Perspectives Exhibit in Corning

A friend of mine commented that she hadn't read anything about my acceptance into the ISGB Perspectives exhibit in my blog.

"Why so quiet?" she asked, "I thought you were excited."

Well....I am excited. I've never submitted any of my beads for anything. Ever. I've never even taken my beads into a bead store to try to sell them. I did this on a whim, out of some belief that I just needed to put myself out there and see what happened.

The Perspectives exhibit is part of the Glass Art Society Conference in Corning, New York. It's a juried exhibit presented by ISGB, representing styles, techniques, and processes used in contemporary glass beadmaking. The collection will be on exhibit from June 5 to September 7 at the Radisson Hotel, Corning, and opens specifically as part of the 2009 GAS Conference.

Also, the top three beads with the highest jury scores will share the cover of the summer issue of The Glass Bead magazine, a quarterly publication from the ISGB. Here's a link to the slideshow of all of the beads: http://www.isgb.org/info/article_256.shtml

So, anyway, my bead was accepted and how happy and proud and excited I was! Yay! They like me. Oh, they really, really like me!

Here it is, by the way:

Then I saw the other beads.

Oh no.
How humiliating.

I mean, those beads are art. Some of them are so amazing and intricate and fabulous that I was embarrassed that I even submitted mine. I am seriously outclassed. I didn't even make anything special for it. I just sent pictures of a bead that I particularly liked and thought highlighted a cool technique I'd been working on.

Don't get me wrong. I really do love this bead. It has a wonderful, free-flowing vibrancy that I think sort of sums up not just my artistic style, but me. But it's far from being the greatest bead I've ever made. I'm thinking it's just going to get swallowed by the fabulousness that is the rest of the exhibit.

Now I'm kind of sorry for my little bead and hope it doesn't feel too badly about what I've subjected it to.

Northern Lights

I hope everyone who has the day off is enjoying it. I'll be spending the day with family and friends, enjoying the sun for the first time in over a week. Finally, it stopped raining!

I have a quick moment to share some beads that I've got listed on eBay. Their color is so spectacular, I just had to show them off.

~Northern Lights~

It's raining, it's pouring....

(Otherwise known as, "Laurie's Descent into Madness")

First day of rain. Yeah, rain!!! We needed it so bad after 30 days without a drop, plants dying, lakes drying up, forest fires popping up all over the place and causing road closures (including the one my husband has to use every day to get to work!) Finally, rain. Don't you just love the sound of rain?

Two days of rain? Cool! This'll get us back on track and even help replenish our depleted water table. It smells so nice and fresh outside, too, like things growing. Plus, a rainy day is great for creativity. I can use a full day at the torch to work through this little block I've got goin' on.

The third day. I'm starting to get a little stir crazy, I admit. Would really like to go for a run. The kids are getting antsy, too. Still, I can use the time to work through this creative block that's a little tougher to break out of than I originally thought. I can clean the house, too. That needs done. And, my studio isn't so hot because it's nice and cool outside. (although I can't open the house up to enjoy it because of letting the damp in and making everything grow mildew and having all the cookies go stale)

Day Four. O.K., the pool is flooded and so is the screen room. So is the street. I'm starting to hear the peepers out in the ditches and there are ducks swimming in the yard. That's not good. Weeds are suddenly everywhere and the car is starting to smell a little funky. Where is the sun? This is getting old.

Did you ever notice how loud frogs are?

Five. F***ING RAIN!!!! Stupid, stupid water everywhere! Mold growing on house and car positively reeks! Ditches overflowing everywhere. Kids are total PITA!!! Rain sucks. Hate the sound of rain so much, can't even concentrate long enough to make a bead. Stupid, stupid beads!!!!! Stepped in duck s**t on my way to pick trash cans up out of overflowing ditches. Stupid ducks! Why don't you swim in the lake? Stupid trash man! I'm reporting you this time. I MEAN IT! Swimming pool is flooded all over patio. Will have to spend a fortune on chemicals to balance the stupid thing. AGAIN. Who's idea was it to get a pool? Husband? Stupid, STUPID husband!!!!

OMG, WILL YOU FROGS SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!!

What's new?

I've got about 37 seconds to post what I've got this weekend. I've been putting things up on eBay again lately. I haven't been doing great there, but I have a few customers who only buy on eBay, so I like to show up from time to time.

I've got this great set with Aurae. I'ts very pretty and sophisticated. I really like the mix of shapes with these. It gives a lot of design options.

And I also have the funnest, brightest Bumble Balls yet. They're quite a bit nicer than this picture shows. I couldn't get the lighting right inside the house and it was too hot to stand outside and photograph them. They're really cute, though.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Where I've been lately...

Warning, a bit of a rambling post coming. Not too rambling but a little. (See, I've started rambling already.)

I've had a few people contact me, customers wondering when I'm going to be listing new beads because I've been sporadic - at best - lately with putting up new work and friends concerned because I've been a little out of touch.

So, here's the story.

For the past month I've been dealing with a bit of a health crisis. No, that's not right. Crisis sounds definite. Scare is more like it. Anyway, while I've been waiting on all of the test results to come in, my mind has been fully occupied with it. I've tried to stay busy and keep my mind off of it, but it's hard, you know?

I mean, life didn't stop. I still have all my regular responsibilities, but I've been unfocused on work to say the least. I've been busy with other things. I hate to say I've been 'getting my affairs in order' because that's much too drastic. But, if I'm honest with myself, I think that's exactly what I've been doing. Making sure old business is taken care of, updating the photo albums, making sure financials are straight, spending time with my kids. Planning ways to fit in all the things I'd like to do and places I'd like to go, 'just in case'.

I think I took this whole thing so seriously because, unlike some people my age, I don't flutter through life under the delusion that I'm too young for a serious illness. Three years ago I lost one of my oldest friends to ovarian cancer. She was 40 and she left behind her 15 year old daughter. I've seen how it's affected every aspect of that child's life. I sat with her the day she got her driver's license while she cried because her mom couldn't be there to see it. The next year, I lost another friend to breast cancer. She was also 40 and she left behind three beautiful little boys, the oldest was 9, the youngest wasn't even 3 yet.

So I know what can happen to a 40 year old woman.

But, yesterday was a good day. After working myself into a state where I almost threw up in the doctor's office parking lot, I went in and got all of my results and found out that, basically, I'm going to be fine. So, I'm happy today and I'm going to make some beads. I'll definitely be in touch, checking in with friends, reading everyone's blogs and listing new work.

In the meantime, remember to enjoy 'now' and don't spend all of your time planning for 'someday'.

First go at Aurae

Check out my Aurae beads! I love them so much, I actually listed them on eBay!

I'm woefully behind the times, I know. Every lampworker in the known universe has been rocking Aurae for weeks now. Except me. But I'd made myself a promise not to buy any new glass until sales picked up. Then, I won a gift certificate for Double Helix glass and I immediately ordered myself some because I've been dying to try it. And you know what?

It's magic!

I'm not kidding - Aurae is perfection. I always love Double Helix glass, though it can sometimes perform erratically but this one is especially special. As you all have probably seen, a lot of beads made with it just sort of have a golden luster, kind of pretty but a little dull. So that's what I was expecting. I had some ideas for it and would have been OK if that's all I got out of it.

But, no!

I don't know if I just have an amazing batch, but I have gotten a rainbow of color out of this glass - everything from palest aqua to the deepest rose-purple, all with the shimmer of metallic glinting on it's surface. It's stunning. And my favorite thing about it is that it maintains it's translucence after reduction (if you do it right). So from different angles you can still see through it clearly and then, if you move your head just slightly... POW! So much color and shine.

Anyway, it would be my advice that, if you love silver glass, then go buy this. It's fun, it's beautiful, and it's absolutely unlike any that I've used before.

Ya know what I don't get?

Twitter.

Yeah, I get how it works, I just don't get why it matters. It's lame. It's pointless. It's incredibly time-wasting when we Americans allegedly barely have time to even brush our teeth in the morning, let alone alert the world at large that that's what we're doing, have just done or are planning on doing.

And the media? I'm embarrassed for them. The media is treating Twitter the way it treated Barack Obama six months ago. They're in love with it and can't stop talking about it. Why?

Is it because it's so easy to use that a donkey could figure it out? (I mean, politicians use it, for crying out loud!)
Is it because they're being paid to talk about it?
Is it because they think it makes them cool to talk about how they 'tweet'? (Little do they realize that they are rapidly making it uncool, just by their participation in it.)
Are they trying to recapture their youth? Because that's really who Twitter is for - kids. Only kids would find something so self-absorbed and inane to be worth the effort it takes.

I don't get it and - for once- I don't care. I'm usually very interested in new internet stuff but this one is just gonna have to steamroll on over me. It's idiotic and I'm not playing.

BTW, I just finished trimming my dog and I'm getting ready to cook dinner. Then I will go to a movie with my husband.

Just in case anybody cares.