Tucson preview

Sometimes new work really means new work! I took a leap of joy into the unknown world of color. And this has become my new line of birds. Here the Red Tailed Hawk poses for the viewer. 

Inspired work by Diana Foster

Preview of the new lampwork glass artwork coming at the Gathering bead bazzar! There will be more dinosaurs as pendants, and cabochons.
Here's what an inspired jewelry designer made with my lampwork glass tyrannosaurus rex medallion she acquired at the Bead and Button show in Milwaukee.
Thanks Diana Foster  for sharing with us your creative masterpiece!

Where can you go to be Absolutely Fabulous?

I am fabulous everyday.

I work hard to match my pink hair with my bright clothes. My favorite comment from my son is "Mommy, you are dressed like a clown!" 

I enjoy it, I thrive on it, I wouldn't be any other way.

And as I travel more and more for shows, I'm finding places where my fabulousness is frowned upon. Places where the general regard is "what the h€|l -!!??"

And I find myself stiffening and not feeling so fabulous.

Then I arrive at the Bead show, and there they are, there we are, the women who refuse to stuff our fire into a suit, the glitter girls, the glamour squad, the wild and the mild and all with it expressed all over ourselves. 

And I feel myself grow taller, and I see others rising when I say , "Yeah! You brighten the world!" To someone with red hair in the back, white in a stripe around the mid and black in the front.( sounds bizzarre, but I tell you, totally cool!)

Here are some pictures from the Kinetic Sculpture race in Baltimore Maryland. Yes, another place to go to be utterly fabulous and utterly you. This is an obstacle course for essentially bicycle style pedaled artistic parade floats. It's described as a sculpture race, but it is what it is. 

I wore what I always wear, and was treated like someone special. 😊

Reboot Tuesday

Total cleanliness? Ah, but a brief sigh between wild messes. 

Still such an unusual sight, I must document it, so I will remember. 

Does it in fact reboot the brain and spirit to clean?

Why yes. Mm, yes. Today, yes!

There be DRAGONS!

 Dragons are not a North American species of Owl.

Yet when Beth Dewey approached me in 2014 and asked for dragons, I said, "What the hey. I'll give it a try."

Requests can be inspiring, educational, or a drag. There are animals I just can't relate to, creatures whose energies I have no interest in connecting to. Slugs.
 There are artists who make slugs, and love them, and even I love them when they make them. But making slug energy in my life, Ehhh.... not so much.
.
For others, this may be crocodiles. I love crocodiles, snakes, eagles, big horn rams, bison, bears,... Well, the list goes on.
Dragons I wasn't so sure about.

This year, Beth Dewey returned to my booth at The Best Bead Show in Tucson, and gave me a special brooch, a dragon eye. It was her thanks for the dragons I'd made for her. And she had a new challenge, a contest she is entering, which she would like some new dragons for.

I.Love.This.Brooch! I think I tried really hard not to cry. I wore it for the rest of the show. My sister, the indomitable Kit, was amazed that it went with everything I wore, and every piece of jewelry I put on.
I returned from the land of sun to the land of snow and single digit temperatures, to face the long night of the studio.

As a creative, you know what I'm talking about. Somehow some stinker let a gremlin into the studio while you were gone, and the twerp is sitting on your workstation, glowering down, thrilled to see a victim walking in. He has claws and teeth and they are all sharpened to sink into the weak, tired flesh of a creative idea, new and startled and hatching. This gremlin is ready to devour in doubt all your new fresh ideas, before they have a chance to grow into something groovy.

Well I had a Dragon Eye Brooch, to stare down that gremlin! I showed him the door, and he left without a goody bag or an invite back. In his absence? Inspiration stampeding like a classroom of schoolkids who have heard the tinkle of the ice cream truck!

and so, pictures of dragons. While I have been thrilled and gushing dragons, I by no means feel like these are the finished thing. There is something more, whether bodies or a definitive creature bent (birdlike, lizardlike, etc) but I am happy to say the dream goes on!

Have you discovered Val Cox frits – OMG!

I went to a show in Massachusetts in November. My booth was set up next to Wes Fleming, and I showed him some iris opal dark brown frit, which used to be made by Arrow Springs. “Do you know where I can get more? I am at the bottom of my jar.” Wes suggested go talk to Val Cox.  I stood there like a lump. “I dare you to go talk to Val Cox,” Wes said.

So, I tiptoed across the show floor, and peered at her orderly rows of jars. She and I started talking. I showed Val what I was making, and what I was reaching for in imitating stone with glass, to give my tortoises earthy and fine jewelry qualities. She started grabbing jars, and baggies, and making suggestions. I went home with four or five jars and as many sample baggies.

There were no test paddles on her table of these frits. So I had no idea what I had.

O  M  G!!!!!

The following Monday, I opened my jars, and spilled the lovely confetti into frit dishes, and started making just test paddles. Holy guacamole, they were the most beautiful, luscious undefinable mosaics.

Now I know why she doesn’t have any test paddles – because every color I put these on looked completely different!  I felt like I was Dorothy down the rabbit hole!

Day one I made turtles and tortoises . And they were so rich and satisfying!

Day two I made visionary fish – and wow! Did they pop with colors and textures I’d never seen before!

So – if you’re looking for a new experience in lampworking – go to Valcoxfrit.com and start ordering samples. You’ll be ready to buy jars in a day or two- I certainly am!

Bikini-Clad Amazon Goddess of Surfing

There’s a reason the musical “Annie” has run almost constantly for about sixty years. The reason is, optimism is a timeless message. Another reason is, art based on optimism can do nothing but rise to the surface, in any environment.

Today, I am wearing my optimism necklace. It is a bit funny looking, bold and silly, with a bikini clad blonde goddess who says, “Hey, let’s surf!”

I wear necklaces to remind myself to get out of the rut. I have a whole collection and each has a relevant message, to help me remember how to escape the quagmire of depression. Hey, not only is the surf up when the weather’s bad, lemons make lemonade, and flying by the seat of your pants is still flying!

So today, I say to you and me, open the window, not on what you know, but on what you don’t. Open to uncounted possibilities.

Every time I have done this, I am shocked at the sudden fire-hose flood of good turned on me by the laughing spirits. And if I don’t stay open to it, I will shed that gushing goodness like water over an umbrella. So today, I turn my umbrella upside down in the rain, and smile, and open my arms to the downpour.