I am a Canna

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

The Winner is........

Debby Carey! Congratulations Debby! Your Sea Shell bead will be in the mail in the morning.

For the next freebie drawing thinking I'll do something new, maybe an implosion pendant! Check back here to see it posted... after I make it that is.

To be entered in my drawings for free lampwork and glass art, just sign up for my Glassbits Newletter (box in the right hand column). Winner are drawn from the newsletter subscribers.

Hint... you have to actually open and read the newsletter to win.

We Have A Winner!

Picked a winner this morning for this shell bead! I'll post the name as soon as I hear back from them. If for some reason I don't get a reply within a week or so I'll draw another winner.



I'm off to take a class this weekend and learn some fantastic new skills...YIPPEE!

Goddess Beads

I occurred to me a couple weeks ago that I've never made any goddess beads so thought I'd give it my best shot. Pretty happy with the results as none of them took a suicidal plunge in the cold water on the bench. Here's what I came up with.

















Not too shabby for my first attempts!

Charming Inn in Onekama MI

The Travelers Motel

A friend and I were up around Manistee MI this past weekend and stayed in this charming motel tucked away in Onekama (7 miles north of Manistee). Normally we stay at one the hotels in Manistee, however I didn't call early enough to book a room for Saturday night. A google search turned up this little gem nearby. Their blog let me know there was a room available so I called first thing the next morning and snagged it up.

What a great change of pace it was from the stale hotel experience! Had my morning coffee on their fantastic porch while doing suduko puzzles. If you're wondering, the rooms are clean, the rates are better than the hotel chains and the owners make you feel at home. Oh, and on drive back to the casino we saw 7 deer and a fox....bonus!

I'm sure I'll be back there sometime in the future, maybe the next time DH and I take the bike up there.

New Listings are Up!

After a relaxing weekend up north (more about that in my next post) I started listing a few new items to my etsy shop

I really like this shell focal bead, it has so much depth and sparkle with the
goldstone in it!



Here's a new silvered organic set in a great spree shape too.



And Silvered lentils with custom made glass shards that have a ton of sparkle!



Clicking on a photo will take you to the item page.

Handmade Wedding Favors

I had wanted to show you the wedding favors I made for a May wedding. The bride's mother had seen one of my candle holders on etsy and had contacted me by email. They wanted to be able to give their guests something unique and handmade. The dad even worked in the same town and picked them up from my work teasing that he was only following his wife's instructions and writing checks for this wedding....what a guy!



After this first bunch was picked up, they asked for a few larger ones and some extra small ones which I shipped to the other side of the state just before the wedding. I bet the table decorations were beautiful. Think I'll write the mom and ask her to email me a picture.

The Completed Kiln Project

The finished kiln!

I have it running on low to help totally cure the mortar and completely dry out the fire brick. You have to dampen the bricks to insure a good mortar joint. I used a shallow tray with water in it and dunked the sides of the bricks as needed. Probably overkill on the moisture

It has two handles for carrying and one for the lid. A flip-up bead door and a separate stand.

The lid was a bead collar I bought years ago because I needed a little extra height to do those kiln formed bracelets. Filled in the center with brick for a solid lid. I will never understand why Evenheat Kilns makes there extension collar for the Hot Box smaller than the Hot Box kiln. Guess they thought they were saving a ton of money being skimpy. Doesn't make any sense to me when you can buy firebrick for 1.50 a piece from your local refractory.

The small hole in the side (above photo) is for the pyrometer. Not using my digital controller in this picture and the pyrometer is attached to that. A bit hard to make out in the above picture but you can the heat shield between the red metal box and the fire brick.

The elements are up in the top ring, the bead ring has 2 tiles with holes for a bead rack. The elements are not encased in quartz tubing so you do have to put your mandrels straight into the tile. It would be very hard to point one up at high enough of an angle to get zapped by the elements.

The stainless I just got is brushed stainless instead of the polished type that is on the lid. I have the top vented right now to let any moisture escape while its running on low.

I'm sure it will get tons of use in the coming years. And I think its adorable as far as kilns go! Next up? Finished the little work table station I started today.... its always something!

More on the Kiln Project

In these pictures I took the old jacket off the kiln and added new firebrick for a floor.



This picture shows where the elements connect to the controller. A heat shield is used between the controller box and the brick.

My Kiln Project

These are more pics of the kiln project. I have it done! The previous posts explains what I did to convert my first kiln (Hot Box by Evenheat) into a bead annealer that I've used for several years.
What I did now is to make a firebrick top and bottom for it and encase the bottom and sides with stainless steel so I can easily take it with me on my camping trips.

Another project

Really its more like 3-5 projects going on all at once. I'm in the process of revamping my little Hot Box kiln for about the 3rd time. Been using it with a bead collar and digital controller I made up several years ago as my bead annealer until recently when I bought a bigger secondhand kiln for my home studio.

I was taking this small kiln with me when traveling in the summer. Packing up 4 separate layers safely is a hassle. It had to go into a huge plastic tub that took up a lot of room. Wasn't trilled with the cheap fiber board top and bottom on this kiln either. Despite is compact size I am able to get 60-80 beads in it in one sitting.

Since I already had the firebrick and heat stop mortar in the shop I made a brick bottom and used an old collar to make a new flip open hinged lid.

Our nephew runs a laser cutter at a metal shop so I was able to get a new stainless steel kiln jacket and bottom cut there for cost! 8-D That has always been the hardest part of any kiln project I've done in the past... getting the metal work done at a reasonable cost. This baby should be finished early next week. Have to stop by one of our neighbors and use his metal break to shape the bottom plate and door piece.

So that's what I've been up to and why I haven't sent out my newsletter and picked a new date for the conch shell drawing. I'll get on it as soon as I get caught up a bit here.

I also have oak blanks cut out for 9 new bead racks! Hope to have those ready sometime next week too.

I've been having problems getting pics to load to the blog so trying them separately.

Freebie Drawing, Sign Up to Win!

Of the four new conch shells on my desk I like this one the best so I'm giving it away! For a chance to win this beauty sign up for my newsletter (over on the right side of this page), and follow the directions in it to enter. I only send the newsletter out once a month or so, you get bombarded with them I promise.

Anyway, I'm off to bed, it's 4 am here.

Wow! Glad to be back!

Just a quick post to let you know I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth, lol. Yeah, right. We've spent the last 30 days getting ready for our youngest ones graduation party.

How hard can it be to plan a pig roast for 100 people you ask? Well, if you let your yard go as long as we have (5 yrs) it takes a lot of work to get it back on track. 11,000 lbs. of stones, 3 trailer loads of bark, plants and more plants. Didn't help that DH backed into 5 bushes next to the driveway when plowing last winter either. Ugh! Yard looks great now, so glad we had a great turnout and IT'S OVER! I'll get some pics up when I have them on the camera. (quick before it all dies)

I've decided to start a prize drawing using my newsletter. Think I'll start with a shell bead (to be made yet) and have it run 2x a month. The catch will be you actually have to open, read and click on a link in the newsletter. I use a paid service for my newsletter which keeps stats, the winner will be chosen from qualifying participants. As soon as I make the bead I'll post it here too.

Lampwork Sale!

Lampwork bead Sale going on now!

Ends April 7th!

Just wanted to blog about the Lest Sale going on now. 50 etsy shops from our group are participating! Wide variety of glass lampwork beads and jewelry to choose from. I'm off to list more items right now!

New Etsy Street Team

Joined another Etsy Street Team recently. LEST, Lampwork Etc. Street Team. Lampwork Etc. is an online community of self-representing glass lampwork artisans. Being a new etsy team we're still working on a website and/or blog for the group. I'm quite excited to among the "cream of the crop" within this new street team. You can search etsy using the keyword "lest" to see what these talented artists have to offer. OR just click on either logo to go directly to the etsy search results for LEST!



Some of my new work also on etsy.

New Work

With Feb. almost in the past figured it was time to get in gear and post some new work.
These are the silver lined or cored lampwork beads that fit the European bracelets like Pandora and Troll. There are many other brands available too, which I can't think of now or spell correctly, lol.

I'm so looking forward to spring this year! It is my favorite season of all. We have had a unusually rough winter this year with heavy snowfalls back to back without much thawing in between. My husband was lucky enough to spend a week in Florida helping a friend out (yeah right!). I couldn't help but think of the warm weather, sunny skies and beaches while he was gone. This beauty helped me through. It is available now in my etsy shop. Click on the picture for a direct link to it.

Pretty disgusted with myself for not "finding" the time to keep up with my website at all lately. If you have been there you know what I mean, just a stupid link sending you to my etsy shop. While I absolutely love featuring my work on etsy I can't justify paying for a website and not doing anything with it. Decided to use for what I would call my most popular designs, ones that I can do over and over without much difference from set to set. These will also be some of my customers favorites. I plan to have a couple size options maybe even shape options. That way those of you who design jewelry and need a few nice beads to complete a set can order them quickly through my site's shopping cart. With that said, my goal is have this ready by the beginning of summer. I'm currently working a large order of candy holders for a spring wedding and need to concentrate on that first. Our daughter also graduates high school this spring and we'll be busy working on our yard once the weather breaks. Can't wait!

New Year!

Well, a new year is upon us! That and a bunch of new snow. This is what you get on a regular basis when you live close to one of the Great Lakes, lake effect snow.


Wish I had taken a picture at 7 am this morning, it was absolutely beautiful, still on most of the trees at that hour. I jumped out on the deck at 3 pm instead. Spent the morning at the torch doing a couple of orders and goodies for the etsy shop. Would you believe they predict 50 degrees by next Monday, lol. I've started making more bead racks, those warmer days will be great for working out in the pole barn.

The following weekend I'm headed to Toledo, OH. to take a glass bead vessel workshop with Tink Martin. Looking forward to learning new techniques.