A Firey Weekend!

I spent the entire weekend taking bead making classes at Wired Designs here in San Antonio, Texas. I originally signed up to take one class now and one in January, but they had so many open slots for the class on Sunday I decided to jump over to that class. It was an awesome experience and I learned a lot! There were quite a few areas I was struggling with and this really help fill in the blank and straighten me out on several issues. I am a very visual learner, so seeing it done, then having the opportunity to do it myself, plus get pointers and corrections along the way are immensely helpful. You can learn to do a lot of things on your own, but I figure this really cuts down on the learning curve, spares you a considerable amount of frustration, provides a lot of great tips that only years of practice can bring and saves you from wasting pounds of glass!

I will still need to spend hours and hours practicing, but I feel like I have a very good foundation in which to build upon now. Combining this with the classes I took back in the spring have really helped to make sense of a lot of core concepts. I am a firm believer that you must get the foundational stuff down first, then anything you do after that will just be adding on to that. If you don't have a good foundation, you will continually be frustrated. I have two more classes I am signed up to take in January and February. They will have more classes come this spring and summer that I am sure will entice me into another one or two!

They offer a really cool teen artist program, which I have Emily signed up to take glass fusing classes in. She'll be taking both the one and two class back to back. I think she's really going to enjoy this studio and working with kids her age. She already did some fusing in her art class last year in High School. This should just build upon that knowledge and give her more skills and confidence. If she really enjoys doing it, I told her she can sell her pieces in my shop where I will be selling my beads, once that is up and running. She rather liked the idea of making money. I'm not sure she fully grasps the concept of subtracting costs from the price before she gets paid, but we'll get there. She might still think that materials are free.

The instructor for our class was Nina "Sam" Hibbler, and she was an excellent teacher. I really enjoyed her focus on getting the basics right! She had a great, simple way of explaining things that made it easy to understand how to put it into practice, did excellent demos that were informative, but didn't take up the bulk of the class. She's a bit feisty which I love, and has a great passion for art in general. If you live in the San Antonio area and are looking for lampworking classes at any level I would highly recommend this studio!

I am going to put a good deal of effort into getting more things listed in my Etsy shop this week. Last week was plagued by headaches and a whole bunch of mishaps! I hope to be much more efficient this week! Stop by my Etsy shop as the week progresses and see what new listings are now available!

Conquering The Garage!

It is pretty much the last frontier left in the move. The Garage! I do still have an over flow of stuff in the spare bed room, kind of the "what in the heck am I going to do with this", pile which is just really waiting for there to be shelves in which to take up residence upon out in the garage.

I have made some good progress over the past few days, I can even see some floor now! I have built, with the help of Bob, a bunch of the racks and am now unpacking boxes. It is amazing what you find as you unpack them. Quite a number of things you wished you would have gotten rid of at the other end. Did we really need to move this? But one only has so much time and energy, I could only go to the Goodwill so many times and the garage sale I had was already a monumental undertaking! I just keep telling myself they have a Goodwill here, so I can take stuff to them!

Hopefully I will have my lampworking bench all set up by the end of the weekend! I am taking a class all day on Saturday, so I will be itching to get home and melt glass in my own space with my own torch after that! I will be very glad when all the boxes in the garage are unpacked and put away! It'll be nice to be able to find a muffin pan if I should need one, I know they are out there some where, and I did discover the waffle iron today, so we could be having waffles his weekend I am thinking!!

I have put a few more items in my Etsy shop over the past couple days, and will get more in there daily if possible. Somedays, I don't get to it, but I try not to go more than a day or two with out putting something in there!

New Listings and a Sneak Peek!

I have put a few new listings in my Etsy shop and will continue to put up a few everyday. I still need to take more photos, but as I sit here at the computer and look out the window behind the monitor, it is raining quite steadily. I won't be able to take any more pictures today, but it looks like the rest of the week promises to be sunny and in the 70's. I did get some photos taken a few days ago, but neglected to check the battery on my camera before I started and the darn thing died after a few pieces! At least I got enough good stuff to get me started this week, and give me time to work on some more pictures as the week progresses. I am going to get some new photo editing software as well, but for some reason the disc drive on my brand new computer isn't working! I need to have Bob call the tech service people and see if we can't get that bug worked out. Cant load a new program with out that!

I have two promos to offer as I re-open my Etsy shop. The first one is a progressive discount sale, basically the more you buy the more you save...For purchases of 2-3 items you will receive a 20% discount, 4 or more items and I will give you a 30% discount. The discount will come in the form of a refund to your PayPal account that I will send after the transaction is completed, usually within 24 hours.

The other promo I have to offer is if you sign up for my mailing list here on the right hand side of my blog AND make a purchase, I will include free first class shipping on your order! This is in addition to any sale discount. By signing up for my mailing list you will be sent a newsletter alerting you of any up coming sales in advance, as well as giving you access to private, mailing list only sales. I will not be sending out a newsletter weekly to clog up your mailbox, or give, sell or otherwise distribute your private information. Just put "Mailing List", in your notes to seller to take advantage of this offer.

Please note that my normal method of shipping is USPS Priority mail and this is the less expensive, slightly slower method. If you still desire Priority mail as your shipping method, I can refund you the difference between the two shipping methods, and still send your package via Priority mail. I will verify that you have signed up for the mailing list prior to giving the discount and then refund the shipping that is automatically charged at check out via PayPal within 24 hours.

I have lots of new things to list and many more things I am working on! I have found an awesome glass studio here in San Antonio and I am signed up to take a number of lampworking classes over the next few months. I have a brand new torch and an oxygen concentrator on the way! I should be back out melting glass and working hard on my bead making skills very shortly. Hopefully I will have something of my own to offer some time after the beginning of the year! Thanks for stopping by! Sign up for my mailing list over on the right side of this page!

Moving On!!!

After what seems like 100 years, not four, Bob is finally done with his degree in nursing, has taken his licensing exam and is an RN at long last. As of this writing, a job is still something he is pursuing. Hopefully he will be able to find something locally. Amazingly for the first time in 30 years, most hospitals have gone into hiring freezes, even with Rn's. It's not that the overwhelming demand for Rn's has changed, it is only growing. The photos here are of the University of Portland School of Nursing Pinning Ceremony. Bob opted not to participate in the actual graduation commencement ceremony. This was a very nice program done just for the students from the nursing program, and they received their pin, which has been given out to graduates since the first class graduated in 1937.


This is a lovely picture of our very photogenic family! I think you could take 100 pictures and still not get a good one of all of us! We at least all look happy, although I am not sure about Emily, she could be bored.


In other news, I have left my job with the school district a little sooner than planned, but I am happier for it. I really enjoyed the years I worked with the elementary kids, and a great number of the staff members. I had planned to quit at the end of the school year, but certain situations, not worth talking about here, expedited my departure. For me this has turned out to be great timing since Bob is still not working so we have a lot of time to spend together. After four long years in school, we lost out on a lot of quality time and have a bit of catching up to do. We have already gotten a good start on planting a vegetable garden, eaten out ALONE several times, and have plans to take the dogs to the beach this week since the weather is supposed to be nice.


I am working diligently at learning to make lampwork beads. It is quite a process to learn. It is not something that, for me, is second nature, so I am having to just patiently and methodically work at learning each step of the process. I am very glad to have taken classes. I think I would be far more frustrated if I hadn't. I am certain that I will take more, since I am such a visual learner. I have some really great books, and they do help, but there is nothing like being able to do something with an experienced person watching and be able to tell you what you are doing wrong and how to correct it.

Quinn and I spend a couple hours every night out in the garage melting glass. So far I haven't sent any molten glass projectiles his way. As long as I think he'll be safe he can stay, but if things get dangerous, I don't want to burn the dog! I am really anxious to get a better torch since I learned on a great high end torch, so my simple Hot Head torch has been a bit of a step backwards. I am getting it down more now. I spent more time reading in Cindy Jenkins book, since she invented the darn thing, I figured she would have the best instruction in regards to it. I may do a bit of research on the Internet as well. I need to get some better visual pictures as to flame setting etc. Also the expense of these mapp gas canisters is crazy! I would use a larger propane tank, but I don't know where I can get it filled with the mapp gas. I think this week I will check with the welding supply place since these little canisters are costing way to much. I am just too slow at shaping beads right now, which is part of the problem, but I am not getting enough use out of a tank.

As always, I am trying to keep my Etsy shop fresh and intresting. I have a bunch of new summery listing for you to check out. I will try to do a post of those here soon. If you'd like to contact me you can leave a message here or through my Etsy shop. Thanks for stopping by!

My New Adventure!

I've started a new adventure! I am learning to make lampwork beads! First let me say its not as easy as it looks and I now have a great deal of respect for anyone putting out halfway decent beads! Those who are making perfect beads, well to you I say... I am not worthy!!! If I ever get past this awkward stage I am presently in, I will think I an a bead goddess. That isn't to say I would be making anything that is even saleable, just not as bad as my first few attempts!



I am taking classes here in the Portland area from Trina Rindy of Reflections in Glass. She is infinitely patient! I am learning a lot, even though I feel like I am moving slowly, I think I am getting a really solid foundation. I would rather come away with just a few basics, well learned, than a lot of expanded information that only overwhelms you and leaves you feeling unsuccessful. Trina and her husband Jim, make and sell fused glass objects on their web site, as well as at the wonderful Portland Saturday Market. Trina makes lampwork beads and jewelry pieces which are also featured in both places.


I was surprised at how calm I felt behind the torch, which as you can see from the pictures, Trina has one very nice torch! It's a very calming zen like experience watching the glass and rotating the mandrel.



When I left after the first day I was pretty sure I had made some of the most hideous beads ever and was pleasantly surprised when I returned for my second class that they weren't as bad as I thought they were going to look. They are by no means classic works of art, but I made them and they aren't the worst looking things ever.


This is certainly a challenging art form to learn. It is going to take a whole lot of work to get good at this. I know I will be spending a lot of hours behind the torch learning how to make the glass do what I want it to do. I've already learned NOT to touch hot glass! It may not look hot still, but it is! I will no doubt post updates on my progress from time to time here on my blog, and maybe someday my Etsy shop will have pieces made with my own hand torched beads!