The Bayou City Show was a great success for us – beautiful weather, relatively easy set up, wonderful customers (and lots of them). As a bonus we drove down a day early and enjoyed a nice visit with some very dear friends of ours.

But once again, for the umpteenth time, gad zillions of people came into my booth, looked at  my jewelry and said, "That necklace reminds of of what’s his name, you know the guy with the BIG flowers on the ceiling in the (name the place). Oh, you know, Chihuly"

Now, what can I say to this comment? Is it nice to be compared to Chihuly? Am I trying to copy Chihuly? Do I want to be like Chihuly? – Well, yes and no,  – no really.

In case you don’t know , Dale Chihuly is a well known American glass blower. Learn more about him by following this link: http://www.chihuly.com/. In spite of having made glass beads for five years now, I had never heard of him until  two years ago when a customer made one of the above comments. I got home from that show and looked Dale up on the Internet. WOW, I almost fell off my chair when I saw the pictures of his work. What fabulous  blown glass! I would love to see some of it in person, but haven’t  had the pleasure  yet (it’s on my list). And so, yes, if I were as masterful with glass as Chihuly (or all the people who actually seem to make his work these days), then yes again, I would be very proud.

Just looking at pictures of his work has bumped my skill level up. I look at a picture of a vase, or one of his large floats, and wonder "How did he do that?" So off I go to the torch to experiment. Trying to figure out how those blowers who work with him created  certain effects that I like has pushed my designs further.

But then again, no, I’m not copying Chihuly. First of all, lampworking, though similar, is really not like glassblowing. We do use glass, but mine is wound, not blown. I make every bead myself – Chihuly has teams of people who do his work. He even says that members of the team take his drawings and make their own adjustments according to where the glass takes them.

Also, I make  art so that it can be worn. The challenges in designing flower or organic beads that are unusual,yet beautiful, strong, and easy to wear, are many. My designs always have these requirements in mind: Can it be worn comfortably, and will it last? If glass is only going to be looked at, not used, its an entirely different proposition. So, yes, I’m inspired, but, no, not copying Chihuly. 

So here’s a little (embarrassing) photo essay of the evolution of my sculptural flower and leaf beads, starting from the first ones  I made five years ago to the present.

You decide – I say its a "Lyn Foley".

We’re off to the Bayou City Art Festival this weekend. I’ve been busy  making new beads and designs. Not much to say, just some photos to tickle your fancy. See you in town!

Our new house is finally well underway. Two years ago we bought 20 acres next door to where we live now.  We spent ages deciding where on the 20 acres we wanted  to put the house and then more time settling on a plan. We decided to build a SIP (Structured Insulated Panel) house, but struggled to find a builder. After we did find  a builder, and got quotes on building a SIP, we discovered we didn’t have enough money – it was going to cost WAY more than we thought. OK  -we scrapped that idea,  and started over from scratch.

Then one night we went over to visit some new friends at their home, and were introduced to what Texans around here call a "Bardominium" – basically a large metal barn building, with a  "stick frame" house inside. We learned about terrific barn building benefits: They’re sturdy, have low insurance rates, are safer from hurricanes than stick houses, are sustainable, energy efficient,  very affordable, and have fairly fast construction times (once the work is started).

But best of all, since the barn/house  framing is all metal, there are no load bearing interior walls. That meant that we could put  walls, or no walls, anywhere we wanted on the inside. And we wanted big open spaces, high ceilings, and an industrial, modern, minimalist feel. We’re getting it all, and with 30% more floor space for less that the price of the smaller SIP panel or traditional wood frame house would have cost us. A total win in our books.

We’ve only had one problem since choosing to build a bardominium: Our metal barn builder has had so much work that we had to wait, and then wait, and then wait some more. But our number on his list at last came up, and the metal construction started on August 27th. As of today, October 3rd, the barn itself is almost finished! Wall framing materials for the interior were delivered yesterday, and Rudy, our interior contractor, will begin his part starting Monday. Whoopee!

We’ll have a "Studio/Office Wing" with a separate entrance – and are building in other things we didn’t know we’d need or want when we first moved off the sailboat. I’ve posted some pictures of what’s happened so far over on Flickr. Follow the side panel badge link , and let me know what you think!