Personal Ads For Pumpkins

I've been having a great time making little pumpkin guy beads. I've sold about 22 of them so far. I love how expressive their little faces are. And because they are so obviously each individuals, i am compelled to list them with their own unique biographies . Wow. Sometimes the details come readily and sometimes it seems really difficult to come up with something totally unlike what i've written for another bead's bio.

I just listed five new bead bachelors in the shop: Dean dreams of snorkeling in his baby blue Speedos, Ding has a passion for organizing things, Gene is a ham radio operator, Ron hopes to be a tissue donor (to be made into pie), and Timmy is fun guy with a knack for winning staring contests.

Sizzlin' Sunday

We were at a BBQ this evening and we were entertained by a woman who fire dances. You can see her legs at the bottom of the swirling flame in my bad photo. It wasn't hot enough to, say, melt glass :-), but it was mesmerizing to watch.

Four new pumpkin guy beads to photo and list in the shop tomorrow.

Flower Photos Friday

The only good thing about the sun rising later these days, is that it now rises at about the same time i do, and sunrise is one of those magical things that can start your day off on the right note. I can start the coffee pot, give the kids their first proddings to get out of bed, and then have a look at the garden in the first rays of sun. Much of the garden looks pretty spent, but there are a few plants managing to flower on into autumn, bless 'em.

These Dishes Are Delicious

Aside from lampworking, there is another hot glass art form that many people are doing. In glass fusing one works with hot glass in a kiln, instead of in a torch flame. I've only dabbled in it enough to know that it would sure help to have a programmable kiln, and a supply of compatible glasses. But when i see fused glass pieces that i like, i get that hopeful feeling that maybe some time down the road i'll devote some time to learning how to do it properly.

And i find these glass dishes by etsy seller Light Work Glass very inspiring! I've only picked two to show you here, but there are several others in her shop that i would also snap up for xmas gifts if i had the means. And her prices seem fair, even low, so maybe you can do the snapping. :-)

Love your work! And happy birthday!

'Ween Beads Wednesday

That's 'ween, as in Halloween. I had to make it start with a W to go nicely with "Wednesday". Ahem.

I'm continuing to do my little bit to help support other etsy glass bead makers today, by bringing you Canterbury Keepsakes.

I have never seen such realistically rendered gourd beads. These are fantastic, warts and all! My pre-lampwork hobby was gourd growing and carving, and these beads bring back fond memories.

And the whimsical "Halloween Treats" collection, with the witch hat, halfmoon beads, and spider, are so fun, and have great attention to detail. It looks like a couple of little pumpkins on that witch hat-- how original.

I hope everyone's autumn-themed bead sales are starting to take off. This is the first year i've made seasonal beads, so i'm curious to see if it affects my business. It has been fun to try to come up with something original with the Halloween theme, and i think i've done that with the O'Lantern boys' Personal Ads, but making the beads is one thing, and marketing is a whole other thing.

Tree Bead Tuesday

I really need to do more to promote the talented glass bead makers that are trying to run a business on etsy. This isn't a conflict of interest since we all have our own styles.

So in that spirit, i'd like to share with you these cool and evocative tree beads that i came upon today in the etsy shop: OregonMistBeads.

As my printmaking instructor would say, these beads capture "the suchness" of trees. Another thing i like about these beads is that they weren't made in a bead press, and therefore the shape is more natural. And then, too, i'm real fond of dark ivory glass and how soft and rich it is. (Lots of floral beads in this shop, too.)

Honor

I'm so pleased to have one of my beads (the Gord O'Lantern guy) featured in this treasury today. There are some really good lampworkers in this group, and i'm flattered to have something i made put in the same set. Cool. (To get the treasury version complete with hot links, click here.)

Beautiful Cat

This is Shorts, as a young cat.

It is a constant puzzle to me that some people don't like cats. I can almost understand it if they have cat allergies, but even then, not really.

Dogs are good pets. They seem to want to be your companion all the time. And it's as if You always come first. I find it a little smothering. Cats are more like another person who has his own interests, but shares some of yours (like reading the newspaper and working in the garden), and they usually have a time of day when they want to be near you and show affection. And when they do cuddle, they are the right size and suppleness to snuggle softly and bonelessly. Even a cat-sized dog is poky and bony and rigid compared to a cat cuddle. I am a big admirer of cats.

I'll even accept the wisdom in this quotation:

Sir Henry Morgan - “People with insufficient personalities are fond of cats. These people adore being ignored.”

The computer is fixed, and i've listed 3 sets of Band O Silver beads and 3 new pumpkin guys, and a floral pair and focal.

those old computer woes

Frustration is...losing the internet. I am so accustomed to plunking down in my computer chair and having likemy 4 or 5 frequently-checked webpages open, and jumping around checking emails, printing stuff, renewing etsy listings, that when i woke up to a fried modem earlier this week, i knew it would be ugly. But my blood pressure pretty much skyrockets every time i try to do anything on the computer since then. We have a laptop, and i can get some wireless from my neighbor (bless you) if i hold the laptop at shoulder height, in one corner of the house and if the wind is blowing in the right direction... And even then i can't generally keep the signal long enough to do much. It is just one big FRUSTRATION! The rest of the family sure hopes the new modem arrives Monday and i can calm down. :-)

GemBonz!

My line of handmade glass birthstone bone bead dog collar charms is finally available again, under the new name of GemBonz. I have all twelve birthstone months listed in my etsy shop. My original charms, the BirthBones, sold for $10 with free shipping. The new GemBonz price is now $8, but i charge my low shipping rate. Other items in the same order ship for free, so i figure it averages out to a small savings for the buyer.

GemBonz beads are also a little larger than the BirthBones were. And the Super Size version, which makes optimal zipper pulls, or charms on large dogs, will be listed some time during the week, i hope. And one more difference i've made to the GemBonz is silver bead on the bottom, whereas the BirthBones had a swarovski crystal. The plain silver bead looks much cleaner and simpler.

Zoo In My Yard

After showing y'all that nice big spider a few days ago, i thought i'd give you an update: Son put her in the turtle's tank. The kids did mention that there was "a hole" in the lid. But i tamped down my arachnophobia, kept my cool, and watched the egg mass cocooning process, like a good amateur biologist. Of course the next day the spider was no longer in the tank, and i had a look at "the hole". Four inches wide and 29 inches long... "A hole"? So i moved around the house very gingerly for the next couple of days, until she turned up building a web in the rec room book shelves. Son gave her her freedom, but i snapped a picture of her new, svelte body before she left.

I was watering the garden this evening and found a big, grape-abdomen-ed (must be egg-laying season) gray praying mantis. Which reminded me of the HUGE black witch moth the kids brought in the other night. And then we found some finger-sized green caterpillars munching down on my flowers, and then Son found this nice big Jerusalem cricket on the back patio. They are commonly called nina de la tierra locally. I guess those big, bald, flesh-colored heads look like baby heads when they are poking up out of the ground. And then the dog routed a big toad out of the garden. My yard is like some sort of big fat fauna paradise at the moment.

That Vintage-Look Halloween Decor

Promoting a great etsy shop this evening: seasonsart1031.

I'm sure the proprietor/artist does wonderful things with every holiday season, but i sure enjoy her Halloween themed pieces. Made of paper mache and paper clay and sometimes a wire armature, these works are extremely charming and, i imagine, quite collectible. I selected the "Halloween Harvest Moon Ornament", the "Halloween Vintage Style Two Sided Black Cat Ornament", and the "Magic Mushroom Man With Gnome and Witch Buckets" to show you here, since they are my faves. But you should peruse all of her offerings, and also check out here very cool Magikal Seasons blog.

oo la la!

je'taime Paris, listed in the etsy shop. The mauve color is so soft and fleeting. The flashes of reflecting light bring in so much gold and blue-green that these are the kind of bead you can enjoy watching. I keep picking them up and carrying them to the window to be fascinated by the flash--some people are like that: dazzled by little sparkly things...

Stan-O'-Lantern and a few more squash studs now have their personal ads in the shop. They are very hopeful they're going to meet their special someones.

My Lame Lesson

I was complaining to a friend the other day about how long it takes for me to make some beads but how difficult i find it to reflect that in my pricing. He then asked if anything ever goes wrong near the end of a 30-minute bead, rendering it a lost cause and me PO'd. Oh yeah, it does. Case in point, this sock monkey-on-a-bead from this morning.

I've actually had a pretty good run of luck with my time-sucking beads. The pumpkin guys haven't all been perfect, but even the ones that i consider inferior are going to get used by me as zipper pulls, bag hangs, etc. But the transparent medium amethyst i used in the base bead of the sock monkey didn't feel like maintaining its composure while i fiddled with the eye dots. (My third sm-on-bead, and the worst, so i'm not exactly heartbroken about it being a useless bead after all that work.)

The lesson i took away from this exercise was that some glass colors are more patient than others. This amethyst was just one of those brittle, prickly, irritable glasses, that's all. But i already knew that, and i'll never get that 25 minutes back.

Check out this spider. I'm an arachnophobe so that ain't MY hand. It's my 17 yr old's hand, so those aren't little kid fingers. That's a big orb weaver...

bf

Here's my "Pip", the little fellow i babysit. It was a really nice summer day today, just a bit cooler than it has been, so the bf (babyfriend) and i spent a good part of it outdoors. I follow him around and help him out, if he needs it, while he "puts things in other things" (sticks in sand box, pebbles in gopher holes, pecans in mouth, etc.). Did you realize that you could "put things in other things" forever and never run out? We had to break for lunch! :-)

Hallowe'en Gear Up

I must have had an inkling when i ordered the orange glass that these little characters wanted to be born. These beads show a progression in techniques and details that i have been going through to get them looking their best. But the thing i like most is that they all look different. They are individuals. That's a bruce-o'-lantern at the bottom, and a dave-o'-lantern to the right. (Not in the shop yet.)

In Two Colorful Treasuries

Some creative treasuries that folks have recently made, using items of very pleasing colors. And there are my beads! Thank you, thank you.