Rain, Rain - Go Away?

I'm never sure if I love or hate the rain. I think I love it but it's washing all of my beloved leaves for electroforming away! The good thing about the Pacific Northwest is that we still have a lot of greenery all year long. Right now, a lot of that is in the form of moss!

The cooler weather brings out the crafty side of me. I want to spend every waking hour making beads, or stringing beads, or knitting or whatever I can. There are not enough hours in the day!

Some of you keep up with my critter crowd here in Seattle. My one and only indoor/outdoor cat managed to sustain a nasty bite of some sort and after an abcess and surgery to remedy it, I'm $600 poorer and the cat looks like "Franken Cat"! On the bright side, she has clean teeth and she's staying inside, out of the rain, until she heals.

I went to Frantz Art Glass yesterday for their "Open Saturday" blowout. Always good to replenish the stock of glass. I love Mike's sales but I also buy a lot of my glass from Bill and Donelle Thornton at Island Glass. Fantastic customer service - they're good people!

A few pix - my first set of encased florals (above) and a purple swirls perfume bottle.

Back to the cool fall of Seattle

Hi! What a shock - to go from 95 degrees in Puerto Vallarta to scraping ice off of my car windows in Seattle! Mexico was fantastic! The timeshare hotel - Velas Vallarta - is gorgeous and I enjoyed the time with my mom. She even went parasailing at my treat and had a blast! We spent some time bargaining with the vendors for little gifties, wandering around "Old Town". We went to Mama Lucia's tequila factory and up into the hills for lunch. We also did a Mexican fiesta at the Iguana Restauant in Old Town - great food and entertainment. I walked on the beach every morning and evening - ahhh, nice...

I had another lovely experience in Mexico. There is a company called "Eco Tours" that sets up trips a little ways up the coast where you can help with the conservation efforts of the Olive Ridley sea turtles. We left from the marina at PV at 9pm and drove about 30 minutes north to a beach where there is a "Turtle Camp". We didn't see any mama turtles but since there had been quite a few a couple of months ago (it takes 50 days for an egg to hatch), there were TONS of babies ready for release. We spent several hours scooping them into styrofoam containers and then releasing them into the ocean. When I fell into bed at 1:30 am, I was exhausted but very happy that I went.

Here are some photos I took in Mexico - http://www.pigeonpointglass.com/Mexico%20-%20Puerto%20Vallarta%20-%20October%202005\index.html

Well, a new/used oxygen concentrator is sitting here waiting for me to free it from its cardboard and styrofoam peanut packaging so that I can MAKE SOME GLASS! I can't wait - the old concentrator gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and I've been using oxygen but this will ensure that I don't run out in the middle of a session. More pretties soon!

Off to Mexico!

Hola! I'm off to Mexico in a couple of days. Seems like I've been away a lot lately - Italy, New Orleans, Mexico. Hey - I'm not complaining!

The show was great! I beat my wildest expectations in sales and I am so happy that people liked my beads. Now I'm gearing up for the sale at Pratt in December.
Here's a picture of my table at the show - not terribly impressive but it was kinda picked over by the end!

Still electroforming and still doing little bottles (above). I'll blog if I get the chance from Mexico - if not hasta la vista!

Gearing Up For The Sale

Northwest Bead Society (http://www.nwbeadsociety.org) is having a sale at the Seattle Center this weekend and I'll have a table there. Stop by and say hi! I'll have focals, sets, bottles and electroformed leaf beads plus some of my knitted baskets. I'm really looking forward to it.

In other news, we had another meeting of our new ISGB chapter and I was voted President. Now, that's not terribly exciting as I was honestly the only one to step forward and show interest but I am honored all the same for the vote of confidence and hope to do my absolute best during the coming year. You can check out the chapter's current homepage at my good friend Natasha's site. (http://www.neatobeado.com/isgb)

Sold a couple of goodies on the 'bay this week, including this one - thanks to Mike and others for bidding!




I'll update you on the results of the sale after the weekend!

Janelle

Update on New Orleans

Powweb decided to change my FTP server without telling me so I wasn't able to blog while I was in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I can't tell you how good it was to come home to my fat pets. I already have water and other things stored for a disaster but I'll be buying an extra case of dog and cat food this weekend.

I want to thank all of my well-wishers. I have a show coming up in two weeks - MUST MAKE BEADS! I'll post some pix soon.

Janelle

Animals Get Me Every Time!

So, you may have noticed that I haven't blogged lately. I'm just too busy to keep on top if it. I've been doing a lot more electroforming. I am making long beads, short beads, squat beads, round beads and even candy corn beads for a show in October.

That's not all that's been on my mind though. I've been watching the sad news about hurricane Katrina (as is everyone, I'm sure) but the video and news accounts of the homeless pets just tug at my heartstrings and I could feel them pulling me towards Louisiana. This week, a friend of mine let me know that they desparately needed help at a parrot rescue and I've been watching with horror the images that

People have been great in helping me prepare for the trip. Evergreen Pet Supply in Seattle gave me a 50lb box of bird food, which Alaska Airlines let me put on the plane without comment. Bed Bath & Beyond extended their little blue coupon thingy to be 20% off of my entire purchase of kitchen scales and veggie choppers. My vet donated medicines for me to take to Pasado's. People are generally wonderful in a crisis. I like to think most people are good in general anyway but of course, it's always good to exercise some caution.

Ok - enough of my later than midnight ramblings. I'll update as soon as I can. Depends really on where I'm staying. If I help with the parrot rescue, I'll be in a house with all the amenities in Baton Rouge. If I help with Pasado's, I'll likely be sleeping in my rental car. I'll see where the greatest need is when I get there! Hugs to everyone and thank you for being so supportive!

Janellehttp://www.pasadosafehaven.org is displaying. Animals are still coming in from flooded areas over 2 1/2 weeks after the storm! So anyway, here I am, sitting in an airport in the middle of the night - waiting for a flight to Dallas and then on to Baton Rouge. The trip is already reminding me of the epic feats I had to go through to get home from Italy. This is a different type of trip altogether as you might imagine. My tiredness has taken some of the edge off of my anxiety about going. What will I see? How can I help? Will I be able to live with myself when I leave? Oh - phone's ringing. It was Orbitz flight recording saying my flight had been pushed back to 2:15am. It doesn't matter - that just shortens the delay in Dallas. My arm's smarting. Before I left, I got a Tetanus shot and a combo Hep A & B. Plus the clinic at work loaded me up with a prescription for Cipro (a broad spectrum antibiotic) "just in case".

Organics, Electroforming and More

Eek! Weeks have gone by again. But I've been a busy little beaver - I really have! I took a wonderful class on organic beadmaking from Kimberly Affleck last weekend. It was a three-day workshop at Pratt Fine Arts Center. We learned a lot of great techniques using siver and copper leaf, silver fuming, great color combinations, deep encasing, flat lapping (on a lapidary wheel) and electroforming.

Which brings me to another thing that has kept me busy this week. I set up my electroforming kit, found some leaves in the forest, combined them with some beads made with the new organic techniques - and voila! Some pretty cool-looking beads! I'd love to hear what you think of them. There is a pretty nice deposition of copper on the leaves and the "binders" at the top and bottom of the leaves are electroformed waxed linen. I've used a patina on both of these and then laquered them to keep it. There will definitely
be more of them and soon!

A call went out for artists for a neat set of artist trading cards that an innovative little glass shop is putting out. I submitted this photo of some of my perfume bottles. I'm hoping it will turn out.

Finally, I gave a presentation at work about my trip to Venice. The school's (UW) staff and faculty newspaper is going to to an article (not specifically about me but about how my department gets together and shares) in a couple of weeks. I'll have my big mug in it though and I'll post a link when it comes online.

Have a great week! So many things to do. So very little time!

Janelle

Sunday Update

I just don't blog often enough - will try to be better about that. In addition to glass this week, I have been doing some fun knitting. I love to knit with wool and throw the item in the washer to felt so imagine my delight at finding a cool book having to do with is very thing - it's called "A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting" by Cat Bordhi. Too cool! Ms. Bordhi teaches you to knit a moebius scarf and from there you move onto baskets, cat beds, etc. I've included a picture of the basket I finished here. See the handle? It has no beginning and no end - that's what a moebius is. This basket is the perfect size for storing a beady collection in!

Speaking of beadies - been making some. I also made a few more bottles. That little amber and black one sold on the 'bay. Very happy about that. I am not sure about listing the bottles on ebay though. I get the sense that it's not the right venue for them. I'll see. I ordered an electroforming kit this week. Can't wait. If you've never seen electroforming, I encourage you to check out Kate Fowle Meleney's gorgeous beads - here's her site http://katefowle.com/.

I went to Momka's boro last weekend to see a marble show. Such talent! It's amazing to see these artists work on their "torches on steroids" (compared to my Minor). There are little worlds in them thar marbles! You should check them out and think about starting a collection!

Gotta get going for the day but I'll leave you with a little perfume bottle and a teeny little woman's figure that I put a pendant attachment on. Now, I probably wouldn't walk around with one of these around my neck but someone might - you never know!

Feeling Fine

I've almost kicked this cold that I brought back from Italy - just a reminder of the trip, I suppose. I was also reminded this week at how little torch time I get while I'm working full time and doing glass "on the side". I treasure my time at the flame and sneak it in where I can. I'm working on items for sale on ebay as well as for a bigger bead show in Seattle in October. I also really believe in Pratt Fine Arts Center so I'll be making items for their holiday sale. Half of the profits go back to them to support classes, etc.

There's a big marble get together at Momka's boro today. Another thing to pique my interest and rob my pocketbook, I suppose! I just got in a big order of Bullseye glass for myself - love the stuff but it is a lot more expensive than the Italian glasses.


As for ebay - slow time of year, I've decided. I thoroughly appreciate those who have purchased my work. I've decided to try to get a couple of focals or sets up each week and at least one perfume bottle. Don't know if I can hold to that or not. Here's what I have up right now (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5016503332&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT). Have a great Sunday - I'll update on the marble get together later.

Thoughts on Murano

I've been back from Murano for a little more than a week and I've had a little time to think about the experience. I'll probably copy this post to somewhere that will be easier to find in the long run because I know how blog posts have a way of falling to the bottom and becoming hard to find.

Ok - here goes -
Is it worth it to pay all that money to go all the way to Italy (Murano in particular)?For me, absolutely! First of all, there's nothing like being around all of that glass and glass history. I find the place absolutely charming with its architechture and missing pieces of stucco. And then there's the water! What a different lifestyle. I was absolutely charmed and it almost seemed as if the class was just a bonus. Now, understand, some people see the stucco thing, water, heat, etc. enough of an inconvenience to keep them home. I'm just telling you what my opinions are and you can take 'em or leave 'em.

Ok - so that said, do I need to pay for a class? No  you can go and visit on your own if that's what you want. Venice and Murano and truly travel-worthy destinations. On the other hand, if you aren't part of a class, I'm not sure how much of the "back story" you'll get to see. We were taken to a hot shop, told of good places to buy tools, given a better history of Venetian glass style and we felt more like temporary residents than tourists.

Do I need to pay for a class with a "glass master"? Agan, the answer is no - depending on what you want. You do NOT have to pay $1500 for a 6-day class (the cost of my class with Lucio) unless this is what you want. I've heard of other classes that are even more expensive led by American beadmakers but do keep in mind, that while the person is teaching you, as in the States or anywhere in the world, they are generally not creating works of art for sale so in addition to teaching you, part of the fee is kind of for "opportunity costs". On the other hand, neither are you (making works of art for sale) so you have to figure this into the price too if you make a living off of your work. People have asked me if they should take a six-day workshop with Lucio or break it up with another teacher. Lucio does what he does and it's largely the same for six days. He's not going to teach you a million different things although we had a few hours of animals, ring-making and half a day of practicing blowing goblets - it was a welcome change from the INCREDIBLE but somewhat repetitive sculpture demos.


Do I need to be extremely experienced to take one of these classes? In my opinion, I would go with a good base of glass knowledge. In Lucio's class, you relearn much of what you know about glass and how it flows and cools but if you came knowing nothing, I think it would color your future glass experience and I'm not sure you'd have an easier time learning beadmaking, etc. Also, Italian shops use different equipment. For me, it's been an adjustment to use my Nortel Minor again after even just a week of using the softer flame of an Italian torch. Do I want to run out and buy an Italian torch? Yeah, kind of, but my Minor is fine for my little perfume bottles and beads. I can also do small sculpture with it but it's an adjustment in the way that I learned.

What will I learn in a Lucio class? You'll learn thebasics of sculpture over a torch. Lucio does a lot of the human form so it's worth it to study the human figure (both male and female) before you go. For example, when Lucio creates breasts or pecs, he heats the side and then pulls up towards the underarm to create the fleshy part/muscle that we all have. Come on, I dare ya. Raise your arms and look in a mirror - you'll see what I mean. So, we learned torsos, small full body figures, costumed figures, masks, rings, goblets, small animals and insects and "architecture" for stands etc. Can any of us in the class "do" all of these things? No, but we have the basis for practice.

Well, that's enough thoughts for now. Feel free to email me at any time should you want to know more about the trip. On current news, we held a meeting for the possible formation of an ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers) Washington chapter at Pratt Fine Arts Center yesterday. It was a great meeting! I tried my first fusing project on Saturday night - eeek! Terrible, must take a class. Finally, I made some new focals that I will post on ebay later tonight.

Have a good week!