Follow Me to ArtFire!

After very limited success on Etsy, I've decided to move my merchandise to ArtFire - a new site for selling handmade items. I'll be able to list as many items as I want for a flat $7 per month fee for life. There are no insertion or seller fees per item. That's really great because you get to choose from ALL of the items I make, not just the ones I think will sell - which are often very different!

Also, according to ArtFire, their marketing team is planning to invest upwards of $7 million dollars to promote the venue and increase consumer traffic.

Please stop by my new shop today! I've just listed over a dozen new beads!

You can also register here to open your own store. Please use the link above to register. Use the link above so I may recieve a free account from your referral!

New Beads..

Wow. Two posts in one day. This has got to be a first for me. Anyway, here are some new beads I just photographed. Enjoy the eye candy!

Prayers for the little Zo

Hi all..

My little dog Zo needs some prayers. Zoe is my 12-year old Miniature Schnauzer.

She is running on 1/2 a kidney and we've decided not to go through expensive "heroic" measures to put her into the hospital for fluids/treatment/x-rays, etc. because it would probably add less than a year to her life and she could very well pass anyway. We have, however, switched her to a different food that requires less kidney function (she's eating again!) and keep her on an antibiotic that has helped her during previous bouts with pancreatitis/kidney disease.

I only pray that we have some good days or weeks left with her and that we will know when it is "time" so that she does not suffer. I always swore I wouldn't let her suffer.

So, God please bless my little Zo dog.

Just call me... "Darkroom Dangerous"

After literally years of experimentation, not to mention hundreds of dollars shelled out for equipment, etc., I am finally moving in a direction that I really like for photographing my beads and jewelry. For me, it has started to come together by using a decent quality tripod, a "frosted" acrylic cutting board, a piece of driftwood, and my camera set on MANUAL.

The pictures below were taken with very little lighting in my basement on a countertop I purchased to use as my jewelry workbench. On the countertop, I put down 4 small wooden blocks, then I put the cutting board on the blocks. That raises the board up and "blurs" the countertop. (I've also seen this done over gradiant paper.) Then I set the drift wood on the acrylic board and placed my beads and jewlery on it using sticky dots if necessary. Finally, I set the I set the camera's aperture manually (although it didn't seem to matter what I set it to) and let the camera do the work. After I imported the images, I did some minor touchup in Photoshop and... Voila! (Thank you Jesus!!)

New Fibula Pins

I've been hard at work preparing for an upcoming show by incorporating my beads with silk ribbons from www.jamnglass.com and they look great! But first, I wanted to show you a couple of new fibula pins. Please contact me if you are interested in these pins, otherwise, they're off to the show!

New Beads on Etsy

Hello friends! Just a quick post to let you know I've posted some new beads on Etsy. I'm particularly fond of these:

Boro Bead Bonanza!

For about two years I've been obtaining the equipment and skills necessary for making boro beads. There's just something magical about borosillicate glass. I particularly like using boro beads in my wire jewelry creations.

Average sized boro beads require a much hotter flame than soft glass. To get a hotter flame, I had to purchase a new torch and two new, powerful (and expensive) oxygen concentrators. Then, I had to build my inventory of boro glass.

I've taken two classes in boro, but there's still a big learning curve when it comes to putting it into practice. This past weekend, I invited an online friend from Ft. Wayne, Karin of IF-Designs, to come and share some of her experience using my personal setup. My buddy, Lisa Atchison of Touch of Glass Designs hosted the mini-class. Of course we had a GREAT time and made dozens of cool experimental beads.

However, I've come to the conclusion that I'm just going to have to roll up my sleeves and devote some concentrated time to adjusting to boro. Sometimes all the coaching in the world is no substitute for experience.

Here are some pictures from the weekend for your enjoyment.