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I entered December's challenge over at The Glass Challenge and have just found out that this little monkee

[caption id="attachment_1296" align="alignnone" width="175" caption="2nd prize winner!"][/caption]

has won me second place in the Hobbyist's category!  The prize is a $75 gift certificate from the lovely folks at Burning Brass.  To say I'm excited is an understatement - ordinarily, brass tools are way beyond what our bank balance can afford, so this is going to seem like real luxury shopping!  I know I'm going to have a very hard time deciding, they have so many great  lampwork tools.

This looks like it would be wonderful for putting necks on animals, vessels and much more -

[caption id="attachment_1357" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Neck shaper from Burning Brass"][/caption]

But ohhh this looks like a dandy little knife -

[caption id="attachment_1358" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Shaping knife from Burning Brass"][/caption]

and I've always hankered after one of THESE -

[caption id="attachment_1359" align="alignnone" width="310" caption="Brass Shaper from Burning Brass"][/caption]

And this looks like it would be really nice for making captured bubbles -

[caption id="attachment_1360" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Round Push from Burning Brass"][/caption]

You can see, I have a hard choice ahead of me!  The nicest thing about the whole competition is this -

Burning Brass was proud to be the sponsor for the November / December Glass Challenge.  We would like to thank everyone who entered.  All of the entries were very creative and since judging so many great entries was difficult for any one person, we decided to make judging a company project.  We spent most of one morning casting votes to determine the winners.  Everyone here at Burning Brass had a chance to vote for their
favorite.

Thank you Jim and everyone else at Burning Brass!

It's still Christmas at my house!

I'm sitting here feeling very blessed.  For many reasons but one big one is that I'm part of a wonderful community on the Wet Canvas Glass Forum - I've mentioned them before but they have to be the most giving, wonderful bunch of friends I have ever come across online.  I'm almost embarrased to share everything I've received but want everyone to know much I appreciate their kindness.

I went to the Post Office this afternoon to see if my copy of The Flow had arrived - YES!!  Woohooo!  The Women In Glass Edition - crammed with incredible pictures and tutorials!  But alongside that was a 'come and pick your package up' ticket.  I wasn't expecting anything so imagine my surprise when the clerk brought out a box -

[caption id="attachment_1342" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="My box!"][/caption]

One of my WC friends had sent me something!  I couldn't wait to get home to see what was in there!

[caption id="attachment_1343" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Oooh! it looks EXCITING!"][/caption]

Wonder what could be hiding under the tissue paper??

[caption id="attachment_1344" align="alignnone" width="318" caption="SOCK MONKEY SLIPPERS!!!"][/caption]

OH WOW!!!  It doesn't get much better than this!  Thank you SO much Deborah for finding these and thinking of me!  The funny thing is, I had put slippers on my family Christmas list and even mentioned I'd seen some cute monkey ones, but they were not forthcoming - so these put an extra big grin on my face, and my feet!  My old slippers are just about in pieces.

[caption id="attachment_1345" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Warm tootsies!"][/caption]

I wonder what Raff is going to think when I chase him wearing these?? Hehehe!

Since I had the camera handy, and since I'd been so remiss about posting most of the other wonderful things I received over the last while I decided to get some more pictures while I was at it -

[caption id="attachment_1346" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Monkey Socks!"][/caption]

Rita of Rita'z R-tistic Ramblez gifted me these colourful socks!  I wore them for the first time on Christmas Day and got lots of great comments!  Thank you Rita!  --anyone would think I liked monkeys?! ;o)

[caption id="attachment_1347" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Karen Leonardo Book"][/caption]

I was speechless when I opened a package to find this book that Deb sent me - It is full of tutorials for different beads followed by a section on how to turn them all into different pieces of jewellery.  I made my first brooch following instructions in this book and was thrilled with how well it turned out!  Thank YOU Deb!

A while back Paula had surprised me and sent me two crochet books -

[caption id="attachment_1348" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Books from Paula"][/caption]

The Bead Crochet book answers so many of the questions I had about how to do, and what to use, and I'm looking forward to trying some of the 'recipes' in the wire book too!

As if this wasn't MORE than enough, I also received Pipyr's eye cane tutorial from Maggie - I'm working on this one, I've got a cane made, but trying to perfect setting it into beads.

I know I posted this before but will show it again, Maxine sent me one of her presses!!



If you aren't a beadmaker and wonder what this contraption does it helps to create beads of a certain size and shape when the molten glass is pressed between the brass blocks.  I'm still working on this, it doesn't come naturally to me and is going to take some practise.  There is a definite skill to getting just the right amount of glass melted to fill the press and no more!  When I get some decent beads made with it I'll post them here.  Thank you GirlFriday!

And to top it all off Rhonda sent me the Lichen glass I wrote about a few posts back - I don't have a picture of it as I made it into -



(except the bottom one which is my interpretation of Pipyr's eye cane tutorial)

I'm now feeling very indebted to everyone!

Here's The Flow



It's very exciting to see beads by so many people I know all in one place!  I'm now going to go and have a proper look at it, the gallery of glass in there is breathtaking.

It was a Teeny Tini, Micro Mini Monkee that she made for the first time today . .

Well, yesterday to be precise. I was feeling discouraged with the temporary loss of my oxycon and trying to think of ways around the problem.

• No Torching! - not really a possibilty


• Torch with Hot Head and 1lb cannisters - Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!


• Torch with Hot Head and bulk propane - requires change to current setup


• Try another option! - but what?

Then! Like a bolt of lightening from the blue I remembered the little torch I was gifted a while back. It only requires propane, and has the same hookup as my Mega Minor!
I pulled this little torch out and hooked it up, thinking this might be a good learning experience, making mini beads (for that's all it would do for sure!).

Without further ado, here's my first Micro Mini Monkee - I put it next to a regular sized one so that you can see the size difference. The neat thing about this is how tiny I can make details with this torch, combining this torch with my Mega Minor could yeild some very interesting results! It would also mean I'd need to rework my set up so that I could have two torches running at the same time, or in tandem at least.

I'll be a week or so without a concentrator, I've spoken to John at Artistry In Glass, he has been super helpful and is having a replacement shipped asap from the company in the States, and will have my dead one picked up next week. I am really happy with the service they have given and continue to give me - thank you John and Carri!

How to use the #9, or, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

[caption id="attachment_1304" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="The GOOD"][/caption]

What a lovely surprise to find that my friend Ananda had sent me some Vetrofond Lichen to try after I had commented on her beads made with this colour (thank you so much Ananda!). Isn't it pretty! It's the most delicate green with a hint of blue. My favourite of these beads is the middle, think I'm calling it Glacial Fields, which means it's probably a keeper, if I start naming beads it's usually because I'm seeing them as offspring...
The little black bead was my first attempt at using some eye cane I made from a tutorial by Pipyr.

The BAD
My oxycon died on me today, I don't know whether to be mad or cry. It's only about six months old and I've treated it with all love one would bestow upon a family member - except I never named it... perhaps THAT's the problem. Fortunately it's under warranty, but I'm wondering how long it's going to take to get the whole thing sorted out and what I'm going to do in the meantime. Does this mean a switch back to the trusty old Hot Head torch?

The UGLY
Well, that would be my mood, I feel like things are conspiring against me so I've taken to eating to make myself feel better - which by the way is a lousy solution!

The #9
Ahh yes.... the number nine! Cloud nine, Love Potion number 9, the 9 horsemen of the Apocolypse (really!! they just forgot to tell you about the other five!), and the fact that the Mayan calendar ends at the year 2012 and 12 is divisible by three and so is nine! I read somewhere that for some reason if you use odd numbers in your blog posts people tend to be drawn to them - consider this a test! ;o)

Thats it - if you've got any interesting uses for the number nine I'd be happy to hear them.

And The WINNERS Are......

Happy New Year to everyone!

I have the results from my Giveaway to share!

I thought it would be fun to have a little ceremony, so I gathered all the things I needed -

My list of email addresses



A nice box to put them in -



And a guest celebrity to do the drawing



Unfortunately Bono wasn't available...  nor were any of a number of other suitable guests that I had in mind.  I had to lower my sights just a little.

Fortunately (or not!), our own dear Ms. Monkeepenny agreed to step into the roll as Celebrity Guest and Draw Officiator.

[caption id="attachment_1252" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Ms. Monkeepenny"][/caption]

I had to give her a bribe gift of jewellery, but then she seemed quite happy to be the centre of attention.

What I hadn't counted on was her welcome speech...



"Dear friends, we are gathered here on this auspicious occasion of the very first Fireseed Giveaway.  I graciously conceded to perform the drawing of winners names in Bono's absence."

She went on... I'll spare you all the details,



"It gives me GREAT pleasure, or it will, once I'm at the party I've been promised afterwards with champagne, choklit and I heard a rumour about some good looking male chimp that might attend...  ...where was I..?  Yes, PLEASURE....   I am almost speechless with excitement to conclude this drawing"

It was at this point that I realised she'd been into the champers already, she began gesticulating with great relish -




And I cringed as she began to list to one side - this wasn't going at all the way I had planned --



Before I knew what was happening she was on her back!



And a strange squeal emanated from her mouth as she toppled backwards off the podium --



I tried really hard to stifle a howl of laughter and went to her aid - this was not the time to upset the Guest of Honour!

Ms. Monkeepenny managed to collect herself together and with the promise of a few more perks after the event, prepared to continue -



With all the entrants in the box




Celebrity Guest Ms. Monkeepenny dipped in her hand to select the winner....   *** Big Drumroll***



She fumbled around for a while and brought forth.... (it was right about now that the camera battery died..)

THE WINNER!!

And right about now that the flash batteries died, and Raff jumped on the table and tried to disassemble my whole awards show!

Never the less we managed to proceed -

[caption id="attachment_1001" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="Stanley Starpuck, Space Monkee!"][/caption]

And the Winner of Stanley Starpuck is:

[caption id="attachment_1273" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Valentina Miletic!"][/caption]

Since I had such a great response, and since Monkeepenny was costing me a fortune, I decided to add a couple of runner up prizes to the draw

Second Prize, one of my Cold Monkee beads goes to:

[caption id="attachment_1274" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Diane Hart!"][/caption]

Here she is Diane -


And finally Third Prize, another Monkee bead to:

[caption id="attachment_1275" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Karin Wilcox!"][/caption]

Here he is Karin! - Karin, I've emailed you but haven't received a reply yet - I'm wondering if it's an address you don't use much, or if my email has gone into the spam bucket. If you read this, can you email my your mailing address ;o)

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone else who entered! I have another idea for some fun but need to think on it a bit more - maybe I'll have it ready for my next newsletter!

Tag I'm it and a Brooch to go APE over!

Well, I woke up this morning, and you were on my mind... you were on my mind...  Oh sorry, too little sleep has me starting the day off with a song!  Let me try again.

I woke up this morning to find I had been tagged by Rita's Rambles - Thank you Rita!

What does this mean you might ask?  Well I will tell you, here are the rules -

Here are the rules of tagging
1. Link to tagger and display these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself - some random, some WEIRD.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Now I have to find SEVEN people to tag!  Bet you are all quaking in your boots!

Before I do the weird stuff and tagging, I want to quickly share this wonderful brooch that Meghann Gervais made for my right before my very eyes yesterday!  I love visiting Meghann because she's super talented and loves too bake, so there's always something yummy on the go as well!  Yesterday she sent me home with a whole half of her delicious bundt cake that was still warm and moist and crammed with cranberries.   Ooooh I felt so special :oD

The brooch?  Oh yes, here it is!

[caption id="attachment_856" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Marmite - Spread the World!"]

Go Ape over Monkees Brooch!

A LONG Long long long time ago, in a Universe FAR Far far away....

Well now, on not QUITE such a dramatic scale but almost....
Avert your ears if you hear a bad word!



So anyway, these Monkees went again!

[caption id="attachment_809" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Monkees In SPACE!!"][/caption]

Strangeness part 2.

One of only a couple of shows we watch weekly is LOST. I'm hopeless at staying awake from 9-10pm when it first airs, so I've been watching it a week behind when it is on at 8pm. My husband David watches it the first week at 9pm.

I was looking forward to this weeks episode of LOST. David told me I'd like the episode because it was more of the character Desmond's story AND because there was a RAT in it, and her name was ELOISE! We said how odd that was being the rat brain in the other movie was called Louise and wondered if they had taken it from that movie. Now that was a bit strange! Two rats in two programs that were about reality shifts and both having close to my name, but it gets stranger....

When I finished work that day I found David watching a movie on tv.... yup you guessed - Possible Worlds(the movie with the rat brain)! I started rewatching it with him. He was getting supper ready and was out of the room for an interesting scene, where one of the main characters looks at a 3 dimensional artwork on a wall. I had missed this the first time I saw the movie and it was very cool. The artwork looked abstract until you shifted the angle that you looked at it, and then it did one of those wierd things where the points closest to you, switched place with the points further away (in your perception) and a real image came into your mind of a house. I'd love to see it again because it was one of those things that makes your brain shift in an odd way. Anyway, I told David what he missed and was trying to explain the artwork, and told him it reminded me of something Escher would do, and he understood.

At the next commercial break I realise I'm looking at an Escher print and they are advertising a show about him that coming on, the first I'd heard of it, as I would have watched it - we commented on how strange that was and missed what times the show was airing.

I went to the search feature to find out when the show was going to be on. It only came up once in the listing -- that night at 8pm, the same time I would be watching my LOST episode!!!!

I'm now waiting for part three of the strangeness to happen. In the movie there was a car with a license place 11A64 - any bets on that being part of the serial number or something on my new equipment when it arrives??

The image of that artwork stuck in my mind, and I can't help thinking that just maybe that illusion holds a partial answer to our view of the universe. We are looking at everything from a particular perspective that we are used to, but just wait until that perspective shifts!! We could be in for a very interesting ride!

Strangeness part 1.

I'm waiting for my new equipment to arrive, and outside the biggest storm of the winter is dumping up to 50cm's of snow on us, so I'm heading off on a different subject from beads today.

I'm sure most of us have had strange synchronicities in our lives and stopped and wondered for a moment if it means something.

Recently, I've had a few. In order for you to understand why they are especially strange to me, you need to know that for about the last eight years we have had pet rats. Our last boy Stuart died recently and we decided to take a break and not get any more. This has been hard, their cages have been moved out into the shed and the house seems like something is missing.

Ok, onto the strangeness. A few weeks back I had been looking online for YouTube videos about one of my favourite books - The Holographic Universe. It offers an interesting explanation as to how our universe works, an explanation that seems to be coming more an more inline with things science is finding out on the sub-quantum level. What the Bleep is movie that also tries to explain this phenomenon. I won't delve into that, but I did find a video that really made me stop and think about things again . Part of the video is explaining how our senses work and how, in theory, if you could isolate a brain in a tank and hook it up to a computer; you could send it electrical impulses like the ones it would normally receive from our eyes, ears, etc. The brain would be unable to tell that it wasn't in a body, experiencing all these things. Part two of the video covers this.

So without going too deeply into things, that is the start of the strangeness. A day or two later I happened upon a movie on tv. I started watching it as it seemed promising. The movie was called Possible Worlds, and starts out as a murder mystery, but quickly turns into something much more interesting! In one scene, at a laboratory one of the detectives sees a tube full of liquid with wires hooked up to something inside. The tube is part of a machine that has a flashing red light. The detective asks the scientist what this thing is. He is told that it is the brain of a rat, and that the light flashes because the brain believes it is receiving food as a reward for having completed some task. The rat it turns out is a female, and stranger still her name is Louise!

It gets stranger, but I'll save that for the next post!

** A little bead content - Corina has recently started making beads called Quarks, some of them have checkerboard murrini in them - seems also that checkerboards also have a deeper meaning than the simple game we learned as children.