Autumn Is Here At Last !

I LOVE this time of year !  I LOVE the cool, cold crisp mornings that lead into cool, cold crisp days.  I LOVE to open windows and let all that cold take over the house even for just a minute.  The house smells so fresh and new afterward.  :)  Soooo much nicer than the heat, humidity and just plain stale air of summer.  

The past week has been interesting (or not) depending the attitude taken.  lol !  Right now, the attitude is that of blah.  My "muse" seems to have fled the premises and it doesn't seem like it will return any time soon.  I have been drawing a blank and reverting back to basic easy beads.  Which isn't bad really cause basic and easy keep me in practice.  Still I need something to get the mojo going again and not real sure what that might be.  I am not one to just ho hum it and let it pass.  I NEED to be at the torch even if it's just for the sake of being at the torch and keeping in "shape" as it were.  That said, the past weeks beads were familiar ground for me and I did enjoy making them.   I managed to get in a few more beads for Beads of Courage as well but need to buckle down and get a bunch more made of those too so they can be sent in.  Pictured below are just a few of the beads I made this week.  Flowers and some focals with reactive glass.  I do enjoy playing with very reactive glass and those colors just love reacting with one another.  lol !   If you're interested, a couple sets of the flowers are listed in my Etsy shop now along with a couple new listings for focals.   

 

 

Hopefully this time next week, I'll have a brand new "attitude" and it will be because my mojo has come back !  lol !  Only time will tell.   New attitude means new beads.  (insert big smile). 

 

That's all for now.  Thanks so much for coming by and I hope you come back again very soon !  Have a great weekend !  And remember - Christmas is only.....wait, Halloween hasn't arrived yet !  Geesh.............:)   

 

 

 

Mid October and Ready for Fall

Ok already with the 80 degree temps !  Geesh, it's mid October after all and suppose to be nice and COOL !  I never EVER imagined running the AC in October !  This is crazy - but expected for the south I guess.  Give me 50 degrees and MUCH cooler and I am a very happy camper.  Now, onto the beads....................:)

After waiting to get a glass order and limited torch time, I have finally finished that special project I mentioned in a previous blog post.  This is something that could of been finished in about a weeks time if I had all the right glass in the first place.  Still, once I got that glass, I was extremely disappointed.  It did NOTHING I was hoping it would.  It didn't even match what I needed it for.  sigh.  Obviously I'm doing something wrong not to get the color it shows it's suppose to look like on the website.  I'll keep working on it.  :)  And if and when I get the needed color, I'll post all about it here.  lol ! 

So the project I worked on was a flower bouquet for that newly done bathroom.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  The photo is just below.  The bathroom colors are peach, chocolate and pale seafoam green.  The buish/green bell flower smack dab in the front center is the exact color of that seafoam green.  I am thrilled how the roses turned out and always love the bell flowers.  There are two critters in this bouquet, Blueboy worm and a very soft peach butterfly.  The main rose in the center is peach and the two on the sides are a very pretty pink with crimped petals.  I've added a few smaller pics of the side view and top view.  Just click on them to see a larger version.  The vase is a gorgeous sparkly deep brown with gold in it.  This is the 4th bouquet I've put together and I just have a lot of fun doing them.  :)  I can make one for you too.  Just contact me here by posting a comment or click on any picture in my Etsy shop to the right and send me a convo.  :) 

 

 

 

Finally, since I haven't been at the torch much, I've not been able to make too many Beads Of Courage Beads.  Only a few each torch session.  The bowl is filling up VERY slowly.  I'll have to take a day or two to get it filled and get it sent off.  They are STILL very much in need.  Pic below shows the few I've been able to get done.   Gotta get more done ! 

 

 

That's all for now.  Thanks so much for coming by.  I hope you come back again very soon ! 

 

This weeks question:

I make a lot of beads using MANY shades of one primary color.  Name that color and win this weeks giftee !

 

Place your guess in the comments section below.  Only one guess per visitor please.  First person to guess correctly wins however I will not post the winner until Saturday the 19th in the evening.  

New rule:  Recent winners need to opt out for 2 weeks to be fair to all.  :)  Thanks for understanding.   

 

  

 

 

 

Autumn In The Air (not really) & Torch Time

It's kinda hard to believe Autumn and fall like weather is suppose to be here when it's 80 plus degrees outside !  lol !  Even though it gets into the 50's at night sometimes and is so nice and cool in the early mornings.  One good thing about those nice cool mornings is they will be nice cool DAYS very soon and I am anxiously awaiting that !  :)  Ok, onto torch time..........

This past week it's been all about revisiting sculpting and of course more beads for the Beads of Courage kids.  I didn't get as many of those done as I would of liked at each torch session so I made up for that a bit yesterday at the torch.  That said, I didn't torch as much as I would of liked either.  Only 3 mornings for a couple hours.  Busy week.  Anyway, the BOC beads are waiting to be cleaned so no photo yet. 

The revisiting part - Sculpted flowers.  I am working on a project for myself again.  This time for our newly remodeled half bath.  Finding colors to coordinate has been a challenge but finally getting resolved.  Some of that glass won't arrive until next week.  In the meantime I've been getting my hands warm again by practicing sculpting roses and other sorts of flowers.  I've revisited the basic rose I was doing before but adding new "twists" literally - to some.  lol !  See photo below.  I actually really like that twist/crimps but it's not exactly what I was trying to accomplish so will keep working on that and reveal that in another post.  Maybe this isn't even a rose type flower with the twisted/crimped petals !  lol !  Whatever it is, they are kinda pretty I think.  Those orange flowers - are suppose to be dark yellow.  sigh.  Anyway the rose in the middle and the flower with transparent petals are close to the colors I need.  In the meantime, I'll keep playing.  :)) 

The bottom picture is of a set of beads I might still add to yet.  It takes a couple of torch sessions to get all the beads in the photo.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they turned out !  The color combinations of the base color and the frit are really wonderful !  It's so hard to tell in a photo.  Be sure to click on the pic to see the close up.       

 

 

I'm going to start something new here on my blog.  Every post I'm going to ask a single question about something in the post.  If you can answer correctly in the comments section below, I'll send you a little surprise gift !  It might be something about a technique I use, a tool I use, a color, etc.  All in fun !  The first person to respond and answer correctly gets the gift.  Easy peasy !  :)  The question will always be posted down here at the bottom.  This weeks question is: 

 

What tool did I use to twist/crimp the petals in the flowers ?

HINT - Everyone has one in their home/toolbox. 

 

Winner is Therese of Therese's Treasures Blog.  Thanks for playing along !  :) 

 

Thanks for coming by !  I hope you come back again soon !