Stony Creek Beads

Boy am I lame -

I will be part of the Glass Act bead trunk show at Stony Creek beads in Ypsilanti tomorrow, Saturday September 14 from 10 - 4.

I'll be there in the morning bright and shine, or something like that!  Check it out -
/www.stonycreekbead.blogspot.com/


Here are a few more Luv Birds. For some reason I felt the urge to name them...

For some reason, this is Benny Jett, as in "Benny and the Jetts".  Maybe he's channeling Elton John...

And this is "Henny Penny".  Maybe I just need to get out more...

Wow it's been too long!

Life does get away from us, since I last posted have been to Mexico and China. Figure at least 19,000 air miles! 

Don't need to see another airline - with or without propellers (yes they do exist still) - any time soon.

My last post was of my "Luv Birds" which I really enjoyed playing with. I must admit doing the feather thing is not easy, getting them glued in and making the wire bail can be rather challenging.  


But I recently took a class with Kim Fields on birds and flowers - wow! It was great! Now I have to find my own voice in what I learned from my teacher Kim...















I like these but I still like my "Luv Birds".

Kind of ironic, have been making birds, I go to China and avoid the bird markets because of the flu.

But I did get to see a few in the Muslim market in Xi'an - a beautiful city, small by China standards, only about 8,000,000 people.

In China, people take there birds outside to the park, and of course you can buy birds at markets. 

It may be hard to see them in their cages on the light post in the picture on the right.

When our group came down the street the vendors took them down and into their shops...

Happy Belated New Year

The New Year has begun and for us, it has been a very busy time. I wasn't able to get to my torch until last week for a few hours. Am trying to find my voice in glass again, we're getting there.

I played around with some funky bird shapes and have found something that is new for me as a bead. I am calling them my "Love Birds" - got to work on that one. But am sharing a couple of pics for now.


These two have been made into finished pendants.

I added feathers and glitz to them.  I really enjoyed making them and these two are currently available that the Lawrence Street Gallery.

I will have them available for sale at Bead Bonanza in March, with and without glitz.

More to come!

Winter Wonders is coming, Nov 2nd.

Will keep this short, much work to do! Am preparing for Glass Act's annual holiday show, Winter Wonders.  

It's next Saturday, November 3rd at the Birmingham Unitarian Church in Bloomflield Hills. It runs from 10 - and there is an admission of $3.  But refreshments and parking are free and it really is a great show.  

It's a fun time with lots of great glass work and good energy.

There will be holiday themed pieces as well as my "more regular" work. And I will have some glass ornaments as well.

Am going to try to take some pics of my new stuff today but to be honest, I would rather be making stuff!

And there might be another show I am doing that will run November thru December - details to come.

September/October

First, thank you to all of you who I have seen or met at my last 3 show, in Hamburg, MI. at Our Town in Birmingham and at Bead Bonanza in Southfield.

So much to say and so much more to do.

Most important right now is an exhibit of work, Synergy, a collaborative Competition presented by Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild and Southeastern Michigan Glass Beadmakers Guild.  It is taking place at The City Gallery in Farmington Hills.

It contains 18 beautiful beaded pieces that combine the beadworking talents of the Great Lakes guild with the lampworking skills of SMGBG or, Glass Act.

The show runs from September 24th - November 11, 2012.

All of this to say that my partner, Karen Mc Cormick and I won first place for wearable art.  My hat is off to her.  She had the vision and I'd like to think I helped to get her there.

Here is a picture - which does it no justice at all...

Hometown Detroit - photo by Sylvus Tarn

We talked about what she had and how she wanted to use the pieces.  It's built on a seat belt "belt".  I really love the Zoo Key - I remember them from being a kid and I can still sing the song from the commercial.

She would ask if I could make something and I went and tried to make the piece.

The little pop bottles were easy to do.  Love the little labels on them.

The cars are funky and fun - there are no little people in them however :-(

Something to work towards in the future.

Enjoyed doing mini hot fudge sundaes, yum!

Ironically, getting 2 wheels that were close in size was a toughie.  But Karen made it work! 

Love the 45RPM convertors for hubcaps.  do you realize an entire generation have no idea of what these are or what they were for? 

 Just in time for the play-offs.

Doing that bat wasn't too hard but figuring out the baseball glove and ball took a few minutes.

I will be making these again!

But somewhere on there is a pretty cool little gnome who is about 1 1/4 inches tall.

There he is!

I must confess I impressed myself on that one! Unfortunately, there are a bunch of really little,
ugly gnomes sitting in a little box on my work station...







And I would be remiss not to mention my second partner and her beautiful piece,  Char Reese-Oxford and her wonderful and wearable piece, Motown Reflections.  

Unfortunately, the picture does it no justice - it is so hard to capture the shine and glimmer you get from glass but Sylvus did a great job.

It's August

It's August and I can't believe it! Busy time in so many respects.

The garden has taken off.  Yesterday I picked 8 large tomatoes. The green beans are growing beautifully and let's not talk about the squash...

But on the glass side - I have been playing and experimenting...

But most importantly, I am part of a glass show at Lawrence Street Gallery. It's a really nice show and some great glass pieces that are reasonable too. The show runs through the end of August, the gallery is located in Ferndale.

Here is something new I tried - a Fairy Garden.  I have always loved the idea of fairies, trolls, and elves since I was a little girl.  And I was into miniatures for many years. So I guess this was the next step.

I have done 2 so far - both at the gallery - and was given some ideas for additional ones.  Now let's see if anyone likes them enough to purchase...

And I have some other items there as well - my "Autumn" piece.
It's kind of on the large size but very comfortable to wear.

Plus two pieces of jewelry based upon my Hope Maiden beads.  Hope to get some pictures of those taken soon.

But it's time to head to the garden and pick some veggies...

Summer life

Raised Garden Beds

Summer is here in full force - I reflect on what I have done for the past 4 weeks and am hard pressed to be able to say what I have accomplished...


Husband recovered from knee replacement and doing very well. I still do certain things that require lifting, carrying and walking on uneven surfaces.


So I have tended the vegetable gardens, our raised beds and daughter's tomato patch (when she's not able to). There will be much salsa and tomato sauce this fall!

Tomato Patch

I continue to explore my Hopi figures - no pics at this time. And have been working on a glass show for next month at the Lawrence Street Gallery in Ferndale - and trying to get a couple of new things together for that.


The heat wave of last week did little to encourage studio work - even with air conditioning it was still a bear.


And I have been doing a lot of basic stuff for the upcoming show in Philly next month.


So I promise to get some bead and jewelry stuff up here soon!!!