Beads «

A bead for Newfoundland – Goose Bay Summer

I recently entered a call for entries for ‘Venture’ with the ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers). Bead makers from around the globe were welcomed to create designs based on the theme for their area.

The theme for Canada was ‘True North’. At first I groaned and thought ‘True North’?? But then I started thinking. I tried to forget all of my preconceived ideas of what True North might be and wondered what my True North was. Immediately I was taken back to our Newfoundland trip and the northernmost tip of the Western Peninsula where we saw icebergs, whales, Newfoundland berries and so much more. All of a sudden True North was exciting and full of promise!

Goose Bay Summer

I tried to capture the memories in this bead — in the bay a big iceberg is grounded, gulls are flying overhead and a whale is playing in the waves. On the rocky headland grows a pitcher plant (Newfoundland’s flower) and the bake apples (low growing berries) are beginning to ripen.

This bead taught me some things, it took about an hour to create and I had to keep every part of it hot during that process otherwise it would crack. Hot, but not too hot or the shape would distort and the details in the design would be lost. I realise now that the shape of the bead makes it very hard to photograph – the elements of the design tell a story but that is lost in the photos because of the shape. I couldn’t get a picture of the whole of the iceberg for example.

Goose Bay, Newfoundland

I am very excited to say that my bead was picked as one of only five from Canada that will be displayed in an exhibit at The Gathering this summer (2012) in Bellevue, Washington, USA). The Gathering is an annual conference held by the ISGB and is THE place to visit if you are a glass bead maker or have any interest at all in glass and beads. It’s quite an honour to be part of this event.

If you’d like to learn more about the ISGB click here to visit their site.

Do YOU wish you could talk to the animals?

Have you ever wished you could talk to the animals? Do you think that’s a crazy notion or something that might be achievable?

I have a hunch that almost all if not ALL animal lovers have at some time wished they could communicate with the creatures in their lives.

A bit of research online and you’ll see that all kinds of people are doing exactly that! You can even purchase online readings of your pets – yes, someone versed in communicating with animals will, for a fee, connect to your pet – living or passed over and relay information back to you.

OK, so this is one of those things you either laugh hysterically at, totally understand, or are willing to take a leap of faith and believe that it can actually be done.

Our new family member Miss Munky has once again brought this issue to the front of my mind. I want to be able to communicate with the animals in my life on a deeper level than ‘fishy! fishy! dinner is here!’, or ‘get your claws out of that furniture!!’.

I do believe we are all connected on a very basic level, humans, animals, plants and even the universe. If you are looking for an interesting and possibly life altering read look out for The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, it totally changed the way I look at things.

Following along with that thought, if we ARE all connected on some level why shouldn’t we be able to pass information back and forth.

I began looking for animal communicators online. They are many and varied, there are all kinds of courses you can take to learn this discipline – apparently it’s something we can all do to different degrees. I settled on Danielle MacKinnon – her site is very informative without being airy fairy or leaving you with the thought you might be dealing with someone who’s lost at least half their marbles. On the contrary Danielle’s site is very grounded, and matter of fact, she has a lot of free information there if you wander through the pages including lessons and constructive exercises.

I decided to sign up for her beginners class on Animal Communication. It was in my price range – $69 and offered a starting point to see if this was something I thought I had any interest or talent in exploring.

I’ve just finished the course, or I should really say class – it’s an online presentation accompanied by a pdf download of ‘how to’s’.

Was it worth it? Absolutely!

Did I learn anything? Yes, for sure!

Did I REALLY learn to communicate with animals? I don’t know for sure that I did actually communicate with any of the four test animals – I did receive some information that was accurate and some that wasn’t.

Will I continue to try? I think I will, I know the two sessions that I did left me feeling like I had gone to a deeper/other level, coming out of them was like suddenly waking from a deep sleep – it took a while to ‘come to’.

Danielle says this takes time and practise (don’t all the best things in life), she offers some exercise ideas and also an online group (for a membership fee), where you can connect to one animal a month in a community where you share your findings with others. Very helpful because you can see what information is correct and what is not – you can learn to understand how information comes to you and what to look for.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this subject — have you experienced communication with animals on a deeper level than we usually do in our day to day lives?

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are, not only the first day of a new year but The first day of 2012 – the year that is the subject of much intrigue. Time will tell if the Maya, and others knew something that we do not.

I’m not going to dwell on that, and I’m not going to dwell on the subject of New Years resolutions – I’ve always thought they just seem to be a way to set yourself up to fail. Instead I’ll mention an idea a very good friend of mine mentioned, she is going to make a list of things she’d like to do this year – maybe 52 things, maybe not. A bucket list of sorts, but one for this year, not for the rest of her life.

Initially I thought it was rather like making many resolutions, but then got to think what would I put on my list if I had one? I realised my list would contain things that I would LIKE to do, not things I thought I SHOULD do, in that respect it is very different from resolutions. Even that word makes me shudder – Resolutions require you to be Resolute!

A list however big or small would be a reminder, a gentle nundge not to forget the things that may make your spirit soar, or give you the sense of finally taking time to do something you’ve always wanted to.

What would be on your list?

Mine would contain making time for creativity, I’d like to take out my Dad’s watercolours and spend time exploring possibilities with them. I’d learn some new things (I just registered for a beginners Animal Communication Course as a start) and definitely want to travel east, or west.

Last year my Blog got neglected, I’d really like to use it more as a tool to track and share my progress with dfferent things throughout the year. To help I’ve just downloaded an ap I can use on my tablet to make updating easier — fingers crossed we are off to a good start.

Happy New Year to you, may it bring the things you desire whether you make a list or not!

Ottawa Glass Bead and Jewellery Show 2011

I’ve been horribly slack at writing blog posts — I have a huge Newfoundland Saga to tell and just haven’t got down to getting it done.

This however won’t wait!

November 11 & 12th! Ottawa Hellenic Centre at 1315 Prince of Wales Drive — that’s where it’s all happening — our fourth annual show of handmade glass beads and jewellery.

This year there are some new faces as well as lots of familiar ones, I’m looking forward to seeing what all the different bead makers and jewellery artists have been up to over the last year.

For all the information on who’s going to be there skip over to http://www.ottawaglassbeadartists.com and check things out.

What am I bringing? Now that’s a good question! I’ve got a lot of ideas crashing round inside my mind, I’d just like them to settle down a bit so I can figure out what is what. I think for the first time this year I will have some Pandora/Biagi/Troll style beads – that’s something new for me. Who knows there may even be a Goddess on one or two of them! Hope to see you there!

Pandora/Biagi/Troll style beads

What’s in a Bead?

You might be thinking ‘duh… well whatever it’s made of silly!’ — I challenge you to think again! Two recent events have got me thinking about this question:

I have just been fortunate enough to take a workshop with Holly Cooper — if you aren’t familiar with her glass beads you can see them here.

For the first time as a bead buyer I could not make up my mind which of Holly’s beads to purchase – they are all absolutely amazing. Here is the one I finally settled on -

I’m leaving the pictures nice and big so that you can appreciate the details.

Holly Cooper bead

Holly’s stringer work is second to none – if you don’t know what stringer work is, imagine a thin strand of glass, not much thicker than a bristle in a hairbrush — Holly paints her designs onto her beads using these stringers. It takes amazing creativity and control to achieve this.

Back the subject of this post — one thing Holly said particularly struck a chord in me – she was describing how her design goes around the bead and that it added another element to the bead. That element was ‘time’, because the viewer had to turn the bead to follow the ‘story’ of the bead.

The second event that has led me to this post is that I discovered that some of my monkey bead designs have been copied by a Chinese bead making factory -

Chinese 'Bunkee' copy - notice the 'copyright' on their photo!!

I’m not alone in this, many beadmakers have had the same experience. At first I was angry and frustrated, then I continued my ‘what’s in a bead’ train of thought.

Holly’s beads have taught me that there is so much more to a bead than glass (or any other material) that has been shaped or embellished in some way. Her comment about the element of time for me goes back to the birth of the bead, when I look at her bead I now see and appreciate the time that went into it’s creation. When I hold it in my hand I am holding a few hours of that artist’s life, the thoughts that went through her mind as she made it, the concentration as the design was laid down and the song that came from her soul as the design was born – each of these elements completely and wonderfully unique to this particular bead.

Until now I had admired beads for their look, their colours and the way they spoke to me, but now I appreciate so much more.

What about the Chinese copies you may ask? I don’t know the quality of the glass, if they’ve been annealed or even cleaned, but so much more is missing from them than that – they don’t have that special element — they’ve been mass produced, quickly and probably with little thought – - there really is nothing of an artist in them. My only hope about them is that perhaps they may have helped put food on the table for a family who was hungry.

Next time you look at one of your favourite beads, take a minute to think about the artist and the little part of their life and soul that has been captured in that little treasure you hold in your hands. I guarantee that bead will take on a whole new meaning!

Just for fun here’s a real closeup of the wonderful texture of my Holly Cooper bead – it is amazing – Holly can spend up to four hours creating one bead! Visit her website here.

Today’s Beads

I just added a couple of listings to my website shop -

This pretty bead is $25 plus $5 shipping – click here to find out more!

And I decided to list my Doodle Bead – it’s not perfect and the price reflects that, but it’s a good sturdy bead, and I can’t help but think it will be a fun one to wear.

Also $25 plus $5 shipping! Click here for details

Thanks for taking a peek.

Happy New Year and Updates on those Space Monkeys!

The holidays are over, the New Year is here and January is slipping through my fingers! I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year even if it is a little belated.

I recently got an update on Sam Supernova, Mike Mercury and Ray Gamma — those simian space explorers are on display in Mesa, Arizona at the Arizona Museum For Youth along with the other incredible beads that went into space.

On January 2nd they had some very special visitors, a whole lot of children and one special astronaut – Tony Antonelli, Mission Pilot for the STS132 mission that the beads flew on. Mr Antonelli was on hand to sign posters commemorating the Beads In Space event, and who talked his way into being right up front on the poster but Ray Gamma!

It certainly looks like he’s enjoying the spotlight! I have to admit he looks great in his NASA space suit.

Here are all the beads that took the historic flight -

Beads In Space poster - thanks again Beads of Courage!

As you can see the monkeys had some amazing company from some very talented beadmakers. These posters were designed by fellow Canadian (now living in the US) Arlene Pederson – you can see more of her work here .

Here is Mr. Antonelli signing posters for the children that were at the event – I tell you, it’s no wonder Ray Gamma is smiling — he’s not the only one!

Mission Pilot Tony Antonelli signing posters

I wonder how many of these children are dreaming of becoming astronauts?

And here are my monkeys in their display case at the museum, thanks so much to Kathryn Wreschinsky-Guler for being at the event and taking a whole lot of great pictures of all the Beads in Space beads and events of that day – she has them all up on Facebook.

Sam, Ray and Mike on display in Arizona! Beads by fellow artists Lauren Mazursky and Judy Carlson on the left

Ray Gamma - Monkey in Space!

Sam Supernova Skipping Craters

Mike Mercury Mission Monkey

It was just the heads of these monkeys that went into space, I had a request from Beads of Courage for bodies for the museum display and they kindly added them for me.
Once again I have to mention Beads of Courage for their wonderful program that has brought joy to kids and artists alike, and to NASA for allowing this incredible event to happen.

Do you like tools?

I have to admit that most of my beads are shaped using gravity, my flat marver and my little ‘patty down’ tool. What’s a ‘patty down’ tool? I don’t know, some kind of dental spatula that has made itself totally indispensable to me – so much so I have three of them on my bench.

I recently watched glass bead artist Muriel Duval using an Osibin lentil marver and thought that this looked like it might be a very useful addition to my glass shaping arsenal. I finally treated myself to one – here is what it looks like -

I want to try making some buttons and think this should work like a charm – I tried it for the first time yesterday. Lets just say I need to work on those buttons, but I did make what I think is the most perfectly shaped bead I ever have! I didn’t really know what I was doing but used the bowl of the depression to create a nice round bead and as a bonus the edges of these depressions let you work the glass to make beautifully shaped ends to the bead as well.

I’m looking forward to seeing what else this tool can do for me

Do you make seasonal beads?

Is beadmaking purely about doing what you love? Creating those designs that come from your heart? Or do you have a practical side as well, a side that knows it is smart business to make what customers want?

I tend to go my own way with my designs, but I’m also trying to work on my business smarts as well and figure out ways that this love of melting glass can translate into some steady income.

Winter is definitely not my favourite season of the year, but I have to say that making these beads made me smile and I have found a new colour combination that I really like. Sky blue, dark red and white is not something I’ve tried before and now I’m wondering how I can work that into some other designs as well. Sometimes making things that we normally wouldn’t can stretch our imaginations and colour palette!

Friday Garden Goddess

This morning I have a Garden Goddess to share, her name is Valli which means ‘Creeping Plant’ in the Hindi myth.

Garden Goddess bead back

More information on this bead can be found here – thanks for looking ;D