Approaching laziness! February 8, 2008

Ahh, here comes the weekend!  I plan on doing nothing but knitting and watching movies.  Except I really wanted to make a set of button shaped beads based on this focal I just listed…

Yummy, huh?  I love the glowing silver inside it!  Only a canes to pull, some silver to cut, and I’ll be all set (as long as my clear comes in today… hmph).

A good glass friend of mine is contemplating selling her torch to pay some bills- this winter has been rough on a lot of artists, and the economy isn’t looking up.  We’re all hoping that with tax refunds coming in, people will buy jewelry, in turn, jewelry designers will need beads.  Cross your fingers for us.  Anyway, our glass forum is begging her not to sell it, and she said it’s amazing how upset we all are about selling a torch and it shows how dedicated we are to our art.  LOL… She’s right, but I got to thinking, what would I do if I had to sell mine for the cash?  Unlike her, I don’t have a day to day job, so if I really needed the cash, I’d spend all day torching for a week and put some buy it now auctions up, crossing my fingers… I could usually come up with at least a couple of auctions that would sell. But if that didn’t work?  I know I’d be crying as I put it up for sale!  Vicious cycle- sell the torch to get money, then how do I make more money to buy a new torch? Yep. Conundrum.

So, auctions are up! Yay! Prepare for laziness

The future of TorchByNight? January 31, 2008

A new blog-it from Flaming Hot asks what I think my beads will look like in 5 years. This is a difficult one to pin down for almost any artist! If I were thrust into the future and got a gander at my beads, what I’d HOPE to see is…

Finer details.

Less structure, more freedom.

Colors that inspire the buyer to create.

Shapes that are comfortable to wear and work with.

Quality, originality and heirloom worthiness.

What I won’t mention here is style. I’ve gone through many different styles already, and I still am pretty erratic with the designs. I am focused on no one particular genre of bead, though I do find myself working with bright colors more often than organics. I actually would love to have one defining style, but my personality is such that I don’t think that will ever be possible! I’m eclectic, and personally I think I’m pretty hard to deal with in person, and I think it’s because of that that my art is all over the spectrum. I love the details, and I hope one day my stringer work gets more defined and finer, and I hope to be able to express what’s in my head better in glass.

Let’s see… glass from this week! (I’d post some old pictures of glass to show you some progress, but my external drive is in the glass room and I’m too cold to get up

On another future note, I’m phasing down my eBay sales. Separate blog to follow

Perfection? Hardly! October 19, 2007

Flaming Hot! asked us today to blog about perfecting your craft. This really applies to all my crafts, so it doesn’t just work for lampworking. PRACTICE! Never saw that coming, did you? I’ve been lampworking for over 3 years (I can’t even remember when I started, I’m SO bad with dates!) and I’m far from perfect. As far as perfect goes, that’s so subjective. Perfect for whom? What might seem perfect for me (the asymmetrical woman) might be godawful ugly to someone else. I might technically have some dots on a bead perfectly spaced, but perfection? Nah. I don’t aspire to perfection anyway- I think it’s impossible! I do as well as I can, and try to make it better the next time. That being said, let’s show you some of my old beads, and then some of my new ones!

One of my VERY first sets sold on eBay. Less than 3 months lampworking.

A recent eBay set, Tideland

Not only do your photography skills improve, hopefully you will agree, the rest does, too!

Auctions are ending in minutes, the kids are on the way home, and I’ve been working on the website revamp for three days. Have a look and let me know what you think!

Torch By Night redux!

A rose is a rose. October 4, 2007

My first blog here, so bear with me til I get everything figured out!

If you browse the US handmade lampwork category on eBay, or lampwork artist’s sites, you’ll see that many are named, like paintings, or sculptures. I’ve had people ask why we name our beads. After all, they are only beads, right? To the buyer, they are, but to the artist, they are our art. The inspiration for a bead isn’t necessarily clear when you look at a bead. Well, actually, most of the time, you can’t tell what on earth the artist was thinking when they made it! Giving them a name… well, there are a few reasons.

1. It’s a description. Color, shape, or materials, perhaps.

2. It helps create a picture in the mind of the viewer of what you were thinking when the artist made the bead.

3. Grouping- these particular beads might be in a particular style group that the artist creates, or a theme.

Sometimes when I’m working on a set of beads, all of a sudden, the name will pop into my head and I’ll have to write it down so I remember it when I put it up for auction. Other times, I have to wrack my brain for a suitable name!

Calaveras Tontos

What else is going on right now? Ahh, today I made papier mache paste and sculpted a sacred heart base for a bead shadowbox. I’ve got the bead to go in it, now I just have to wait for it to dry so I can paint it! This is my first papier mache since… 5th grade? LOL Now we’ll see if I can still paint… I’ve got knitting projects, a few new bag ideas (oh, am I ever a bagaholic!), new ideas for beads, and all kinds of other little things I want to try… Can someone arrange a few extra hours a day?!