Here is a center view. See the nippers on the shelf to the left, handy. I use them a lot so it is nice to have them right there. See the beads hanging, they are sets that I have made over the years when I have taken classes. I keep each set together so that I can reflect on the tricks and technique of all the different talent that I have been able to spend time with. There are several little glasses with assorted stringers, a cup for dead matches, a cup of water. Little glass dishes with scraps of color. To the left I have a two tier tool shelf. I covered wood blocks and nailed a couple of metal trays to them to hold an assortment of my favorite tools handy. The surface are tile samples that I bought to decide on my floor, these were not the winners. Then I have a metal cookie sheet that has only one raised edge. Sett the rod rest at the back. It is a socket holder .97 cents. It works well. This was step two..

Spring Cleaning, here is the left side of my bench. I have a tall unit that hold my color. On my bench I have raised my Kiln to have the door at eye level. Under it I have a tile that can be used to warm "shocky" rods and adventurine chunks. See below the bench I have another storage unit that holds one of every basic color of my soft glass. That way I have it a hand with out leaving my torch if I need a second rod. See the outlet, I had an electrician come in and put in a dedicated line just to run the kiln. That way I can have music or TV on with out blowing a fuse. There is storage below and behind for sheet glass, umm maybe some day I will try to fuse glass??? See the blue can of mandrels, yes I do pre dip a ton of rods. I know that they will draw moisture but if I heat them well and let them steam a bit then heat again they are just fine. I do not have trouble with the release breaking my tip for that is to heat your class correctly then poke, pick or push. Oh I wish you could see my classes, way comfortable I will have to do a tip on that in the tip and trick section of my web site. This was step one of my spring cleaning.

Spring Cleaning.

I am looking at all the new styles of Spring Clothing. Umm.. everything is going to old colors. Creams, Oranges and deeper purples. The colors are different. I think this bead pulls the warmth of the cream Lilly's with ruby centers right out of the past. I'm going to have to clean up my bench and pull out the colors that have been tossed out of the way to see if I can find more of that old 60's warmth. I'll have to post what my bench looks like when the clutter is cleaned up.. Um

just thinking of it makes me laugh. There is about 2 inches of messy layers... Not the way I usually work. So today I Spring Clean in search of wonderful color.

I'm getting ready to play with ideas for my up coming class. Here is a version of April Showers. Sunday I will be playing with lots of good colors to see what will grow from in. Thanks for stoping in.

With Easter only a few weeks away I needed to play with spring! What better to say spring then with a new collection of Spring Baby's. Lion, Elephant, zebra, Piggy's, Cow and Turtles. They each have a little personality unique to the rest. I have sent a collection of bracelets to the Rouge Gallery in Medford Oregon. The beads will be going to Harliquin Beads in Eugene towards the end of next week. Have a good Spring and do something fun.

I spent the week end last week at the Eugene Glass School in the Cornia Tettinger class. It was great! I love Cornia. This is my second class with her over the years. What a wonderful teacher she is. So supportive and helpful to everyone she teaches. If you are a beginner get her book, it is like a bible to bead makers! If you are lucky enough to get in a class do it. For me, she gave me way too many ideas and tips to evolve my beads to the next level. The photo is a couple of the beads I made during the class. Just a little of what she was teaching. I even got a great aah ha on what I need to do to get my vase bead to what I see it to be... now all I need is the time on the torch! I only have a bit of time for my torch this week as I do have a day job I also love. I have been using the time to work on a few spacial things for an Artist Trunk show at the grand opening show at Firefly Beads in Springfield Oregon. I will be there this Saturday from 1-6. Stop by and say hi if you can.

Okay so I made a few changes and here is number three... I made the vase flat to try to get more of the clear glass to show up on the out side of the blue water (glass). The stems in the water did melt in a little too much, I will need to work on that. The bouquet is better, more full. I think that I will layer it up a bit more on number 4. I know my mom will love the final bead for Mothers Day. She is a non computer user, lol So I know she will be surprised!

As for today it should be so much fun. I will be taking a glass class from Corina Tettinger. If you are new to beads you will have to look up this very very talented lady. Here is a link to her site, there are a lot of tutorials that are interesting so take a look. http://www.corinabeads.com/

I will so enjoy the next couple of days.

Have a great weekend.

So here are the first two beads!

These are the first in my steps to getting this design where I want it to be.

My opinion, well although I am very happy with the beginning these beads are not what I want in the final bead. What I see and want to work on, is ... The water in the vase blends or is magnified with the clear to go to the edges. Not what I wanted. It is also a bit dark and you do not see the stems of the flowers. Next The bouquet is not big enough for the vases. The design needs to be double or triple the size.

Well here is the final sketch from my dreams. I thought that you might want to see me process I take. As you know if you have looked at my beads that I love floral beads. I will have to tell you about two amazing women who encouraged that, some time.

Anyway this was the image that I had to wake up and get out of bed to put on paper. This image was the last step in my drawings. The first few sketches were the process that I would lay down the glass. My next blog entry will be photos of the beads in my attempts to make this drawing in glass.

Cheers!

Second draft

So Sunday I had time to play on my torch. I worked out two of the beads I had the dream about. I had to wait until this morning to see them. They are not what I want. So I had sketched out a few more drawings of the bead with the changes that I want to make. So I can not reveal the bead yet as it is in mid design.