My brain is bursting with ideas.....

Well, after returning from working as a tech assist for Loren Stump for two weeks and standing and watching the students all melting glass (well, not just standing there of course, but you get the gist I am sure) I have got home and have gone into a glass melting frenzy!   I have been making murrini and beads like a steamtrain......  Some have come out ok, some NOT!  Its interesting that when you are working and not a student you really do miss out on some of the finer points of how to do things, I am of course wishing I had done the course as a paying student right now, but appreciate Gail at Goglass (www.goglassart.com.au) letting me work with such a great bloke and being exposed to a miriad of new ideas.  I feel frenzied to melt glass and try out new idea's .... always a good thing I am sure!

I made myself some of the 3D clownfish Loren showed the class and boy did I wish I had actually stayed to watch how he did it.  Mine look a bit more like a squirrel fish (those ugly ones with disproportionately large eyes) and then I forgot the mouth and adding it afterwards... well its not recommended lets put it that way!

 One good thing is that I have decided to make more beads using my own murrini.  It seems mental that I tend not to use them myself and yet I see the lovely stuff my customers make with them and drool...... doh!   The frog in the jungle bead above is the first bead I have used this particular leaf cane  on and I am quite happy with it - although the frogs legs are not very well done, it did give the green leafy jungle feel and after all that is what I was going for.

This bead is where I have moved on a little from my frog on a lily pond beads I had started on before going to work with Loren.  This one I applied a bit of yellow rose cane as a waterlily and popped a dragonfly slice on top of that.  I am loving the green growth on the side at the right too (based on ascidians, water filtering animals in the ocean) but I need to do more work on the koi fish on the bottom layer and are thinking I might make some koi murrini for them rather than a swipe of white with some orange and black spots.

I am still trolling my way slowly though the gorgeous work at the Bead Soup Blog Swap and there are some fabulous and inspiring pieces of art to drool over.  I figure it might take me a week or so before I get though, but I will read all of them.  I have tried to comment on them, but either through my own stupidity or the internet systems some use, can't work out how to have a say..... sometimes I make myself wonder I tell you! 

Time for the Bead soup to be sent off!!!

I am VERY excited to be participating in my very first bead soup blog party and I now have my swap partner Niky......YAY.  She makes the most gorgeous chain maille jewellery you have ever seen, you can find her here http://silverniknats.blogspot.com/.  The only problem I am having now, is the usual anxiety associated with swapping with someone you don't know and worrying that you might send too much, not enough (not likely to be a problem, I would rather overcater for a party if you know what I mean), its ugly, they won't like it, it just doesn't inspire them or even worse kills thier mojo outright..... you know, the usual exchange/swap stuff.... Ha ha ha ha!  Next I am sure I will be worried about doing her lovely bead soup some justice, goodness knows I can make jewellery when I put my mind to it, but this isn't just slapping some beads onto tiger tail, I want to really make something fabulous...lets hope the grey matter comes to the party with me and I come up with a great job!

I have just about got bead soup ready to send and could even have it off today with some luck, but in the night I had a brainstorm and now want to make a particular thing I think Niky could really use and have fun with (as an added extra that she can use whenever she wants to down the track sort of thing).  Wish me luck everyone!!!!

I have been working hard on getting my murrini order ready to send and have come up against a little hurdle..... my Frog Song murrini which is like a swimming little frog and one of the UGLIEST murrini I have ever made is sold out.  You might think this sends me the message that what I think is ugly others can use and make beautiful, but I find it hard to imagine making more of that ugly cane.... Maybe I should look at this as an exercise in self discipline, but these murrini look more like a frog that got squished on the road by a car than anything else to me.  Maybe I should make some dead cane-toad murrini just for fun.... now I like that idea quite a bit more!

I have made a few beads lately and seeing as I have been on a mission to catch up on orders, both informal and formal ones, I made ANOTHER belly dancer bead.  Why the capitalisation on another you might ask, and well... so far I am up to about belly dancer bead number 14 and still not happy.  This one I managed to reduce the silver glass I was using as her coin scarf and discoloured the side of her belly.......aaaarrrgh!  I shall have to get onto another belly dancer bead and I am sure that when I make one I think is good enough (its for a well-respected lampworking friend) I will breathe a massive sigh of relief for sure!

Good things....many good things

I just have to say that I am in a high rolling good mood lately. Things just seem to be coming together amazingly well. Maybe its just that after a long haul being crook, with the increased good health I am more positive and therefore drawing positive thing towards myself.... whatever is causing it... I am enjoying myself. I have two shops now stocking some of my work, one is a honey business that stocks my honey dippers which is great and another shop approached me to make them some florally pendants (our local florist). Seeing as I am really floral impaired, hopefully this will encourage me to put in a little more effort on my floral beads. I might add that in the past I have put NO EFFORT in at all pretty much, so more effort will be rather easily done. I don't want to even try to make those beautiful multilayered floral using dots lots of clever people do, so I will be sticking with the fairly basic and not particularly skilled efforts like these ones..... sorry couldn't resist popping on a frog!

Sorry about the doghair, the fact the pics are on an uncleaned mandrel etc. I think I might mask off the frogs and etch the base bead which could look a bit better.... oh well, they are about a good as its gonna get for mainstream beads with me!

I was stoked to also get the 2nd place at the Sydney Royal Easter Show which was really REALLY cool. Something nice that has come out of that is an artist spotlight with Kerry at Affordable Inspiration http://www.affordableinspiration.com.au/ (who stocks my murrini as well) with a giveaway of one of my beads.... that was really nice and great advertising to boot, ta Kerry!!!

On the murrini front I have had some real success with some crazy ideas (like the snowflake one) and have now done the shell for my turtle murrini - head and flippers will be done later today! Here is some of the snowflake murrini pulled down to 4mm diameter and applied to a bead. I did make a marble covered in them which I wanted to call a snowball, but made the fatal error of applying the murrini directly onto the solid colour underneath before encasing..... I should have encased in some clear, inserted the murrini then encased.... maybe next time!

A big Happy Easter to everyone, be safe on the busy roads and have a lovely holiday however you celebrate it. We are going camping and maybe a day at the beach as well.... YAY!