Flash, Bang, Wallop!

Well, it might not have been quite as spectacular as that, but it certainly sounded like it!

This summer seems to have been a never ending round of thunderstorms and rain, and Friday 18th, was no different.

I'd had a busy work day and was trying to process my photographs when storms started. In the end I shut everything down because I was getting nervous, ...and it was supper time! After supper it seemed like the last of the storm was trailing off into the distance and since I still had a lot of work to do I headed back to the computer. I don't think I'd been there five minutes when there was an ear shattering explosion of thunder and almost as big a bang from the computer. I screamed and I'm sure jumped out of my chair.

The internet had been down since I got in from work, but now the computer was down as well. Ugh! Husband David was nearly down as well, he'd been putting out the compost when that lightning struck - we're beginning to think he's some kind of magnet as that was his second close call in as many weeks.

What did we loose? A motherboard, power supply, speakers, telephone answering machine, internet and part of our satellite tv signal.

One week later - well, almost - internet was finally restored the following Thursday. I was on an imposed vacation from work, which would have been nice except I seemed to be spending hours on the phone trying to get things sorted out, it's so comforting to know I can talk to people in India for the cost of a local call to my phone company :oS

I could write a long story about my horrors of dealing with service departments and technicians, but I won't. There were some stunning moments, like when the satellite installer - a military man by all accounts, told me he'd probably be able to get my 20 year old tv to work with the satellite remote, even though it did not even have a sensor for any kind of remote. I thought he might be GOD. Then there was the instance of the internet cable installer (I thought -by his screams- he'd stapled his eyeball to the house or something much worse), who got stung by a wasp, I've never heard a grown man scream like that before - I'm so relieved that he'll never have to experience childbirth firsthand.

Please note, this is not the internet cable installer, but you get the idea!

All in all, it was an exhausting week, but we now have a computer and internet again, even if I can only use it for the five minutes a day that the thunder is not rolling through!

I missed showing these!

Somehow I missed showing these beads, I like the look of the ivory and silver with the transparent glass.

This one is called Flight



And here are some more using the same idea,

The Moos Brothers

I couldn't resist....



More to come - you know there is something quite comedic about cows...

Oh and the good news of the day is I just placed first in Artistry in Glass' beginner's category for this month!!  Yay!  I can buy MORE glass :o)

I'm still here!

Work and a busy schedule has meant I haven't had a chance to post the previous beads in my Etsy shop yet.  I've got another batch sitting in the kiln ready to be photographed, I just need some free and quiet time!!

The Marianne van Silfhout Gallery at St. Lawrence College in Brockville has an upcoming Art Show, the date for submissions is July 29th.  I have a few ideas floating round in my head and have also decided it's high time I finished my Warring States necklace as that would be worth submitting.  This isn't the best picture of it, but all I can find at the minute.

Reshoots and some new additions

Drumroll...

Here are the first sets I have got put together of my new beads, some are reshoots from the previous post but there are some new ones in there too! I'm really happy with the design of these, the shape makes them feel quite elegant, and the ivory and silver tops are accented with silver glass - I've used Triton and Tibet, most of which is reduced to a pretty metallic blue/green sheen.

I'm listing each set at $20, they'll be going up on Etsy hopefully in the next few days, but if you just can't wait, drop me an email and we can work something out with Paypal. Colours may vary slightly from monitor to monitor, I've got them as close as I can.

More pictures and measurements are available of each set on request. All these beads have 3/32" inch holes. I've used Moretti, Vetrofond and Reichenbach glass.

Tangerine Dream - or maybe it should be tangerine dreamsicle!

January Rain - little raindrops almost appear to have been painted on this bead, in very delicate almost rainbow colours.


Cosmos - I used raku to achieve the swirling clouds of colour - it's quite trippy!


Coastline - if you look carefully you can almost see the coastline hovering above the grey sea, I see a house and cliffs, if you look you'll probably see something different.


Fossil - this bead has a very earthy look and there does appear to be a fossil of some kind buried deep beneath the surface!


Neptune's Gift - silver foil over oxtongue black creates this wonderful patina'd blue, topped with silvered ivory and iris gold it really does feel like something Neptune may have held.


Sea Storm - crashing waves and surf the sea is rising high tonight, lit by a silvery moon hanging in the sky.


Firestorm - swirls of colour, almost molten lava-like, the metallic blue compliments them wonderfully


Deserted - If you are wondering about the name -an idea for a name for this one deserted me! There's raku in there and a Vetrofond colour I'm not sure of, this bead was hard to get a good picture of.


Rainbow Fields - beautiful Raku colours swirling around! Colours I could never achieve with my hot head torch come flying out of the glass now - I'm thrilled!


Agua - I used dark teal glass for this bead which is much prettier than the picture actually shows, the 'water' is rippling, reflecting light off the surface.

Celtic Moss - I think the Vetrofond colour may be called Swamp Moss, but oh my! It's just beautiful! Definitely a mossy colour and combined with the ivory and silver in this bead, it just made me think of all things Irish.


MORE TO COME!

What a difference the LIGHT makes!

It's come to my attention that certain people have found the following pictures a little.. shall I say titillating, which leads me to wonder exactly what kind of lives they lead!! I have learned my lesson and would like to assure everyone that in future I will be more careful about the placement of the beads in my photos!!



I've been making some beads that I really like! I wanted to share them here, so took pictures this morning. I'm not very happy with the pictures, it's a dull day out and I didn't want to use the flash, the colours are not the greatest and I will be re-photographing them.

Here goes....





Irish Moss

This set is a gorgeous dark green mossy colour, with variations running through it. I love it! Too bad it looks black in this picture. I used Triton for the tear drop shapes at the top of these beads - again, you can't see it in this picture but the Triton is reduced to a pretty mirrored finish.



Sea Storm

Same style of bead except the ivory looks more like raging waves which led me to add a moon to the sky.



Rainbow Fields - you can see the reduced Triton a little better in this bead. I used Reichenbach 104 Raku to get the rainbow of colours.



Here's the rest of the group, some I like better than others but thinking of making spacers to go with these as well ;)

I have some Boro hollows to photograph too, I hope the light is better later.

My computer or keyboard is doing something weird, it's making typing difficult, here's what it looks like if I don't orrect what it keeps doing, it's skipping letters and I have to keep going back to type in he letters it's skipped. I's pretty annoying and I end up with a buch f letters that were skipped all jined together at my cursor!! oonttc

Going to check and seeif it's some kind of virus, I'v got scanners running so I should be sfe but you never know these days. ae

What a time to run out of gas!

Well, I guess there really is no good time. But I was particularly happy with two beads I made this morning and wanted to see if I could replicate them. Poof! half way through - no gas :o(

Here are the two beads -

I'm calling this one Talisman, it's a new shape for me, well a progression of the cone shape I like. I love the way the colours shift from on end to the other, something I wasn't expecting at all.



Spirals

And this one is Spirals, the ivory and silvered stringer is just beautiful!