Show Time

Well, it's the start of my 2016 show calendar!  I have two new fiber shows.  The first is this weekend in Ocean City, MD, the next is the first weekend of March in Pittsburgh, PA.  You can find all of the show information on my website.

To get ready for these two shows I have been making lots and lots of buttons!!

I have also been making stitch markers with my tiny ceramic pendants.  These are just one of the new items that will be in my booth this year.

  I have also been making ceramic pieces to use for mosaic wall pieces.  I am pretty excited about this!

I still have a lot left to glaze (and that I want to make) but that will have to wait till after the show this weekend!

If you are in the area of Ocean City, MD this Friday, Saturday, and/or Sunday stop by and say hello!  I'll be hanging out here:

Wool and Fiber Expo

Friday, February 19, 11 am - 6 pm

Saturday, February 20, 10 am - 6 pm

Sunday, February 21, 10 am - 3 pm

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Elk's Lodge 2645

13708 Sinepuxent Avenue, Ocean City, MD

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Vacation...

**THE LAST DAY I WILL BE SHIPPING ORDERS BEFORE I BEGIN MY VACATION WILL BE THIS FRIDAY, June 27 - I WILL BE AWAY FROM MY SHOP UNTIL MONDAY, July 7 All orders placed during that time will be packed and shipped beginning Tuesday, July 8, 2014**

Playing With Glaze, Glass, and Beads

Good Morning!  It's freezing here and I don't like it one bit!

We had about 8 inches of snow this past week - it was pretty for about 2 hours and then it was just a pain in the butt - it was also about 3 degrees so ... yeah.

Truman went to the vet for his 3 month shots.  He is 48.2 pounds now - He is sooo tall the weight must all be in his legs and feet (which are huge)

He is such a happy puppy.

We had to put the puppies in coats to go outside.  Wilson freaked but Truman was like okay, no problem.  He is definitely the more confident of the two.

I was making beaded beads - they are so fun and completely addictive to make!

I was making tiny ones to use as earrings.

 I was using size 11 seed beads.

 Then I decided to try to make them even smaller using 15's

Ack!  How cute are they?!

This weekend I have been playing with glass.  I made some little cupped shaped pieces and yesterday I glaze fired them with glass.  I was worried because I was winging it with the glass and had no idea what it would do in the kiln.

So bright and early this morning I ran down and opened the kiln to see the results...

I love how some of them came out.  The yellow is kind of yucky so I probably won't be using that one again.  I'm not sure these are useful - they have two embedded hooks on the backs.  I was thinking of them as closures for a necklace.  What do you think? they are about 1 1/8 inches across.  Too big? Too clunky?  Would love some feedback on them.

Also out of the kiln this week...

A few more spring pendants

And some cabochons with my new hand carved stamps...

It was a productive week for me!  Have a great Sunday!

My New Spring 2014 Line

Happy New Year!  I have been busy working on my new line for Spring 2014.

This is just the first set of floral pendants that came out of the kiln today.  There are many many more to come.

I'm going to sell them with hand dyed sari silks.  I love how they work with the colors of the glazes. 

 I am also working on larger pieces. An entire series of wall tiles as well as mugs, cups, bowls, and more incense burners (both for the cone and for the stick incense)

 I'm pretty excited about my new line - I think my background as a hand quilter - especially needle turn applique - is showing with these new pieces :)

Weekend SALE!!!

Part 2 Moving On...

It was horrible losing Howard.  I didn't really want to be home but at the studio it was hard looking at his bead and his toys and his treats - that was hard too.  I cried and cried over him.  Great Dane puppies are very hard to find so I went on line looking to see if any breeders in a 100 mile radius had any litters planned and was lucky enough to find 3 with litters that were all 6 weeks old.  We picked one that was about an hour and a half from our home and went to visit him.  Two weeks later we brought home the puppy.

We named him Wilson.  He was so tiny...

  

for about a minute.  8 weeks old he was 19 pounds...12 weeks old he was 37 pounds!

And do you remember when Howard had his test on his nose and Stella our lab/golden mix also had surgery? Well, her's came back as a really bad, aggressive cancer.

Unfortunately, she took a sudden turn and she passed a few weeks ago. too.  It's been a very hard year for our family.  Stella's brother (litter mate) Stanley has bonded well with Wilson, but Stanley is 10 and a little too old for all this giant puppy energy.

I'm afraid Wilson is going to hurt him.  We are also worried that Stanley won't be here much longer.  So I talked to the vet and they agreed that if we intend to have a second Great Dane we should get it now so that Wilson will leave Stanley out of the crazy play and we won't have the dominance issues later.  If we wait till Wilson is a year (as planned) and then introduce another great dane we could have a little trouble with alpha male battles.  So we decided to bring home another baby.  We just happened to hear about a litter of puppies that are 7 weeks old and about 10 minutes from our house.  So last week we went to see them and couldn't resist this face!

 We will be naming him Truman and are expecting his arrival at our home on Wednesday (November 27 - just 2 more days!!!!) so he can celebrate Thanksgiving with us! yay, two crazy puppies and 11 guests here on Thursday - it's going to be greaaaaaat! lol

Everyone is like "oh you have a presidents thing going huh?" ah no.  We chose the names based on idiots - Wilson the volley ball from the movie Cast Away and Truman from the movie The Truman Show.  We just aren't that deep around here - pure coincidence that there have been presidents with the same names.

And remember how excited I was to move into the studio in the historic house in Bel Air that was built in the 1800's....

Welllll, as much as I loved my studio the kids schedules and the puppy have made it impossible to have a studio away from home.  So for the past two weeks I have been moving my studio back home and have created a huge mess! 

 I have been able to make an area for glazing...

 and a spot for my little kiln...

 I'm still working on my space for working with clay...

 and I've set up some shelves for the boxes of clay and for the trays of finished pieces...

 But the area for the girls....Big work in progress!  We've made a little cubical with two desks and my two huge metal shelving units from the studio. One has my glazes and the other is for the girls scrap book paper, beads, paints, etc.  One desk will be for them to glue and paint and create on and the other is for making jewelry and I'll be using it to pack orders (once they get all of their stuff organized and put away)

 Kellie already loves the space - she spent the entire weekend working in her smash journals!

I do have some new pieces in the works.

I've been making tiles to hang on the wall.  I started with a series of flowers... 

and then I made a bunch in pendant size...

 Then birds...

 and other things...

I haven't been able to use my kiln until this past weekend.  This tile had a crack in it but was still intact so I decided to glaze it as a test... 

 I'll be glazing the rest of the pieces very soon.

(unpacking and organizing the studio as well as getting ready for company on Thanksgiving will come first)

I also made a bunch of new stamps for clay.

I can't wait to play with all the new patterns! 

 So that's it.  I'm up to date here and my goal is to be a better blogger now that I'm home 24/7.  Be ready for  new work and some crazy puppy adventures coming soon!