Reasons to Wear an Acorn Bead!

 https://www.etsy.com/listing/82837909/lampwork-bead-acorn-necklace

It's fall and time to make glass acorn beads.  I love the look and the legends.  Here are a few.  I'm heading to my torch.  Keep an eye on my shop for even more acorns!

The acorn has also been considered to be magical for centuries. The Roman Goddess Diana is very often shown wearing a string of acorns around her neck. The Norse God Thor is said to have taken shelter under an oak tree from a thunderstorm. This led to the belief that if one places an acorn on their windowsill, the house will be protected from lightening strikes.

There is an old legend in Great Britain that the acorn can deter aging. All one has to do is carry an acorn somewhere on their person. This is thought to keep that person young forever. This probably has something to do with the fact that oak trees have a very long life.

Bead Embroidery

This is almost a blast from the past.  Except I 'semi' finished this cuff yesterday. It's not totally finished yet, needing the edge work done.   I used to do all kinds of bead embroidery, especially around pieces of fused glass.  Pins, pendants, and cuffs.  But life changes, and other interests in jewelry making came to the forefront.  Whenever I see a bead embroidered cuff, it just looks so beautiful.  I like the swirls one can create using the same color of bead to add a new dimension to the look of the bracelet.  

This is a blast from the past for more than one reason.  It's what I 'used' to do, ages ago, it seems, and I started this piece probably 4 or 5 years ago. Once in a while I would work on it and every time I saw a bead embroidered cuff, I'd thinkof how beautiful they are, and of this one,  half finished in a little container. 

Yesterday I decided to finish it.  Working on it, I remembered 'why' bead embroidery is so fun.  It is a 'soothing' activity.  It was raining outside, the dog was at my feet, and I stitched and planned the next cuff to make.  The next cuff will feature some of my lampwork discs.  Bright?  Earthy?  I don't know yet.  But I do know there 'is' a next one.

Etsy Gift Cards

Etsy Gift Cards are coming soon!

This fall Etsy is launching Etsy Gift Cards. They'll be accepted at all shops that offer direct checkout. That's great! You can give a gift to your favorite people to be able to shop in any
of their favorite Etsy shops.
I love Christmas shopping on Etsy. Handmade gifts, vintage too, and you can find just about anything you like.
Hand knits, pictures, bags, furniture, and of course, very cool jewelry!
I'll post here when it goes live. :-)

Finding Your Artistic Voice

Where have I been?   Just too busy to think of blogging.  We've been on a few trips this summer and so enjoyed them. The Outer Banks for our Anniversary, and then later, to New Hampshire camping with family. I'm ready to stay home for a while!
In the meantime, I'm working up new jewelry for fall Art Shows, and enjoying that.
A friend and I had a little discussion about what direction our work takes.  It was good to think about.  Do you ever do that?  Just sit and think, what 'is' my style, what do I like to make the most?  I love color.  So I am trying to follow that path for a while. The brighter the better.  Looking through magazines is great inspiration. Don't look at the pictures, just look at the colors.  Pretend it's blurry.  Squint your eyes.  What color and design and balance are being used?   You could use this technique for design ideas too.  Shapes and how they interact are well done oftentimes in publications.
It's been a lot of fun following these ideas and I have plans for other ideas using combinations that please me.

I just have to add  a picture of Sparky the Wonder Dog Rat Terrier (and me)  on our vacation to the Outer Banks.  He loved running along the shore and digging in the sand.   I did too.  ;-)

Recycled Tins into Beads

Now isn't this cute?   I had the pleasure of meeting Debbie Austin of the Glass Onion Bead Company.  Her husband taught this wonderful pewter casting class, and Debbie was there to help.  She had taught the night before, this type of recycled bead.   I couldn't resist pawing through all her tin and materials and beads. Here's the link to their shop.

Old tins fascinate me.  Maybe it's the colors and patterns and metal.  (haha probably!)
After many different experiments, Debbie has a very nice technique for using these tins for making beads.
I bought a kit and materials for making these beads, with some other ideas in mind.  But in the meantime, also bought a cute 'Candy Land' necklace for my daughter since it was such a favorite game from her childhood.  Go figure.  Candy Land is such an easy game, but I also loved it as a kid.  Is it the candy?

You might like to purchase a bead or a kit from Debbie.  She is one of the nicest people, as is her husband.  I would love to live near their bead store so I could shop there and visit with them upon occasion.

Back from the Bead and Button Show

It was a great time in Milwaukee! The Bead and Button show is every year in June. Always that last weekend between school getting out and the teacher work week.  Being unable to take the last week of school with students off when I was teaching made  this show one I was not attending.  One year I was lucky enough to have a schedule that allowed it.  Now.. as a retired teacher, I can go.  Woo Hoo!   Off I went early this week to Milwaukee and took a class in pewter casting.  That was great.  really great.  The instructor did a super job and with my background in lost wax casting, this appears to be do-able in my own studio.  I saw some good friends, enjoyed time with them, and then trained to Chicago (Amtrak!)   to see my daughter and her husband, and my son and his wife.  What great times.  We walked all  over the place and had a bunch of fun, and baked cookies too! 

Back to Milwaukee on Friday to shop the show.  The colored metals above are from 'Metal Me This'  and I just can't wait to make some jewelry with the pieces.  I also was able to buy a nifty new kit from the Glass Onion Bead store.  You just HAVE to see it.  In my next post!

It's nice to be home filled with new plans.  In the meantime, I opened my Etsy shop back up.  Anyone need beads?

 

Thank a Teacher. Please!

It is so strange, to not be working in a school in May, anticipating the year's end. This year is the best May EVER. (except for May 1982 when our son was born)   It's not that I didn't love teaching, but May always dragged on for ages, and I always called it the month from hell. It was always so hard to keep the kids on task at school, and I wanted to teach until the last minute.That's what they pay me for, right?  The students, on the other hand, wanted to be done with the school year, and if there was misbehavior  in their mind, they would go for it. Stir in nice weather and more extra programs and activities than will fit on your calendar.  Then add in testing. report cards, class celebrations, inventory, budgets,  ACK!! Oh right... and yearbook!  which was the ultimate in stress.  The students have their own stress.  Testing, doing those end of year programs in every activity they are involved in, and their stress showed also. If a kid might misbehave, May is the month that is best for the picking.  It's weird to see if there might be pushing or hitting or arguing, it can escalate more quickly in May, leading to suspensions.
Most of the end of year jobs had to be done when there were no students in the room, of course, so May was a lot of stress, long nights, not enough sleep, and trying very very hard not to be cranky. I remember one very hot Friday afternoon, sitting in a storage room sorting out 400 yearbooks, after everyone had left for the weekend.  (ok...  I had a little pity party that time and cried as I sorted them, and was more organized the next year.. and  the tears were, of course, just from all kinds of stress. )
 Let's add here, that my husband also teaches, and living with a stressed out spouse is a challenge also when you are stressed yourself.  WHEW  how many times did I say STRESS in this!??
I had my first nightmare about being in a classroom... about a week ago, and it was 'May in the classroom' 
This year, I have a garden, and go for walks, and work in my studio, and enjoy my part time job, and think my husband is a sweetheart, admiring how he can get through this last month of school. I always wondered what life was like without teaching and can say, May certainly is better!!  I went to school every year since I was 4,  so this is a new kind of world.  :-)

If you have kids in school, please please remember to thank their special teachers. It means so very much, and makes it all worth it.  Believe me. You just can't imagine how much it means to someone.  And even better, a little treat.  maybe a flower from your garden, a certificate for a cup of coffee, a snack and a soda, a thank you note (I kept them all).  They do so much for their classes and a thank you means the world to them.
If you aren't a teacher, enjoy this beautiful month.  If you do teach, stay with it my friends, the kids need people like  you.   XXXOOO   from me, and a big THANK YOU!!