"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!!

Sleepy Head

I am SO tired this morning. I say "morning" but it's actually almost noon. I did not sleep well last night and so far today I only have one eye open. The other is a bit lazy so I'm lucky I can see well enough to know what I'm typing.

This morning as I was folding clothes, I was not surprised to realize that I had 6 socks left over and none of them matched. I mean, they looked similar and stuff but each had something different about it that made it incompatible with any of the others. I hate that they are lonely and without friends. I shall wear them anyway . . . perhaps it will inspire a new bead. Ah YES!! A bead called "Mystery of the Missing Socks". Ha!! Grrrr. . . I hate the sock monster!! I know he is running around here somewhere and I'd venture to guess that he has six socked feet.

Sun Kissed Nostalgia No. 4

I had a blast doing numbers 1, 2 and 3 in this series so I decided to take a stab at number 4 . . .

"Eye of the Beholder"

I have been working on this concept for weeks. I wanted and eye that had character. . . a colorful bead with lots of personality. I love the way it came out. I know it's kind of strange but beauty truly IS in the eye of the beholder . . .

Black Magic Woman- Focal

I made this focal as a gift for the friend that inspired the creation of my "Black Magic Woman" beads. . . The set did very well at auction so this was the least that I could do for one who inspired such a successful idea. . .

Thank you Madame!!!

New beads

I have been looking around the net for some cool places to blog and this looks like a pretty awesome resource. I'm going to give it a shot and try to remember that it's here.


"Then We Shall Fight in the Shade". . . This bead was inspired by my love for the movie "300". The colors used in the film just totally knocked my socks off!