Bones Beads Clearance Sale

Starts tomorrow morning! Whoop!

I will be listing a total of 12 separate lots of bone beads. I hope to get some in the shop before i go to work, but all of them will be on the shop shelves for sure by the end of the day.

Lots will range from 4 bones to 11 beads each. I've organized them by color in some cases, size in other cases, by style in other cases. I'll be listing them at $2 per bead and less--pretty reasonable for artisan made lampwork!

Confessions of a Guppy Nerd

I wish these beads didn't take so long to make because they look sooooo cool! But i don't have as much patience as i should have. I mean, it's good to take the time and make something special, right? But when you constantly have the feeling that there aren't enough minutes in the day, you tend to want to wrap things up quickly. Fast art for the convenience junky. But my X Fish take time and i almost always feel that was twenty minutes well spent.

I was an odd teenager. One demonstration of this was my guppy breeding experiment. One year my room was filled with about 60 jars and tubs with breeding pairs of guppies and the offspring of various pairings. I kept detailed notes and made full colour illustrations of all my subjects in this breeding operation. I can't remember what characteristic i was trying to promote, maybe big red dorsal fins or something. When i have a group of X Fish sitting on the kitchen counter, i am reminded of those good old days of abundant fishies, and i am happy.

The Vacant Chair

I'm working on various bone bead projects and an X Fish commission. I had an early supper since i missed lunch and my husband and the kids are all doing their own things, whether it's football games or skateparks, so i decided to step out for a bit before it got dark. Since it has been raining with fair regularity i haven't had to tend the gardens much. I needed to check and see if they were still there. And there it was: a chair in the middle of a beautifully lush and colorful garden corner...with no one using it. This part of my yard hasn't looked this good all year, and there it was all by itself with not a soul enjoying it. So i did some deadheading, took a picture and came right back inside to post about how sad it is that i don't take the time to sit in my garden. How's that for numbskull? But i did make myself a promise: since tomorrow is Saturday and the morning will be liesurely, i'll take my coffee out there, sit in that chair, turn it 45 degrees every few sips, and enjoy every viewpoint.

I love zinnias, and the big ones are fantastic, raggedy, orangy pinks. The hard shelled gourds are putting on a late growth spurt and and have gotten so dense that i'm going to have to wait for the fall die-back to see all the gourds. Although i planted seeds from about 10 different shaped gourds, i've seen only bottles, kettles, and stumpy dippers. Oh and my mini bottle gourds are doing really well, which is fantastic, because i like to make snowman ornaments for Christmas.

That was my garden interlude. Now out to the workshop to make some glass fishies. :-)

BIG BONE BEAD BLOWOUT

Sometime at the end of this month or the beginning of October, i will be putting a number of lots of my bone beads in my etsy shop at nice prices. Date to be announced.

I think these bone beads are really great. For the past two months i've been wearing a bracelet made from etched black ones and warm grey/brown pearls, in tandem with a simple string of small black beads. The black bones are simple, yet interesting, and the etched finish gives them textural interest and lets the glow of the pearls balance the ensemble. Ha!

You beaders might think that i should have tons of jewelry since i make tons of beads. But not so. I find making jewelry to be really frustrating because i get so caught up in design and i don't seem to have the eye or knowledge to get really pleasing results. I have made a couple of nice things, and i usually give those pieces to family members. Earings are easy to make, but i don't have pierced ears! And i don't find wear necklaces. That leaves bracelets, of which i have ten or twelve, but most of them i've only worn maybe once because they just weren't me. I guess i'm just not much of a walking jewelry manequin.

But i've got too many bones, and they've got to find new homes! Maybe someone out there has a plan for Halloween jewelry.

Pink Chihuahuas

Welcome to my momentary art gallery!

Today's exhibition of fine art features the work of etsy artist crookedhue. Come in. Walk around. Take your time and enjoy.

As a special bonus today the artist has joined us! She has set her shed up in the back there where she's working on another piece. She may poke her head out now and then for a good natured gloat at her own work. But she's fairly harmless otherwise. And you will probably hear an occassional chuckle or guffaw. I guarantee you she lol'd aplenty when she was working on the chihuahua painting! I certainly did the first time i saw it (which is why i sought her permission to show her art here). Sure Cyclops has a pathetic combover, but look at the sweet sincerity in his eye. I like Man Painting because that's how my father paints. There is something so positive about a Penguin Enthusiast and there is nothing truer than this pink Chi! Visit crookedhue's etsy shop for more of her original paintings.

Back from break.

A few notes this morning:

Hubby has filmed the fiber artist sponge fly creating its tidy outer cocoon cage with the "chain link stitch". Coolest part? it uses its butt. A dazzling display of dexterity.

We've been dealing with another "walking dead" lately. Not the chicken, Sean, this time, but our cat Archie. I would love to upload the photos, but it would make the squeamish hurl. Skip ahead past the next paragraph if you are faint of heart. Every year or so we are adopted by another stray cat. We live on the outskirts of town and our yard is a handy dumping ground for unwanted litters. We currently take responsibility for 6 male cats. This is not recommended. Although we had all of them neutered in a timely manner, there is something about having to share their territory with other males that makes them regenerate the ability or desire to spray. You just can't be a house cat if you're constantly marking the hallways, closets, upholstered chairs, drapes, etc. as your territory. Sorry.

Archie came home after not being seen for a few days. He had a gaping, maggot-infested neck wound. Okay, actually his neck skin was completely severed all the way round except for 2 short spans. Which is fortunate because otherwise his hair shirt might have slid right down over his shoulders. (Now there's an image.) The vet fixed him up as best he could, but bandages don't cover the entire thing and we get an anatomy lesson every time we look at him. You can count muscle fibres. Looks like it will take quite a while to heal as the skin has to grow over an inch-and-a-half gap. But he seems to be feel fine, which is the freakiest part. We can only speculate as to what happened to him. He wasn't wearing a collar so it didn't get hung up somewhere. He might have got caught in something, but i think he got an abcess on his neck, from a skurmmish with another cat, and it just festered to point of weakening the skin.

Sorry if that was too much detail for you.

In a MUCH prettier note, i took a job caring for a baby on a part time basis. He's just the sweetest, easiest little guy! It's such a pleasure to completely change the pace of my day and spend time with him. Oh the things I'm going to show him and talk with him about. He's only 3 months old, so a dot on a blanket can hold our attention for a good ten minutes!

I would love for someone to let me know why my blog views jumped from 100o to 12000 when i wasn't looking...

I've been working on the BirthBones business. I'm designing a counter-standing display board for them. I will start with a few local vets/dog grooming places and see if they will take them to sell in their establishments. I was approached by the Handmade Brigade of Orange County to supply BirthBones promotional material for a craft sale event they are having later this month. And some animal shelter and other dog-related fundraising groups in Tennessee will be using my lampwork bones in fundraising items this fall. So I've got a head full of the business side of things--not my forte at all, but it's a learning thing!

Tomorrow's blog posting will be about an etsy painter. You'll want to see her fun work!