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.............:)   

 

 

 

A New Week - Even Though It's Friday

I don't know if that even makes sense but I guess in a way it does.  Depending on when your week "starts".  lol !  I figure mine starts today cause it's kinda been a rough week.  Anyway, enough of that and on to more fun things.

I finally figured out how to add my Etsy shop to the links over there to the right of this writing.  :)   Took me a while but finally got it right.  So no more posting my shop in my posts.  Just click on any of the photo's and it'll take you right over to my shop. 

Speaking of the shop, the Grand Re-opening Specials are still going on but only for a limited time now.  Check them out.  I've also run out of Destash BEADS  to list as far as those go, that's it. I still have lots of other goodies to get listed.  More jewelry, some kumihimo braids and Viking knit and more beady supplies possibly.  

Ok so onto the really fun stuff !  I've been back at the torch a bit for the last few days !  Yay !  It's kinda like riding a bike but then again it's not.  lol !  Just depends on what I'm trying to accomplish I guess.  I've been making those great little bell flowers, some organic stuff and then a lot of stuff is ending up in the water can !  lol !  I got some new presses to use and I'm just not use to those at all.  I rarely used them in the past.  In fact, for many years I only had one and that was it.  So now, I have 5 brand new ones plus one I got at Christmas.  So lots of PPP has to take place before I can get a handle on them.  Just trying them out the last few days has been lets say a tiny bit frustrating so back to relearning. It's just a matter of figuring out how much glass to add for the mold and then pressing.......and pressing..........and pressing.  lol !   

So here's one focal bead that is worthy of showing right now.  Using my favorite color blue then adding silver foil and my all time favorite frit over that.  Thing is, I put it in my Etsy shop one night and the next morning it was sold.  :)  I really didn't expect that but hey, I'm glad it did sell.  :)  I made it using one of those new molds and got very lucky with the shape.  :)  It is BIG coming in at 12x30mm and the second mold in that group of two is even bigger !  lol !  I'll make more of these for sure.  I love the look.  I need one for myself.  lol ! 

 

So it's time for me to get my week started.  lol !  Thanks so much for coming by.  Please come back again soon.  And if you get a chance, come by my Facebook page and like me or make a comment or just enjoy. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/AllMyBeads 

 

Christmas Came Early.........:)))

.........and am I HAPPY about that !  lol !  Yep, hubby got me one thing on my Christmas list that I REALLY wanted - a new M-20 concentrator !  Yay !  I played with it yesterday for the first time.  It really added some "umph" to my torch and gave it some more heat.  It's more like using tanked oxy now which I much prefer.  Thing is, tanked oxy is EXPENSIVE.  So, now that I'm all set of course I had to test drive it.  It will take some getting use to all that heat that's for sure !  So the beads I ended up making in the last two days, well, let's just say, I need much more practice time with my "newer" concentrator.  lol !  That's ok, I feel like a newbie beadmaker anyway after being away from it for so long.  


Regardless of how funky my beadies are looking, I'm still going to show what I've done and the progress I'm GOING to make.  :)  It's going to take me some time to come back to where I was when I left it a couple years ago.  


When I started posting on this blog again, I said I'd leave the focals alone.  That just ain't happenin'.  I can't leave them alone.  I LOVE making long beads.  The longer the better.  I had a good one going yesterday when the derned bead release broke off one end and is now adhered to that end of that bead.  sigh.  And it happened with the second bead as well.  That one is still soaking in water and hopefully I can remove it from the mandrel but it's doubtful.  So I did actually get the two long beads nearly completed when all that bead release broke off.  That's what's so frustrating about it happening at the end of making the bead !  All that time put into one bead only to have all that bead release stuck to it or it won't come off the mandrel.  Many a perfect bead has ended up this way by many a beadmaker.  It happens to us all.  


On to the beads.  Here they are in their funkiness/fugliness.  :)  

This one I just picked up a rod of glass and started playing with it.  Turns out, the rod color is similar to the melted color.  I added silver, turquoise, coral and there is some colbalt blue in there somewhere.  

  

 I always loved making fishies so this one will be added to my collection and eventually go in my fantasy fish tank. The eyes, I made very differently than with the rest of my fishies.  I like the outcome and will continue to play with it.  It involves several steps which I'll explain later.  :)

The blue one above, not what I was going for but hey, it is what it is.  Colbalt blue with silver and ivory mixed in.  I actually began with red copper green but that's another story for another post.  :)  
The yellowish one to the right -  an experiment.  I started with clear and wanted to see what reaction I got with a particular frit would be.  Surprise - no reaction.  lol !  Just turned the clear glass yellow so I added some turquoise, silvered ivory and again red copper green to come up with this little "gem".  lol !  
Again, keep in mind, I am re-learning.  lol !  LOTS to remember or at least try to remember.  Geesh.  I will be doing lots of reading !  


Time to get my day started !  Thanks so much for coming by.  I hope you can come back again and see what I'm up to.  


With the holiday fast approaching, I do apprecitate you taking the time to visit with me !  Stay safe !