Day 5 at B&B

Day 5 was amazing. I took a ring class with Susan Lenart Kazmer. She is the rock star of the Bead and Button Show. I can't say enough about how much I love this girl. Funny, energetic, and way out of the box. She can take a pile of junk and create a masterpiece. We made these towering rings and put them together with rivets. If you like creating found object jewelry you should buy her book. It isn't an instruction book but rather a book for inspiration. I have taken multiple classes with her and have always enjoyed myself and come away with new ideas and techniques. Below are some pics of a ring I made. I brought some etched copper discs with me and I dapped those into domes. I piled them up with ribbons and resin page fragments and riveted these onto a nickel silver ring shank that I hammered out. If you are not a fan of this type of jewelry...you won't like it. But I love this funky stuff and it was sooo much fun to make.




I bugged out of class early to get to the exhibit hall and help Michele Goldstein in her booth. Take a look at the pics below.

These are the beads that I picked up from Michele. Check out the heart bead....that's awesome!!

Color on Metal

BTW.....if you want to see amazing work with prismacolor on metal...go to see Deb Karash or Kimberly Morris. Also see Helen Shirk.....awesome work.

The Teacher from Hell

Day 4 of B&B.

Took a class to learn how to put color on copper. Color in the form of pigments from Prismacolor pencils. It is a fun technique because it takes you back to childhood and coloring. I loved to color. I still do :)). So this was a fun project in and of itself. The class combined copper and PMC for a dual layered pendant that is riveted together. We were provided prepped pieces of copper and a packet of PMC. Our task was to create a PMC backing for the copper, color on the copper and then rivet the 2 pieces together.

Content Deleted.....

After we got the info on how to finish the piece, Cris and I took off. We went up to Anne's classroom and used her kiln for the PMC pieces. We didn't want to disturb her class so we wheeled it out into the hallway. Picture the 2 of us sitting on the floor in the hallway next to a kiln blasting up to 1650 degrees C. I was waiting for someone to come along and bust us.

One picture to leave you with. Gotta love a lady with the fashion sense to have red and purple hair and wear 2 different colored clogs....purple and orange. She did have me in practically rolling on the floor laughing....but I was laughing with her...not at her....OK....I was laughing at her. But only because this will be me in a few years.

Have I really been here for 3 days....

It can't be. My first class finished today. Here is a pic of the pendant and necklace that I made. This project was so awesome.

I wasn't as productive as some. I finshed a necklace, pressure set pendant, a silver bezel wrapped stone and a few clasps. Others completed a second pressure set pendant. But I am happy with what I accomplished. I got to work with sheet metal and brush up on my sawing, filing and riveting. I also managed to burn a hole in the conference room rug when a hot piece of silver slipped out of my tongs and across the room. Just about took out Anne. She was fast jumping out of the way and fast at grabbing my tongs and pulling the piece up off the carpet. I now have the distinction of being the first student in her 8+ years of teaching to trash her training room. Woo Hoo...I'm a person of distinction :)))))

This is the amazing Anne doing a demo on how to fuse the multiple prong setting. Below are two pics front and back of a piece that she created.

And here is my BFF Cris with a mix of "aha" and "that's so cool" look on her face as she watched Anne fire the pendant.

Tomorrw Cris, Gigi, Henriette and I are in a class together to learn how to put color on copper. There are some amazing pieces that have been done with this technique. Then we have a meet the teachers gathering in the evening....another full day. I am already exhausted.

Later.....

Bead and Button

It's here...I'm here after a 7 hour drive. Hooked up with Cris who I have been wating an entire year to see!!!. Helped Anne set her classroom up and met a great new friend...Karen Elmquist. She is an amazing lampworker and also sells vintage jewelry and clothing. Cris, Karen and I have all been in Anne Mitchell's 3-day workshop. We are brushing up on our fusing skills and making the kick-ass pendants from sheet metal and natural stone cabochons. When I finish mine tomorrow I will post a pic.

So far it's been a blast. We have hooked up with Gigi and Henriette who we met last year in one of Celie's classes. They both live in Miami. Gigi is from Puerto Rico and Henriette is from Brazil. Sunday night we went out for drinks. I laughed so much I got a headache. Last night we had dinner with Stephanie Sersich and Dustin Tabor. They are teaching a master class in lampworking.

Already ran into Susan Lenert Kazmer, Donna Mehnert, Celie Fago, Jennier Kahn, Mary Hettsmansperger......all the divas of this industry....and they are all so great!!!! I can't believe I am lucky enough to know them all.

So far I have bought a couple of new hammers.....Fretz....one is a texture hammer and it is so cool. Also bought a ton...I mean a ton of lampwork beads from Donna. Her beads are so amazing and I haven't purchased lampwork for ages as I still have so many beads to design with..but these were hard to resist. Also picked up Mary Hetts new book. LOVE IT!!!! And I picked one up for my friend Brenda who couldn't make it to B&B this year. Bren...you are going to love it!!!! Bought all this and the vendors don't open until Thursday night.

More later along with photos of the crew.

Clarity

I leave town on Saturday for the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee. Sitting in my office today, it was very clear there are things that just aren't going to get done before I return. The big goal is to get 2 grants off my desk by tomorrow, but other than that....I am starting to have clarity when I look at my stack of work. There is nothing like an up coming vacation to make your priorities clear. As I got through the stack it is easy to say nope, no, never, nada, nyet....to anthing that is not going to get done before I leave. I love doing that. With each folder that I toss on the "when I get back" stack the weight of the world starts falling off my shoulders. So I'll have a week to enjoy that feeling before becoming Atlas again.

Unfortunately I don't have that clarity about packing for the trip. I have one whole suitcase full of tools. That is just about packed. I have a couple of loads of laundry to do before I start packing clothes. Not that my wardrobe is anything fancy....black jeans, black t-shirts, a few jackets and some sandals. But I have a tendency to clean house as I pack. I have to leave things neat before I leave.

My Mom and her friends

My Mom took me out to lunch yesterday. She brought her friends, Ruth and Irma with her. They are all in the 80's. They have know each other for a long time. Ruth and Irma have kids that went to school with me and we all went to the same church. Irma worked at the high school as a study hall monitor and Ruth was my Sunday school teacher. They hang out together as they have all outlived their husbands. They love to shop....Coldwater Creek is their favorite store. When they get sales notices they hop in the car and show up before the store opens so they can park right in front. They also love to gamble. They hop a bus and head up to Detroit so they can play the slot machines.....the penny slot machines. Ruth has a "friend" the last I heard, but Mom and Irma are of the same mind....been there, done that. They don't want to have to take care of another man in their lifetime. I sat and listened to them talk about their lives when they were young and raising their families. They had none of the conveniences that we take for granted. They washed clothes in a wringer washing machine and hung the clothes outside to dry...even in the winter. Mom talked about how she made our diapers ....there was no such thing as "Huggies". I honestly don't know how they took care of a husband/kids, kept the house clean, grew vegetables and stocked the freezer for the winter, found time to make our clothes, got involved in school and church. They are incredible.

It's my birthday...It's' my birthday

and if I remember correctly....Katie just had a birthday. Happy Birthday Katie!!!

We went to see Eddie Izzard last night....he was great!! We had 4th row center stage seats!! The show was ~2 hours long and he went non-stop. You can tell that his mind works in strange and mysterious ways to come up with his material. He talks about history...and just bends it and makes you laugh.

Today I am just kicking back. Plant a few flowers. Make some jewerly. Work on some PMC. Lou wanted to take me out to dinner but I have a cold so I asked him to make me a spaghetti dinner tonight. One of the best things I've done is to teach him to make spaghetti...he kicks me out of the kitchen when he does it.....which is OK by me.

Later.....

Why are doctors such asses???

Yesterday I had to Fed Ex a package to a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins. He provided me with the mailing address. Today I got an e-mail from him which started with ..."I told you to send the signed documents to my address which is clearly listed below" He continued to tell me that I left off the room number and the package has been delivered to his building that houses over 1000 people and that now he doesn't have this important document.

So.....being the person that I am...I hopped on to the Fed Ex site to compare the address I put on the package with the address he provided. He never provided me a room number. So I sent him his original e-mail and pointed out that there was no room and that the mistake was his. I also let him know that he was lucky to get the package because I left work so late last night that I had to drive it to the airport and practically put it on the plane myself.....well...not really. But the jets were parked right behind the office where I dropped of the package at 9PM last night.

I have a lot of doctor friends....but at times they are such asses!!! They need to teach them social skills when they go to med school.

It's a bird...its a plane...it's lightening fast

It's broadband. I finally have broadband...and it wasnt' easy. I signed up on line and the company sent me a modem. I scheduled an appointment for Wednesday from 4-6PM. So I took off work early and....nobody showed. I called about 7PM and the girl told me she would send the technician a flash message...but no call back. Lou called, Mom called, but no technician. 10PM the phone rings...it's customer service telling met the tech is tied up and won't be available for an hour. I started laughing....maybe it's me but I don't want a stranger in my house at 11PM. so we resheduled for today. Nice guy...showed up....hooked everything up but they couldn't activate it because they didn't have the modem in their inventory. After many calls and asking me numerous times how I got the modem....Hello.....I signed up on-line with your company and they sent me the modem. So the tech was told to install one of his modems. I was told to send my modem back and have them send me another one that is in inventory and then when that comes...hook it up...call for activation....and take the modem that he installed and call the company to have them pick it up. WOW....now that's customer service. Wouldn't it have been easier to just give me his modem and taken mine back. Too wierd. But I am up and running.....quickly. The real test will be been I try to upload pictures.

That was fast. This is Notre Dame in Paris which I can't wait to get back to this fall.

Later....

Why am I so happy??

I had to stop at Target tonight to pick up a few things. As I walked to the checkout the clerk remarked that I looked happy. I guess I am. I thought I was going to have to stop at multiple stores to find what I needed...but I found it all at Target....and a pair of shoes.... and National Treasure 2 with Nicholas Cage.

Plus....I am going to take Friday off for a 4-day weekend. Most of my time will be spent making jewelry. Now that's a Holiday weekend!!!

Plus.....It's only 10 days away from the B&B show in Milwaukee. I take great classes by great teachers, get to pal around with great friends from all over the country and I get to be creative....for an entire week. A 180 degree turnaround from what I normally get to do all week long...which is crunch numbers.

Plus....on Sunday I got a call from Michele ....she's so cool. If you are coming to the B&B show you have to stop at her booth to see (and buy!!) her beads. I am going to be her booth helper on Thursday when the show opens. Check out her website. Michele and Stephanie are going to be teaching bad ass jewelry making at Hacienda Mosaico in Mexico. That would be a great class (and trip) to take.

Plus.....I got into Celie Fago's bronze PMC class at the PMC conference in July. BRONZE...it's going to be so awesome to work in bronze.

Plus....my birthday present came today. Lou is in Germany but he told me I could open up the package when it came.....he got me a purse from Sundance. I love purses.....and he buys them for me on special occasions. This one is huge, a buttery yellow and the leather is as soft as suede.

Plus....we have tickets to see Eddie Izzard on Friday night. My present to myself.

Plus....I am just grateful to be alive for another day with so many things in life to look forward too.

Paris is On!!

I have found an apartment in Paris in the Saint Germain area. It won't have any grand views as it is on the ground floor....but....it does have it's own private garden. It has a patio with lounge chairs and a table and the bedroom is on the other side of the garden. The garden is treated as another living area. So I booked it. We will be going the beginning of October for 2 weeks. I don't think that I have ever been away for 2 whole weeks. This will be an experience. I don't imagine we will be bored :)) There is sooooo much to do in Paris. There were so many things that we didn't get to do last year. I want to see Versailles and send an entire day at the Marche aux Puce (flea market/antique market) in Saint Ouen.

Ah but that is months away and I have the B&B conference coming up the first week in June. I can't wait to see my friends Cris and Michelle. It is so much fun to meet up every year. Once I get back I have the Hathaway Brown Show in Shaker Heights. It will be a very busy month. Once the HB show is over I can get back to design work and just generally taking care of things that get pushed aside when you get ready for a show.

I have tons of things to do so I'm off.........be back later

O...O...O....Oprah

Oprah was in Cleveland on Monday and spoke at my hospital. On stage with her is Dr. Roizen (in blue) and Dr. Cosgrove (in grey). Roizen is the co-author of You: The Owner's Manual and a number of other "You" books. He is our Chief of Wellness and has been on Oprah's show with Dr. Oz a number of times. Dr. Cosgrove is our CEO.

Man...can Oprah talk. Cosgrove and Roizen didn't even need to be there. She talked about growing up in the church, her support of Obama, the school in Africa (and the lessons she learned there), and generally about helping people. She is extremely articulate. I'm always impressed by someone who can be completely at ease talking to a group. I'm always tripping over my tongue.

Doing some more PMC work this week. Firing up some copper/PMC medallions and stringing some more jewelry. I have to order some more rubber cords from Rio....I love these. They are relatively inexpensive which means you can stock up on them and not break the bank like you do with silver chains.

I have a bunch of stuff to take pictures of....soon. I am finally getting broadband. The equipment is on order and hopefully I will have it installed by next week. I can't wait. Dial up is just painful.

It just can't be May already

Where does the time go?? It's just a matter of weeks before I head to the B&B show. I can't wait to see my friends. I need time to totally disconnect from work...both my day and night job. It has been non-stop for months now and the show coming up on June has added extra pressure, so I can't wait to get away.

My drive to and from work takes me through the inner-city. On the way home the other day I came to a dead stop when I saw this.......

The intersection of Cedar and E. 55th has been closed because of a sink-hole. The drop in traffic through this area gave BAK a chance to do this.

Then...back in white-bread land...this is a photo of the front of the house with everything in bloom.

Gotta get back to work.

The Joys of Being a Woman

Ahh...the joys of being a woman. I had my squish-o-gram done today. This is my term for a mammogram. It's the one preventative procedure that women go through that is quick and painless...at least I think so. This nice girl....always a female tech... has to manipulate your boobs in between 2 plates and then squish them. It literally takes your breath away. I've had techs say "hold your breath" while they take the image.....What Breath???. At my hospital the images are now digital rather than film. I could see the images after she took them on a screen in the room. And they looked huge up on the screen :))

When you are old enough to get this done....it's like you've joined an exclusive club. When I had my first one a few years ago my mother sent me mammogram cartoons and friends e-mailed me jokes. And you can't explain it to younger women...it's just something you have to experience.

Pendants....and my second stupid moment of the month

The medallions came out beautiful. I could bend them around a mandrel if I wanted to....nice. So I have rebuilt the pendants, except for the ones with copper. And here is where the second stupid moment occured. I put the copper medallions in the kiln at 1650 for 2 hours. Not a good idea. The silver still had some shrinking to do and it tore itself in spots. The copper came out black and the fire scale is so thick I don't know if I can get rid of it. So I hopped over to the Metal Clay group on Yahoo only to be reminded that I should have fired the medallions with copper at 1470. I'll never make that mistake again. I need to find some copper polish to see if I can get rid of the fire scale. If not....who knows what I will do with them.

Besides firing and remaking the pendants...I managed to put together three bracelets and a necklace. Of course I didn't do much of anyting else. Once the June show is over I don't have another one until October. I can't wait for that gap so I can design rather than do production work.

I have been looking for an apartment in Paris. There are so many. The trick is finding one that I like...I am fussy...in a good location at an a price we can afford. There are some inexpensive ones, but they are so small. I looked at one today that was a literally a box for a living room with a ladder you climbed up to crawl into a bed. I don't think that I need to be that frugal. The trip will only be for 2 weeks rather than the month I would have liked. Two weeks is plenty of time to explore Paris...I just had this dream of losing myself in Paris for a month.

Stupid Moment of the Month

And the month has only begun.....

I made a big batch of little accent beads out of PMC3 to hang on the medallions and make bead caps. I put one in the dapping block to make a bead cap and it got stress fractures in it. So I tested the tensile strength by trying to bend it....SNAP. So I tried another one....SNAP. And another....SNAP. I was snapping them in 2 like they were made of balsa wood. I checked the package insert for run time/temp and compared it to the PMC3 program on my kiln. The temp was consistent, but the times were a bit different. So I looked in the Rio catalog for more info and found a little note at the bottom of the page that for maximum strength you should fire PMC3 at 1650 for 2 hours. Now I usually work in PMC+ and use the program on the kiln (1650 for 10 minutes) and have never had a problem. But with PMC3, the program on the kiln isn't sufficient. Luckily PMC can be refired with no adverse effects. So I have refired all the little accent beads and then are quite strong now. And then I realized.....All the pendants (pictured below) that I made were from PMC3 and I used the kiln program.....damn, damn, damn. I decided to test one of the medallions that I hadn't assembled into a pendant yet.....SNAP. So, I have disassembled the pendants so I can refire the PMC3 medallions. I will reassemble them tomorrow. What a waste.

Nothing But Pics

These are the medallions I have been working on. More my work and less lampwork beads. Inspiration thanks to Mary Hettsmansperger.

And of course I am still working with a lot of lampwork beads....because I have a lot of them :))

I meant to post these pics on Monday but I couldn't get my computer at home to upload them. It might have something to do with the fact that I am still on dial-up. I keep bugging Lou about getting something else. He runs Radiology IT for the hospital system that we work for. He can send a gazillion bytes of an x-ray as a digital image around the world.... but he can't get his wife something faster than dial-up. I could try to use my feminine wiles to get him to do it.....oh hell....who am I kidding there are no wiles about me....I more a bash him over the head type of woman. But as most women soon find out....if you want something done....do it yourself. So I am off to research whether cable or DSL is better. I can get a router from AT&T or get it through our cable company...although I heard that bandwidth can be compromised on cable if there are a lot of subscribers on line. No matter.... I plan to have something different soon.

Work Work Work Work

If it's not at the hospital...it's at home. I worked all weekend cleaning the house, doing laundry, and making jewelry. I'm going to try to take pics tomorrow. I made a number of ... what I call ... medallions. I just got some 3mm rubber cords in from Rio to hang them from. The cords are nice and thick and make for a substantial necklace. I need to make some additional accent pieces for the last few medallions and for a necklace/bracelet set of lampwork beads I have going. I'm going to try to do that this week.

I've finished doing my tracings of Parisii stater coins. The looked really good when I xeroxed the tracings. I now need to scan them and play with their size before I can turn them into textures plates. So much to do...so little time. I keep telling Lou I need to quit and do this full time. He just laughs at me.

And in my spare time I'm reading...The Private Lives of the Impressionists. It's focus is on Renoir, Cezanne, Pizarro, Monet, Manet, and Morisot (the only female)...how they started out in Paris and how they came together to form the Impressionist movement.

I'll post some pics in a few days.

Who Me??....Holy Crap!!

I've been so tired lately.... both physically and mentally. Work is just overwhelming. I've been too tired to do anything after work except curl up on the couch and sleep. But I think doing that for the last two weeks has done some good. Every once in a while I have this fantasy of just escaping from the world. Finding some cabin in the woods, someplace that I can just go to and "be". I think that's what I've been doing the last couple weeks....just coming home and "being".

I've made nice with the doc at work. We've worked together for 10 years...it was hard to be so upset with him. He was out of town for a week and we had to e-mail with each other to get some work done. The e-mails gradually got more friendly. It's a good feeling to be talking to him again.

In these past two weeks I have been contemplating giving up doing shows. When it comes down to it they are a major pain in the butt. Hauling all the stuff around and setting up/tearing down. Getting ripped off and dealing with persnickety customers. The idea of giving it all up is really appealing. And while I have been brooding over this I have let most of the application deadlines go by.... except for one. Today I got an e-mail from Ohio Designer Craftsman. I got accepted into the Craft Fair at Hathaway Brown. It is my first outdoor craft fair and what I consider to be my first real art show (vs. holiday boutiques). So all those thoughts about giving this up.....WHO ME?? I'm really excited about this. At 50 I'm doing my first art show. Look out Julia Child (she was 50 when she published her first cookbook). Besides...this might be a foot in the door to the ODCs Winterfair in Columbus. That show is huge.

So now I'm going.....HOLY CRAP!! Inventory is way down. I need to get cracking. No more laying on the couch for me. I've got to get it in gear and produce. You might be thinking...but it's 2 months away. Designing takes time and these 2 months are going to fly by. I'll start to work tomorrow. Luckily I have so much raw material in inventory I can work the entire 2 months and only have to purchase minor findings.

BTW....I've have no experience doing a tent show. Anyone have any advice or tips for a novice.....send them my way.

Costume Jewelry and Coco Chanel

So it's taken me a while to shake the funk that I was in. Nothing much has changed...going to work still feels like I am sinking in quicksand. I wish I would hit the lottery so I could quit....or find some bazillionaire who would supporting me while I explore and expand my skills and talents. Don't rich people do that...discover and support writers and artists. If ya'll know of anyone like that....send them my way.


So....my work has been referred to as "costume jewelry".... as in I don't buy "costume jewlery". Am I being dissed??? I always thought of costume jewelry as that cheap plastic stuff that you buy at K-Mart. Wikipedia describes it as fashion jewelry, junk jewelry or fake jewelry. Costume jewelry is jewelry that is made of less valuable materials including base metals, glass, plastics, and synthetic stones, in place of more valuable materials such as precious metals and gems. Costume jewelry is usually inexpensive, and often flashy. Its main use is in fashion, as opposed to "real" (fine) jewelry which may be regarded primarily as collectibles, keepsakes, or investments.


So I'm thinking I should be insulted. But I'm not. Primarily because I have no more rage in me....at least for now. I spewed it all two weeks ago. Also...if you do a search for costume jewelry on the intranet you will find that Coco Chanel is credited with creating costume jewelry. I know Coco Chanel created .... the little black dress, the Chanel suit, the perfume ... but I never knew about her life....until now. She was tough. She was born in the poorhouse and her mother died when she was 6 years old. Her father abandoned her to relatives. She went to Paris at the age of 16 with a millionare calvery officer. She opened a hat shop in 1914 and branched out to include clothes. She took up with a wealthy polo player in the 20's and also had a thing with the Duke of Westminster. From these two she was given jewels....which she copied and started her costume jewelry line. BTW...she turned down a marriage proposal from the Duke by saying "There are a lot of duchesses, but only one CoCo Chanel". During WWI she had a love affair with a Nazi officer and spent 15 years in Switzerland in somewhat of an exile. She came back to Paris in 1954 and worked until she passed away in 1971.


The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. ......Coco Chanel

Phew!!!

Thanks to all of you who commented or e-mailed. It's nice to know there are people that care and who are willing to kick ass for me. You girls ROCK!!!

I made it through Friday at work. Although I kept sniffling while I was sitting at my desk. But time and distance gives you better prospective. It's work...it's not worth this much heartache. One of my co-workers sent me an e-mail that simply put stated that you can choose to accept someone's garbage or not. In the future I choose NOT. What truely matters is family and friends.

Speaking of family, I picked Lou up at the airport last night. It's so good to have him home. We curled up on the couch for a while last night until he started to crash. It took 27 hours to get home so he was tired. As I write this he is taking a nap. Korea is 13 hours ahead so it messed up his internal clock. Tonight we are having dinner with my family and tomorrow I am spending in my workroom. It's a good weekend.

And hopefully I won't have any more tirades for a while :))

Pics

Half lentil beads

I've been going disc crazy. I'm going to use these as pendants for necklaces. I was on a roll and I'm not done yet. I'm so compulsive that when I get going on a design I make it in every variation of style and design. There will be more of these.

Below are some bracelets that I made. I am prepping the photos for Etsy.

A weekend to myself

Lou is in Korea. I dropped him at the airport yesterday at 6:30AM and I got a phone call today at 9:30AM that he had just arrived in Pusan. That's such a long time to travel. It would drive me crazy. He is there for a week for his martial arts. He will be getting his 6th degree black belt in Hap Ki Do while he's there.

I took today off and I have the entire weekend to myself...at least the next 2 days. Sunday I am going to my Mom's....but today and Saturday I am playing. I have the clay out and plan to work on it all day and who knows what I'll do tomorrow. I have so many projects to work on...2 days isn't enough. But I'm off.......hopefully I'll post some pics later.

New Rules

Where does the time go??? It's been a week since I last blogged. Seems like all I did was work. I did have Monday off. I ran errands. While I was out I stopped at a couple wallpaper stores to see if they had old books that might be used for PMC texture. Didn't come up with much.

I fixed a couple of bracelets...one was one of my designs. It must have snagged on something tough because the toggle was bent way out of shape and that's not easy to do. The other was a piece of crap jewelry that was probably bought at the dollar store. But it belongs to the daughter of a co-worker so I said OK. I think I need to get tough.... NEW RULE #1 ...I will only repair my own work.

I've also had people buy strands of beads on vacation and then bring them to me and ask if I would design them something. My work goes in cycles....I work in different mediums based on my interests at the time. It irritates me to work on something that I have no interest in....especially if they are ugly beads..... NEW RULE #2....I will only design the things I choose. My time designing is limited and I resent repairing something that I didn't make or designing something I don't want to.

I also altered a necklace that I sold at the last show. That's the other thing I hate to do.....alter my designs. I make designs that please me and I must do an OK job at it because I do very well at shows. When somone asks me if I can change the design, it's a little insulting....you know....like my design was only OK but the buyer knows how to make it look so much better. Would you ask DaVinci to alter the Mona Lisa's smile??? I know that's a ridiculous analogy...but really would you??? People will go into a department store and drop a couple hundred bucks on a piece that was probably made in some sweat shop in China and wouldn't think of altering it because it has the name of some big designer on it. But they ask a jewelry artisan to change their designs because they put a lesser value on it. In fact they should put more value on it because it is hand made....New Rule #3 .... I will not alter my designs.....I will make them larger or smaller so they fit they buyer....but I will not alter the design.

On tap for this week.....I have to get the taxes to the accountant, finish show applications for this year (already missed a few deadlines), and take photos of my jewelry. I want to start an Etsy shop and I need photos. I'll post them as I take them so you can see some of my work.

Basket of Goodies

I did make it out on Sunday to the Hollow Bead workshop. Surprisingly after 31 hours of snow, the plows were able to clear the roads enough for me to make it out. Unfortunately they don't plow our driveway. Since I took Lou's truck I made it out of the driveway easily. He on the other hand got my car stuck and the neighbor had to help him get it out. I didn't feel too bad. Lou doesn't shovel snow. He feels that we can just drive over it....and most times we can. But not this time. So when he told me he got the car stuck I just smiled and suggested that we need to get a snowblower.
Below is a pic of Barbara Becker Simon goodies (taken by my friend Brenda).



She is an amazing artist and her hollow form beads are just fantastic. As with most things....once you see the technique it is easier than it looks .... but in this case tedious. A lot of sanding and fitting and sanding and fitting. The hardest part for me was mitering the side walls with an exacto knife. There is nothing about me that says finesse....so I was taking chuncks out of the side walls....which meant more sanding, fitting, and carving. Surprisingly once my bead went together it didn't look too bad. I haven't fired it yet. I want to try a few more before I run a load.

I had the day off today. I never turned my blackberry on...still haven't. I slept late, ran errands, worked on some jewelry. I stopped at a few wallpaper stores. I'm looking for the old books that they usually throw out....wallpaper with texture can be used on the PMC. The one store had just given away a book the was full of textured wallpaper. I did take one book but it only had two different textures, but I'll give them a try to see if they are of any interest. NowI have to get my tax records ready for the accountant so Lou will stop bugging me.

The blizzard that ate Cleveland

My front door. The drift on the top of the porch is about 3 feet tall. It has been snowing for 31 hours and isn't suppose to stop for another hour. The snow is up over the windows in the front and back of the living room. We did make it out of the driveway today to go to the grocery store. That was about 4 hours ago and the footprints that we left in the snow....are all gone now.

We have a bench in the font yard. The snow was up to the seat early this afternoon....it is now up over top. We just keep looking out the windows laughing....and it's still coming down. Needless to say that I didn't make it to the workshop today and probably won't make it tormorrow. Hell...I don't know if we'll ever make it out of the house again

Did I tell you I'm sick of winter??

The week started out with freezing rain. On Tuesday I came out to my car to find it coated with 1/4" of ice. I couldn't get the doors open. After about 5 minutes I managed to get the passenger door open. It took about 15 mnutes of scraping and having the heat on full blast to get to a point where I could see out the windows. But of course that didn't stop me from meeting Lou down at Fahrenheit's for dinner. It was spectacular. A five course meal with wines to complement. All the while we were there it continued to sleet but surprisingly it wasn't difficult to get home. Also surprisingly after 5 different wines I wasn't smashed. Of course they weren't full glasses.

Now today it has started snowing....and it is suppose to snow through Sunday early morning. The are predicting somewhere between 12-18 inches of snow. I'M SICK OF WINTER. I have the workshop this weekend and I don't know if I'm going to make it, but I'm going to try. The drive is normally 40 minutes....I'm expecting it to take much longer. I've convinced Lou and it would be best to take his truck so I have a better chance of making through the snow. I'm also taking some clothes with me. If I make it there I don't think I'm coming home Saturday night. One of my the girls has volunteered to put me up on Saturday night.....a slumber party...I haven't had one of those in ages :))

If I don't make it...I've got plenty to do here and I can blog some more.

Did you vote??

Today is the Democratic primary in Ohio. I voted. As I was going into the polling place there was an older lady...~75-80 ... thanking people for voting. I think it's great she is still politically active. My mom is...she's 84. She's republican so we don't agree on who to vote for. I always tell her that my vote is going to cancel hers out so she should just stay home :))

Lou and I are going out to dinner tonight to watch the election results come in. We are going to Fahrenheit in Tremont. They are having a wine tasting dinner. We don't get there are much as we would like. Hubby and I don't agree on politics so the conversation tonight should be interesting. He called me a tree hugger today. He also said he was going to become a Democrat so he can have some of the entitlements we hand out. I told him he was entitled to kiss my butt. He's been entitled to do that for a long time :))

This coming weekend I'll be taking a workshop with Barbara Becker Simon. She is coming to our PMC guild chapter for the weekend. Check out her website. Awesome artist in glass and PMC. We had so many chapter members wanting to take her classes we thought we were going to have to draw names. I'll be sure to get pictures of the workshops. Saturday is clasps and findings and sunday is hollow forms. We're going to have a pot luck Saturday night and she will give a presentation of her work. Below is a pic of her necklace. It won 2nd place in the Saul Bell Awards.



I think I'm going to take the following Monday off. I am so tired after a weekend workshop. I'm getting old. Or maybe it's that I work 2 jobs. Or that I stay up until ~2AM. Last night I was up late getting my taxes ready. I closed out the 2007 books for the bead business. Now I have to do my personal taxes. I actually don't do them. I just get everything ready for the accountant.

I wasn't going to blog today but.....

When I got home I had two presents!! The first...hubby waiting for me on the couch and Susan Lenart Kazmer's new book, Making Connections . OHHHH ... what to do .... what to do. Hubby ... book ....hubby....book???? Hubby won. We went out to dinner and finally had a chance to talk, catch up, make fun of each other. We went to the bookstore then came home and curled up in front of the TV for a while. He was exhausted from traveling for the past 2 weeks. And I was the supportive wife..... "Honey, you are so tired...you should go to bed early (the book...the book)....no really... take a hot bath and go to bed (the book...the book). He conked out at 9PM and I dove into THE BOOK.

I haven't read any of it but I whipped through it from front to back. OMG... such eye candy. I can't wait until I get the chance to go back and soak up every page. I have a class with her this summer at B&B...a ring class. She is the type of teacher whose art gives you a whack upside the head and makes you think outside the box, outside the lines, outside your own reality. Her work makes you look at what most people would clean out of their junk drawer and see these pieces parts as beads, findings, and centerpieces for jewelry .... and it works ..... these pieces parts work as funky edgy jewelry. I have a hinged frame bracelet that I made in one of her classes....everytime I wear it people love it. Alright .... enough gushing. I have to get back to THE BOOK.