Glazing, glazing, glazing...

We were so creative today. Calder made a comic book out of a Oriental Trading Company Halloween catalog and sold it to me for a dollar. Then he sold it to his grandpa for a dollar. I think my five year old had discovered the secret to financial security. Glazing has been going pretty quickly. I have another day and a half to do and then it is time to fire up the old kiln. Old is an understatement. It is in serious need of some TLC. The lid has some serious rust issues as well as the front and the front bricks are cracked. I may need to invest in a new kiln, sooner rather than later. I just invested in a new digital camera. I recieved an invitation to submit "professional" photos of beads for a book being written about ceramic beads. It would be a honor to be included. Now I am panicking about getting a necklace together and taking a great photo. I do photography as a hobby but am feeling pressure to perform. Here are some photos from the new camera...

While the mice play....

...and nap. My oldest Calder is out today with a play group to see "Surf's Up" and my youngest Magnolia is napping. I should be able to get a lot done, should being the key word here. Three more "tarot" molds have been carved. Not too shabby! My friend Caitirona, a jewelry designer, was over this morning to work out some ideas for her jewelry tags. Amazing silver work. I'm helping to create tags, business cards and a web site to promote her work and hoping she will give me lessons on silver work. I would LOVE to create some ring bands for my ceramic rings to replace the wrapped silver I use currently, as well as beads for some special pieces. I've always wanted to work with silver. I am so excited!

Here is an example of her work...

Happy Summer! Ahhh the weekend....

Time to clean house and freak out about how few beads I've gotten made this week. It was our first full week of summer vacation and I don't know how anyone with little ones makes it through the summer with out either going broke finding fun summer activities or spend all of their time entertaining them yourself! It is a fine line to balance kid time with work time and I'm trying not to "dump" them in front of the boob tube for hours on end. It gets AMAZINGLY hot in the summer here with temps climbing into the tripple digits regularly and I hear tell that this year will be the hottest on record. Maybe we are flying into the sun. Our mornings are spent outside swinging and playing "dodge the cat bombs" in the sand box while I make beads. When the temps climb too high we head indoors for our favorite movies (we have been loving "Bridge to Terabithia" and "Arthur and the Invisibles" very much!).

New tarot tile designs

They are just green wear at this point but definately looking good. And feeling good about getting so many new pieces done. It is always fun to open up the kiln and see them glazed....

The flowers are in bloom...

at least there is one left on our Matilija Poppy bush in our front yard and it is so beautiful! I am lucky to have captured one on film before it is gone. The drought has taken the blooms away quicker than normal this year. A bead or pendant may be in order...

we are off to enjoy the blooms...

First post...

This is my first blog posting.... I may not get much posted if my kids can't keep their hands off each other...

I am working on the new tarot tiles which had just been and idea but I added them to the site so I now have orders to fill.