Local Woman Turns Christmas Gift Into Glass Bead Business

A photographer from my local paper contacted me last Monday and told me he had taken pictures of my jewelry at the local gallery and would love to see the process of making glass beads.  He came over that afternoon and took dozens of pictures and then called a reporter to come intrview me too.  The little article turned out to be a full page! 

Here's a quick excerpt ~ You can read the whole article at wenatcheeworld.com

"As the glass glows from the heat, Jessica Jones uses a knife to help form what will be a tree on a bead she’s making. She heats the glass up to more than 1,000 degrees to melt and form it. The owner of Veda’s Beads, she’s been making beads for sale professionally for two years in what started as a hobby about 10 years ago"

The photographs were taken by Mike Bonnicksen, the article written by Rick Steigmeyer.  Thank you gentlemen!

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 )

Studio Clean Up!

I've been putting off the overwhelming task of cleaning my studio for months, but I finally buckled down and spent 2 days cleaning, organizing, and getting rid of all the stuff that doesn't belong in there.  Which probably means I was avoiding doing something that I wanted to do even less! :D  Well, it was approaching dangerous ~ I had a pile of glass that I kept putting the latest hot rod down on, and it was getting to the point that the hot rod would slip down the pile and I would try to catch it.

Years ago, we remodeled our house (this room was the original living room) and this became an office/laundry room.  The I started lampworking and set up in a playhouse in the yard that the kids had outgrown. When we remodeled again and added an addition with a new laundry room, my superfantabulous husband added cupboards, counterspace, ventilation and a sink to this room and moved me inside. 

This room seriously has not been this clean since the day I moved in ~  I guess now I'll either be way more productive or afraid to go in there and make a mess! 

Have a productive day!