I have received a blog award from my friend Meghann of Little Studio Jewels!  Hop on over there to see Meghann’s wonderful creations, she’s currently working on a series of jewellery pieces inspired by great women from history.

Thank you Meghann

The Award is the Premio Meme Award, and I am to tell you Seven things about myself – oooo… ..errrr – here goes!  I’m an animal lover so will try and make them all animal based.

1. I don’t like watching movies with animals in them because I’m sure they are going to get hurt or killed in the plotline.
2. When I was a child there were donkey rides at the seaside – I really didn’t like them, I was terrified I was going to fall off – I much preferred the ones where you sat in a vehicle and got pulled along.
3. My first pet was a white mouse called Twinkletoes.
4. My most unusual pets were rats – we probably had close to 30 – (not all at once!) and they are the most wonderful little creatures – they really are like miniature dogs – only more clever!
5. I call little dogs ‘rat dogs’ because they remind me of our rats.
6. While swimming in the Adriatic a little crab grabbed hold of my toe!
7. I’ve never ridden on an elephant.

There you go!  More than you ever needed to know ;o)  I’m supposed to tag seven people but will say instead that if you read this consider yourself tagged!  Leave a link to your blog in a comment so that I can hop over and read your seven bits about you!

A recent blog post by fellow bead maker Mallory really made me stop and think about the value of the beads we create.

If you have any interest in beads you have probably come across really inexpensive glass beads in your travels.

If you don’t know much about beads you might be fooled into thinking they are great value, and might also be wondering why beads such as mine are so much more expensive.  I’ll explain why!

Many of the inexpensive beads come from China where they are

• mass produced,
• created from low quality glass
• not annealed (an essential part of the process) and
• not cleaned

Each bead I create has come from thousands of hours of learning and practising.

My first torch and accessories cost approx $150

That kept me going for a little while, but I soon needed to upgrade to my present torch that uses both propane and oxygen.

New torch, Nortel Mega Minor $150

Oxygen Concentrator to create the oxygen needed $550

Hoses to hook it all up $40

Regulator for the fuel $100

Kiln!  For annealing glass $760

And we haven’t bought any glass yet!

Ventilation – $700

That is just the equipment!  Add to this the cost of fuel for the torch, electricity for the kiln and supplies such as mandrels and bead release.

Tools!!  We all need tools – prices vary from under $10 to over $100

Eye Glasses!  Needed to protect our eyes from the flame – $150

THEN comes the glass – this can range in price from $7/lb to $100/lb depending on the type !

Add to this

• time spent learning this art,
• cost of lessons which can be $200 per day
• the little bit of ‘me’ that goes into each and every one
• time spent creating and cleaning each bead by hand
• days wasted when Muse is on vacation and beads are horrific!
• other incidentals that go along with making these one of a kind pieces of wearable art

Each bead that I offer for sale is the very best of what I make. I’m very critical about what I consider to be a sellable bead and many just don’t make the cut for one reason or another.

You’ll soon realise that Lampwork beads are PRICELESS!

When you consider purchasing a bead or set of beads from any lampwork artist please take a moment and reflect on what is included in that price – you’ll soon understand why these beads are truly a remarkable value.  You are purchasing one of a kind pieces of art that can last for generations to come.

David was reading his mail the other day. He had something from his bank. Imagine his surprise when I yelled ‘STOP!’ – ‘Don’t throw that away I want it!’ – or words to that effect.

He handed the sheet to me with a rather puzzled expression on his face, while I grinned with glee!

Inspiration??
Well opening a kid’s account wasn’t exactly what was on my mind – but THAT dog spoke to me! All at once I saw how I could construct a dog bead I truly liked!

And I did!

I truly like him! He makes me smile!  Not least of all because I’ve struggled so much with dogs.

Like my monkee’s he’s made with a nice big hole running horizontally through his head.  This means he can be worn easily on a chain or cord AND that he’ll always face the right way, he’s not going to swivel round on you while you are wearing him.  He’s a decent size too!

I was so delighted I made another!

I changed the colours up this time so he looks a little dobermanish.

I don’t know how I can translate this into other breeds at the minute – but I’m happy with this starting point.

Thank YOU St. Mary’s Bank!!!  Or more precisely thank you to the artist who drew the original pup!

I’m working on a new Monkee story to go with my next series of Monkee beads.

I won’t give too much away, but will say that the whole adventure started when Mylo Monkee received the following items in the mail.

Would YOU believe him?

What would YOU do if you were Mylo??

This Mother’s Day I made some beads for my Mum. She’d mentioned that she’d like one so I thought I’d surprise her.

I wanted to give her a choice and something that she could easily switch out when she wanted.
Mum’s problem is that she has trouble putting necklaces on because of the clasp.

She has one I made with a magnetic clasp that she really likes, so I wanted to use one of those.
Problem was the magnetic clasp made it impossible to slip the beads or pendants off and on.

Here’s what I came up with -

All you need to do this is

1. a ready made chain
2. two split rings
3. a magnetic clasp

I removed the clasp from the necklace by taking the ring that holds it in place off .  Then added a split ring to that end of the necklace and added one part of the magnetic clasp to it.

I then took the magnetic clasp, threaded the second split ring onto it and added the necklaces original clasp back onto this split ring.

THEN, the clasp can be hooked into the necklace as it would normally, BUT you don’t need to use it to take the necklace off and on – you use the magnetic clasp for this.

IF you want to change the bead or pendant that is on the necklace you can simply unhook the clasp and slide the bead or pendant over the small end of the chain – nice and simple!

This was a much more successful Mother’s Day project than THIS

But more on THAT later.  Suffice to say you should never try to cook Angel Food cake in a toaster oven — but you already knew that right?? D

Yesterday Raff made some new friends.

When I got home I found that Meghann of Little Studio Jewellery had stopped by and left a package for me.  Well, for Raff and I would be more accurate.

It was a lovely thing to find as the day had not been a good one up until that point.  I excitedly unwrapped the little packages that were tucked into a pretty gift bag with brightly coloured tissue paper.

There was a teeny tiny crocheted teddy bear (for Raff), Octothello the crocheted octopus (for Raff!), the cutest little crocheted sock monkey (MINE!  All MINE!) and at the very bottom of the bag was some home made chocolate and peanut butter fudge.

I haven’t got a picture of my little sock monkey yet because Mixy monkee leaped up and stole him from me.

I haven’t got a picture of the fudge because it’s all gone….  I shared with David – honestly!!   It really was sooo rich and creamy and delicious!

So we are left with Raff and his new friends whom Meghann had sprayed with natural catnip!

Raff sniffed, and looked, and looked and sniffed, he tried to eat Octothello’s leg then went to roll in the teddybear.

After that he crawled up and curled up on my knee – worn out and ready for a nap – until he felt something upon his back.

He tried to ignore it…

But it wouldn’t go away…

He decided he really liked the little teddy but wasn’t so sure about this other interloper.

It was obvious though that it wasn’t going away, so in the end he gave in, and they all had a lovely nap together!

Thank you Meghann!  Beads are coming your way and in the meantime I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

If anyone is a WordPress geek I’m desperately seeking help.  My hosting co had big problems with the server I’m on last Thursday.  My blog is up and running again, but since then I can no longer upload images through WordPress (  I’ve got a trouble ticket in, but suspect it’s going to be one of those elusive techy problems that no-one seems to have an answer for.   I’ve found a work-around, but it really is a W.O.R.K. around and a real pain to get images into a post.

Yes, that’s what the thermometer is reading as I make my morning tea. I think the glass might be a little shocky out in the sun porch today! My ventilation system can’t come quick enough.

We had six squirrels at our birdfeeders yesterday – all at the same time! I felt bad for them as David had said he heard that acorns were in short supply this year. I made some peanut butter sandwiches to take out to them and felt like I was in a scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s lesser known movie ‘The Squirrels!’. They were all perched high in the tree looking down at me, except one who squawked at me from a lower branch.

Our birdfeeders are starting to look pretty shabby!

I am excited and happy to be able to show this bracelet and brooch set.  Meghann Gervais and I have collaborated on these pieces for a donation to the November fundraiser in aid of the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.

Donation for Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary

This local sanctuary helps sick and orphaned wildlife and is the perfect place for my very first donation as an artist.  Meghann has used my beads to create this bracelet and brooch along with beautiful crystals and filled gold.

I recently became a member of Etsy For Animals, it’s an Etsy team that encourages members to help raise funds for all kinds of animal charities.  If you are shopping on Etsy, be sure to do a search for ‘team efa’ – you’ll be sure to find quality arts and crafts and at the same time you’ll be supporting a wonderful cause.

This coming weekend, June 7 & 8 is the Dandelion Festival in Kemptville. If you are in the area check it out!

I am going to be at The Bead Store / Rideau School of Art, on Prescott Street both days. Store owner Jeannette Froese Leblanc has invited me to be her guest artist for the festival. I’ll be setting up my hothead torch, bringing some glass and lots beads. If you want to see how a glass bead is made I’ll be doing demo’s throughout Saturday and Sunday and would love it if you can stop by!

On the home front I have a new family member to introduce to you. He arrived the day before yesterday from the Lanark Animal Welfare Society shelter in Smiths Falls. His shelter name was Raff, and so far he’s keeping it. Somehow it seems a fitting tribute to our beautiful old boy Raffi who we had to have put to sleep a few weeks ago at 19 years of age.

You can see, he’s making himself quite at home!

Its no wonder the speed at which I can work at the computer has slowed to a crawl!

Aww look! Raff is waving!

Now does he have BIG paws or is it my imagination?

Nap time at last!

I’ve just left him exhausted in the living room after giving him a sprig of catmint that’s growing outside. He really enjoyed that!