Tool Talk ~ Zoozii's Charm Box

Let's talk tools!

I'm kind of a tool junky ~ I have a LOT of them! 

Today's tool talk will focus on Zoozii's Charm Box

First, let me say that Zooziis are my favorite tools!  They're high quality, excellent value, great customer service, easy to use, and I like the pegs for making sure you get a straight press.  This one is really opening up possibilities for me in making European charm beads and getting away from the standard donut-ish shape.

Here are some beads I made with this press

New Tools!

ZOOZII'S BUBBLE PRESS

I was fortunate to be able to attend the International Society of Glass Beadmakers Gathering this year.  It was an amazing experience!  I learned so much and met so many great people.  And of course, I also did a LOT of shopping! Thankfully Dusty went with me and not only carried everything, but even encouraged me!  

One of the purchases I made was the Zoozii's Bubble Press. 

I was a little intimidated because it looks so difficult to use, but it made such fun beads I couldn't resist! Amy even showed me how to use it during one of the open torch sessions,

I've made about 15 of these so far, but I already only have these few left at the house.  

I swear the only thing happier than bubbles is bubbly beads!

More of these will be turning up in my Etsy shop in the days to come and of course you can always find them locally at The Sun Dog Bead Co.

Happy Beading!!

Just for fun ~ here's a little music that always makes me feel bubbly!

Richie Spice - Yap Yap

Motivation Monday - More Cupcakes

I'm not sure why I find cupcakes so inspiring for beads.  Maybe just because they are round?  In any case, I'm always finding the cutest cupcakes on pinterest and thinking I can make them into beads!  Here are a couple I think I'll try today.

And I'll be listening to some of my all time favorite music ~ it is most definitely "Good To Be Me"!

Happy Monday and Stay Motivated!

Motivation Monday - Kalypso

DH Kalypso

I realized I have a lot of special glass sitting in my stash collecting dust because I didn't feel I was "good enough" to use it.  DH Kalypso is one of those colors.  It's expensive and I'm frugal, so it's hard for me to risk making ugly beads with it.  However, I just accidentally ordered more last week, so I felt it was time to use some of it!

It doesn't look very special in the rod:

But I made this bead with it the other day:

and I'm really excited about it ~ I'm always looking for pink!!

I think I'll do several experiments with Kalyspo this week,

and I think I'll do them to the sounds of the Carribean and this beautiful steel drum soundtrack!

Happy Monday ~ and Stay Motivated!

Motivation Monday - Orange

  CIM Pimento 

I have a new orange to play with! It's such a bright color and I'm really excited about it!  

I see this mixed with a whole lot of other bright colors in my beads today!

And since we're talking orange, I think this is an appropriate song... 

JJ Grey and Mofro ~ Orange Blossoms

Have a great week, and stay motivated!

What's Up Wednesday - The Flow

upcoming events, news, and interesting tidbits

I have an exciting announcement!  I'm very honored to have been included in The Flow Magazine's 7th Annual Gallery of Women in Glass!!  

I can't believe my work was included amid all the truly incredible, inspiring artists in this magazine!  If you have a copy of The Flow I'm number 81 on page 16.  

Thank you to The Flow ~ I can't tell you how thrilled I am!

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

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've been hanging out on pinterest again ~(imagine that!)  and I'm finding manicures surprisingly inspiring. I totally wish I could do my nails like this, but I suck at nail polish; so I'm hoping for beads.  :)

I'm actually pretty excited to try these this week.  I'll make sure I share pictures (good or bad) next week.

Enrique Iglesias  is rocking my studio this week (between Spanish language instructions) thinking I can do two things at once, but we'll see! :)

Thanks for stopping by and stay motivated!


If you still need more motivation check out all the pretty flowers in KTBelleCrafts garden!

What's Up Wednesday

Another regular feature on my blog?  YES!  What's up Wednesday is where you will find upcoming events, news, and interesting tidbits. 

So what's up this Wednesday?   I'm attempting to make a major overhaul in the way I manage my time.  Until last week I managed my time by making a daily to-do list.  Totally sounds like a great idea.  It's not. My list included everything, everyday, and I do mean EVERYTHING! 

Here's a sample:
Make beads,
clean and photograph yesterday's beads,
deliver beads to Sun Dog,
list on Etsy,
Flikr update,
blog,
fan page update,
tweet,
post office and/or bank,
make jewelry
(plus housework, dinner, laundry, grocery shopping, dishes, etc., etc., etc.)

See what I mean?  Basically, I always felt like I was behind, then overwhelmed, and then in need of a nap. Not to mention the guilt over whatever didn't get done.

So my new program is to make a list of everything that needs to get done in a week and assign tasks to specific days.  Many of these things could be done once a week. I don't have to clean and photograph beads everyday; if I do it once a week I only drag out all the supplies for those jobs once (saves time and since it's not on the list every day I don't feel like it's overwhelming me).

Many of you are probably thinking "well, duh!".  But believe me, it's huge for me to tell myself it's ok to put something on the list for Tuesday, and then only worry about that thing on Tuesday.

This is my first week, so I'm still tweaking my schedule - but I see this working really well for me.  The goal is to eventually get everything done, AND be less stressed, and (slightly) less neurotic ~ Wish me Luck!

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!

Featured Friday

I decided my blog needed a little more structure. Or maybe I need a little more structure so I quit neglecting my blog!  So on Friday's I will be sharing cool handmade products from great artists that I've found. I hope you find things you'll love too!

First ~ A little something from my friend Rachel of Inferno Glass Beads  I love her big hole lampwork charm beads!  Doesn't this one just glow? Check out her Etsy page for more great lampwork!

I also love the metal work from Christopher Crooks Metal Art  I have one of his geckos and it's beautiful!  Actually, I intended to hang it out on my deck but it's so great I hung it in my living room so I could enjoy it year round. Take a peek at his Etsy shop and I'm sure you'll find something you love too! Here's one of my current favorites ~

Check back next Friday for more great handmade finds!

Spoon Bracelets

As a continuation of my previous posts about collaboration:  I thought I should share the finished product ~ I'm super excited about these! Thanks to my master spoon bender, I have over 20 more prepped for me. I just need to figure out what kind of special beads to make for them. :)

This is the first one that made it to "ready to list" status!

It's available here:  VedasBeads Lampwork Spoon Bracelet

I have to get cracking on those beads!  Thanks again to the incredible man I'm fortunate enough to call my husband!

Unloved Beads

We all have them.  They don't go with anything.  Maybe you made a few more than you needed or they just weren't what you planned when you made them. Somebody asked for them and then changed their mind and you don't know what to do with them. They kick around in the studio forever and all they do is gather friends (and dust).

Well guess what, you can love your beads again! 

I need to buy more pens ~ I know I have more "finally found a way to love them"  beads!

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!

New Website!

I just got a shiny new website! 

 It even has that new website smell!  :) 

I was very careful this time to select a host that provided simple drag and drop, cut and paste, point and click set up.  I told the service rep I didn't want to have to know html or any of the other acronyms to use it. Basically it was easy, but there certainly was a learning curve.  After several hours of working on it, my daughter decided it was too painful to continue watching, so she jumped in and TaDah!
http://vedasbeads.co/ was ready to go! And this is why we have teenagers, lol! 

How I ended up needing a new website is a long story, but the silver lining is it lit the fire under me that I needed to set my focus on my web presence.  If I didn't really want to kick some people, I would probably at least have to thank them.

Anyway - I think the last thing to do is set up the gallery so it's filled with lots of beady goodness!  (apparently, I made such of a mess of it that my daughter deleted the whole thing and is starting over. Once again, a reason to appreciate your teenagers!)

I think this is the begining of a whole new side of Veda's Beads!  Check it out and let me know what you think  :)

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!!

Back to Work

Ah the poor neglected blog.

So here's what I've been up to the last several months in 50 words or less:

Got a real job.  Had fun.  Met great people. Stressed out.  Cried.  Stressed out some more.  Quit real job.  Regained personal life. Realized if I put the same energy into my own business it would be successful.  Fell in love with lampworking again. 

Whew!  Hope I never have to run through that cycle again! 

So what's next? 
Back to the torch full time, but with a new appreciation for what I will now consider my "Real Job"!

P.S.  I'm walking in the Anacortes Relay for Life this weekend.  Check out my Etsy shop to read my personal story and see how you can support this great cause.

The Dark Side

That's how the glass world fondly refers to using boro ~ and I'm thinking of crossing over.  I make happy little beads.  They're little, bright, technically acurate, but they aren't spectacular.  Every time I feel pretty good about where I am with my beadmaking, some boro boy comes along and tells me "if you would just practice a little you could be as good as I am.  I've been doing this for 6 months!"  Thanks.  So you're telling me that several years of working with soft glass was a waste of time.  In a way, perhaps they're right.  My happy little beads, in all honesty, don't hold a candle to their 4 inch marbles, wine glasses, 8 inch pendants, bracelets, etc. the list goes on.  I would need a MUCH bigger torch, all kinds of new glass and tools, a bigger kiln; essentially doubling the investment in my business.  But I'm tempted, and I hear they have cookies. 

Last Lesson of 2009

Happy New Year!!  I truly hope that 2010 will be everything you want it to be!  I wanted to share a couple new beads ~ we've been so busy with company I've barely managed to squeeze in any torch time, but I'm pretty pleased with what did show up in my kiln.  Glass teaches me something new everytime I sit down at the torch ~ sometimes with fantastic results!

I'm finally getting the silver glass to look like something other than mud. What I find incredibly fascinating is that both of these beads were made with the same silvered ivory base, the same black and the same silver glass ~ but look how wonderfully different they are!  This is truly a lesson in letting the glass do what it wants to do instead of forcing it to do what I want it to.  I'm looking forward to learning even more in the coming year as every torch session is a new lesson for me.  Bring on 2010 and let's make it our best year ever!

(P.S.  Happy 40th Birthday to my incredible, fantabulous, super sexy, wonderful husband ~ thank you for being my best friend and my hero! :D )

Shards

This past week I decided to try my hand at shards again. The dismal results from my first attempts notwithstanding - I think I've finally figured it out! :) For those of you that don't know - shards are made by wrapping glass around the end of a hollow tube, blowing until you get something that resembles a lightbulb, then shattering the bulb and using the bits on your bead.

So far, the recipe I've liked the most is ivory glass wrapped in silver foil, burnished in, then rolled in aion powder. This makes a nice organic webbed effect!

The most important lesson I learned doing this is to heat the bead, not the shard! Applying heat to just the shard instantly melts it down to nothing! Sometimes doing it wrong is the best way to learn to do it right. :)

I'm off to the torch to see what lessons I can learn the hard way today! Have a fantabulous Monday!!