Tom Waits - Telephone call from Istanbul

Getting there is half the fun!

I'm almost ready to begin glazing! Some new star pattern hearts my make their way into this firing....

And I almost forgot to send a shout out to an amazing ceramic bead artist, Melanie of Earthenwood studio, about her big article in Simply Beads magazine and including some amazing ceramic bead artist in her first big article! Go out and grap a copy now... now.... NOW!

Happy? Sad? Silly?

Faces. Expressions. Beads! I had a fun idea to do some face beads with expressions. I have a few like "content" and "mischief" but was thinking for a while that this could really be expand on. Like "Sour Puss" a puckered face and "Beaming" with a great big smile. I can see them all on one chain as a bracelet or one to just say "this is how it is today"! Hmmmm...

Weekend ends

The weekend is over and we had our share of melt downs. Kids will keep you on your toes and focused on what is important. Mostly them. We had to forgo a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's due to a mean temper tantrum. Several chances were given, none were taken. That is the way it is sometimes. We are learning to use our words and express anger with them and not hit and stomp and kick. It is tough to be a six year old. It is tough to be a 37 year old.

A few ideas made it to paper. A trip to the 99 cent store was enjoyed by all. Found a few kid books, Harry Potter make-your-entire-mouth-blue-gum and batteries. A few beads were made. This months firing is fast approaching and I have many more beads to make. My friend Carol Ann, a wonder gal if ever there was one, did some excellent necklaces and one idea in particular it seems to me needs to be worked out in clay. A great idea of clouds with rain drops is in the works with her blessings to do so.

Here are a few of her fine works... Go C.A., GO!

Whew! The ride starts again!

This has been a hectic month! Calder turned 6 and had a great birthday party. Wonderful friends and family all around! Loads to plan with that and orders to mail out. We also started swim lessons this week which is FABULOUS in the heat. With all this fun going on I'm not too quick to jump back into bead making. I received an invitation a few months back to submit photos to Lark books for a up coming book that Tonya Davidson is writing titled "Making Ceramic Beads" to be published fall 2008. The deadline was this past Monday and I had spent the better half of two weeks trying various set ups to "professionally" capture the projects I wanted to submit. I really got put my camera through a work out. Thankfully with all that is going on, my love Robert helped me through the new settings and what not. It looks like we got a few good shots. Hopefully one will be good enough for a book. Here are some photos of the new GLAZED Tarot tiles!

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.