Beads and Twisties

Eye candy!  The twisties were made by Chris at the Heather Trimlett class in Omaha.  The birdies and bunnies and sheep are new styles of his designs for the Omaha Bead Show.  The Goddess is a new design he has been working on and sold several!  He has made lots of marbles that will also be available at the Omaha show (which is April 10th).

Happy Easter!  Yeah Spring!

New at Julie's

Yesterday I spent the afternoon working with Julie and Trish at Julie's Xpressions in Hastings (my new part-time job), logging in A HUGE order of fire polish beads, czech crystal beads, and Swarovski beads!  Tomorrow (Saturday, March 27), is seed bead Saturday, and we are making a wire Kumihimo woven bracelet with beads on it.  All instructions and supplies are available at the store, the class starts at 9am if you are interested in joining us!  Tomorrow afternoon, there is a prom jewelry class so if you know any gals going to prom that would like to make their own jewelry, the class is free when they buy their supplies from Julie's.  Other news, Chris has a birthday today!  He is a wonderful husband, father, best friend, and all around great guy!  I am lucky he is in my life!  Have a great weekend!

Wait Until You See...

Chris got back from his Omaha class on Sunday, and while he was a bit brain dead from the all day class plus the 3 hour drive home, he had some really amazing pieces with him!  He didn't so much as make new things as learn different techniques for what he has been doing.  The twisties that Heather taught them to pull for using on the buttons and beads are just WOW!  Really cool, with lots of detail, so I hope that they will photograph well.  Chris was thrilled to sell one of his tiny little chick beads to Heather!  He was honored by her interest and her comments on his beads and marbles.  What he brought me home was totally unexpected!  I got Heather Trimlett earrings and a large hole pendant in "Steph colors"!  Lime green and pretty turquoise blue!  (He also brought me the British beading magazines I asked for from Barnes and Noble).  I started reading these magazines last fall, after coming across them at the bookstore.  I would love to subscribe to them, but the prices cause me heart palpitations!  I love the differences in beading styles, techniques, and bead trends that they have in England, just very interesting to me.  Almost a beading "anthropology" study!  Some day I would love to visit England and Ireland!  Where would you like to visit that you haven't yet?  Have a good day, I will get those twisty pics up as soon as I can!

Chris Found His Marbles, and Other New Designs

New beads from Chris!          

He made these marbles and  they will be for sale at the Omaha Bead Show on April 10th.  Violets for Spring.  Violets and Pansies are my favorite spring flowers and this was a joint effort, my love of the flowers, and my husband's talent to render them!

Sedona Sands, experimenting with different color palette and style.

New style Goddess/Mother Earth Beads.  Slightly less risque' than the other Goddess beads.

Chris is excited to travel to Omaha this weekend for his class with Heather Trimlett to learn more on making buttons and maybe tips for his marbles.

Keeping the Eye on the ... Sock puppet

Mina is a Girl Scout, and her troop has been working toward their Silver Award this year.  Part of that is working with younger GS.  So her troop made a play and then stitched sock puppets.  Chris made glass "Muppet/Puppet" eyes for them.

Here is Mina and her friend.  She thinks you, the Blog Readers, should name her footy friend!
So what do you think?

Passion...My Art Bead Carnival Blogging Topic

I am passionate.  I love my family, but a close second is my addiction for pretty and fun art beads!  These are some of my favorite artists.  I am continually amazed at the gifts demonstrated by lampwork bead artists, PMC (precious metal clay) artists, mixed media artists, and by anyone who can make something so amazing out of ordinary items. 

The first artist I want to share with you is my very talented husband, Chris. Chris started making glass beads in July 2007.  He took a beginning lampworking class in Grand Island, NE (about an hour from where we live), and right from the start I was amazed at his talent.  Last year, he took classes with Leah Fairbanks and Sara Sally LaGrand, and in just a few weeks, he will be taking a button making class with Heather Trimlett.   Chris works with animals for his "normal" job as a lab tech, and his ability to create animal beads is amazing.  It is also a terrific thing to live with my own  personal lampworker!

Chris has learned how to make floral focals, and improved his stringer control as a result of his class with Leah Fairbanks.  The Sara Sally class taught him to work with reactive glass and how to make different styles of beads.

Tera Belinsky-Yoder, a talented lampwork bead artist from Iowa, owns Beadygirl Beads.  I love Tera's fun and funky style, and the color palette she works in is beautiful.  The first time we came across Tera's beads was at the Omaha Bead Show. Chris and I could have spent all day looking at Tera's beads! Chris and I each have a stash of Tera beads.  These are some examples of her work.  The wheel and the peace/flower are both  MINE!  I wear the disc all the time and have tons of compliments every time I do, but the peace sign hasn't  "spoken" to me yet!  I made Swarovski crystal earrings to match the disc that are "mismatched", each earring has 3 crystals that bring out the colors of the disc.  The long focal bead is not in my Tera stash, but it illustrates her fun style and color palette.  If you would like to purchase beads from Tera, you can find her Etsy store here.

Lori Ramotar, who lives in Florida, is another very talented artist and a favorite of mine.  Lori specializes in mixed media paintings and mixed media jewelry.  I happened to acquire some really beautiful hand-painted ceramic beads from Lori last year.  These bracelets were made with Lori's beads. The Art Noir bracelet on the left is pale pretty pink, with Lori's gorgeous black and white beads, and the bracelet in the center was made for my niece, Caitlyn's, 17th birthday last year. I did the seed bead work on both bracelets.  The piece on the right is for sale in Lori's Etsy store.  I have a few of Lori's hand painted beads secreted away in my stash waiting for them to talk to me, made even more special since she says she won't be making anymore!

Lori tells me that she isn't planning on making anymore of the hand-painted beads, because she is focusing on her mixed media painting and prints found in her Artwork by Lori Etsy store.

Another artist I am inspired by is Maria Grimes of Garden Path Beads.  Maria lives in California, and uses a variety of mediums, including lampwork, PMC fairy houses (some of the houses even have working hinged doors) and fairy doors, and more recently, terrariums with her lampwork pokes!  I am a big fan of mixed media art and jewelry, and I really love the detail Maria puts in her pieces.  Definitely fun and whimsical, my favorites being her octupus tide pool pendant, and the hedgehog poke in her terrarium (and the possum shown in her website page banner).  The fairy door and the terrarium are for sale in Maria's Etsy store .

The last artist I wanted to share with you is Keiara Wells.  Keiara grew up in Florida and moved to England, where she started lampworking and making jewelry.  I love her whimsical pieces and she has really beautiful nature focals.  Here are some of my favorites.  I told her in an email recently, that I would like to own one of her cute Schnibbles bunny focals for each season/holiday!  She also made baby beads that have pacifiers!  Too cute! The detail she adds to her pieces is wonderful and she makes some really fun cat focals (pirates, hula girls, zombies).  All of the beads shown here are for sale in Keiara's Etsy store.

A special Thank You to Tera, Lori, Maria, Keiara, and Chris for allowing me to use the images of their work.  You guys rock!

So what are you passionate about?  I love beads, especially beautiful, whimsical, and fun beads!

Vanished, uh no...

No, I haven't vanished down a rabbit hole to Wonderland like Alice, just been crazy busy.  I wanted to be sure to let all know that my first post for the Art Bead Scene Blog Carnival will post on Wednesday, March 17.  Here is a preview:  New beads from Chris will be featured (including the one on this post), and some of my favorite art beads from several other artists!  Be sure to stop by, and leave me a comment!

Where did the week go?

Busy!  Spent time this week:
Sleeping extra, not feeling well.
Sent Mina off yesterday to play in the Pep Band for the Girl's State Basketball game (lost at the last .2 of a second by one point!), she also spent time with a friend and her family, and they shopped and did laser tag.
Got a part time job (AT A BEAD STORE!) Now employed full time, own a business, and work part time (the same applies for Chris).
Got our new couch (pictures soon!).
Ordered more metal and solder supplies to work with.
Bought a shelf and rug for my end of our "Porch Studio".
Spent time at the bead store (Julie's Xpressions in Hastings), prior to being employed there, just hanging out and helping out.  We strung half strands of pearls (gorgeous!) and I helped fold 245 tshirts for the state basketball tournament for Kenesaw.
Got groceries (hate that job.)
Realized how much groceries had gone up since the last time we got them!
Fell asleep on the new couch, only to wake up with a headache that felt like a concussion.
So what did you do this week?  Happy Weekend!

Ambitous...

Heard on NPR this morning "Anaconda meets Jurassic Park", check out the link to the story of a snake with really lofty ambitions!  Have a great day!
Like the picture? I found it here.