Glass and Weddings?

There are several new glasses out there but Lara definitely has done the definitive tests on these beautiful blue purple reactions. To see them go to Lara Lutrick's Blog. She always makes these awesome beads, which I love, but this color is a knock out replacement for some old Zimmerman Frit that was a favorite for many of us. Plus, it sure was nice for Lara to post these informative results. Thanks so much Lara!

Sorry about the shortage of blog posts but we are now on the big countdown to my daughter's wedding day, September 3rd. After that, you'll be hearing a whole lot more. I hope you like the photo of the future Mr. & Mrs.

Beadfest Bracelet

It’s been a year of changes for me. No Bead and Button, no Gathering (ISGB Conference), and no Beadfest. I can’t say I haven’t had NO fun because I have. My father would have told me at this point, "Sometimes you speak weller." LOL But, I sure have missed being part of the bead world action.

My friend and teaching partner, Susan Lambert, gracious agreed to teach our classes alone this year. I feel awful about it, considering I designed one of our great bracelets (pictured above). Susan is a great teacher and she’ll more than do it justice and I can continue on here getting “wedding “ ready – It’s a new art form. New to me and I love creating decorations.

I’m considering offering the tutorial for the bracelet on Etsy. After Susan returns from Beadfest I’m going to check on a few things and I’ll get it posted.

Torch-Fired Enamels

Amazon Link

I'd like to give a huge shout out to Barbara Lewis for her great new book - Torch-Fired Enamel Jewelry. And, her blog spot, Painting with Fire, is one of my favorites. Almost forgot the Group she created for all of us enamel lovers...the widget is in the left column.

I've been up to my neck in wedding planning and around these parts that means I've been making the decorations that are hanging on two rustic chandelier's to hang in the bridal tent. Do they include glass - you bet! I've been working on some clear boro pieces to hang amongst the other goodies. And this is on top of the wish tree pieces, favors, and so on. And as hard as I am working so is my darling daughter in Illinois. We are on the big countdown to September 3rd.

Anyhoo, after twisting some steel wire "S" hooks that are huge in size I decided to come back into the house for a break and DH comes walking up, "Hey, look what the delivery guy just left on the steps." Whoo Hoo - there it is - my new book fresh off the press.

I'm going to have trouble containing myself from doing some enameling to go with the lampwork beads. It's going to kill me.......ACK, I'm just to busy. Maybe I can run around with a magnet and see if any of my old metal beads are iron worthy for after the wedding. Since I'm trying, in desperation, to clean up one of my work benches that will be in site of people coming and going into the house maybe I can run a magnet over the top of it - wouldn't that just be doing duel duty? Oh piss, who am I kidding!

Barbara Lewis - this is one great book - you're killing me!

Pantone's Fall Colors

I'm sure everyone's checking out these Fall Colors by Pantone. It's kind of fun to see what the "in" colors are going to be. I'm not sure I'm enamored of the bunch as a whole. They are all kind of washed out for the most part and something I might expect maybe as a Spring palette of colors. But, I guess there might be quite a bit of wiggle room here to go with something deeper or contrasting.

When Marcie Lamberson picked one of their beautiful colors as her favorite of the palette - It's a beautiful pinkish color called Honeysuckle - I thought the color they had on the palette it might look great against was Cedar. It's kind of a grayish green. You know - Red/Green opposite on the color wheel. You're just going up and down the tones and brightness scales but it all works so well that way.

Oh what the heck - I mean look at the palette - you've got Bamboo and then there is a purple to contrast. Uh, let's see - How about their blue called Quarry and then Emberglow (an Orange derivative). Oh what the heck we can do this, right? Yup - No Prob - Lemon - in - O

A Stumble Find

How many times I've searched for something that would stick two radically different things together. Or, radically different in my mind when they wouldn't stay stuck!

Lara Lutrick was cruising Stumble and found this great site. She passed it on to the Fire Divas and I’m including it here because it looks like one of those great things that ought to be on the original “Resource List” I posted previously. Thanks Lara ---- it’s a good one!

Glue This to That