I’ve had a fairly long break from shows, which means Jim and I have had time to make a LOT of new pieces. They aren’t all photographed yet. When they are, I’ll give you  a sneak peek of what we are taking to the show in New Mexico next week.

I so look forward to this particular show. The Chamber of Commerce sponsers it, and all the staff and volunteers are so nice – they really take care of the artists. The Convention Center is a terrific venue, and of course Ruidoso itself is a cool treat for us hot weather Texans. It is almost a mini-vacation for us. The show itself is packed with really excellent artists and their work, including us , of course. Meanwhile, I’m still making some more beads for an update on my Japanese Kimono Series. Back to the torch —–

Luna Park by Vestie Davis

I still haven’t finished looking at all the Bead Soup websites. Have you? My post and info about what I made  for the  Bead Soup Party is here.  Meanwhile, I have been working on yet another challenge – The Art Bead Scene challenge for February based on a painting entitled “Luna Park” by Vestie Davis. Read the ABS challenge blog  here.  Garnering inspiration from this painting really did challenge  me, since I don’t like the paintings’ colors, don’t like the paintings’ style of painting, in fact, just plain don’t like it. How negative is that?  Hey, that’s the challenge part of it, eh? So, scratching my head, I blinked at those pinwheel things in the center, and thought “Murrini.”

Yep, murrini, those little intricate jewels that we lampworkers make by combining lots of colors of glass together into patterns, then pull out into a smaller glass cane. Afterwards, we chop the cane into little bits, and melt the bits into a bead.  I forgot to take pictures of the murrini I made in Luna Park colors, however, here is a picture of other murrini I made  and is leftover from other projects. You’ll get the idea. So, anyway, I made murrini in  Luna Park colors, and was off and running.

Murrini

I made some hollow and flats beads, applied the murrini, and added decorations in other colors from the painting. Made some solid color beads.  After all the beads were annealed, cooled, and cleaned, I strung a long necklace using them.

 Bingo – a winner. All inspired by something I initally didn’t think was inspiring. How’s that for fun? ( and Luna Park does look like a fun place, I admit).

Here is the February Art Bead Scene challenge necklace I made -entitled, what else, “Luna Park Necklace.” Look closely and you’ll see the pinwheel murrinis. Enjoy!

Long Necklace Inspired by the painting "Luna Park"

Flower Necklace in Black and Pink

Here’s a necklace I finished making yesterday. I’ve been working on the filigrina (black and clear glass) flowers for a while, with their solid pink centers and black glass leaves in between. I haven’t priced it yet, as I’m stewing over whether to enter it into a gallery show at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. If I do enter it, and if it does get selected, it would be committed for a year. I’m not sure I want to do that – basically just for the kudos. I have a few days to decide.

Any thoughts on the subject?

An indication of how busy I am/have been is that I didn’t know it was Friday until I sat down with Jim a few minutes ago to watch T.V. and saw the date on the screen. On well, I’ve only been moving into my new house (!), going to a show in Dallas, cleaning up our old house to "stage" it for sale, watering all the plants in this heat (100 plus!!!!!!!), making beads, making jewelry, packing and unpacking, setting up my new torch station, cuddling my cat who doesn’t like to move, weeding out too many p0ssessions, making jewelry, taking care of Jim who also doesn’t like to move, winning awards (yes, several), writing chapter three for the Round Top Register, and sometimes, rarely, sleeping and eating.

So, we are in the bardominium, and somewhat settled. It is WONDERFUL!! We love it . Roomy, and more. Beautiful, and more. Of course, though, we can’t remember what drawer the knives and forks are in, and where is the screwdriver when we need it to hang pictures? We are , however,settling in fast, in spite of leaving our brand new home to go to Dallas for five days. Our poor kitty Chica mewls and cries, letting us know that she feels lost too. Tonight for the first time we all three sat down in front of the new big screen T.V. with  Chica on my legs, her favorite spot. I finally relaxed  and I noticed the date.  It’s Friday. What happened to Thursday? I have no idea.

Anyway, way back in April at the Fayetteville Art Walk I was awarded first place for jewelry. How great is that?! I quickly got ready for the Texas Arts and Crafts Festival in May, all the while still working on the new house. So then I won "Best In Glass" at TACEF!! Wow again. Home we came and moved from the 29th of May to the 2nd of June. I lost a lot of torch time while we figured out my new setup, and got it back up and running just in time to make beads for City Arts in Dallas.

The brutal heat knocked us out in Dallas. In spite of dripping and sweating, we and the poor dedicated customers made it through. And I WON AGAIN! Some kind of wonderful – Best in Glass.So now "Miss I Got Some Kudos" is back home in her wonderful new studio, sorting out glass,making beads, and preening her nest.

I will set you up some photos soon. I know pictures are better than wordy windy words. But just had to let you know we are here, fine, well and cooking those beads with propane.

Two months without a peep from me on the web only means I have been busy. Let’s see:  I’ve been over at the new house a lot, making decisions and dealing with  contractors.  We’re waiting now for the concrete floor to be washed and stained, and for my propane line and exhaust fans to be installed. It is really down to the details!

Our "old" (not really old, its just 6) house is on the market , and a few people have looked at it in the last two weeks since we listed it. That means  I need to keep everything super clean in case the realtors call.

Meanwhile, we went to Dallas for Artscape, A Fine Art Fair in the Garden.  It was a lovely show, and we did well. However,  a few days before we left Jim caught a very bad bug or  had food poisoning. The doctor never figured just what Jim caught, but said he could go ahead to Dallas. We did, but took all our own food just to be safe. Whew! Jim is finally back to semi-normal after a lot of TLC.

Chapter Two  of "Go Anyway" was published in March our local paper, The Round Top Register. Work on the book continues, although I sometimes wonder if I will ever get it finished and published?

And beads?  Beads? Yes, I have been making beads in spite of everything else, and creating some spectacular jewelry if I do say so myself.  I’m glad the customers in Dallas and elsewhere agree with me. Thank you one and all for your support. You keep me going. Here are a few photos of some of my latest.  All of them have been sold, but I’d be glad to make something similar. E-mail me at beads(at)lynfoley(dot)com

We live about 150 miles inland from Galveston, Texas where Hurricane Ike made landfall early this morning.  I’ve been watching the news and weather reports about the storm for the last two days, and my heart goes out to all the thousands of people whose homes, lives and property have been severely affected by this huge hurricane.

The predictions and warnings started coming in via television radio, and newspapers at least five days ago. Forecasts put Round Top directly in Ike’s path, so yesterday Jim and I followed some of the broadcast advice and got to work. We bought extra ice and stockpiled water in case we lost power. The ice  would save our perishable food. The water we could drink  or use to flush our toilets, since our well needs electricity to power the water pump.  We stored our deck furniture and plants  inside, charged our cell phones, prepared our battery powered lantern and flashlights, and cooked a  big macaroni and vegetable salad.

Our new house is under construction next door. Since  winds might blow at up to 65 MPH, we stuffed the lightweight building materials from the job site into our garage – we didn’t want to take any chances with flying insulation. The builder lashed down the sheet metal. 

The storm didn’t come our way after all. Ike veered more to the east, leaving Round Top with only a bit of extra wind and some rain. But we were prepared, due  to all the early warnings. Tomorrow I’ll put the furniture back on the deck, clean out the garage, and turn on my torch again and make beads.

The day after won’t be nearly as easy for so many others – Ike  left a lot of damaged property in his wake.   The strength of this storm could have killed thousands, like the 1900 Galveston hurricane did – but  thanks to early warnings and evacuations, very few lives (if any) were lost.

Property can be rebuilt or recovered – lives can’t. So thank you all the people in Texas who worked on getting the word out, and keeping so many safe – a big thank you. And Ike – Good riddance! I’m glad you’re gone.

P.S. I took the picture of the copper rain lilies after I ventured out into our field after Ike passed over.