Tomorrow I should be able to start cutting them out.

Decisions, Decisions!

Believe it or not this is the stage that takes me the longest and I find it the hardest! Deciding how to cut up the glass to make the most of it's beauty and to not waste any more than necessary!

The first picture is of the whole piece. It is about eleven inches long by about two inches. The others are close-ups.Actually I feel I have made a great start. What do you think?

New Dichroic Fused Glass Slabs Part II

Here's the slabs from the second batch! These are all reverse fused.

The first piece is red/silver/blue with black. The color changed. I'll share the color comparision pictures tomorrow.

The second is the very last of my clear rainbow ripple.

Third was an unknown piece from the scrap collection.

And the last but not least is red/silver/blue fused with dark blue.

I still need to fuse up one more batch of slabs. I want some more white and red for pendants. Then begins the real work of deciding how to best use the glass and getting it all cut out, ground and channeled!

Fiesta Flowers & Spring!

More new pretties! Today I listed these bold and bright Fiesta Flowers Earrings and this stunning Spring Confetti Pendant.

We had lovely weather today. I took advantage of the sunny, warm and dry day to clean up the front yard. Cleaned up the pet mess, raked the front yard and caged a couple of Peonies. The girls have been wreaking havoc in my once pretty front yard. Digging holes, shredding papers and toys and trimming all the shrubs and trees. If the yard and can survive this summer I think everything will be okay. Because by next spring the girls should outgrow their destructive puppy urges. I hope!

Big Birthday Bash Sale & New Additions!

Well the Big Birthday Bash Sale is on! Everything in my studio has been reduced 25% for the month of April. I am also running daily specials. I'll be posting those in my Arfire blog which is accessible in my studio. They will also be posted in the promo thread I have started in the Artfire Forums.

Here is a slideshow sharing all of my newest listings, but not all that I have yet to list! Enjoy my newest offerings!

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Big Birthday Bash Sale & Charmed!

First I want to share the "charmed" portion of tonight's blog. Then I'll share all the juicy sale info with you.

This week AJDJSS is having a "Charmed" promotion. We are promoting charms and jewelry made using charms by our guild members! On the guild blog there is an article on charms and more. So please take a moment and check it out!

Tomorrow is my birthday. To celebrate I will be having a sale in my Artfire Studio, WillowWalker Designs through the month of April. I have reduced my prices by 25% for my birthday! As you know I have been adding a lot of items to my studio and am in the process of adding a bunch more too. There are lots of nummy goodies waiting for their forever homes!