What's It For?

is for fabulous. Which is what a very kind coworker of mine is. Fresh from a trip to Italy, she stopped by my office to give me a really lovely package of Venetian beads she picked out in Venice! It was such a lovely thoughtful gesture, that I was just stunned. I will be making something with them for sure this weekend, so I'm thinking about what to make.

Creative Struggle

They sit right above my head, over my desk, mocking me. Boxes of beads, in colors chosen solely by my whims. Gorgeous findings that I've amassed from trips to bead stores now long gone.

But I just can't create.

Part of it is that I know it will just open the door to wanting more.

"This necklace would be just perfect if I could intersperse some bronze bicones here. But I only have copper, which would ruin it. Maybe I'll go to that store while I'm doing errands..."

And the next thing you know, I've spent way more than I've intended.

Sure, I've challenged myself to make something -- anything -- out of just the materials I have on hand.

But that nagging voice in the back of my head often wins out: "Just another five little 6 mm silver Bali cubes, and this could be awesome!"

Grace: Issue 35

1. Finishing a necklace with beads from my favorite bead artist.
2. Realizing that what I like best about jewelrymaking is the completion.
3. Making incremental progress on a big project I've been stewing over at my day job.
4. Promising someone a chocolate bunny once Lent is over.
5. Watching robins hop around and knowing that spring is definitely en route.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Because there was major cleaning to be done today, I had to put away the beads that for weeks had been sitting on my workstation-slash-desk-slash-catchall area.

And as soon as they're away, I almost literally forget what I have. Any inspiration for a pattern or a combination or a piece de resistance flies right out the window.

If you've had any dealings with beads, you know they can be a god-awful mess if you don't have them organized. And the fact that I have to live with the combos a little while to see how things truly play out means I have a lot of stuff lying about at any given moment.

Sometimes working in matching palettes is the order of the day. But for more sophisticated color schemes, and projects of varying bead-size combinations, it just takes a lot of playing around. At least for me.

So although my desk is now clear, I can't envision what I want to create next?!

Playing with Fire, Day 2

On our second day of Lampwork Beads class, our instructor (the creative and unflinchingly patient Louise Mehaffey) was setting us up for the reveal -- the moment we'd see the beads we'd created the night before, having left them in the kiln overnight to anneal.

Louise had sorted our beads by each person's signature bead color -- for every "real" bead you created, you finished the mandrel with a mini bead in your signature color to mark your work. Mine was green by virtue of where I happened to sit in class. (This was a total accident -- but a happy one since green's my favorite color!)

As she distributed our piles, I was shocked to see about 20 beads had made it through the kiln!

Granted, many were misshapen -- for every halfway round bead I made, there's one that's listing to the side like the Tower of Pisa -- or with odd color combos (yeah, uh, I meant to do that!).

Seeing how the beads turned out was like receiving a bunch of really tiny presents.

That's because partway through making a bead, when the piece you're working on has turned orange from the intense heat and you can't remember what color you'd just applied, sometimes it was a crap shoot in terms of how it would look.

But, getting the hang of melting sticks of glass via torch, winding the molten glass to drip in a controlled manner around a little metal stick, was harder -- yet more exhilarating -- than I'd expected.

And then there's the fact that so many beads end up not making it out of the kiln intact -- we newbies tend to heat our beads way too hot and which can result in all kinds of weird effects in the glass.

Or, if you don't get the bead into the kiln while it's still hot it can crack in the kiln or soon thereafter.

That first day, it became apparent there are a ton of things to think about when doing lampwork.
You basically have to tap into the part of your being that is ambidextrous, because you end up doing different tasks with both hands at the same time.

On Day 2, I made a few favorites over and over, for practice. And in the end, I just may be able to make something from them! (This is just a prototype.)

Although I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy a kiln or a torch anytime soon, I definitely think I'll be renting some studio time sometime soon.

This was just too much fun to not try again!

Playing with Fire, Part I

Day One of my lampworked bead class is over, and it was exhilarating, exhausting and a big-fat creative kick in the pants.

Because if there's one thing I've learned today, other how not to get burned on a 900-degree torch (this from someone with big fear-of-fire issues who hates to even turn on a propane grill), all while the process zings tiny shards of glass everywhere, it's that learning gives me a real jolt!

So much so that I came home and babbled for nearly an hour to Mr Spandrel about the way things are done and how fun it was to give it a whirl.

Although there's still another whole day to go, who knows if this will take hold as a new hobby. But one thing's for sure, it's reminded me of something important:

Sign up for as many classes for interesting things as I can, and keep those creative fires stoked.

Sign of the Times

Village Earth Bead Market, the bead store where I first got hooked on making jewelry, is closing at the end of this year.

Aside from teaching hundreds of people to unleash their inner designer, the owner had done all kinds of fundraising for girls' schools in Africa.

So it was more than just a place that sold pretty things.

This is the second bead store - among the five I've frequented these past few years - to close in six months.

While I realize that paying for gas and food takes priority over baubles, I still think it's a shame that small, local businesses - and those that inspire creativity - are among the first to suffer in a poor economy.

Please remember them when you're shopping for holiday gifts this year.

Buy local. And support the artisans in your neighborhood.

For more on Village Earth Bead Market, see their website.

When is the Next Full Moon?

A mash-up of meetings and proposals and family things are conspiring against my being the most creative and productive that I know I can be.

That's OK.

It's these weird times that can help you see the forest for the trees. Right?

I've been collecting the most awesome materials for jewelry lately, but I can't stop the merry-go-round long enough to sit still and think about the designs I want to create.

Too much going on, you see.

But now that I think of it, last night I was at a local networking event, when a woman stopped me to compliment the necklace I was wearing.

When I told her I'd designed and made the piece, she assumed this was my primary line of work. When I told her otherwise, she was stunned.

It made me smile inside for the rest of the evening.

And now, recalling that? It made me pull out a couple of pieces that I just might get started on tonight.

(Once I plow through my to-do list, of course.)

Here's hoping that your own to-do list doesn't get too far in the way of expressing your creativity.

Continuing Education Or, A Cure for the Creative Doldrums

Today I took a class that has totally taken my creative energy in a whole new direction.

We took this teeny packet of pure silver mixed with clay and some stamps and texture plates and had a ball. Just look!

In a three-hour session, I learned how to make pendants with art clay silver, an extremely cool medium that lets you sculpt silver into any shape you want.

You can:

• Stamp it
• Poke it
• Cut it
• Roll it over a cool, texturized pattern
• Or just manipulate it however your little heart desires.

Dry it out in a food dehydrator, then pop it into a 1400-degree kiln for just 5 minutes and you've got a sturdy piece of silver, imprinted with whatever design you've made.

Just sand off the matte finish, burnish it up and dunk it in some oxydizing fluid and the results are pretty astonishing.

The piece on the left is a little larger than a dime, and it's something I smushed together out of leftover clay. The oxydation made the color a kind of copper-patina'd green/blue.

The piece on the right is my piece de resistance. I know that sounds melodramatic. But if you really know me, you'd know I'm extremely bad at singing my own praises.

(But I can market the hell out of someone else's product, or skills or services.)

I'm just really happy it turned out the way it did, considering it was my first piece.

Really, the photo doesn't do it justice; the coloration in the lowlights changes, depending on the angle at which you're looking at it.

Sometimes there's a blue cast, other times a deep purple, then there's a rust-colored sheen throughout the spirals.

The mind reels at the combinations of other beads I can pair with this thing to really make it sing. I'm thinking of pairing it with a few special strands I've been hoarding to make a really interesting necklace.

So here's my tip for the day.

When you feel stuck creatively, get out of the house. Sign up for a class. Meet some new people. Pick their brains and enjoy how others think. Bat around a few ideas.

Support what everyone else is doing, because it's all good.

Then see how it magically opens up your own mind to create something you never realized you could do.

In a little over three hours, I made one decent-sized piece and three small ones that will always be a reminder of how trying something new and leapfrogging out of my comfort zone can result in really wonderful surprises.

Blue Skies and Tranquility

This is a piece that I made for my sister. She has really gorgeous blue eyes, and they are particularly clear and intense whenever she wears blue.

When I first purchased the borosilicate glass bead in the necklace's pendant, I had the good fortune to meet Tamara Melcher, the bead artist behind The Clear Bead. She was very kind, obviously devoted to her craft. And she packaged her sales carefully, like she was letting go of a friend.

This bead is so smooth and the swirls of color are so alive, I didn't want to just make it into any old necklace and then sell it to a stranger.

When I showed my sister this and a few other one-of-a-kind beads I'd purchased during that same outing, she zeroed in on this one. She liked the smoothness, too, but the colors were especially captivating.

Sometimes a piece of jewelry comes together easily, other times it's a struggle to find just the right combination of beads and silver components to highlight the beauty of a stone, or a focal bead.

When I was thinking of what to pair with this bead, I found a great strand of kyanite, a quartz crystal that helps promote communication, encourages tranquility, and is purported to be excellent for meditation and dream recall.

So, like that, it became a gift of tranquility.

This is one I'm really proud of.

Let's Get Organized, People!

Back in high school, I had a social studies teacher known for her, I don't know what to call them - I guess her epithets. No, they were more like catchphrases. Or rallying cries.

"Let's get organized, people!" was one of her favorites. She usually did this when the din rose to a level where you could barely hear what she was saying.

[Mark, my lifelong bud who is in town from San Francisco will know exactly who I'm talking about here!]

It had nothing to do with organization, but everything to do with imposing order.

My workspace is an atrocious mess at the moment. Between the holiday preparations. And the gifts I've been making. Oh, and the Etsy-ing.

So I'm in dire need of order right now. It's a matter of too much inflow, and not enough outflow.

Amidst all the creating of jewelry, I've been shopping and gathering materials during all the end-of-year sales at my favorite suppliers. There's just too much stuff. (My husband is nodding his head in agreement: hi, honey!)

But there's a method to the madness. Sometimes it takes seeing one item next to another that you'd never consider together . . . to really know that it will make a smashing series of necklaces.

Hiding it away in boxes makes it impossible to make those connections.

The photo above shows the latest group of colors I'm obsessed with. I'll let you know when I've come up with something.

Inspiration Bracelet

I get a creative jolt from making jewelry, especially pieces featuring detailed, handmade glass beads. Since I've been making jewelry, I've met some amazingly talented glass artists.

But there's something else: I want to learn how to make glass beads.*

This bracelet was built around a Kazuri bead as the focal point. I love these beads and the story behind them. It also has clusters of handmade borosilicate glass beads. You don't notice all the colors at first, but on closer inspection you'll note a purpley royal blue in the ceramic Kazuri bead, and some blue and orange swirls in the glass teardrops.

This is one of my favorites and I can't decide whether I really want to sell it or not. At least until I sell it, maybe it will inspire me to finally take a glass class.



*Frankly, I'd love to learn to make art glass in general, but I'm not too keen about fire, and burns freak me out.

Sunday Morning Potatoes

OK, now I know there's something Proustian about this, but bear with me.

Most weeks, I eat a boring combination of cereal and fruit with a glass of juice. Sunday morning Big Breakfasts have a special place in my heart (right near my left ventricle, I'm sure).

That's the day my husband and I like to eat all manner of eggs, or waffles, or anything else that we consider a breakfast specialty — pretty much anything we never have during the rush-hour that is the weekday morning.

Today, as I woke up to the sound of birds singing and inhaled the glorious smell of bacon.

Better yet, I could tell that my husband had been making homemade home fries — diced yukon golds with carmelized onions, a little dried rosemary and plenty of salt. Yum.

Those home fries — in all their golden, crispy, oily crackliness — beckoned, in shades of brown and tan and amber... All colors that would make a great necklace. A necklace that conjures up thoughts of Sunday morning breakfast deliciousness.