Just a coincidence?

I opened my latest issue of PEOPLE magazine (my intellectual reading for the week) to a full page ad for the Grammys.

Why is this a big deal?

Well, splashed across the page was the phrase

MUSIC IS LIFE IS MUSIC

Which just so happens to be the very phrase *I* came up with in 2005 and had engraved on the back of my iPod.

Absolutely true and I'll take a pic of the pink mini tomorrow to prove it.

Think I can sue them for copyright infringement?

didn't think so.

Been a long time gone

I see it's been nearly a year since I have blogged anything at all. Not much has happened in that time. Nothing new and noteworthy anyway.

One thing I am doing is closing down my website the end of March. It just sits there, wasting money and now I have a store at Artfire so why pay for both? Plus I have had almost no sales from the website so what's the point?

I'm gearing up to go back to work now that the Arctic Express seems to be done for this winter. It's a little difficult to torch when the temp in the studio is 50 and one has to leave the door open a crack for ventilation purposes and it's 20 below OUTSIDE. brrrrrrrrr.

I have lots of new ideas rattling around in my head but it's going to take a while to get to those. I've decided to focus my initial efforts on encased florals. And those take time and practice because I haven't done them in a couple of years.

On another note, the AGLF (Artisans and Glassworkers Legal Fund) has had rousing success raising funds for our fight against that spurious, ridiculous lawsuit. We have done RBoG (random bags of glass) patterned after Woot's great succes with their random bag o'crap (it was never crap, btw as I bought a couple. Always good stuff but not necessarily anything I could use or wanted).

Last month I sent out sample baggies of frit, cell phone lariats, sample baggies of ceramic beads and some other stuff. This month? Well I haven't mailed them out yet so I'm not tellin'.

As a matter of fact, that's where I'm headed next. Gotta pack those puppies up and get them in the mail. Got the list of buyers last night so it's off to work.

With luck, I'll have something new to post and not next year!

In the meantime, here's Three demanding to know why he can't get on my lap.

Busy busy busy

I actually have been so busy working (and playing on FB, I'll be honest) that I haven't had much time to post here. I had a great flurry of sales on ebay which had me so excited I just got back to work nearly full time.

Of course it didn't last and now I'm just spending money to put stuff on ebay that gets basically no hits. And hubby wonders why I get frustrated and stop working.

I did make a few beads yesterday so have to get them cleaned. I'd planned on doing some florals today but it's noon and I haven't even gotten dressed yet and need to run to town. Sometimes being retired isn't such a good thing.

Anyway, I have a few auctions for the rest of this week and then that will be it until we get back from Florida on the 5th. I'll be taking my kindle with me for the trip as it's going to be about 6 hours in the air. I've got lots on it to read so I surely won't get bored.


Even though we have a house sitter lined up I'm sure the cats will NOT be happy with us as the new kid still is trying to make friends with Missy and she refuses to have anything to do with him.

On a happy note, AVATAR will be released on Thursday and I'm going to be first in line to grab a copy. Cannot wait!

It's not lack of desire ...

I've been spending less and less time at the torch this past winter partly because of FaceBook, FarmVille, etc but there's an underlying cause I have been trying to deny.

I have been slowly, over the last several years, been experiencing loss of strength in my hands and this winter the middle joint of my middle finger on my left hand swelled to nearly half again normal size and the pain has been just awful. I finally broke down and bought one of the paraffin spa things which I luckily found online at Target. I don't know that it helped much. I also started taking big doses of ibuprofen until I was reminded that the stuff erodes your cartilage faster than the arthritis. So I stopped that and began taking 500mg aspirin caplets. Since the cold weather has finally begun to ease back the pain has lessened but a couple of days ago it flared up again.

The good news, and there does seem to be some, is that by working, the pain generally lessens. I suspect it's close exposure to the heat thrown off by the torch. Also, even when the pain is bad, turning the mandrel isn't a big problem. Hanging onto it could be ... I'm waiting for the day I drop a hot bead onto my lap. Maybe I should get a leather apron, just in case.

All whining aside, I'm also finding that once I make myself sit down and fire up the torch I don't want to quit. I LOVE what I do even if it isn't "art." I'm happy to be able to do craft.

I would like to hear from my customers on a number of different things. What colors are you looking for? How many beads do you WANT in a set (I just arrived at 6 as an out-of-the-hat number. I really prefer doing odd numbered sets but ???)? What sizes? What shapes? So post a reply here and get an entry for the April bead giveaway. Fan my Facebook page and get an entry. Buy a set of beads from ebay or my Etsy shop and get an entry.

And now it's time to get off the computer and go clean all the beads I made yesterday ...

There's a cat on my lap and he won't move!

Joey warned me about Three. He said once Three got onto my lap he wouldn't leave. How right he was. Not only that but he likes to help me with my typing and surfing. I've dumped him off 4 times this morning and he's baaaa-aack.

We are so lucky he is such a sweetheart. For those of you who don't know, he was either a stray or a straight feral cat who showed up on our deck last Fall looking for a handout. His name came about because he was the third black cat in a row to adopt us. I'm sure the first two met with bad ends.

Long story short, in November a cougar showed up on the deck (see previous posts for pics). Three was lounging on his little cat blanket enjoying the sun when the CAT showed up. I managed to distract the cougar with a blast from my handy air horn long enough for Three to escape.

I borrowed a trap from a friend and the day after Thanksgiving caught Three (finally!). It's been a long, slow acclimation for him. He's still a nervous little boy (I think he's about year old) but he's happy as can be with his new home and shows no sign of ever wanting to go back outside. So here he sits, curled up on my lap, head on my arm as I try to type this. He refuses to budge.

On to the beady side of things. I have 5 completed and ready-to-list sets for Etsy and 4 more waiting to be cleaned and photographed. I have to get off the computer and get to work because I'll be stopping today at 2:00 for an appointment. Dentist tomorrow at 1PM which is going to limit torch time to probably zero, lunch with a friend on Thursday (haven't seen her for months) so it's a good thing I have a few sets ahead.

Here's a quick preview:

Bead Release

So today's rant has to do with bead release. I just HATE it when I've not done anything for a while (in this case 2 months) and I open my jar of bead release to discover -- it's drying out.

Sure all you have to do is add a little water and stir. First is how MUCH water. I know the folks who make the stuff say things like "it should be the consistency of a thick milkshake" but do they mean that frozen glop you get at the local fast food joint or do they mean like a real old-fashioned milkshake or malt made with real ice cream, milk and flavors? They really are two different things.

Secondly is the stir part. OK I'm getting old(er) and have the beginnings of arthritis in my hands. I don't have the grip strength I once had. But still.

As I was wrestling with the heavy mandrel and the thickened bead release this morning I found myself wondering if one of those stick blenders would do the trick. Probably, I thought then looked at the jar. But it won't fit in this thing. Too bad it would be such a mess to dump it into a blender (which I had sitting on the shelf and had bought specifically for using in the studio. I think I tossed it. I'll have to go look), add water and hit puree. jeez. This is such a PITA WHY do I do this?

I put the lid on tight, turn the jar upside down, store it in a plastic bag. And it STILL dries out. And before you tell me I should just buy a smaller jar, I only have the pint sized one. whine. It may not even be that much. Robin Foster didn't specify on the label (that's how old the stuff is ... she sold the biz quite a while back).

Well anyway. the mandrels are dipped and just for the record I added too much water (you know like an extra milliliter? 2 drops too many? That's all it takes and your release just rolls down the side of the mandrel) so I fast dipped 'em in the hope enough will stick to the metal I can get my beads made today.

I put up 3 new sets in my Etsy store 2 days ago. Today I"m making easter eggs. This should be fun!

Moving back into the work groove

I've been avoiding my studio for a couple of months now and decided today is the day to get back in there and get moving. First order of business is to clean off my desk. I've been tending to my Etsy store from my "fun" desk in our "computer room" and the result is burgeoning chaos on and around that desk. I swore I was not going to bring my beady stuff into the house and here I am, dragging it in bit by bit.

So today it goes back to the studio where it belongs and I'm going with it. After all, the entire reason I kept my PowerPC MacMini was to have computer/internet access out THERE so I could keep my piles of stuff separate.

Oh, and btw, I am not a packrat. I'm just tremendously visual and I NEED to keep my stuff out where I can keep an eye on it otherwise I forget I have it. Literally. Hubby does not understand this at all. For me, out of sight, out of mind is a LITERAL truism.

However, just to clarify, I do not have stacks and stacks of STUFF (have you watched HOARDERS on A&E? OMG. I had to quit because it was just about making me ill.) I have a few small stacks and when asked to find something can go right to it. THAT'S the problem with being right brained and visually oriented. ah well.

I've been doing a few listings daily in my Etsy store and have evidently hit the right price point because I've sold nearly a dozen sets in 2 days time. Yay! I have quite a few more sets to list and will be making more in the next day or so. I have Amy's egg press and am just itching to try it out. I have all kinds of ideas for easter egg sets.

I was over at Frantz's Art Glass website drooling over the sale prices on glass and had to drag myself away. I have LOTS of glass. Lots and LOTS of glass and don't need to order more except, soon, the basics like clear, white and black. It's difficult because the darned stuff is to tempting. But I have only made one car payment. When I took the money out of savings to get my van I promised I would pay back every dime and that was last July. I made ONE payment. So that has got to come first. sigh. It's so difficult acting like a grownup. Even at my age.

Time to get to work. Off to do a few listings in my Etsy store and then out to clean my desk and really get back to work!