Pile of Beads and a Mischievous Kitty

Just a public service announcement.

Don't leave a strand of beads on your desk when there is a rambunctious kitty running around.


I had a very nice set of beads on my desk partially strung. I needed one more bead to complete the set. I left it half strung on my desk and went downstairs to the torch.

A few hours later, coming up the stairs I found a spool of stringing wire unraveled. I few more steps and I found some pliers, a few more steps and I found a pile of tiny spacer beads scattered. Ugh!

So far I've found all but one of the beads from this set. It kinda sucks, but lesson learned I guess.

New Stuff for Spring

In my last post I told you how I made a point to torch for ten hours. Now I have a TON of new beads listed in my Etsy and Artfire stores. I even put a few auctions up on Ebay just for fun. Here's a couple of them.








I had a bit of fun with some brass mesh bubbles and some metallic scrolls.

I have a ton more new stuff that's been listed as well, but I try to keep the shameless advertising to a minimum

Don't Forget to Create

Sometimes it's easy to get wrapped up in all the other parts of selling your art.

As much as I wish it were otherwise, we can't just create and it'll sell. Pieces need to be assembled, photographed, edited and descriptions need to be written. Everything needs to be promoted in various forums and social networks. Pieces need to be listed in different venues. Just typing this gets me a little overwhelmed.

Then of course you need to live your life. Go to work, make dinner, exercise, bills, clean house (or not), SLEEP. Pretty soon you realize that there's no more time to create.

This past week, I made it my goal to spend 10 hours of the week at the torch creating. It's harder than it sounds. There were several times where I didn't even feel like it. I just wanted to be a blob in front of the tv because I worked so hard doing everything else. Each time I'd force myself to go outside and hook up the propane and head downstairs to the torch. After the first bead was made, I remembered how much I love to create. TV was forgotten and I'd be downstairs creating for several hours.

So if you find yourself feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that goes into selling your art, sometimes it helps to get back to basics. Remember why you do it in the first place and set aside some time to do what you love.

A few Changes

My website might be a little weird for a bit. I just canceled my hosting plan and switched to a blogger blog. Over this past year, I've realized how horrible I am at understanding the basics of web design, so I think I'm just going to keep it simple this time around.

I don't feel as professional or fancy, but I'm just not utilizing my hosting anyways.

Surface Challenge

Guess who's beads will be going to the bead and button show in Wisconsin as part of the Surface exhibit. Me! Yay!



I'm excited. I made this in the first week of March when there was still ice and snow all over everything. We're just starting to see a couple of those flowers, but with my luck there will still be yet another last minute snowstorm.

Anyways, I hope more people will be able to see my work with this piece being in the exhibit. I think it also means I might need to make some more lapidary pieces like this. While I love making them, they are very tedious. It probably doesn't help that I have my lap machine set up on my dryer facing a wall.

I'm excited to see what other beads will be in this exhibit. I won't see for a little while, but when they're up, I'll post a link :)