"The Brass Section" Breaking A Creative Block

Wow, it's been a long week for me. I have had the flu for two weeks and am just getting over it. Not only did it seem to suck the energy from my physical body, it also seemed to bruise my ability to be creative at the torch. Normally, I bounce on the balls of my toes as I make my way to my studio. . . My mind filled with excitement and ideas. Lately, it has felt more like I am walking the green mile or something. It's cold in my studio basement. . .Dark, dusty, musky and creepy. NOT a place one wants to be when they don't feel well.

After days of working at my torch, feeling lower than low due to the substandard beads that I had been making, I finally had an inspiration. . .It was my husband's old trumpet. It sat quietly in the corner of our bedroom on an antique chair that I had reupholstered with an Italian sage damask fabric, and deep indigo and antique gold fringe. It is a beautiful arrangement, but not one that I had ever paid much attention to.

On Tuesday, I carried the idea down the torch with me and my latest set, "The Brass Section" was born.

A pressing situation. . .

Over the holidays I received four new presses from Cattwalk designs. . .The graduated lentil, one inch lentil, chunky lentil and the new elongated crystal press. When I received them, I thought, "Humph! This will be a breeze!" WRONG! While the presses are absolutely wonderful, you really do have to be patient in learning to work with them. This is one of the reasons that my offerings of work have been few and far between lately. I have been trying to teach myself to work with these new tools.

One of the struggles that I am having with the presses is in trying to incorporate the techniques that I use in my current body of work. I need to stop doing tyring to emulate my current style on this new pallet and allow a new style to emerge from the learning process. The idea sounds very easy when I say it, but for some reason I'm finding extremely difficult.

Yesterday I worked with the elongated crystal press and I LOVE this new shape! I made some encased florals and even though the press kind of squished them out of form a bit. Still yet, I think they turned out beautifully so I can't wait to get back into the studio this afternoon to get a bit more familiar with what this press has to offer!

For anyone that actually reads this blog, I will be listing some beads and focals this afternoon.

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!!

Special Order Bead Category

First, I want to thank those of you that utilized the "special order bead" option that was offered in my online catalog. Expanding this category to offer more options for ordering was one of my goals. I have since changed my mind and I would like to explain why. . .

Like many other lampworkers, I tend to use a lot of silvered and reactive glasses in my work. That can make the recreation of certain pieces very difficult. Sometimes a reorder may take me 2 or 3 attempts at the torch in order to create one bead that looks like the original. It's unfortunately NOT a practical way for me to do business.

Doing the same work over and over again also keeps me from having the freedom to evolve my style and it hinders my discovery of the techniques that grow my skill as an artist.

I do want to stress though, that if you see something that you missed out on, you can still get it via custom order. Just shoot me an email for further info.

Current orders that are in house for special order beads will be filled and shipped this week.

If you have questions, please send me an email.