Beach Dreaming

Some of my friends have taken a spring break vacation and are spending it on the beach. I love the beach and it's the only time I don't mind the wind blowing!

In the long ago, we often spent family vacations camping on the beach. Camping on the beach is a terrible experience as sand gets into everything but, being on the beach was wonderful. The beach we went to way back then wasn't used by the public much as it had zero facilities and was an eight mile trek from the road. You were really alone with nothing but sand, sea, wind, dolphins dancing the the waves and those wonderful walks looking for shells. It was probably one of the best beaches for shells that I have ever been on. Our delight was finding sand dollars in every size from teeny tiny to true silver dollar size.

During the spring my thoughts seem to go back to that beach and I tried to capture the wonderful sand dollar in these beads.

Margaritaville

My son added some Jimmy Buffet and Texas Tornados to my new iPod so I turned that on yesterday and proceeded to make beads! This is what came out of the kiln this morning. I love these colors and had such fun singing along and melting glass.

Making Bead Salad

When the Kiln Goddess goes missing you just have to come up with another plan. So, I decided to make bead salad. That's just making round beads in every color, etching some and then putting them all together. That seemed to work and then I had the idea that they looked like the piles of African beads I had seen at BeadFest in Santa Fe.

I rather like these beads and can see them mixed with brass or copper and perhaps some smaller glass beads and turned into a statement necklace. At the moment I think I'll leave that project to someone else and have listed them in my Etsy store.

The good news is, I have more ideas spinning around in my head and will give those a try come Monday. Perhaps the Kiln Goddess has come back home.

Home Again

It's good to go on a little trip and visit relatives but, it's also good to get back home!

My road trip was fairly uneventful, which is a good thing. I think I chose wonderful travel days as I seemed to be about the only vehicle on the highway. I love that. The weather was beautiful and Bead Fest Santa Fe was awesome. I love Santa Fe but didn't get any pictures! I did manage to gift several folks with beads I had made and had some lovely conversations with fellow beaders.

My son, granddaughter and I took a little tour of some pueblo ruins that are near Albuquerque. I'll post a few pictures of those once I get them off the camera.

I spent a little time on the torch yesterday but nothing promising came from it. Having been gone for about three weeks it seems like I am in a learning mode all over again. I'll try again on Monday and hopefully get back in the groove real soon. I feel the need to make some beads in bold, bright colors. Hopefully I'll have something to share in the bead department real soon.

Heading To New Mexico

I'm heading to Albuquerque, New Mexico in the morning! It's Spring Break time for the school where my son teaches and where my granddaughter attends. So I'm going out to spend Spring Break with them. It just so happens that BeadFest Santa Fe is this weekend as well and we plan to take the new commuter train over to Santa Fe for a couple of days of that. Then the following weekend is the Gem and Mineral Show and we hope to attend that as well. I am so excited! It has been a couple of years since I have been to a bead show. There are no bead shows near where I live so I feel a bit bead deprived! LOL

The picture I'm showing is one that was taken from my son's back yard a couple of years ago. I don't know if there is snow from this year on The Sandia Mountains but I can tell you they are beautiful with or without snow. It's so nice to go outside and have such a beautiful view while drinking my morning coffee.

I hope to have lots of wonderful pictures to share when I get back to Texas.

Back To The Torch

A few days ago I decided to try making vessels again. I had not made them in about a year. Not sure why, just had other things to make. I had worked with CIM Ghee when I made the frames I showed a few days ago and really liked how it worked in the flame so decided that would be my color for the first vessel. Then I decided the body of the vessel needed to be wrapped in some silvered ivory shards and I really like the look that gave the vessel. I think it looks like something you might find in Cleopatra's Tomb and I think she kept scented oil in it. I think I'll make a bead in the green and put a leather cord through the handle so one could attach the vessel to a purse or a belt loop.

Now I need to find more corks this size so I can make more vessels that have a secure top.

Lazy Days

I have had totally lazy days the past couple of days. Not sure why but I haven't accomplished one thing! Well, I did go into town and mail some beads off to the United Kingdom but that's about all that got done. Tomorrow I must fire up the torch and get some beads made. I'm going to try and post things to my store while I'm in New Mexico. I don't want it to go two or three weeks without new listings.

Thought you might enjoy seeing just how lazy the last couple of days have been. These three little boys demonstrate the activity around this house just perfectly!