pic by my wonderful Sis-in-Law:I’m not sure how everyone else who sells online does it- when you take pics do you also think of how the layout will look on business cards, postcards, etc? Since Etsy uses square images for the products, that is the way my pics usually end up cropped. Or maybe you take one or two pics that is a little more..artsy? The plan is to try and take a couple different layout shots for the sets/focals that really set my heart aflutter and save them for business cards..after all, who doesn’t like options?
handmade
Post Tumble Etching
My Moroccan inspired beads after tumble etching overnight:The more I inspect them, the more imperfections I notice. Practice, practice, practice.
Hopefully I’m not the only one that likes this new direction.
Translation from Mind to Making..
My mind is a sometimes dizzy place, with way too many thoughts bouncing around and then going off on tangents..which then forces me to work backwards towards my original thought similar to that guy in Memoir.
I finally decided, “what can it hurt?”, and just jumped in w/ no planning. Turns out, for me at least, that every d’oh! moment eventually leads to improving my technique. The first d’oh! happened when I dropped one of my brass micro shapers on the concrete, and wouldn’t you know it, it was the supa sharp pointy tip that hit the concrete and caused a slight kink on the end. Which worked great at raking the stringers today!
Press Play
Between playing with the Straight Sided Lentil Slim Lg. + press and trying to figure out if hubby’s camera is better than the one I’ve been using reminds me of the saying: PPP (practicepracticepractice). I rediscovered Picnik– the pic above is a before and after using that feature, it did improve it a little, there is a lot to explore and I just haven’t had the time recently. Definitely something to put on my to-do list.

Tumble Etching Beads
My Mr. is home for some R&R, so this will be a quick post 🙂
My first try w/ tumble etching was a big FAIL- never use the Harbor Freight grit sampler to etch beads. I ruined a whole bunch of hollow focals, maybe they can be saved when I get my sandblasting set-up ready to use. The two beads below are a few that etched well in around 8-10 hrs. The hollow fumed focals still have very tiny shiny spots from the crackling of fuming, I assume. The ribbed beads didn’t tumble etch well since the valleys stayed shiny while the ribs etched well. They are on deck for sandblasting. I’ll try and get some pics up for the visual peeps among us.
Pile of Hollow Big Hole Bead Lovlies
I hope I’m not the only one that loves these- still debating on whether to just core w/o beadcaps or do the whole she-bang w/ coring and double beadcaps. Sell them separately or in a set? Having a hard time making up my mind on this one..perhaps you can help me decide.
Z-99 Experimentations
Time has certainly flown during my absence of blogging. Didn’t mean to be gone and have the shop closed for so long- time moves differently when a spouse is deployed and the New Year wasn’t as big of a deal as his R&R coming up will be. I’ve been experimenting when it’s warm enough in the studio to fire up the torch, here are a few:The beads above are made w/ a hard to find glass- Z-99 Purple Rose Special. The Zimmerman family has stopped production and decided not to sell their glass recipes to the industry. It is a wonderful and reactive color, these beads were made on a base of Effetre White- yep, just white- w/ various frits and powders added.
Not to worry, I’m still in love w/ making my organic hollows. Here is a set that hasn’t been etched yet:Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and shared it with the ones you love. This gal knows better than to make any resolutions, but perhaps we’ll be seeing each other a little more frequently at this space 🙂
BABE! 2010 and Beads
BABE! was a hit and I’m looking forward to next year’s show. Even w/ travel expenses and shipping my work, it was still worthwhile. How lovely it was to see repeat customers and getting to meet new smiling faces.

I also got to spend some time with my dear friend, Ann– we spent a day in SF and shopped at the Ferry Building w/ lunch at the Slanted Door. Yum!

Beads and 100 Followers :)
This past week has been a whirlwind of travel, meeting new people, and trying to get ready for the show next month. Just noticed that I have 100 Followers for this blog!- thanks for your interest and here’s to showing you work that continues to grab your attention. Met up w/ some wonderful beady people over the weekend and look forward to our next Carolina Firefiend meeting. One member generously let me borrow her Jim Moore press since my Impress Bead Liner was too slim to fit my big beads inside to core and cap. (these three beads above are a few I’ve done so far, before running out of bead caps) Another is going to tumble etch some of my hollows to see how it compares to my usual acid etch method.
Thank goodness my wonderful cousin is nearby and willing to babysit my little man, making it possible for me to go to these meetings.
Bead Porn for BABE! 2010
Since BABE! 2010 is only a month away, it seemed like a good time to take stock of what I have and what still needs to be made. There is a LOT of etching that needs to be done- oy vey, that’s going to take a while. The first shot appeals more to me visually but the last two are just keeping it real since that’s what it normally looks like in the studio 😉
Looking forward to the show and getting to enjoy Cali again, even if it’s only briefly.. if you make it to the show, be sure to stop by and say hey.