New beads for show

 Midnight

Over the Mountain, side one above and side two below.

These are a couple of new beads I have made for the upcoming Nanaimo Professional Craft Fair on November 4 - 6.  I am sooooo not ready!!   I have quite a lot of beads made, but I have to get them all made into jewelry.  As some of you know, I am not thrilled by making jewelry.  Fortunately I have a fairly good selection of nice chain, so I think most of the focals will be made up into pendants, and hung on a chain.  So on that note, I had better go and park myself in front of my jewelry making desk.

To see what I was up to yesterday, click here.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Home from the bead show

 It was a great weekend - except for the fact that my bad back decided to act up Friday night and Saturday morning.  However with the help of my booth partner Judy Baun, I was able to get through it - thanks Judy!!  Sales were a little bit better than last year, which is always a good thing.  Judy had her vintage cutlery bracelets there along with her beads, and I had my polymer buttons and my glass beads.
Here is a picture of our combined booth - a fairly simple set up, but I like the rust cloth.  I am not too thrilled with the ivory coloured risers, but they serve as a great place to hide all our assorted bits and pieces.

On our left was Eugenia Chan and her incredible metal work click here.  I just had to purchase one of her incredible key fobs.   

To the left of Eugenia was Judy Mackenzie with her Kazuri beads click here.

To our right was Glenda Tyski.  Glenda used to live in Nanaimo until last January when she moved to Mission.  I now have Glenda's spot at the Nanaimo Friday Farmer's Market - small world.  To see Glenda's work click here

We had a great time, and Judy only steered me wrong once or twice - lol (we were staying with friends and she was the navigator, and I was the driver.)

The quality of the work in the show was absolutely fantastic - I only wish I had more money to spend - as it was, I spent probably nearly as much as I made.

Over the next few days I will be posting photos of  the other lampworkers that were at the show on my other blog - Vancouver Island Fireflies. click here

I am now back at the torch madly making beads, as I have two more shows to get ready for.

Have a good week!

This Weekend - the Fraser Valley Bead Show

Our booth from last year - 2010

It's almost time for the fall Fraser Valley Bead Show.  Judy Baun and I will have a booth again this year - we have changed our table design somewhat from last years layout and colours.  I will try to remember to take a photo after we are set up and put it here on the blog next week.

The FVBS is held  at the Cascades Casino/Convention Center, 20393 Fraser Hwy, Langley, B.C.,  Friday Nov 21st to Sunday Nov 23rd.  The show times are 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm on Friday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm on Saturday, and 10:00 am - 5:00 pm on Sunday.  Check out the great classes available here.  Everything from stacking rings and metal clay rings to all kinds of bracelets and necklaces to fold forming, enameling, soldering, resin and etching - that's a lot of classes, and there is sure to be something to interest you.

Judy and I will both have some new items at the show, and I will have a show special:  one of my poppy disc flowers with 2 leaves of your choice for $12.00!!

Sure hope you can make it - it's a great show, and we would love to see you!

"Harvest", beads for the FVBS

I love the colours of Fall, and I must say that it is my favourite season.  The rich browns, olives and burgundys make me think of frosty days to come with the wood stove going and a mug of hot chocolate (or herb tea if I am on one of my perpetual diets - lol).

These four sets of "Harvest" beads are ready for the Fraser Valley Bead Show which starts in just over one week - and no, I am no where near ready. To check out the location and times of the show, click here.  They have some great classes as well.

I'm not sure why the orange is so bright in some of the beads - it really isn't!  In reality it is more of a pumpkin colour.

Have a great weekend!

Copper Bails for Disc Type Beads

I have finally figured out how to hang disc type beads without them wobbling back and forth.  Thanks to the ladies who commented on a previous post, and got my brain thinking in the right direction.

This first picture shows the front of the finished piece.  The disc bead has been attached to the bail, and then I have slipped a rubber tubing neck cord through the hole/channel.  I have also made some smaller channeled ones that will be great for a finer leather cord that I have.

The second photo shows the back of the finished piece, and gives you an idea of how I attached the disc bead and the danglies.

The third and last photo shows the bails I made from sheet copper before being attached to the disc.  I think these will work perfectly with the poppy disc flowers that I made too.

Thank you to all of you who made me think outside the box to figure this out!

To all my Canadian followers - hope you are having a great Thanksgiving weekend.  I am cooking today's dinner/feast - ham, yam and potato bake, carrots from our garden, and sprouts in lemon sauce.  Dessert is baked apples from one of our trees with vanilla ice cream (of course).



Misty Cedars - glass tree focal bead.

One of my "Room With a View" style beads called Misty Cedars (artistic license on the tree form).  I really like these pseudo scrimshaw type beads, and someday I plan on exploring other subjects besides cedar trees.

Well, it is out to the studio for me - only two weeks until the  Fraser Valley Bead Show and I am very much behind in my bead making.  Then I have two more shows after that - yikes!

Glass Bead Headpins

Let me tell you - those are a royal PITA to make!!  I started out wiring the pieces of wire that I wanted to make the headpins out of to a regular glass bead making mandrel. Well that doesn't work very well, because when you put them in the kiln they just slide out with the weight of the mandrel.  My kiln is very short from front to back, and is made so that the mandrel sticks out of the door.  Usually this is not a problem, as the beads I make are heavy enough to keep the mandrel inside the kiln - also there is a part of the mandrel sticking out in front of the bead that pokes through a perforated piece of metal in the back of the kiln.  So I decided to cut very long pieces of wire and just hold them.  Did you know it is nearly impossible to get 20 gauge wire to be absolutely straight?  So here I am trying to roll the wire around between my fingers, as you would a mandrel, and it is just waving all over the place - grrr!!!  It was a real comedy of errors to see.  I finally managed to get enough glass on the end of the wire withoug burning off the wire (which was realy easy to do), and get them into a rough semblance of a round.  I am not sure if I will take these to the bead show, or will just use them for myself - because I sure won't be making any more.  I now have a profound respect for those bead makers who are making these on a regular basis.



Two New Floral Glass Lampwork Beads

Two new florals for the Fraser Valley Bead show.  The first one is a Sunflower on a base of Reichenbach Antique Green - a very expensive glass, with not much to show for itself.  I like it, but not at the price they are asking - it has what looks like minute bubbles and a sparkle of some sort inside.  Pretty, but I think I will just stick with a pale green Effetre glass next time.

The second flower I can't remember the name of - someone help me.  For some reason I keep wanting to call it an Echinacea flower?

"A Frosty Morning" Lampwork Tree Bead

It won't be long before it looks like this outside in the morning - brrrrr!!!  I'm making a few of these to add to the collection of tree beads that I will be taking to the Fraser Valley Bead Show on October 21 -23.

My daughter - the computer techie - said I had to make my titles a little more "search" friendly.  So that is why I didn't just title this post "A Frosty Morning". She told me that if people were searching for glass tree beads they certainly wouldn't find it the way I had wanted to title it.  Actually to be honest, she didn't say anything about this post, but she made comments about my previous posts.  She looks after me - it's great!

A new blog!

I belong to a group of lampworkers (glass bead makers) called Vancouver Island Fireflies.  I have been thinking lately of starting up a blog dedicated to our little group - reporting on such things as our meetings, tutorials, profiles of our members, and anything of possible interest to the group.

Here is a link to the blog for anyone who might be interested to follow our little band of glass melters. Vancouver Island Fireflies

Have a great weekend everyone.