Bead Inspiration ~ Tropics

Once again, I am dreaming of some tropical location and wishing I lived under a palm tree!  I think this week I will focus on all things tropical ~ palm trees, the ocean, sea creatures ~ you name it, I'll be trying it on a bead!

Here are a couple of things I'm going to use for inspiration this week:

And I think I have a really interesting idea for this:

This week I'll start posting pictures of what I made based on the inspiration.  I promise I'll share the good, the bad, and the ugly ~ as long as you understand there will probably be more ugly than anything!

Since it's on my mind again ~

Two Tickets to Paradise by Eddie Money



Have a productive week!

Motivation Monday - Colors

Things that inspire me, color combinations I love, the music that rocks my studio and 

anything else that makes me want to jump up and make a bead!

I seem to have been inspired simply by color lately.  It happens occasionally, a whole day where only 2 or 4 colors come out of the kiln.  This week I had a coral day, and a blue and green day.  It's a good exercise to just see how many ways you can use a few colors.  Today I really think I want to focus on pink and black. I found this pic on pinterest and while I don't think I have a pink that vibrant, I'm still inspired by the photo.

Really, if any glass company produced this color I would buy a hundred pounds of it! In the mean time, I'll work with what I have (and see what I can come make with layering).

On the other hand, I purchased a photo from Natural Illumination the other day that I find really inspirational, so maybe I'll go with that; the ocean always, always inspires me and the quote is awesome!! (p.s. great customer service and stunning photo!)

and the music for the week is Styx

Friends of mine are opening for them at a local show, so of course I had to get tickets!  Congratulations to Lynus and Lucy!

Thanks for checking in ~ and stay motivated!

Motivation Monday - Chinese Character Beads

Things that inspire me, color combinations I love, the music that rocks my studio and 

anything else that makes me want to jump up and make a bead!

The first Monday of 2012!  I'll be in the studio all day today and I'll be working on Chinese character beads since I have a special order and I need to replace some in my shop (plus, they're fun!).  

Here's one I already made:  Friend

Here's the special order character I'll try today: Unity

Whew, this one looks hard!

And I feel like rocking 2012 ~ so I think I'll crank a little Nickleback!

Thanks for stopping by and stay motivated!

Motivation Monday

Motivation Monday

It's Motivation Monday!  So what's my motivation for this week?  Doors!  I know, it seems strange, but look at these great doors and try not to get motivated!

I'm not sure how this will wind up in beads, but seriously, how can you not be inspired by these!

and the music that's rocking my studio this week?

Love and Theft

because sometimes, no matter how great things are, I still fantasize about running away.

Motivation Monday

Motivation Monday
things that inspire me, color combinations I love, the music that rocks my studio and anything else that makes me want to jump up and make a bead!




It seems I've been inspired by everything rainbow. How can anyone look at a rainbow and not be happy? I love happy!!



These fun pancakes are from tablespoon.com . I think if everyone ate these for breakfast ever day the world would be a friendlier place!

And look at these fun cookies from amandascookin.com I don't even need to eat these, just looking at them makes me happy!

And I'm rocking it old school with Def Leopard!





See you all next Monday ~ and until then Stay Motivated!

Motivation Monday

YAY it's Monday!  Ok, that was probably overly enthusiastic for a Monday, but hey, it can't hurt to start the week off with a positive attitude! :)  Motivation Monday will now become a regular feature on my blog. Here you'll find the things that inspire me, color combinations I love, the music that rocks my studio and anything else that makes me want to jump up and make a bead! 

Like many (many) people, I have become addicted to pinterest.  I've found it's a great place to find color, shape and pattern inspiration for beads.  This week I've found cakes particularly inspiring ~ somehow they all look like beads to me!  Here's a few to show you what I mean:

This one is from Project Wedding

and here's one from Party Inspirations facebook fan page:

For some reason cakes really speak to me as beads. Perhaps because the color palettes are similar, or because the process of applying frosting is similar to applying layers of glass.  Either way, there is a wealth of inspiration out there in the cake world!

And lately Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been rocking my studio!



 
See you all next Monday ~ and until then Stay Motivated!

Shout Out!

My life in beads has been enriched and encouraged beyond measure by the people who support me! I think it's time to let them know and to introduce them to you...

My incredible husband Dusty! This man will listen to me talk about beads for hours without even getting a glassy (haha) look in his eyes! He jokes about hawking beads like a carnie - but he's there at every festival setting up, selling beads and tearing down. He's my biggest fan and my most trusted advice giver.

My goofy friend Kristin ~ owner of The Sun Dog Bead Co. the best bead store in town!  She's always coming up with new ideas for me to try and is my biggest inspiration.  This woman sells more of my beads than I do!

My beautiful girls!  Design ideas, tech support, promoters and the people who love even the beads I just want to throw away!

My BFF Melody! Nothing feeds my creativity like the two of us dumping every bead we own in the middle of one of our kitchen tables and bouncing ideas off each other while we make jewelry.

My Dad!  He's always so positive about my work and full of new ideas for me.  I know he's supposed to like the stuff I make because he's my Dad, but he always makes me feel like he likes it for real!

My Sister! (Apparently I don't have a photo) But she's a great promoter and the woman who first introduced me to this addiction!

And I could go on and on.... In-laws, friends, extended family, facebook friends.... all the people who encourage, inspire, critique, and support me ~

Thank you!

Coolest Thing Ever!!

Yesterday I was torching (Yay!!)  and I decided I wanted to make a rainbow colored twistie.  I'm not sure what the accepted way to do this is, so I set about figuring it out myself.  I started with a paddle of clear, striped on the colors, and covered the whole thing with clear. I'm using CIM clear at the moment. I took a picture because I thought it looked kind of cool.

This is the paddle, striped and encased.  I usually encase going around from one side to the other, but in this case I was afraid the whole blob would melt off the clear rod if I did it that way, so I striped on the clear.

I got this hot, grabbed the end with tweezers and started pulling the twistie.  Then I decided that since I had a begining picture, I may as well have a pulling picture.  Obviously, with both hands full, I needed help.  So I called to my 12 year old (who by the way is a real shutterbug!) and asked her to come in and snap the pic for me.  Feel free to ignore the mess in the background!

Here are the finished twisties.

While she's snapping pictures my daughter says "Hey Mom, that blob at the end looks like a heart!"  Huh.  It kind of did.  But I'm pulling twisties, so I make several more.  Then I decide to see if I actually could make a heart out of the blob.  I held the blob with tweezers, used the atached clear rod to make a bail and popped it in the kiln.

Then I made a bead with the twistie, just to see if it worked.

Not quite what I was going for. It looks as though some of the colors didn't make it into the pull.  Nothing to write home about, but it's okay.

 
Do you want to see what I pulled out of the kiln?  The coolest thing EVER! And it's the first bail I've made using this method that actually worked! I am sooo going to try to do this again!

                                                      Thank you for the inspiration Jill!!