Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is always my most favorite time of year. The house is just smelling so good with tasty treats cooking. We just finished with some sausage balls and lemon bars are just about ready to be popped in the oven. I also just listed some new beads on etsy..

I just remembered I hadn't updated my blog with the photos of the frog, lizard, and dragonfly from the other night.. Take a look... The dragonfly needs some work but I really am in love with the two others.





Anyway, I better get back to work. I hope you have a wonderful day and remember all the things you are thankful for.

Mega

It's All In Your Head!

Do you ever have something in your brain that you have thought about forever and finally after months or years, you are able to accomplish it??

Working on different techniques is finally paying off for me. I am sitting here patiently waiting for the kiln to cool but knowing in my head that I won't be able to see the beads until the morning. Finally have three years, I have made some beads that I had never been able to make before - A dragonfly, a lizard, and frog beads. I had gotten the frog down last week but the dragonfly and lizard I finally tried tonight. Sculptural beads were never really my thing but they are fast becoming an obsession.

I had gotten a sketch book and sketched out the beads earlier in the week and rehearsed the beads over and over in my head all week at work. Kinda like a surgeon does with an operation, I saw my hands making the beads and the steps I would take. My adrenaline was going just hoping that they wouldn't crack on me from the cold but I was able to keep them nice and toasty. They went into the kiln just beautiful. I sure hope they come out that way too.

So I sit and wait....
:-)
Meg

Inspiration

This weeks blog topic on Flaming Hot has to do with Inspiration - what inspires me when I just run out of steam or ideas.

I am primarily a left brain person (analytical, logical, a thinker), although my family would tell you I have right brain tendencies. I struggle with creativity. The arts that involve making wearable, useful art like sewing projects or jewelry projects I have always been good at. I think it speaks to my sensible side. Set me down with a basket of fabric and tell me to make something with it and it will take me weeks to come up with something. Tell me to make something to hold this, this and that and I will solve your problem and sew something right up! Beadmaking is the same for me. I sit in my studio and look at my 100 pounds of color and wonder what I can do. I have to have something that inspires my creativity.

When I first started, I used magazines and fabric to get me going. They are really great for picking out color combinations. My favorite was Martha Stewart Living. I am a huge fan of Martha Stewart and her magazine has some of the greatest color combinations. Very fresh, light and airy. Oprah Magazine is another good one for fresh color combos. I would rip a page out of the magazine and pick the three or four most predominant colors and use those colors to make a set. It was kind of cool to see how the colors moved from the page to the beads.

Now, a lot of the time, I get inspired by a new toy whether it be a new tool or a new press...Maybe it was a new shipment of glass that I just got in or some new silver. I love to shop and play with new things. When I finally found my muse again after a long hot summer of barely beading, the thing that got me going was glass. I have a large drawer of very expensive, rare, odd color glass. Some that has been gifted to me and some that I purchased myself. I put the glass in the drawer and oogled over it but never used it. Some of the colors I had never even used before. I just decided what good was it doing sitting in a drawer. It was really inspiring to melt it for the first time. See the new colors bloom. Try different techniques. It was very uplifting and I got a huge amount of satisfaction from it.

I just finished beading this evening and what has me inspired right now is becoming a better beader. I am really not trying to focus on anything but techniques. Taking one thing and focusing all my energy on it during the beading session. It really has me going right now and I think I will run with it until I get inspired by something new.

:-)
Megan

We have a new winner!

Happy Tuesday night.. I just got done watching The Unit. Boy I sure didn't see that coming. I liked him. Why do they kill characters off? I will never know. Anyway, we have a new winner for Sept-Oct. Freebie! Bobbie from Holly Hill, Fl.. I have posted the net freebie for November-December.. Since it is the holidays, I am going to do another two month freebie set as its pretty busy here.. Here is a pick of the new freebie set.. Made with lots of yummy, $$ glass.. Opal yellow, EDP, Copper Green, and Rubino Oro..

Anyway, I have a bunch of new listings on Etsy.. I am running a sale for the next week or so on all my new listings.. I have already sold out of a few of the items but I have losts more to list. With this cool weather, I have been extremely busy on the torch. I just can't resist the nice cool air. If it could only be this temperature all year round. I barely can bear sitting in my chair to do transcription on my work days. I just want to grab that computer and run to the parking lot and type in the great outdoors (or not at all)..

I hope everyone had a very happy Halloween and you are starting to settle into the fact that Thanksgiving is in a few weeks and Christmas is just around the corner. Time to get busy at least thinking about Christmas gifts. How many shopping days do we have left? LOL

Night everyone,
Megan

Happy Halloween!

Good Evening Y'all,

Just finished watching The Unit and Bones.. Time to update the blog. I just won a press from Mikes Brass for Glass.. How exciting is that.. I picked out the Drop Focal press so be on the look out for a new shape. A girl can never have too many presses.

Speaking of a new shape, I have had the Top Hat press sitting on my workbench for about 6 months because I had gotten it for a steal but I never picked it up to use it.. I am in love with the press. It is absolutely so easy to use and it makes a great foundation for a lot of other beads like the bubble flower beads below..

I also have a ton of focals that I will be listing. I have finally now been making sets but there for a while, I was focal crazy so I have lots of sheilds to list and quite a few Goddess beads.. Just have to get listing.

Anyway, I better get working. The weather has been pretty crazy lately. Internet keeps going on and off with each storm. Got to work while I can.

Hope y'all have a Happy Halloween!
Megan

Creative Admiration!

So as you can see, I have changed my blog template again. I just wasn't feeling the new background with my standard blog template, so I am going with this. We will see how long it lasts.

I joined a collective blog called Flaming Hot where there are weekly topics and each of the individual artists blog about the topic.. I haven't really had a chance to write in a non-stream of consciousness type writing in a long while.. So here goes (go easy on me). This weeks topic is:

Who do you admire? Aspire to emulate? Look to as the artisan you wish to be? In setting goals and reaching higher where do you find your benchmarks?

This is a hard one. There are so many great lampworkers out there. My thoughts are very different on this now after three years. When I was a newbie lampworker, I admired so many artists. Corina, Kim Neely, JC, Lori, Ever After, and the list goes on and on. I think as a new lampworker, you just can't help but admire and try to emulate other artists. You see their work and want to try to increase your skills, emulate their work, and try to be successful at it.

Now, three years later, I am not sure I want to emulate anyone. I also admire other lampwork artists for different reasons. I have figured out that if you want to be a successful lampworker, you can't make beads just because you think they will sell well. I just have to do my own thing and put it out there for the world. If people like it, great. If they don't, your not sad because your beads came from your creative mind and not a copy of someone elses technique. They are part of me and every bead that goes to a new home, is part of me. I don't think any artist will be successful if they are copycats because there is no replacement for the original.

I admire other artists now more for business sense. The folks that can make a living on their art. That truely is an accomplishment to me. Something I wish that I had the energy for. People that torch every day, clean beads every day, list auctions every day, and get up the next morning and do it all over again.

As for the artist I wish and hope to be, I have thought about this a lot very recently. I am trying to set goals for myself. #1 I hope to perfect techniques. Things that I have partial ability but don't quite do it perfectly. I am trying at each torch session to take one technique and work on it, i.e. dots, scrolls, length in barrells, hearts, etc. #2 To torch on a more regular basis. At least 5 days a week hopefully. #3 This is a big one for me, do shows. Get up enough inventory to do a show and get past my horrible awkward shyness and just do it.. and lastly #4 Promote my website and list auctions/etsy on a more consistent basis.

Anyway, those are the answers to the questions for me. Hopefully I made sense. Time to get to bed for me beadies..

Megan

Any opinions on the new design?

I have really been meaning to do this for a while. I had been told by a few people that my website was a little heavy in color...a little dark. So I sat myself down Sunday and got inspired. I had a bamboo photo for a while that I wanted to play off of and this is what I came up with. I hope you like it.

I would be interested to know what you think. So OLD or NEW?

:-)
Megan