a visible spectrum

The Process: cleaning beads

2009-08-13T23:32:00.007-06:00

So first of all I want to say thank you to all the well wishes from everyone- it helped me bring me out of misery :)

So... after I am done making the beads, they are put in a kiln to anneal, and then when they're cool I have to clean them.

Lots of the beads I make are made on what is called a mandrel. When the metal and glass are hot they'll stick together so the end of the mandrel is covered in bead release (looks a lot like clay slip) before forming the bead.

When you pull the bead off the bead release likes to stick in the middle.

I like to soak the beads a bit to loosen the bead release.

And then I remove the bead release with a tool called a bead reamer or just a really small file from the hardware store.

Or if I have 18 million beads to do

Or I use my dremel tool if I have 18 million beads to do.

All clean :)

Apologies

2009-08-12T10:02:00.003-06:00

Sorry I've been absent from blogging and commenting on blogs the past day or two. I've been feeling mostly like this:

Thought I was doing better today, but I am quickly running out of steam and succumbing to the pain. I promise a substantial post tonight and to visit all you other lovely bloggers if I can shake this soon.

Baa

2009-08-09T21:31:00.003-06:00

So my webmaster tools (they tell me different stats about my blog) haven't been working for a couple months and I finally decided to investigate why, and then fix it.

I then checked out the top search queries and found one of them was "Extreme sheep herding".

This left me with two questions:

1. What the hell is that?

2. Why does my blog come up for that search?

Well to answer the first question:

And now there is an actual reason for my blog to come up in the search.

Working Hard...?

2009-08-08T16:55:00.002-06:00

More like the other option.

I guess since I wanted to crank out a ton of beads today things like sleeping and a social life got in the way. And I haven't even heard from my social life since I missed that payment back in June.

Well, I guess I have to be productive tomorrow. At least I made something that I can wear out tonight :-)

Colorful or Colourful

2009-08-07T19:23:00.005-06:00

So happy Friday bloggy friends. And happy Saturday to those of you on the other side of the globe. Hope your Friday went well too.

Well, being a lover of color, I was feeling left out because there are site for men who love women, men who love men, people who love themselves, and those who love nothing. Among others.

But then I found out that there is a website just for me. Called COLOURlovers.

It is truly awesome. You can make your own colors, vote on other's colors. You can also make your own pallets, buy stuff, check out the blog, and my favorite- make your own patterns.

I made this one:

You could use the patters you (and other colorlovers) make for your blog, your wallpaper, and a million other things I haven't thought of.

So other-color-lovers, join me in color-love. (I in no way am getting any kickbacks from this site, I just really love color)

Update: color love for Mr. C

Coming Soon...

2009-08-06T13:42:00.005-06:00

My Etsy shop! Woot!

So for those of you who are familiar with my blog, I have been having troubles opening my etsy store because of kiln issues which have been totally resolved!

So, I am going to be busy busy over the weekend making beads, and then making jewelry, taking photos, etc during the week... and then on Friday, the 14th of August I will open my etsy store!

Here is the collection of all the bead pics I have posted over the last few months to tide you over
(some will be available in my shop!)

Thank yous and Vegetables

2009-08-05T18:33:00.007-06:00

So first off I have to thank Simon of Simon's Ramblings. Not only are you a brilliant blogger, you gave me some brilliant advice. Have an award if you wish:

(it's photo bucket approved ;))

I also want to give a big thank you to Eric of Bored Neoclassical Guy who also had some good ideas (feel free to add the award as well) and he also mentioned me in this awesome post about glass. I am flattered.

Now- onto the vegetables!

Some things in our garden have taken on mutant proportions.

mainly the spinach- which we decided to rip out. I may or may not plant more seeds tomorrow.

Rest in peace mutant spinach.

I also picked lots of peas and beans and lettuce.

I also saw that my tomato and pepper plants were coming along (and everyone said I couldn't grow peppers in northern Alberta, Ha!)

Anyway, I chopped up the beans and peas with carrots and zucchini (also from our garden)

and cooked them up with a couple of chicken breasts in olive oil and chicken stock with thyme salt and pepper. Mmmm. oh and some onion.

Soo good. I would of taken a pic of it all finished, but hunger took over and I forgot :)

Help!

2009-08-04T10:42:00.002-06:00

Calling all computer savvy peoples!

So, for the meme sent to me by The Caped Tirader, I decided to make the tag tie-dye. And then I started playing around with Flash, and made a super cool flash button. Little did I know, blogger has a hate on for .swf files. So I tried numerous things... uploading to a different free site; fail. Converting to a different format; fail. And creating an image map in place of a swf file; only got about 2 steps in before I was completely confused so...fail!

So..... can you, lovely reader, help me? (please take in account my somewhat short-bus status)

I promise there will be a badge of your own if you provide (one of) the best solution(s).

The contest is on until I get a decent answer :-)

Art Seymour = Bomb Diggity

2009-08-03T15:15:00.004-06:00

I know, I know its a freaking long video. But you can play it while you organize all those papers all over your desk, or while you're waiting for your nails to dry, whatever.

Mr. Seymour makes Chevron beads using glass blowing techniques.

image from seymourchevron.com

First he forms a small bubble of glass at the end of a punty

then he puts the glass in a mold that looks like this:

then he dips the glass into another color of glass, into the mold, another color of glass, etc.

The gather at the end of the punty is then stretched into a long rope:

and cut into small pieces.

The ends of the beads are sanded down at an angle to show all the layers.

Seymour adds all other kinds of techniques to make the beads extra bomb-diggity.

Check them out at seymourchevrom.com

For meme? Aw, you shouldn't have.

2009-08-01T20:46:00.002-06:00

So the super-hero of the blogosphere, The Caped Tirader! tagged me with this meme

The rules of this meme is to list 7 facts about me and then tag seven other bloggers so that they can do the same.

First though, I'm not really feeling the plain-white T look, and I've been on a DIY kick, so I am going to tie-dye my award.

There. Much better.

This will also count for fact no. 1

2. "Meme" is what I called my mother as a baby

3. I have had 10 or so different kinds of jobs

4. When I was in grade 5 I brought in some homework that my cat had peed on (in a ziplock bag) because I was so afraid that I would get in trouble if I just said what happened. My teacher was so impressed that he felt he needed to get the whole 5th grade together and tell them about it. Needless to say I was teased about that for quite some time.

5. I have one much younger sister, and one much much younger brother

6. I am very talented at losing things

7. My feet are really dirty right now. Time for a bath.

The 7 bloggers are:

Herding Cats

After 'I Do'

A World So Small

Anything But Blonde
Thinking With Crit

The Musing of a Snail

The Secret Life of a Retail Assassin

Upcycling

2009-07-30T21:57:00.005-06:00

Because it sounds so much cooler than "not being wasteful".

So remember this?

of course you do- (assuming that you have a better memory than a goldfish)

and if not, you can scroll down to my last post.

so I took those (ends of glass rods, bead that cracked or just looked down right stupid)

and made it into this:

glass frits

First, I tried to do it the quick and dirty way with

a hammer

latex gloves

placed glass on news print (I know this is blue glass, but I didn't take pis of the green during all this)

and smashed away

This was quite unsuccessful and more glass went flying about than was getting smashed.

So then I made a simple ball mill largely based off of these instructions on instructables ( I love this site)

On a rinsed out maple-syrup container made of heavy-duty plastic, I marked and cut a hole in the bottom.

Then I placed a screw through the hole and tightened it on with a nut

Then I covered the end of the screw with epoxy and stuck it in where the drill-bit goes and added more epoxy.

Waited for it to dry.....

And put in about 40 nuts (these are substituting the 'balls' in the ball mill)

added my glass and held the trigger till the battery died.

My glass came out nicely crushed

and then I added a little this

and this

and made this :)

Its not easy being green

2009-07-29T12:55:00.004-06:00

Beads and such from the glass graveyard (aka f-ups and broken bits)

Tune in tomorrow to see their fate

A few of My favorite things

2009-07-27T15:10:00.006-06:00

so I just discovered Happy Tape

How freakin' awesome? I immediately wanted to buy it in every color and pattern.

And they have a blog. The Happy Tape blog!

And they had this post about a tape artist- Chris Hosmer

And then I find the flickr stream of another tape artist - BUFFdiss

And then I found this blog- I LOVE STICKY which is all about tape artists.

And then I found some of my own pretty tape (on clearance!) at Michaels

And now to go create.

Any suggestions?

Mi Igloo es Su Igloo

2009-07-26T17:30:00.008-06:00

(don't forget your toque eh)

Well, eons ago one of my favorite bloggers Mr. Condescending invited his readers to his home, and now I am finally returning the favor.

First, I have to admit- i don't really live in an igloo.

Because it melts during our *month* of summer.

So now I live here:

(and in reality this has become my weekend home)

This is the living room:

The kitchen:

Our Neighbors:

The scenery:

For reading material we have this:

and this:

(what I was reading when I got bored of fishing... so I was really too bored to fish, not too fat to fish)

for "movies" we have:

Bambi

Grizzly Mountain

Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill rides again

and the Fox......

.....and the 'Hound'

I would be happy to serve you some fish:

Maybe some bacon?

Maybe not...

And some s'mores.

Here is what we have to drink:

The wine is Naked Grape's(located in BC)Chardonnay. Its a pretty decent table wine and I can buy it for cheap in bulk.

I'd like to serve it to you in my special wine glass:

(you can see my reflection hehe)

And now we can sit in the "living room" sing "living room" fire song, while polishing off the drinks and then tell ghost stories.

Fishing

2009-07-25T10:38:00.003-06:00

Hello lovely bloggy friends. I was planing on inviting you all over for dinner per Mr. Condescending request (finally) but I am currently being dragged kicking and screaming to go fishing for the weekend once again- where there is no cell service and no internet. I will have to reschedule your house visit till tomorrow.

Cheers,

Valerie

What makes me happy: a long, hard piece of steel

2009-07-24T15:13:00.004-06:00

What did you think I was talking about?

So normally I make beads on teeny-tiny rods, but I always like to experiment with found objects. And the other day my fiance brought me home this beauty and I couldn't wait to use it.
So I dipped the end in bead release, and wrapped some glass around it. This is what I got:

not quite big enough to fit around my sausage-fingers, but I could definitely make a ring for a hand with daintier fingers or some other interesting jewelry with it. Since the rod is hollow I can use it for blowing- but one technique at a time. For now I'm going to try to make a piece of jewelry out of these:

Wish me luck!

P.S. I should be able to figure out my kiln situation tonight! Details as soon as I get them.

Blog Pimpin': Part I

2009-07-23T09:07:00.001-06:00

I didn't drown trying to fish (although I almost got buried in mud) I've just been busy celebrating my fiance's b-day and working slavishly on my save-the-date. Why oh why did I add so many steps to their construction...

But onto today's busniess: Pimping a blog!

Today we are showcasing Deborah G. with Sweetwater Design. She is the only bead maker I know of who lives farther north than me! However, she is in beautiful BC. I live in oil rig Alberta- so its beautiful if you like looking at hoppers and pipes.

Deborah has been creating little beads of glassy goodness since 2005. She named her business "Sweetwater" in honor of her father who died of cancer in 1995. When Deborah was a teenager her father left a 9-5 job to start a ranch and named it Sweetwater because of an underground stream running through the ranch.

I would check out this post about lampworking,

This post about color,

and this post for the very cute pictures!

And because I know you are just dying to buy her beads right about now, check her out on etsy, artfire, and her website Handmade Glass Beads to catch her auctions and for more information.

I'm loved sigh

2009-07-11T07:19:00.003-06:00

So a very special Aussie lady-blogger (who I have a total lady crush on) has shamelessly stroked my ego on her blog :: the girl with the pink teacup. I highly recommend to check out ~~the post about me~~ her witty and insightful blog. Warning: not for the faint of heart; she can be a naughty lady.

Here is my closest approximation:

sexy, and colorful.

She also brought to my attention that I STILL don't have an etsy store up. So, my delimma (without going into too much detail) is that in order to be able to sell my beads in good faith I have to put them through what is called an annealing process. For this you need a kiln. I don't have one of my own (try I'm about $1000 too poor) but I thought I had access to one. But that kiln was moved from its home, and supposedly not up and running. So then my incredibly talented fiance was going to make one. Well, that may be a ways off, and I'm about $300 too poor for that. But, I am sick of all the beads just haning out in the basement (although the MJ beads started a choir with the goddess beads. I should really make them some instruments) so...

I am going to find another temporary solution. Monday. (hold me accountable because I'm much better at doing things when I'm constantly being yelled at)

First- I an going to check on the eta of the kiln I was going to borrow. If I can't use it in the coming week, I will seek out any possible glass artist and beg and wave around some mulah.

Well, thanks for reading my ramblings. I'm off to go fishing with my man! Have a great weekend :)

Save the Date!

2009-07-08T09:03:00.005-06:00

Hello folks. So I haven't made any beads lately. First, because I played golf for the first time and my arms and hands hurt from smashing my club into the ground, but also because all my creative energy has been going into making save the dates for my upcoming wedding! I used adobe illustrator for the first time in like 4 years- so it really did take a lot of my energy!

Here's a sneak peak.

Front:

Back:

(the graphic is a map if its hard to tell with it blacked-out!)

They'll be made up to look like luggage tags. I thought that might be a good idea since everyone, including us, will have to travel to get to the location.

I also made some stickers!

You can even download this pdf template to make your own stickers- they don't have to be for a wedding. They'd look pretty on your calander for any occasion. Just download and add your own text.

The font of the text is called Christopher hand from dafont.com. You may have to download it to get the same font on your stickers. The site is worth checking out anyway if fonts get you excited. Also, the template should work with Avery 3/4" round stickers. Enjoy!

A bead tribute to MJ

2009-07-03T13:54:00.003-06:00

So I know it's been a while since the passing of Michael Jackson, but you can't rush 'ahrt'. So here I give you several quasi-failed attempts to make a MJ face bead.

I think I have perfected my technique and am going to give it another go. Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted!

Happy Canada Day

2009-07-01T17:31:00.003-06:00

on etsy by re4madoglass

Life is Good

2009-06-29T20:30:00.007-06:00

First off I have to say- I love you Canadian Government! Thank you for sending me, an American guest in your country, a piece of paper (a full month earlier than expected) that allows me the privilege to get a job like a regular person (except I can only work 20 hrs a week during school). I did a happy dance all the way back from my mailbox.

In all seriousness, I am very excited about it. Pretty much made my day. That and I got to eat spinach from my garden today!

Mmmm hard work (my fiance's) pays off.

Now for the progression-

And a recipe for my Canadian* spinach salad:

Ingredients:

more fresh picked spinach than 2 people can handle
2 hard-boiled eggs
bacon to taste
1/4 a cup of each: maple syrup, olive oil, apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper

method:

Cook your bacon in your preferred method. Crumble when cool, or just burn your fingers because you don't like waiting. Clean the spinach in the awesome yellow salad spinner you just bought at Value Village. Peel and dice the eggs. In a large bowl whisk together the remaining ingredients. Add the spinach, bacon, and egg and toss. Eat.

*disclaimer: in no way do I know if this salad is "Canadian" or not, but it does have maple syrup. and bacon. So there you go.

Have a Heart

2009-06-26T07:50:00.003-06:00

artist's photo from etsy

Hello friends. I am off for the weekend to go to an impromptu camping trip. Although, since we all live in igloos here in the Great White North, its kinda like regular life but no internet or phone. While I'm gone I'll have you ponder the beautiful works of Canadian Amy Johnson of ehme glass.

Because Learning is fun

2009-06-25T07:31:00.008-06:00

So before we get onto the fun learning we're going to talk about math. Over at Mr.Condescending's (usually hilarious) blog we were posed with a math question involving a hip roof. And I won an award (woot). I answered his question in a MacGgyveresque way, however Katie Nowak did a much better job and used much more appropriate method and is the real winner of the award. So- check that out if you want to learn about math, or laugh at Mr. C's whit.

Here we will be learning: What the f@#! is lampworking!?

So I've noticed that most of my readers are not ones who come from a glass art/ or art bead background and I've from time to time blathered on about lampworking like you should know what it is, when really you shouldn't, and its a confusing word to say the least.

Lampworking, lampwork beads, etc, have nothing to do with lamps. Lampworking is a type of glass work that uses a torch to melt clear and colored glass rods. The word lampworking comes from the Italian perle a lume. Perle meaning beads and lume referring to the torch, but also translates to lamp in English, so now we know where the confusion comes from. (This forum about lampworking is the only reference i could find online that was correct.)

I've also heard that its called lampworking because originally oil fueled lamps were used, which may or may not me true, but 5000 years ago the Egyptians used small furnaces to make little hollow vessels, so it is conceivable that an oil lamp could produce enough heat.

image from flickr creative commons

Along with little vessels the Egyptians, and also many other cultures, made 'evil eye beads' that one wore to ward off evil. Lots of lampworkers today carry on the tradition of making their own version of evil eye beads including one of my favorites, this velocity evil eye bead by Genea.

image from flickr creative commons

So lampworking has been very big in Italy, particularly in Venice and on Murano island- actually this was around the time that glass-blowing became widely used and all the glass artists were sent to the island because their craft was a fire hazard!

Anyway, during the Renaissance different types of glass working techniques were being used and improved upon all over Europe. The techniques were passed on from father to son, and it wasn't till the mid-twentieth century that lampworking really spread to artists in North America and became popular in China, Japan, Australia, and other countries. If you're interested in reading a more complete history, yet still rather brief, check out the Art Glass Lampwork History Page at www.theglassmuseum.com (most of my info can be found there) or you can find some info on wikipedia.

If you want some more eye-candy, I highly suggest checking out the Harvard Museum of Natural History glass flowers. In 1886 Leopold Blaschka and his son were commissioned to this project and it currently contains over 830 plant species.

Extreme Procrastion: because if I do something, I do it all the way

2009-06-23T16:10:00.005-06:00

So, I've been pretty absent from the blogosphere (does anyone actually say that?) for a variety of reasons...because life got a little crazy for a bit...because I was needing a break from my computer...because my plan to launch my etsy store and more snags in it that these tights from shop bop ...just because

Well in my absence I noticed I got the Honest Scrap Award first from Krysten at After I Do (yes I'm paying attention!) and then from Jen at Uberly Ecstatic (yes this is leading to more procrastination!)

and now I have to post 10 things that my readers may not know about me, and then tag 10 other bloggers. Here it goes:

1. Yesterday I dug up 440kg of sod (stuck in bone-dry clay), then loaded it into my truck and then unloaded it at the dump.

2. I like to sing my own words to different songs. For example I sing to my dog "Shake that rope for me" to the song "shake that ass for me".

3. I'm actually a cat person, but inherited a dog from my fiance and now there is one dog in the world that I actually really like.

4. I have an incredibly strange and sometimes crude sense of humor. Basically I laugh at everything.

5. I've ran a half-marathon (though not very fast!).

6. I used to cut my own hair, but now my fiance forbids it lol.

7. Before I found lampworking/glass bead making I did mostly pastel drawings and some alabaster sculptures

8. I am a big science nerd.

9. I've made my own almond milk, and other hippie-esque foods.

10. I kissed a pig and I liked it.

and now I tag:

Green Beans and Little Things
Deeply Problematic
The Transformation of Kern

I know its only 3, but that's all I feel like doing (you can think of this bit of information as a bonus no. 11 honest scrap).

Also- I would like to give a big thank you to everyone who's added me to their blog roll! I am very honored. If you have added me and I haven't yet reciprocated it's because I don't know (or your blog looks like its run by robots) so let me know and I can add you to my blog roll!

And now onto a post of substance...tomorrow ;)

Tag you're it!

2009-06-12T09:27:00.005-06:00

I have a post that I've been working hard on, but I've been tagged (with my very first, and thus far most cherished award) by Jen at Uberly Ecstatic, so now I can procrastinate my post another day (Muhahaha).

And now for my picks:

I Took The One Less Traveled By...
West Coast Newlywed
Under a Different Sky
One Modern Girl
Herding Cats

Happy Friday everyone- until tomorrow!

What are you listening to!?

2009-06-10T10:31:00.005-06:00

So music is a big thing for me if you haven't noticed. Stuff I make reminds me of songs, or I find a song I'm listening to influences what I make. I am also a former music major and have had the intimate relationship with music only produced by theory, ear training, and scouring the library for info on some obscure French chamber music composed for saxophone (my piece not listed on wikipedia of course) for your program..

I still continue playing music with my college's jazz band, but what I am curious about today is what do you listen to while you work? I've been listening to Last.fm for a while, because I can type just about anything and there is music with that tag- also because Pandora is not available in Canada (jerks). But since Last.fm started charging (which I eventually gave in to) I started searching for alternatives and came across We Are Hunted. This site tracks the most popular songs online by collecting info from blogs, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, forums, and more. So, 1) check it out, 2) tell me what you listen to while you work in the comments, and 3) say why it inspires you!

Find Your Centre

2009-06-09T10:39:00.005-06:00

So living in a not-so-populated place you wouldn't expect to find a thriving art community. But not so in Grande Prairie! This was further made evident to me at the Third Annual Art Board Auction and Show where the Centre for Creative Arts here in town invited artists in the community to make a skateboard deck into art for their Healing Arts Program. My board was there along with over 40 others. Check them out on their website (and even bid on one if you are so moved to!)

image from http://creativecentre.ca/

In other news- I will soon open my etsy shop! I know I planned to earlier than now, but I am not quite ready yet. I am aiming to have it open by Sunday, June 14. Keep your eyes open for a grande opening promotion! In the meantime, here is a pendant that will be for sale in my shop.

It's called Tangled up in Blue, one because it looks like blue string all knotted up, and two because I sang Tangled up in Blue the whole time I was making it- in my totally awesome Bob Dylan impersionation.

Tangled Up In Blue

Early one mornin' the sun was shinin',
I was layin' in bed
Wond'rin' if she'd changed at all
If her hair was still red.
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama's homemade dress
Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough.
And I was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through,
Tangled up in blue.

She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam, I guess,
But I used a little too much force.
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out West
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best.
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin' away
I heard her say over my shoulder,
"We'll meet again someday on the avenue,"
Tangled up in blue.

I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the ax just fell.
So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I happened to be employed
Workin' for a while on a fishin' boat
Right outside of Delacroix.
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind,
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind, and I just grew
Tangled up in blue.

She was workin' in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer,
I just kept lookin' at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear.
And later on as the crowd thinned out
I's just about to do the same,
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me, "Don't I know your name?"
I muttered somethin' underneath my breath,
She studied the lines on my face.
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe,
Tangled up in blue.

She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe
"I thought you'd never say hello," she said
"You look like the silent type."
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you,
Tangled up in blue.

I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs,
There was music in the cafes at night
And revolution in the air.
Then he started into dealing with slaves
And something inside of him died.
She had to sell everything she owned
And froze up inside.
And when finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn,
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin' on like a bird that flew,
Tangled up in blue.

So now I'm goin' back again,
I got to get to her somehow.
All the people we used to know
They're an illusion to me now.
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenter's wives.
Don't know how it all got started,
I don't know what they're doin' with their lives.
But me, I'm still on the road
Headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same,
We just saw it from a different point of view,
Tangled up in blue.

The Indigo Girls also did a cover of Tangled up in Blue. Haha- get it? Indigo? Blue?

Blue Raspberry

2009-06-07T17:29:00.003-06:00

Ok- so here are a few beads pics that I plan to make a necklace out of.

The color combo is in honor of my love for slushies in the summer.

And a bit closer up...

And a possible clasp...

Now onto making a necklace!

Three things

2009-06-06T10:43:00.008-06:00

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS:

Miss Jennifer at Uberly Ecstatic is in a crusade to start a new word. I mean if 'Muggle' and 'Grrl' can be added to the dictionary we can certainly think of an equally good, if not better word. I remember when I bought my first dictionary (oh yeah, I'm that cool) in the front section where they had the new words there was "Going Postal". Also- if I haven't become nerdy enough for you, while you're brainstorming check out Charles Hodgson's podcast "Podictionary". He goes through the history of everyday words. Some of them have some pretty crazy origins. So post your creative new words over at Uberly Ecstatic!

SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS:

I've been tagged!!!

The lovely Krysten and her hubby Dustin at After 'I Do' left me these instructions in my last post (which coincidentaly was related to her picture): Open your FIRST photo folder.Now find the TENTH picture.Post that picture on your blog and then tell us the story of the picture!The tag FIVE friends and have them do the same!

So I kinda cheated because as it turns out there were only nine pictures in this folder so this is actually the ninth pic, not tenth, but what can I say- I'm a rebel.

This picture is just before my first time surfing!
That's me on the end there standing next to my dad, sister, fiance, some random dude, and my little brother, and that's Uncle Brian on the Surfboard (picture taken by my wonderful mother).
We were at the North Shore of Oahu in March and got surf lessons from Uncle Brian (not my Uncle- that's just part of his name), and I have to say that was one of the most awesome experiences ever. The lessons were great- a little expensive- but totally worth it because there was so many pro-surfer instructors around helping that made it really easy. We all stood up on the board a dozen times or so. Uncle Brian is pretty crazy, so that's always fun too :)

THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS:

Beads!! I know this blog is supposed to be about my beads so I better show some pics eh? Unfortunately a week away from my torch + lack of inspiration= beads that may belong in the bargin bin, but here are some pics:

Ok- now back to torching so I can make some really awesome stuff to post soon!

Minnesota

2009-06-03T11:01:00.007-06:00

Just spent a week in my lovely home-state. It is also the birth place of Bob Dylan, Winona Rider, and Prince.

With all the traveling I haven't got any torch time in so I'd thought I'd share some of my favorite Minnesota places.

Glass of course first...

First place where I fueled my glass addiction

My mom also sent me a link to The Studio at Rush Creek in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Looks like they have some awesome classes.

While your in Maple Grove you can stop for some yummy sandwiches where I used to work- CG Ham's

I spent a lot of time in Minneapolis going to concerts at First Ave (In the Movie Purple Rain for all you Prince fans) and the Quest Club, which was started by Prince as the Glam Slam, and is now known as Epic Night Club.

The Cedar Cultural Center is also pretty awesome. It features music from around the world and is a short walk from Hard times Cafe, a grungy vegan-vegetarian cafe where I used to go sit and drink coffee and play chess with some interesting individuals.

I also used to frequent the Weiman Museum.

image from Nerd Girl Blogging

Pretty cool building huh?

The shops in Uptown are fun, and there is an Art Fair there every summer. I also used to eat at Chang Mai Thai there... mmmm pad thai.

And what is a tour of Minneapolis without the cherry-in-the-spoon?

image from http://garden.walkerart.org

Goodbye Tim Horton's

2009-05-27T13:19:00.003-06:00

Hello Dunkin' Donuts.

So I'm traveling from Canada down to the States to see my sister graduate high school.

The traveling brings to mind the age old debate- which is better: Dunkin' Donuts or Tim Horton's?

So..which is it?

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2009-05-26T12:49:00.009-06:00

If you haven't already guessed it... I like rainbows! Growing up (and to this day) I organize everything I can into "rainbow order". Pens, crayon, clothes, my glass of course, and if I had enough book I'd do this.

These are some of the first beads I made and they have some rainbowy goodness.

And I have since gone onto other ways to incorporate rainbows

But I am not the only one who likes rainbows!

Here are some people sharing their rainbow goodness on etsy in no particular order:

Genea uses fabulous colors in her beads
Cocobeads has a rainbowtastic bead called Rainbow Crunch
Teri Persing uses a rainbow version of her fat cat beads as a profile pic
Beck Mason has a bead set called Groovy Rainbow Love and sells rainbow bracelets on etsy and here
Mermaid Glass sells some rainbowy beads as well as Loribeads and Honey Bee

Also check out:

NLC Beads

(photo by artist)

and Glass Migrations

And Now For Something Completely Different

2009-05-24T10:44:00.002-06:00

What my dog does for intertainment... and is very intertaining

Orange you glad?

2009-05-23T11:51:00.007-06:00

I've been working hard on inventory for my very own etsy store so keep your eyes out. The plan so far is June 3rd... let's see if I can make it!

Here is a close up of a necklace I made using my new favorite colors: gray and we'll call it cantaloupe. Check out some more pictures on flickr.

I've been obsessed with the color gray for a while. I've even started to paint the interior of our house with a color called "veil" from CIL..

More recently I've been obsessed with orangey and pinky-orangey colors starting with looking for possible bouquet flowers for my wedding.

But then I saw this at J. Crew

And this necklace at Anthropologie.
Ahhh... so pretty.

And I just found out through Frantz Art Glass blog that CiM (creation is messy) came out with the new color Phoenix that looks rather reminiscent to the colors I used in my necklace.

Awesome!

In other news the snow has totally melted (yea!) and we are back on the spring program. Hope your weekend is as beautiful as mine :)

Just don't look out the window

2009-05-19T13:34:00.004-06:00

I know I've done my fair share of complaining about the weather.. but seriously! I was supposed to plant a garden on the weekend.. good thing we didn't.

You can't tell in this picture but its still snowing- its still snowing this afternoon actually...

But don't feel sorry for me, feel sorry for this tree. Poor tree. Poor little leaves.

Firefly beads

2009-05-18T12:39:00.005-06:00

I've been busy making beads. Maybe because I have a paper due and "it's not procrastinating" if I'm being productive right? Anywho- here are some of the beads I made this weekend- fireflies!

These are for my artboard project , which is coming along nicely! just a few more beads and I'm done.

The big one I made in two pieces, but it won't make a difference when they're incorporated into my project.

And here is a real firefly...

from: bexar-tx.tamu.edu

from: magickcanoe.com/blog/

I decided not to go for a total likeness to avoid thin, breakable pieces. What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know :)

Respond and Rework

2009-05-11T10:06:00.010-06:00

I got this from the Coloraddiction blog. Who got it from another blog.... and I wanted to pass it on as well!

RULES:

Rules of the meme: Respond and rework. Answer the questions on your own blog; replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention; add one more question of your own.

THE QUESTIONS:

What is your current obsession?

I'm obsessed with this certain shade of gray. Seriously, I'm painting our walls, making curtains, bought pillows... I think it might even be one of my wedding colors.

Which item from your closet are you wearing most lately?

My extra-heavy long sleeve workout top and lined workout pants. Its still really cold here in the mornings and the rest of my workout gear is aimed towards 30'C weather.

What was the last thing you bought?

Some wire mesh for my artboard project

What are you listening to right now?

listening to last.fm with the tag- CCR- so it plays CCR and related artists. I like the music, but its not my favorite. I've been listening to it because I'm constantly being quized by my fiance on that genre and I never know the song title or band... and I hate being wrong :)

What are you reading?

Textbooks, textbooks, case studies, and related articles :P

What 4 words would you use to describe yourself?

headstrong, creative, caring, introspective

What is your greatest fear?

Being in some kind of horrible accident that leaves me alive but unable to take care of myself for the rest of my life.

What would you do if the internet was irreparably damaged and you had to find another way to connect?

I would probably freak out and have to breathe in and out of a paperbag for a while... but after that I would start getting stuff done, but wouldn't be very connected!

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

Where would you go if you could travel anywhere right now?

I've been interested in going to Bali lately, but if you gave me a plane ticket to just about anywhere, I'd take it!

What was the best thing you ate or drank recently?

We went to dinner for my birthday and the special was a swordfish with a red bell pepper relish, and the vegetables that it came with were amazing... mashed yams, mashed potatoes, zucchini, carrots, beets.... so yummy, and so hard to find something around here with so many veggies!

What flower are you most anxious to see bloom this spring?

Flowers!!?? I'm just happy to see buds on the trees finally. We did see crocuses on a hike yesterday and that was exciting!

What are you most happy doing?

just relaxing with my family and friends

Care to share some wisdom?

"Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

- Yoda

If I walked into your work space today what would you want to show me? What would you want to hide?

I love showing anything new I'm working on, or my jar of 'mistakes' that I fill with broken beads and stuff. I'd probably want you to close your eyes on the way over to my work space- our basement is a mess!

What make you laugh out loud?

Our dog in boots

Want to do the Respond and Rework meme? Post it on your blog, then come on back and post below!

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T20:16:00.009-06:00

A very happy Mother's Day! I know its late ( I was born 2 weeks late so it makes sense anyway) but here are some pics of what I'm giving all the special mother's in my life:

for my mom

for my mom's mom

for my dad's mom

for my godmother

for my mother-in-law (to be)

Back to school

2009-05-04T08:12:00.003-06:00

Ah, with all the Birthday activities, landscaping planning, and now classes for the first summer session start again... well I haven't finished the post I wanted to. But I have some beautiful new beads (spoiler alert if you're my mom, g'mom, or mom-in-law) for mother's day to show soon. See you after school!

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-04-30T20:59:00.004-06:00

Today is my birthday, so have some cake ;)

CDs are last minute friendly

2009-04-30T12:08:00.003-06:00

So over at Humblebeads there is a Mix Tape Challenge to pick songs that you listened to in highschool. Unfortunately I didn't find out about it until today- the last day to enter!- but by the time I was in high school we were making mixed CDs, so I figured it was appropriate to do this last minute anyway :) I know, I know, making your own CD is so not as cool as mixed tapes but all my experience with tapes was pre-high school. Actually when I was around 10-years-old I remember recording the same Celine Dion song one a tape over and over and over.

So anyway, I found this mix CD that my old high school boyfriend made for me, and here is five songs from that!

Scar Tissue, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Sugar in Your Gas Tank, Less Than Jake

Warning, Incubus

Island in the Sun, Weezer

Bleed America, Jimmy Eat World

Check out Humblebeads post, there's a lot of great entries, and enter yourself if you have a few moments :)

Glass and inspiration

2009-04-29T09:07:00.012-06:00

So... the past couple days I've been talking to the director over at the Centre for Creative Arts here in town, and it looks like I'll be teaching a weekend class towards the end of May. I am super excited! Soon I get to share the love of glassy-goodness! You can find the details here.

While I was at the Centre, I was also asked to participate in the Third Annual Art Board Show & Auction. The auction supports their Healing Arts Program Initiative (H.A.P.I.) which provide accessible art opportunities to all members of the community. Check out the link to learn more.

Basically the artist takes an unfinished skateboard deck and starts the creative process from there. I definitely want to incorporate some glass work into mine, but I was also inspired by some "paintings" I saw on vacation at the Haleiwa Art Gallery. They were rich, complex landscapes and portraits. Really beautiful. After we looked at them a bit longer we realized that they were actually done by hand embroidery and not painting. The gallery bought them from a company called XQ Vietnam. Embroidery has been a tradition in Vietnam for hundreds of years. Historically women were expected to know how to embroider and sew. Through those traditions came this beautiful artwork. XQ's mission is carry on the traditional embroidery artwork of the women of Vietnam and to bring it to the rest of the work at a fair price.

These embroidered paintings are truly breath taking. They use thread from different materials that reflect light differently to add depth. It is apparent looking at them all the time and care that went into making the final product. One painting we looked at took the artist 2 years to complete at 40 hours a week!

I do not have the skill (or the time!) to do the same thing, but I would love to give their beautiful work a nod in my auction piece.

Ninja Part II

2009-04-27T20:42:00.002-06:00

So... I was able to make something today. a little sloppy for my taste, but still something. I will trying again, but first I need a break!

Ninja

2009-04-27T18:35:00.004-06:00

So I was trying to make those star beads like in this tutorial, but kept breaking the bead release so the bead would start sliding around on me and I would have to give up half way through and didn't get the dots melted in well enough blah blah blah. So anyway, my fiance took a look at my mistake star beads and said "what- are you making me throwing stars?" So that gave me the great idea of making throwing stars and got to work. Those however, have been kicking my ass even harder, sliding around, popping glass, and then I ran out of gas. I bought more gas this afternoon and did attempt no. 1, but I managed to crack the glass when I just about mastered one. I am determined to make one successfully today and post it.

In other news, I was able to ninja my way around making sushi (first attempt). Mmm, sushi.

Happy Friday!

2009-04-24T12:59:00.003-06:00

For your viewing pleasure...

... a dragonfly bead.

Also Frantz Art Glass has a new blog. Check out their first couple of posts!

Merry Christmas!

2009-04-23T13:27:00.004-06:00

I know its not Christmas, but there is snow outside and I got a package!

Isn't it beautiful? I just love getting glass. Looking at all the colors is really inspiring to me.

I ordered these from Frantz Art Glass. They have an amazing selection and were super easy and friendly to deal with. Drawback is I live in Canada so shipping was over $30 US, and then I had to pay $10 to customs. Boo. I might have to look else where if I'm going to keep buying small quantities. Lauscha Canada has a good web site and plenty of colors, but that seems to be it for soft glass here in Canada. What I would really like is a actual, physical store within walking distance of my house where I could go and look at the glass in person. No such luck. Oh well, maybe some day I'll own my very own glass shop and I'll get to order glass from Italy, Germany, and Japan :-).

Update: Louise of Fireseed just sent me a link to another glass supplier in Canada. Looks great!

Good thing I work inside

2009-04-22T19:37:00.010-06:00

It is April 22nd, and it is snowing. I wish my camera was working because my phone just can't take a good enough picture of this atrocity. I mean... I can actually see snow collected on the grass and my neighbor's roofs and around my truck tires. Totally disgusting.

I'm in a boot-camp style fitness class early in the morning and thank god that it wasn't snowing. I would be too busy balling to work my bum. No- I got to work inside all day on my new, make-shift studio!

I know the quality isn't great (picture is from my phone) but my unfinished basement actually looks really awesome.

I don't have a suitable table to work at, so we clamped a piece of plywood to some woodworking thing I don't know what to call and voilà a sturdy work surface that I can accidentally burn when I set a hot rod of glass on it. By accident.
We also didn't know how we could set up propane and oxygen and not be screwed if I accidentally blow everything up. So while the research is going on I'm playing around with my old hot head torch to scratch my lampworking itch. Mostly I'm just trying to get back into the groove and make sure I didn't forget anything because I might get to teach some classes at the Centre for Creative Arts (!) and we have to use the MAPP gas setup (like I have set up here) until they move to their new location, so its good for me to revisit its limitations. My Nortel major bench burner is looking pretty lonely though and I can't let such a big beautiful torch feel neglected so on to improve my home-set up!

A Brief Introduction

2009-04-20T10:19:00.001-06:00

Hello and Welcome.

My name is Valerie and I live in Alberta with my fiancé and my dingo-dog Taz. I've been a long-time blog reader of many blogs and decided that it was time to step out from behind the scenes and into this wonderful community.

What the heck is lampworking?

Lampworking is a typing of glass work using a torch to melt and mold clear and brightly colored glass into beads, figurines, marbles, button, vessels, or whatever! It’s presumably called lampworking because the technique was historically done using oil-fueled lamps.
I was first introduced to lampworking in 2003. I did a workshop at Bemidji State University and instantly fell in love. I eventually got my own small torch and glass and began experimenting at home. In 2007 I took a class with Will Stokes in Bellingham, WA (if someone knows of a link for him let me know!) who taught me some awesome new techniques. I moved to Alberta about a year ago and haven't made a single bead. But now I am getting back into the swing of things, have bought some awesome new equipment and I'm ready to go!

What else do I do?

Well, some people may consider me a professional student, and currently I am going to school to be a registered nurse but I've also studies art, music, and medical terminology. I consider myself a crafter and I also like to cook, travel, garden, run, and occasionally bitch about all the paperwork involved in immigrating from the U.S. to Canada.

Feel free to email me or leave a comment. Ciao!