Gorgeous Set of Summer Lampwork!

I have lampwork beads for you today!  This stunning set of lime green and white glass lampwork beads are perfect for summer designs.  They bring to mind bright summer flowers, icy tropical drinks,  long days on the beach in the sun!  I only have one set of these which you can purchase here.  If you prefer to shop on Etsy you can follow this link instead.

I Love What I Do!

You know, every time I think I can't enjoy what I do any more than I already do, I sit down at the torch and realize that yes, I can enjoy it more lol.  Part of the joy of  making lampwork beads for me is that I find it very relaxing, it takes me to a different place and all of my energy is directed at the torch and watching how the glass flows and figuring out how to make it do what I want it to do.  Its that place where time kind of stops because you are so IN the moment.  Helps me keep my sanity lol!  As always if you would like to purchase this pretty set of periwinkle blue etched beads, simply click on the picture.

Go Enter for This Nifty Keychain!

A friend and fellow glass maker is hosting a give away on her blog for a free keychain with one of her glass beads on it. I have a couple beads made by Jamie and they are wonderful! So head on over there and enter its super easy!

Enter GiveAway

Just a Quick Add On

Just wanted to post a quick picture of another beautiful, romantic piece made by Exquisite Studios and my lamp work beads. The necklace is simply beautiful and I am thrilled she made my beads look so good lol! Here are the beads. And here is the lovely necklace she made with them.

Check out this great contest!

The Fire Divas are hosting an Introductory Jewelry Challenge! This challenge will be for jewelry designers who use artisan lampwork in their pieces. The winner of the Challenge will receive a beautiful group of Fire Divas' work. This is a wonderful chance for jewelry designers to show off their talents and get exposure!

Please click on the link below to get all the details & to enter: We love to see how designers use our creations, though for this 1st challenge, ANY artisan lampwwork beads will do as long as they're handmade.

http://firedivas.blogspot.com/2009/11/calling-all-desingers-introductory.html

More Lampwork

I have been practicing! Some I am happy with some not so much lol! But I will post them anyway so that I have a good record of my progress. These beads are at the the 5 to 10 hours at the torch mark. The almost clear ones are called cirrus. And the white ones have sangria brown as the dots. The yellow ones are some tries at encasing with clear and the yellow barrel shaped one and the funky shaped one are a shot at raking and encasing. Not too bad since it was first attempt. The blue bead is black encased in the palest of blue. I REALLY like this one! (of course I haven't been able to duplicate this but I will keep trying). Then some others using the same colors but the black is much more predominant. I like them, just not as much as the first one lol! And I think I am doing okay over all, mostly I am working on round, and dot placement with a tiny bit of lines and other stuff thrown in.

Artfire Artist Review

So, I have to say I am very happy that the holidays are over. January doesn't really seem to be moving any slower though lol!

As previously mentioned I am expanding my selling venues on some fronts and getting rid of some on other fronts. One of the Ivenues I am going to be using quite a bit is artfire. Lovely community, great artists and lots of things to choose from. I came across a fabulous glass artist in the forums there. Her name is Tanya and her shop is ArtisticAccentsEtc-artglass. Now I do little bit of glass fusing, mostly for the fun of it but when I saw her shop I started to drool. Now I know that drooling is not that attractive but I really couldn't help it lol! Wonderful work, some of the best that I have seen and I strongly encourage you to go take a look at her shop. They are planning on adding many more pieces so I would encourage you to check back with her shop often. Below are a couple of words from Tanya about her and her family's business.

" I am a 33 year old glass artist from Chicago. I have been working with glass for about 8 years. This is now our family business and we have never been happier to be able to create our glass art full time. We are constantly trying new techniques and furthering our education in glass art to bring cutting edge designs to the art and jewelry lovers alike. Our techniques included, fusing, lampworking & blown glass."

So as you can see by the photos (and this is a small sampling of what she has) there is something for everyone in her shop. If you haven't spent your Christmas money yet (or even if you have lol) this would be a great place to shop at.

Saving the Rainforest

There is a fairly new selling venue out there that is focusing is on saving the rain forest. I thought this was really cool since if we continue to cut down our rain forests eventually we will manage to cause our extinction through greed and lack of managing our natural resources well. I recycle and try and do all I can to support our environment but I always feel I could do more. ShopHandmade allows me to list my items for free and also to sell them for free as long as I allow one of two sponsors to have a spot on my listing. Addicted to scrap booking and Addicted to rubber stamping are the two sponsors. The spot is very inconspicuous and does not in any way detract from my listing. You have the choice of donating a percentage of your price, or 10 cents or 25 cents when you sell an item. Donations are not required though. I just really liked this idea a lot. The site takes a couple of run through to get the whole listing process down as it is a bit different but once you figure it out is really quite easy to do. Go check it out and decide if you want to save a little piece of the rain forest today!

This is my shop url and you can check out the rest of the site from there. http://www.shophandmade.com/Store/Silverriver

Is it real or not?

There is a huge amount of information and also a huge amount of mis-information about what a stone is or isn't. Is it man made, is it quartz, is it jade, is it serpentine, is it glass? I am fairly new to stone identification so most of the time I can't answer that question without some help and relying on the dealer or store that sells it to me. I do know that it takes time to learn the differences and trust me, I am going to learn, not only because I don't want to get ripped off myself but I also don't want to steer my customers wrong. Today's learning tidbit is this: If it has bubbles in it, it is almost certainly glass. Yes I know that quartz is considered "glass" but the gemstones with rampant bubbles in them are man made glass not the good stuff so to speak. So if someone tells you it is genuine blue aquamarine and you see bubbles run the other direction. So can you tell? Are these "real" or are they "glass"?