Favorite beads of the day...
Messed around with some new glass today. It's colored with silver and depending on temperature and the chemistry of the flame different colors appear. These are my picks for today.
Water, daisies, and little chicks...
New watery beads
Daisy beads ...
and an update on the wren. Came home from visiting my mother for Mother's Day and baby birds! No photo of them yet but here's their fierce momma! 
Be still my hot pink little heart...
I got so much done today! That's what having a car in the shop will do for you. On days like this I think the stars align and all of the socks find their mates. Here are some beauties that came out of the kiln. They are sort of hot pink, almost fluorescent. Makes my heart go pitter patter. 
Welcome our new model... what shall we name her?
Susan and I had a photo shoot with our new super model. We want to be able to give a sense of scale along with a close-up of the pieces. I think our paper doll is rockin' this piece with a vintage pocket knife. Can't wait to see what we come up with using these new giant discs I just worked up. 
Inspiration color...
I figured it out. I'm a color-o-holic. I was an oil painting student when I first happened upon glass rods in jars at a bead shop. It was the palette that got me. I thought "I don't know what that is, but I have to do it." Yesterday I was working on my torch and my mind kept circling back to the new fall line of Miche purses. It's the colors! That's what has hooked me on Miche!
I pulled rods that approximated some of the new colors and here is what I came up with:
one if by sea...
I'm loving making these tassels with a dash of bling. These are headed north to a shop in Massachusetts. Don't they look like they could get there by ocean, catching the current and drifting in the waves until they wash up onto the shore?
trompe l'oeil...
I awakened in the middle of the night thinking about pebble candy and why we love things that look like other things. Years ago, I watched a cake competition on TV in which a contestant made a Japanese doll out of spun sugar. I was delighted and so was the studio audience and I began to wonder why. What is it about sugar that looks like porcelain, marzipan that looks like fruit, and mushrooms made of meringue that captures our imagination? I love making glass that looks like rocks. If I knew how, I'm sure I would enjoy making rocks look like glass.
My mother used to tease the grandchildren by putting peas and carrot candies on their dinner plates and insisting they eat their vegetables. We love for our 'l'oeil' to be tromped and human hearts skip a beat when something 'looks so real.' It occurred to me that one message that resonates with us is: "things are not as they seem."
Last night I with awakened with a thought, I grabbed a Sharpie on my night stand and scrawled on a yellow legal pad: "Things are not as they seem, they are better, and they are deeply good."
Pebble candy jewelry...
When my dad was a little boy, his mother went on a trip and brought him a souvenir bag of pebble candy. She told him she had gathered the pebbles from a magical candy beach. Here are glass rocks and shells from my magic beach and I can't wait to work them into designs. The chunky tablet shapes make great focal pieces for fashion forward statement necklaces.
Virtual bead store, Italian appliances, and peek-a-boo flowers...
Wouldn't it be fun to have a virtual bead store? I was imagining customers making appointments on skype and then accompanying me to the studio to choose colors, charms, and chain. With that fantasy in mind I found myself sorting my newest color combinations. I've been playing with transparent pale aqua with crushed glass embellishments. The crush glass is called 'frit' deriving from 'to fry' in Italian (like frittata.) The crushed glass is made by heating the glass, squishing it thin, then shocking it in water so that it crumbles to bits. I wish I spoke Italian beyond glass terms and menu items. I accidentally set our Roomba to Italian and now I don't know if it needs to be emptied or charged.
Sunflower playing peek-a-boo...
Jewelry model, no lunch breaks, and lemon drops...
I'm working on adding a section to my website with the new fashion line. What a challenge to figure out how to organize it. I am thinking of 3 sections, one for each metal finish: antique silver, antique brass, and brushed gold. It is so beautiful out today that I set up a little photo session on my porch with my loyal model we affectionately call 'Jewel-lie.' Snapped this photo and have this ahhhhhh feeling of 'this is why I do this work.' 
Lemon drops, am I right? Or is it Italian Ice? Maybe I'm hungry....
This is Jewel-ie, who is never hungry. She works for cheap at all hours day or night and never takes breaks, not even to eat. She's non-union for now, but I feel kind of bad about it.
Ups-a-daisy!
Loving these earrings in sterling silver with my groovy glass daisies and key charms. $50
Please don't eat the daisies...
These new glass flowers are making me want to make candy versions. Yum!