Beads...did you say you had beads???

I picked up these beads from Jacqueline in Switzerland. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to go there....she sells on eBay under the name "creartelier" if you want to look at some of her other beads. I know I said I wasn't going to be buy anymore beads or silver....but you can't go cold turkey....you have to wean yourself off these types of obsessions :)

Hubby comes home tomorrow after about 2 weeks of traveling. We saw each other briefly last Friday as he stopped home in between trips and I came home for the evening from my show. He calls every night when he's away. The other day we talked for 20 minutes....laughing and joking.....it was like we were dating again.

Needless to say I won't be blogging tomorrow night :))

Winter Wonderland

If any of you saw the Democratic debate tonight. It took place at my alma mater...Cleveland State University. They made reference to the snow storm that was brewing in Cleveland. This was what my backyard looked like when I came home from work. I had 6" of snow and I don't live in the snowbelt.

Perfection....is limiting

In the recent issue of Metalsmith there is an article by Kiff Slemmons on imperfection. In it, the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi is discussed. Wabi-sabi is described as the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete, the beauty of things modest and humble, the beauty of things unconventional. The article goes on to say that "Imperfection can offer openness, a way in, whereas perfection can sometimes be closed and frozen in place. Imperfection can contain energy - can make for flow. Perhaps imperfection is most obvious and easily understood in outsider or folk art, in which the expressive qualities are spontaneous and immediate".

This struck a chord with me because I struggle with perfection in my art. If you've ever worked in PMC you know that the clay can have a mind of its own....at least my clay does. It's not that perfection can't be achieved. I've had instructors that seem to do everything with an amazing level of precision and perfection....Celie Fago comes to mind. But I've come to accept that fact that perfection isn't me ..... imperfection is. And it's liberating. I don't have to be the perfect homemaker (thank God), the perfect employee, say the right things (outta my big mouth...yeah right), the perfect artist. Bumpy, irregular, off-center, cracked and split (this describes both my art and personality) are so much more interesting than perfect.

Speaking of perfection. Every woman wants her face to look perfect. I used a new product over the weekend. I primer of sorts that you put on your face before make-up....suppose to smooth out the lines and let your make-up just glide on. Well...I woke up Sunday with a rash/hives all over my face. So much for the perfect face. It's settling down now but it's probably going to take a week to clear up. Hubby is down in Florida for a conference and I was telling him all about this. You know what he said??? "Throw that stuff out....you have always had a nice face". So once again...I don't have to be perfect....cause my hubby likes my face just the way it is. Love that man!!!

Hello...this is Dave...

Every night I get this phone call. It's a recording..."Hello, this is Dave. To speak with a representative press 1. Otherwise you can call me.... at some 1-800 number. I didn't pick up the first few times...just figured it was a solicitor that would go away. I finally picked up after 4 nights and pressed 1 so I could tell these people to stop calling me. But pressing 1 doesn't do anything. I don't want to call the 800 number but this is getting annoying.....every night.

The show went really well. I didn't know what to expect as it was my first time. I got a corner booth at the entrance. Talk about traffic!!! It snowed the first day so I thought attendance would be down. I saw more traffic than any holiday show I've ever done. It was great. There was only one down side to it. I had a bracelet and necklace ripped off. I got really busy on Friday with a group of women. When I finished with them I noticed one of the bracelets was not where I had placed it. I thought maybe someone picked it up and put down someplace else. So I went over the whole booth and realized that a matching necklace was gone. It's such an personal offense to have someone steal from you. If you want to rip someone off....go to Wal-Mart.

A note to Patricia...Thanks for reading. I use Teamac. They charge $7.50/month...better than $30.

Show Tomorrow

Took today off so I could set up for this weekends show in Akron. I've never done this show before. The vendors look good. About 6 jewelers, a bunch of children's clothes, some felted purses, a glass maker, painters, potters and more. I have a corner booth right at the door...great location!! Across from me is another jeweler. I usually hate that but she seems really nice. Her name is Tracy and she knows Kim who is another jewelry person.....small world. Across the other aisle is Michelle who works for the same hospital I work for and is the promoter of Gifts from the Heart Boutique that I will be exhibiting at this year. Two booths down is Donna who I have exhibited next to a Mrs. Claus' Closet for the last three years. If the show get boring I'll have plenty of people to talk to.

Because I have a corner booth I have to set up a little differently. I need some pipe and drapinig to block the view of the booth that I am next to. Since I don't have any of that I went to World Market this afternoon and bought a dark wicker three panel room screen and a three shelf bookcase that folds up. The bookcase I will use inside the booth to put my packaging materials, cash box and credit card machine on. The screen which will become a side wall of my booth is pretty large. It fits in the car just fine because my back seats fold down and the front passenger seat folds down. My worry is when I pack up on Saturday night...I'm not sure I will be able to fit everything in the car. I'm going to have to be really creative. Of course I also stopped in a Pier 1...love that store. They had wire dress forms...about 12 " high. So I bought two for my table display. They were an ugly yellow wire and meant to be rustic with some rust on the wires. I bought a can of black Rustoleum spray paint and painted them. They look so cool now. I always find things at Pier 1 for my dispaly.

I used Lou's Tom-Tom to get to Akron today...I call it his Dum-Dum. I'm really good at finding places. I am known as Sacajawea in our house. When I was about 9 years old I was in the car with my Mom and sister. It was dark out and Nancy was driving. She missed an exit on the freeway and I started crying. I remember thinking that I would never see my Dad again. Of course, my sister thought I was being a pain in the ass...something she thought I was quite often. My mom assured me it would be OK...but since that day I always study a map before I drive anywhere I haven't been. I don't like to get lost. Of course now that I am older...I just keep driving until I figure it out. The cool thing about the Dum-Dum is that if you take a wrong turn it gives you directions to get you back on track.

Got a catalog last night....Micro-Mark. You know you're a geek of one sort or another when you spend two hours pouring over a catalog that specializes in small tools. It is primarily focused on model builders and train enthusiasts. But there were a number of things that would be great for working with PMC and other metals. They had a small double sided strainer that would be really good for when you need to patina small items. It is a tea strainer ball with handles. It was one of those hit yourself in the head moments when you see something that gets used everyday and you realize you can use it in your art. They also had some great corner punches to make windows in sheet metal. They send out free catalogs girls so give them a look.

A Clean Workspace....Never Happen

I've never found a way to keep my workspace clean. When I'm eyeballs deep designing, I create such a mess. Beads and tools everywhere ... on the desk, my chair, the floor. Maybe that's a good thing. I've always wondered how others work. Can good designs be created in a sterile environment or does it depend on the person?? I also create a mess when I cook...which isn't very often...but I've been that way since I can remember .... I create a mess. I'm very diligent about cleaning up afterwards ... but when I in the middle of something .... total slob. I've always wanted to be one of those people who have everything in its place....but I guess that just isn't my nature. Maybe I should stop fighting it.

Here's a container full of Swarovski crystal earring waiting to be completed for the show next weekend. They're not what I want to spend my time doing .... but these are so easy to make and they sell!!! The shows are starting to line up for 2008. I have 4 so far and about 8 more applications to submit. The year is just beginning and I can see the end already as the calendar starts to fill up.

Hearts and Bones

A perfect day to launch a website and blog called Hearts and Bones. A collaboration between two young, talented mademoiselles....Michele Goldstein and Stephanie Sersich..... who make amazing lampworked beads and jewerly. I am envious that they found their passion so early in their life. I wish them years of success!!! Below is one of their pieces.

3 degrees.....sucks

OMG....it's 3 degrees out. The furnace is running constantly and my windows upstairs are frozen over....got to replace them next year. Driving home from work today...I couldn't get my hands warm. I was actually sticking my fingers in the heater vents to warm them up. I'm glad I have seat heaters in my car....at least my butt stayed warm. We are suppose to get 8-10 inches of snow tonight. That is more snow than we have had all year long.

Still working on things for my show in two weeks. When I get some time I'll try to post some pics.

John Glenn, anvils, and a great bead book!!

The hospital where I work brings in different speakers during the year. This week was John Glenn. What an amazing man!! He is sharp, articulate, sincere, and funny. I could have 10 lives and not have his experiences. He was a fighter pilot in the Korean War, WWII, an astronaut, and a Senator. He talked about his experiences in the space...both the first and second times. It was amazing the things they faced going up the first time. They had no idea if the shape of his eyes would change or if he would loose his equilibrium due to the effects of zero gravity. He had to read an eye chart every 20 minutes to verify that he could still see correctly. The concern was that he wouldn't be able to bring the capsule back successfully if either of these happened. He was concerned with an emergency re-entry. His flight path went over Austrailia's outback and New Guinea. Many of the areas had aboriginal tribes that didn't speak English...so he kept a piece of paper that basically said..."Hello...I am friendly...take me to your leader" in a bunch of tribal dialects. He said he wanted to take a space walk on his second time up...when he was 77....but NASA was afraid he would wander off :)) He pounded home improving education and continuing basic research in the US as a way to maintain being a world leader and to keep people employeed.

I'm gearing up for a show in a couple of weeks. Pumping out the earrings, bracelets, and necklaces....which is good because I'm using up my stock of beads and silver. Once the show is over I want to work with sheet metals. I went to Home Depot today to get an anvil. I couldn't find them so I asked 2 guys working there. No....they don't sell them. So....being guys... I asked if they knew where I could get one....they said to try a hardware store. Is it me??? I thought I was in a hardware store. Nuts, bolts, nails, power tools....doesn't that say hardware store to you??? So I'm now in search of a "hardware store" that sells anvils. Got any suggestions?

I got Stephanie Sersich's book today..."Designing Jewelry with Glass Beads". The book and her beads are awesome. I always buy beads from her at the B&B Show. Her hearts, starfish, flowers.....awesome. I took her Spiny Knotted Bracelet class a couple years ago. It's fun to make...not as hard as it looks....but it will take me some practice to make one them as gorgeous as Steph's. She has been collaborating with Michele Goldstein on some pieces...they are really amazing. So different than anything I've seen.

Every Vote Matters....a Poem by Tara Bradford

Tara from Paris Parfait graciously let me post her poem. She says it quite eloquently...it's time for change and time to repair.....


Yes, we can
exercise our rights
and raise our voices,
like magic at the ballot box
as we vote for change
and begin to repair this world.

Together, we can
rediscover justice and equality;
opportunity and prosperity;
the promise America represented
when she stood strong and proud:
a shining beacon of light.

Yes, we can
begin to heal this nation.
No matter what obstacles stand in our way,
nothing can stem the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We are one people; one nation
and together we will write the next chapter of the American story.

Yes, we can.
Together, we can bind old wounds,
tear down walls and find common ground
and unite, merging our hopes and dreams
for a better, more tolerant country
with liberty and justice for all.

Yes, we can! Si, se puede!

Yes, We Can

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation. Yes, we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom. Yes, we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness. Yes, we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes, we can to justice and equality.

Yes, we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes, we can heal this nation.

Yes, we can repair this world.

Yes, we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics…they will only grow louder and more dissonant ……….. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea –

Yes, We Can!

---excerpts from a Barack Obama speech after the New Hampshire primary
___________________________________________________

It's been a long time since I've felt anything but disgust for our government. I was moved by this speech and it gave me hope that we might be able to get this country back on track ..... not necessarily by the acts of one man....but by one man capturing the hearts of a nation and inspiring its people to greatness.

Are you collecting boxes??

Lou came home from golfing in Florida today. He walked out into the garage and asked ..."Are you collecting boxes?" I had 4 boxes out there from all the stuff that got delivered this week. I swore off buying beads and silver, but that hasn't stopped me from buying tools. I bought a rolling art cart to haul my tools around when I go to workshops. It will come in handy going to B&B. I also bought a light box so it is easier to do tracings of ancient coin pictures. That's the first step to making lentil beads with these designs. The light box reminds me of something that kids would play with ..... if they play with these types of things today . It seems like they are more tuned into video games and anything that is electronic and high-tech. When my step-kids were little they colored...but that was 15 years ago and none of them have showed any interest in pursuing an art now that they are in their 20's.

When I was a kid I used to draw and paint. Not on canvas but on poster board with poster paints.... the poor girl's way to paint. Unfortunately they didn't survive the years. I wish they had. It would be interesting to see if they were as good as I remember or maybe I'm not the Van Gogh I remember myself being. I was always browsing through what little art supplies our local stores had. When I had money I bought drawing books and paint brushes. I still love art stores. Dick Blick is one of my favorite websites....so many supplies. They have one down in Columbus which is a two-hour drive from here. One of these days I am going to make the trip down there. Art stores, bookstores, and the tool section at Home Depot .... I love 'em. Of course, growing up in the 60's I also made seed bead necklaces ...."love beads" ..... one of the fads of the 60's. That's when the bead thing all started.

I can't claim the 60's as my era. I was only 4 years old in 1960....but those years did create many of my early memories. For those baby-boomers out there....do you remember the fads of the 60's.........troll dolls, superballs, ouija boards, granny glasses, go-go boots, lava lamps, the smiley face, tye-dyed anything, mood rings, platform shoes and bellbottoms?? OMG...I'm old.

Obsessions

I spent the weekend cleaning my workroom. I have more glass and silver beads than I know what to do with. I can design for the next year without buying anything. If any of my bead suppliers are wondering why I haven't bought lately ..... that's why. And it's not like I've used up all the goods ones and only have ugly beads left .... I have some gorgeous beads that I just haven't worked with yet. I tend to be obsessive. When I get into something, I really get into it. I know some of you can relate. So I am only buying basic supplies until I reduce the inventory.

Below are a few pieces I finished up over the weekend. The first is a pendant from Mary Hettmansperger's workshop. The glass bead is by Michele Goldstein. Keep an eye on her website for her Valentine's update. The silver piece in front I split when hammering it in a doming block .... hammered it a little too hard. Finesse has never been my strong point .... but it seems to fit with the overall style of the piece so I decided to use it. I think I need to patina this with LOS bring out more detail in the silver. It's a bit flat.

I also finished up a bracelet. Beads by Robyn Knapp . I still need to hang some small dangle from the clasp. As soon as I get some more PMC...which is on it's way!!!...I want to make some mice charms to hang off the bracelets.

When I'm not using PMC...I love to use Thai silver in my pieces...and since my goal is to use up my inventory I will be using more Thai in the future.

Generosity of the Human Spirit

I was searching for some information last night on Yahoo's Metal Clay Group and I decided to create an photo album there. So I posted a note to let people know and have them take a look at my work. Wow...these people rock!!! They are so supportive and complimentary. Many have come to take a look at my blog. It has taken me months to get 400 hits....not that it's a contest....but it is interesting to know that people are reading what you have to say. Today....I got 100+ hits.

I have to say one of the best things that I have done is getting involved with other artists. I go to the Bead and Button Show every year and I have met some wonderful people and have a group of friends that I always look forward to seeing each year. I also got involved with the local PMC chapter and I enjoy getting together with them each month. The support and encouragement that all these groups give is amazing. The generosity of the human spirit is priceless.

That's Madame Secretary to you

OK. So at today's PMC guild meeting I became the secretary for our chapter. Wasn't planning on this....but it will be fun. It is a great group of artists. So many are going to the PMC Conference in July. Turns out I will probably go too. I only need to take 2 days off work. It is at Perdue University in Indiana so I can drive in. Mapquest says it takes 4.5 hours....which means I can probably make it in 3.5 hours :))

Yeah....I meant it to look like that

Here is a pic of the bead I made last week. When I took it out of the kiln it had this huge gash in it due to the presence of the cork core and that I didn't hold temp of the kiln at 800 degrees to burn it out thouroghly. What to do...what to do?? It was a heavy bead and I hated the fact that all the silver was wasted. So I took a bunch of the little clay balls that I had and filled the gash with them. It looks kinda cool....like little blood droplets coming out. I want to add a few smaller ones across the middle strip but I am totally out of clay. Time to get the credit card out and let it smolder a little. With the price of silver, PMC is getting more and more expensive. Here are a few more pics of pieces I've made recently.

I've finished reading The Thirteenth Tale. Good book. If you are looking for something to read...try this. It caught my attention right away and kept me going until the end. Haven't decided what to read next.

Things to do...things to do

Busy week. Signed up for Bead & Button on Tuesday. I was actually a little nervous sitting at my computer waiting for the registration to open up. How stupid is that. But I got all the classes that I wanted....fusing and cold joining with Anne Mitchell, color on metal with Debra Weld, and rings with Susan Kazmer. My first 4 days are spent with my long lost twin...Cristina. I don't think these people will know what hit them. Imagine me in duplicate. I think we have to be the only two people to get chastised by Celie Fago in the middle of a PMC class. I left a full day open to shop in the exhibit hall and hopefully find some time to put ideas to paper while I am there. The week is such a whirlwind that it will be nice to have a day to do nothing. Every year I go back I know more and more people. The first 2 years I made Lou go with me so I wouldn't be alone. Now it would be difficult if he did go because all my time is spent in classes or the exhibit hall and with friends.

Went to dinner with Lou's daughter, Rachael, last night. She brought Matty along...our 18 month old grandson. He is sooo cute. Everyone in the restaurant was stopping over to see him. She is trying to break him of swearing...at 18 months. He was playing with Lou and fell down on his butt. He looked up at Lou and said...."Fuck". It's hard not to laugh.

Did the business taxes tonight and trying to make my way through a pile of papers I have stacked up by my chair. Things I wanted to get to or read or things that I need to do. No wonder I am up to 2 in the morning. And to top it off I got the new Tool catalog from Rio today. OMG....it's like being a kid again and getting the toy catalog at Christmas time. I believe the term "Tool Whore" has been passed back and forth between Cris and I. I had to laugh because Mary Hettmansperger referred to herself as a book whore. I am one of those too. Tool whore, book whore, bead whore.....

I pulled a load of silver out of the kiln. Most of the pieces turned out nice. I was making hearts with faux rivets in them and they looked like mice...so I moved the faux rivets in a little bit and did make mice. They are really cute. I take some pics tomorrow. I made this really cool bead around a cork clay core. This was the one piece that I was really looking forward to seeing. Popped open the kiln to find that the bead had split open. Turns out that when firing around a solid core you need to ramp the kiln up slowly and hold at around 800 degrees for 20 minutes so the core has time to burn out prior to taking the temperature up. Who knew??? I found out by doing a search on the PMC group in Yahoo. Oh well. Shame though ... it's a heavy piece. I think I am going to line the split in the bead with tiny little balls of silver and refire....try to make it a design elements instead of a mistake. Oh Yeah...I meant for it to look like that.

How do you like this??



This is a Parisii stater ....translation...old French coin from around the 1st century BC. I've traced the design and I am going to try to transfer the image to PMC either by the tear-away technique or with a photopolymer plate. I have been searching the net for other ancient coin designs. I've found a few I like so I am going to do a small collection of pendants with these designs.

I found a couple of web sites that have some very cool transparency images that would work great in resin. The first is Crafy Individuals located in the UK. They have got a great collection of transparencies...what they call acetates....I love the vintage portraits. The other site is Tuscan Rose located in Texas.

My Weekend...Mine, Mine, Mine

I have nothing planned for the weekend. I love weekends like this...filled with opportunities. I got my hair cut today. I had Joanne cut the back short and angle down to longer in the front. It's short enough in the back to spike it up. Then Jennifer came over to drop off some Arbonne, which is a really great skin care line. I was having problems with some nasty breakouts....I'm 50 and I have acne...what's up with that. The Arbonne system that I am using has done a great job of clearing it up.

Lou and I went out to Border's in the afternoon...like I don't have enough books. I picked up Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. It was written over 60 years ago. I saw the movie with Joan Fontaine and Sir Lawrence Olivier a while back. It was Alfred Hitchcock's first American film. The book was on sale for $3 so I bought it. I also picked up Blasphemy. It's a new book by Douglas Preston....sci-fi vs. religion.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working with my PMC. I only had 1 package left so I am using it up before I order some more. I cringe at the thought. The price of silver just keeps going up and PMC has gone up $14 per package since I started working with it.

Weekend Workshop

There's a new teacher on my Favorite's List.....Mary Hettmansperger. Our PMC guild had a weekend metals workshop with her. GREAT CLASS...GREAT TEACHER!!! We hammered, cut, punched, drilled, embossed, textured, torched and twined copper sheet metal. We also combined it with PMC and fired it. Half way through today's class I was exhausted.

I took my splint off before class....good thing...with my clumsiness this week I would have probably caught it on fire. I ended up hitting my thumb 3 times with the hammer. I finally realized I should hold the small pieces with a pair of pliers while hammering...DUH.

Mary with Wendy at the torch

Vanessa, Brenda, Deb and Jen...all hard at work on their projects.

Colleen (VP), Cathy (Pres), and Mary Ann

Mary with Deb. Dulcie and Jan in the background.

The pic sucks...but here are some of my projects....they all need to be finished. Upper left and lower right we sandwiched extruded PMC between sheets of copper. Upper right and lower left are PMC and copper combined and fired. The other pieces are just some experiments with copper and color. I was amazed at the colors that you could get from copper. I think that was my favorite part....pulling the copper from the torch and watching the color spread across the piece.

Check out Mary's website. She is talented in so many things. Her gourds, baskets and weavings are amazing. And she is very nice and has a great sense of humor. The weekend was a blast. Too bad I have to go back to work tomorrow. All I want to do is stay home and work with the new techniques.

I seem to be pointing at everything today

When I close my hand I point the way, or point at someone, or point at the ceiling.

I cut my hand last night while doing the dishes. There was a broken glass that I didn't know about and as I stuck my hand into it....I jammed the broken edge into my hand. The cut itself is small...less than 1 inch long...but it was deep. It looked like the guts were coming out. I just bandaged it up and continue my housework. At work today I had one of my doc friends in the research institute look at it. He suggested I get stiches. So I was off to the ER...luckily it is just across the street from my office. My Doogie Houser doctor said that they don't stitch a certain period of time...like 6-8 hours. The risk of infection is greater to close up the wound at this point. So he put some steri strips on the wound because it keeps popping open when I bend my finger and we both agreed that a splint would help. In comes my Belgian male nurse to put the splint on. He started teasing me and suggested that the next time I decide to cut myself I do it in a place that is more convenient for him to splint. We decided that since I wasn't going to be able to use my hand that he was going to be my assistant...but I'd have to get him a blackberry. So he wrapped me up and I look like I cut my finger off. All this for a 1 inch cut.

The worst part of it is that I have a weekend workshop on metals. Should be fun to try to cut, hammer and file.

Happy New Year

One of the things that both Lou and I agree on is 2007 just flew by. Last night we went to dinner with Lou's son and his wife...Jason and Megaly... possibly the cutest couple I know...



and Lou's golf buddy and wife...Gene and Barbara....definetely the nicest couple I know. Plus Gene has the honor of being named Lou's second wife since he spends more time with Gene during golf season than he does with me.


And Lou and I....he just loves it when I squish his head into mine. I don't remember tugging on him this hard...but it's not unusual for me to get him in a headlock.



We went to Farenheit in Tremont. The food was amazing...fried goat cheese salad with a sour cherry tapanade. Steak over a gruyere and fontina cheese lasagne with a wine sauce. It was wonderful. It was an early seating so we went to dinner at 6pm and we were home by 9pm. I suggested we might stop at my brother's party...but then Lou reminded me that we weren't invited. So we went home and watched a movie with the kids. They left before midnight to go to church. Lou and I struggled to stay up ....we are getting old. He crashed at midnight and then I stayed up until 2AM reading The Thirteenth Tale. It's a mystery / ghost story.


Such a cold, blustery and snowy day today. The weather forcast is for snow through the week and to warm up on the weekend. I hope so. I have a metals workshop at the Chagrin Falls Art Center with Mary Hettsmansperger. I don't want to miss it because I can't get there. I took a twining class from her at B&B last year. It was a great class and she's a fun teacher.

Resolutions.....do I even go there? I make them and never keep them...but here goes.

This year I want to devote more time to my jewelry. I am in this terrible rut of coming home exhausted, sitting in front of the TV and not doing anything until it's time for bed...which is usually 1-2AM. So the key to spending more time on jewelry is to get more sleep during the week, break away from the TV and spend my time at my bench.

I want to eat healthier. Another part of my rut is eating too much fast food. On the way home I can't even imagine coming home to cook, so the car just pulls into the drive thru. I'm going to have to find some quick and easy recipies. If you have any....forward them to me. And hopefully eating healthier will lead to some weight loss.

So weight loss makes the list. Along with eating healther I need to start an exercise program. I pulled a schedule for walking off the internet. I need to work up to a full workout. This one starts with 10-15 minutes a day and builds you up to 30 minutes in a month and goes up from there. Cleveland Clinic is so large and has a number of skyways. I need to take a break during the day and walk. I get antsy at 3PM anyway so that would be a good time to take a break.

Spring clean my life. Get rid of things that I don't need (garage sale time), stop doing activites that don't contribute to the goals (I think I might have to quit my job...yeah....like that's going to happen), and stop associating with people who suck the energy out of my life.

Happy New Year. I hope it will be a good one.

Silver work

Here are some pics of pieces that I have been working on.



I am going to rivet this to another piece of PMC or copper to make a pendant. I really like the design. This came from a stamp designed by Teesha and Tracy Moore.



The front and back of a 2-layer pendant. A little macabre. Again...stamps from Teesha and Tracy Moore's website.

Prototype for some earrings that I am working on. I didn't know if I would like the design so I only made only one. I think now I will make a couple pairs after I perfect the technique of wrapping the strip around the lentil. Maybe some PMC that has been mixed with glycerin would work better for the center strip.

This is one of the hearts that I am working on. It looks better in person. I hammered this to pieces to give it a worn look....I had too...more on that later.

I discovered 2 things making this heart...a number of instructors have told me that you can use a butane torch to make the initial ball on silver wire, but you can't use it to ball the back side. Butane isn't hot enough and the piece itself ends up being a heat sink. You need a really hot flame to ball the back ...much hotter than you can get from butane. But I thought I would try it anyway. When the butane torch didn't work....I tried a propane torch. Still not hot enough. The only thing that I accomplished was to heat up the entire pieces and melt some of the enamal on my washing machine...which was the surface I was torching on. So if I want to ball both ends of the wire I need a propane/oxygen mix. Rio has a set up but I don't know if I am comfortable with having an oxygen tank in my house. This doesn't really make sense since I alreayd have a butane torch and a propane torch in the garage...so I might as well invest in a propane/oxygen torch

The other thing that I learned is that I can't rivet very well. When I couldn't ball up the wire with heat...I decide to rivet the back. Part of the problem is the heart has a slanting surface so it was hard to hold the piece the right way to get the rivet going. I did eventually get it to work...but not before I marred the surface of the heart....which is why I ended up hammering it to make it look old...to hide the marks I made by mistake. I need to get some help on riveting.

Readin' Fool

I've been a readin' fool lately. I finished a couple books.... Life Studies which is a collection of short stories by Susan Vreeland. The first half of the book has stories that revolve around the impressionist painters...Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir....but they are side characters in these stories rather than the protagonists. I like her writting style so I am going to read Girl in Hyacinth Blue next. It follows a Vermeer paining from owner to owner and tells their stories.

The other book is finished is Entre Nous: Finding Your Inner French Girl. I talked in a previous post about some of the topics in the post . The rest of the book talks about how fabulous the French woman is in that she throws marvelous dinner parties, prepares all the dishes herself using only the freshest ingredients most of which she grew herself, invites the perfect mix of people, plays the perfect hostess and has time to relax and enjoy the party. Did I mention that she's also finding a curing cancer and solving world hunger? At this point the book started to piss me off.

I did find out that I am very French in the fact that I live in a small space....my house is very small. When we were looking for a hotels in Paris...most of the reviews I read talked about how small the hotel rooms were and it's pretty much the same with apartments. Looking for an apartment to rent when I go back in 2008....it's not unusual to see a bedroom loft above the kitchen with just enough room for you to crawl into it. I've had 20 years practice at living in a small space.

But I did learn how to tie a scarf 3 different ways so that makes the whole book worth it cause I have been on a scarf kick lately.

Hope you holiday was a good one. I had 5 days of relaxation. No blackberry, no phone. My family showered me with books. We exchange names and I just handed over my wish list from Amazon thinking I would get one book from the list. I got 6 plus a DVD. I am set for the winter.

My mom got me Pollen which is a really cool book of electron micrographs of plant pollen. There is a companion book called Seeds. They are great coffee table books but better than that they provide inspiration for making metal clay beads. The challenge is to figure out how to make these amazing shapes in PMC.

My brother and his wife got me The Milagro Beanfield War DVD. It's based on a book by John Nichols. It's a story of the impoverished town of Milagro and their triumph over a rich land developer and his political croonies. Great book, great movie. Sweet and funny.

They also got me these....

Bedazzled: 5000 Years of Jewelry
Beadazzled: Where Beads + Inspiration Meet
Paris to the Moon : A collection of essays written for the New Yorker during the 5 years the author spent in Paris
Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl : Doesn't need much of an explaination. I'm half way through this one already. The basic ideas are to be a strong woman and true to yourself, buy classic clothes, and remember your roots and family traditions. The idea of living with your husbands indiscretions grates on me and seems to go against the idea of being true to yourself. I've told Lou a number of times that if he has a "little indiscretion" he'll wake up to find his "little friend" missing...Lorena Bobbit style. It also talks about how secretive the French woman is versus the very open American woman. The book equates secretive with being alluring. That's a hard leap for me to make since I am one of those people who lives life as an open book.
Water for Elephants: A Novel : A story of a young man who becomes a vet with a scraggly circus during the Depression.

Well...I'm back to work tomorrow and since it's 1AM...I think I need to get some sleep.

Have you been thinking about your New Year's Resolutions yet?? Back soon with some thoughts.

It's the Holidays!!!!

I don't have to be back at work until Thursday so I have a nice little break here. Both Lou and I have been relaxing these last couple of days. Turned off the blackberrys and pretty much disconnected the phone.

Went to dinner at Hyde Park Grill last night to celebrate Lou's birthday. Great food...steak with blue cheese, hash browns with onions and sour cream...makes me salivate thinking about it. Drank champagne and had a good time.

I put a load of PMC into the kiln tonight. After not working in it for a while, I was rusty. I needed to make a few pieces just to get the touch back. I made some pendents and some hearts. I have a few cool ideas of what I am going to do with the hearts...involving gears and rivets. Should be fun.

Tomorrow we will go to Mom's house. We eat, drink and watch movies on Christmas Eve. Then everybody gets back together for dinner on Christmas day. It's 2 days of doing nothing. It's nice...but we both go a little stir crazy. We are very selfish with our free time. We like to spend it doing what we like to do....for me it's the jewelry and for Lou....since it's winter...he will be writing martial arts manuals. We has 7 books written so far. Neither of our past times are easily transportable. So we end up taking books and magazines we want to catch up on...but you can only read and watch so many movies before we want to get back to doing hands-on things. That's why I am taking Wednesday off too. I can spend an entire day being hands-on before going back to work.

I'll post some pics when my pieces come out of the kiln.

The B&B Schedule is Out!!!!!!!!!!!

'Twas 12 days before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse (that’s cause we found him and his little friend dead in the ductwork last month);
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds.... Sorry no kids;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads....What the hell are sugar plums??
With Lou at work and I in my cap (cause I’m home sick with a cold),
I just settled down for an afternoon’s nap,
When out on the porch there arose such a clatter,
I stumbled from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash (after I tripping over the ironing board),
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash (with the way I feel we’re lucky that’s the only thing I threw up).
The sun on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave me a migraine looking at the objects below,
When, what to my watering eyes should appear,
But the mailtruck led by eight tiny reindeer (OK…there were no reindeer)
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,I knew in a moment it must be Pete..the mailman…with my copy of the B&B Show Schedule….woo hoo.
More rapid than eagles its courses he read,
He whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, PMC! now, Lampwork! now, Casting and Beading!
On, Fusing! on Felting! on, Resin and…..

Oh screw the rest of the poem….I have to start choosing my classes!!!!

Back to PMC

I finally got back to working on my PMC this weekend. We have a guild meeting next Sunday and I needed to make charms for our Charm Swap. I'd post a picture but then I would spoil the surprise. Now that the stuff is out...I will end up working in PMC for a while...or least until my current supply runs out. I have some new ideas for pendants that I want to try out and some new textures.


My workroom isn't big enough to hold a table to do my PMC, so I set up on the dining room table. No loss...we never eat at the table. We actually sit on the floor at the living room coffee table and eat. I don't remember how that started...but we just migrate there and sit on the floor. Strange.


We finally got a new screen door for the front of the house this weekend. We have been without a screen door for a year. I broke the glass in the bottom panel last November when I was carrying out one of my show crates. This is so typical of us. It takes forever to get a project done. So anyway...we went through last winter and this summer without glass in half the door. Can you say Hillbillies!! So we got a great forest green screen door with nickel trim...it looks so nice with the tan house. The installor got done and then tested the window panels that move up and down. The screen is built into the top of the door and rolls down when the window is lowered. Turns out the screen doesn't roll back up like it should...it sort of jambs up. The installor told us to call the company to report the defect. So the good news is that we finally have a nice screen door and it is solid and keeps the house warmer...but the bad news is that it will need to be replaced.


We actually did get a number of things done this year. New roof, replaced the furnace and added AC, replaced the screen door, had the roots snaked out of the sewer line and had to replace the gas line. And I am on a mission (poor Lou) to go through every room of the house to update and remodel. We've been here for 20 years and haven't done much but paint occasionally. It's time for an upgrade.

We also went out to the By-Hand show this weekend. It's an indoor art show. We stayed longer than we expected cause I know some of the exhibitors so I ended up visiting. We found a few things. I bought a couple of scarfs for the winter and I bought Lou some black martini glasses for his birthday. I also got a couple of Christmas kitties.

It's been so long...

since I posted. Seems like forever. When I got home last week I did a jewelry show on Friday at work. It went well....better than most of my other shows. We had a large crowd show up. I sold a PMC pendant to a semi-famous person. She is the author of the book "Miracle Dogs" which was then made into a movie with Ted Shackelford and Kate Jackson.

Last weekend and this week have flown by.... too much work to do at work, too many things to do at home, and always the jewelry is calling to me. December is always such a tense month trying to fit everything in and see everyone. It's about this time that I start dreaming of January and February....those wonderfully desolate months when there are no events to go to or people to visit.....when there is absolutely nothing on the agenda. The weekends then seems so long and full of possibilities. And the best is when I am the only person that decides what I will be doing.

Lou and I are perfect for each other in this way...he goes into his room which resembles a cave and I go into my workroom and we can spend our entire day like this and be perfectly happy. The only reason we see each other is because he has to walk through my workroom to get to his cave. And the reason he comes out is usually because he is hungry. If he were an animal he would be a bear.

More from Chicago...La Vache qui Rit and a Titty Lamp

A few pics from Crate and Barrel. First looking down at the escalator from the 4th floor.

Looking up through the ceiling at the building across the street.

The Holiday tree in front of the John Hancock building. Michigan Avenue is so pretty this time of year.

I found two other interesting stores. The first is P.O.S.H at 613 N. State Street. China, dinnerware, silver, glassware, and lots more. I ended up buying some laughing cow plates from France and a couple of glasses with the Eiffel Tower etched on them. I also picked up a box of 35 mini vintage inspired glass ornaments. They will go good on the small tree that I have in the house. Here are a few pics of the store.

The blue bottles are antique seltzer bottles from Argentina.

And sunny yellow La Vache qui Rit ...Laughing Cow plates. These were originally created in 1921 to promote Laughing Cow cheese in France.

But the best find of the entire trip to Chicago is the Titty Lamp. I found it at Jonathan Adler. A very hip upscale store...which makes me wonder what in the world I was doing there. I usually feel very farm girl in stores like this, but I couldn't resist getting a look at the lamp.

Oh my cup runneth over...and over...and over...and over. It's enough to make a grown man and a newborn cry.

I did end up buying a Horse Tray there. I am going to put it on the dinning room table with a candle and ornaments in it for the Holidays. After that I am going to use it to store beads in my workroom.

One last shot before we go home....you walk around all day long in these skyscraper cannons and then you turn the corner and see this....

I don't know what the building is...but I've seen several like it. The property must be worth a fortune...imagine the high-rise that could be put there....but someone had held out and preserved this house. I like that.

Does this picture make my butt look big???

OK..who took my ears??...where are my ears??? Oh My God...my tail...did you take my tail?? Hey...hey...does this picture make my butt look big???