~Winding Glass in the flame,much like spinning straw into gold~

This week glass camp started at the glass society, Tuesday Was my first day with the kids, They are so awesome to teach! Precious little creative minds, that have never been told they cant do something, so they simply jump in and do it!

It got very very hot in the torch room, reminded me of when I torched in AZ during the summer!  Poor little guys had to keep taking popsicle breaks!  Today is Teen glass camp day 1, I will let you know how that goes!

Dont you wish that when you were a kid you could have done something like this?

popsicle break 2,

after their three days of camp, they had a gallry showing of their work, I didnt get to see this first rounds gallery, I hope to get to the next and get some pctures for you all.

After camp today, If im not totally roasted, I need to get busy on the class line up for the fall catalog.

still tossing around a couple ideas. any input you have throw it at me pleaseeeeeee..

I do think I will hold at least one session of sculpted flowers..

Happy summers solstice! and Fathers day!

Today will have the longest day of sunlight all year, enjoy it! I am going to try!

This spring has dragged on , and had so much rain here, I have moss on the north side of my butt!!

Wanna see some pretties???

These are up on ebay

Shy Butterflies

Midsummeres eve

Tiger Lilys

Lets catch up, Last week, I had a big scare, we had a gas leak in our basement, long story, but I am convinced something was definitely on my side that day, as a matter of fact, I think I kept God so busy that day, and I so apologize to any of you who were asking him for help that he couldnt get to you until wednesday!!!!

Yesterday I taught the Prince charmer class, it went very well, though the shop was HOT, which made for a long day. someone needs to invent good air conditioning for a torch shop, and donate it to the glass society,

This week starts glass camp for the kids, Its my first year teaching the glass camp, but it looks mondo cool! The kids get to blow glass in the hot shop, cast glass in sand molds, sand blast , do off mandrel peices, stained glass peices, make beads, and do fusing projects! How stinking cool is that???

There is still a couple openings in the July schedule, so If you know any one 10-18 shoot me an email and I will get you to the info.

We are going to Canton Michigan today for fathers day and to build a fence for his dad. and while I supervise, I need to get together fall classes for the society.

these are classes that run from sept to december, If you could take a one day class on something what would you like?

Teddy bears? berries? leaves and acorns? snow globe pendants?

chocolates? Fish? all of the above?

     Getting ready for day 2 of the beadmaking 101 class, and day one went fantastic!

3 new converts to the world of glass!!

I do feel I pushed a lot of info overload on them, I suspect, hope, they went home last night and had glass dreams, thinking about where they want to head with thier art today.

     This mornnig They will get to learn how to take their beads off the mandrels and clean them, and re dip them, bleh. lol we went through a lot of mandrels yesterday!

     I will try and remember to take a few pictures today of the studios etc. such a fun place.

     If you have never been to the West michigan glass society, its like OZ to me,

This hugeeeeeee industrial brick building must be 678 years old, ( i tend to exxagerate) and when you step inside,there are dozens of different art glarries and studios, everything from painting, glass, sculpting, iron work, pottery, candle making etc. Its like when dorothy landed in oz and the movie went from black and white to technicolor!

     Im trying to put together the fall/winter beadmaking class schedule, and deciding what classes to offer, aside from the beadmaking 101. any suggestions throw them at me!

     Looks like feeling froggy class is a go this saturday, making my little prince charmer beads, encased florals with a frog, clutching it, that will be a lot of fun!

     I also think Sue and I are putting together a wine bottle, slumping class, Sue slumps these wine bottles into cheese trays, and they turn out so cool! I will need to get a picture of that too! Words without pictures to back it up, just isnt the same is it?

 well here is a picture of the feeling froggy class we will be doing Saturday

Ok I have to get ready!!! have a great day everyone! make something pretty!

Good morning, I woke up to NO diet pepsi in the house (panic) So I am gering up with cups of International mocha instant coffees. I start teaching a 2 day beadmaking workshop today at the West Michigan glass society

I always get excited about conforming new glass art addicts! today 3 shall be born!

bwa ha ha ha ha

Im really trying to learn how to delegate my time, Time management I really truly suck at.

Are you a morning person, or an afternoon person etc? I seem to rotate, some mornings I wake up just scrambling to get work done, some mornings I wake up and wonder whats on lifetime movie netowrk today? Then come 4 o clock  Im done weeping at movies and I want at the torch. (even though there are only 4 plots in any given lifetime movie, battered wife, gold digger, evil nanny, and where oh where is my prince charming? )

What are your favorite times of the day? what is your favorite thing to do when you have time for just yourself?

 Do you have passions? that seem to give you excuses to not do what you should be doing? lol me, Archery, Geo caching, driving around looking for my dream house.

(which I could buy if i spent less time avoiding what I need to be doing,)

This morning however I have a legitimate excuse to sit here n blog, read forums, pimp my auctions, Im waiting for my jeans to dry. 2 hours before class starts, have i ever mentioned im a well intentioned procrastinator?

I actually get tired thinking of the things i plan on getting done, I think thats an ADD thing, One more cup of mocha rytalin and I should be good to go. right?

so? want some eye candy?

These are up on the bay, I will try and include links, but that seems to work, when my website provider wants it to. If not you can find them all here http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/everafterartistry_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZ

star gazer garland

Bees knees pansies

Butterfly Pandora

Ice cream shop

i will update again tonight or tomorrow morning about the class I have a great feeling about it. its gonna rock!

If Im not sitting in soggy jeans all day

This weekend I released my new series in tutorials, the aBc's of sculpting.

IN this 31 page 115+ full color picture tutorial you will learn how to make

Birds

Bees

Butterflies

Bunnies

Bugs

Blossoms

(ducks)

Fun techniques you can use to make a plethora of little friends!

simple tools needed, easy to find soft glass.

This is geared towards the beginer sculpter, but I think any level of range could pick up several tips and ideas!

this past week I have had the opportunity to host the gnome Frank, Frank is a gnome we are sending aroundd the world, to visit us, and go sight seeing etc.

Unfortunately for Frank he missed my trip to AZ, and came on a week that was choas, and uber busy. but we still found time to have fun..

one of his first nights he just rested and told stories with some gnome friends...

then he got the munchies...

rode a trian and a tug boat at South Haven peir.

Then watched the sunset,

They set up a blog for Frank and I will include a link after I get that updated. with all his adventures!

He will be going to his new hostess tomorrow.

The cobbler had it made with his little helpers,My elves I think ran away to New Orleans for a vacation..

Speaking of Vacations,I just got back last week from visiting AZ, My daughter, my mother, my neice, and my two brothers all live there, 5 days isnt enough time, I just got there it seems and we had to say our goodbyes again.

We had so much fun, on mothers day we went to the desert botanical garden, where Chihuly had a big glass exhibit, absolutely mondo cool (though it hit 108 degrees that day. ) On the front page of this site there is a slide show I made of the peices we got to see. Here, scroll down. Here is a sneak peek.

I also took my mom Geo caching, we found three treasures!! She really enjoyed it.

Im hoping my daughter will catch the bug and do it with her sometimes,

Have I explained Geo caching here? If not I will!!

But I have so much more to talk about!

I got home Thursday from my trip, that Saturday I had to work Explore glass art day at the glass society, then the next Sunday I had a beadmaking 101 class all day to teach.

We had a lot of fun! and Pat from a previous class, and a new beadmaking addict stopped by to work with us, Its absolutely so fun to see her eyes light up, and her new passion for the art!

In between all this, I have been making fistfuls of beads. wanna see?

fighting a bit with the new posistion of the sun to take pictures (yes they rehung the sun!!)

dragonfly dance.

with hand made dragonfly millis i made myself

Butterfly Pandora

Pansy pendants style

BIrds bees and cherry blossoms

oh and I want to share one that sold, that i really love how they turned out.

this set is on its way to Canada.

blushing Dogwoods

This past couple weeks, between special orders and classes, I have been Making A lot of beads with Latticino, (a stripey twisty encased cane that looks like those old candy sticks. (yum).) Playing with color combos etc, and Im totally addicted to using them in my beads!

Here are some beads listed up on the bay using the twisties on them..

TWISTED (large holes beads with a diagonally and twisted twice stripe, of the latticino cane, with jewel tone dots.

Caribean Carnival

seashells,

Pandora Pansies

with center bead with a wrap of latticino. pretty springy summer colors.

Also Here is a set of pansies I listed, no latticino, but the way the colors striked in this set turned out scrumptious! I hope I can do that again!

So much to talk about, I have been so excited to share all this news with you, I keep sitting down to blog about it, then thinking to myself, I don't have the time to really give it the attention it deserves,

Well, it is Sunday morning, the birds are chirping.. (what bird makes this sound? wwwwwweeeeee wooooooooo?) I remember hearing this bird since childhood, and whistling the tune back and getting replies.

So get yourself a cup of coffee, and read on! I have some awesome adventures to share!

Thursday morning I got a call from the West Michigan glass society at 9:10 am notifying me I

had a class for beadmaking 101 at 10:00 am! doh!! Kim, said I will be there at 9:30 to pick you up!

lol!!! so Thursday I taught a class with bed head. But I have to say it turned out awesome, the ladies

were the best I have had so far! Pat and Denise, were so fun to chat with all day!

Denise had come up from Indiana just to take the class, and is more than excited to set up her

own work area and get to melting glass!!! Pat came from a little closer than that, but just as much fun,

She makes HUGE BEADS, and is really excited about working at the society during open torch hours!

Both ladies were easy to teach, and caught on so fast. We spent a lot of the day just playing!

Friday we had a child's birthday party, the theme was its a zoo, something like that, 8 little girls trying to make sculpted lampwork animals, that was a challenge, we started out by trying to make horses which was probably a little too advanced for some of them, but we wound up stretching our imaginations, and making,

giraffes, bears, ducks, pendants, elephants, unicorns, ha! It was a learning experience for all of us!

I have been assisting with the off mandrel boro lampworking classes a lot, I have two more this week as a matter of fact. I love doing this, its a medium of glass I haven't worked with a lot, so each time I learn something new.

So, that's that for classes, lol now wanna hear the crazy stuff???

Have you ever heard of Geo Caching? If not I suggest you check this out!

http://www.geocaching.com/ without becoming a member you can punch in your zip code, etc and see how many hidden treasures are around you!! I just bet no matter what country you are checking out there are lots!

In my small town there are over 500 hidden caches, a cache is a little box, jar etc, tucked away in some place revealed to you on that site. inside the box is a log book, a pen to sign it with, and some small trinkets.

When you locate a cache, you sign the log book, take a trinket if you wish, and leave a trinket if taking one.

I have been leaving sculpted little bird beads with a scroll with my name and website on it.

The site gives you the coordinates, google maps etc to find the stash, The first day we went out we didn't have a handheld GPS to use the coordinates to find it, but we found the first one! it was near a lake, and we walked around for a few minutes, dislodged a couple traps someone had left behind, (grrrr) and thought like pirates! ta da we found it! it was hidden really good too, amongst some trees etc, I cant tell you specifics,

but I can tell you I did the happy dance on finding it! lol inside was tucked the notepad, and the a couple trinkets, we didn't take anything, but I did leave a bird, then you place it back in its hiding spot. when you get home you can log on the site that you found it. you can also keep track of it, and see when someone takes the trinket you left behind.

The next one that day we found was at an old tiny cemetary, actually a very pretty stop. only took about ten minutes to find it, then left the bird , signed the book,

The next day we found a GPS on craigslist, and headed back out in the rain, you knowwwwwww this has to be fun If I am out in the rain doing it. Much easier with the GPS found two more!! one in a park, one in the woods!

Funny thing about this adventure is..I'm not so excited to take treasures out, but Im sooooo excited to leave a treasure in each one! I have left four treasures in the world so far! (aside from my children)so six! lol

We are going to hit a couple today! I even bought a special Geo Caching cap to wear, that I made a couple beads to decorate it with, lol that's another story..

I posted this on a couple of the lampworking forums, about the geo caching, and thought how cool it would be if all us beaders that could could go drop some of our art off in these hiding places,

it takes you to places you would miss seeing I think in life, it also makes you see the world so differently!

After Geo caching for two days we took he dogs to the park for a walk, its a nice wooded park with trails, and so as we walked we kept looking in the hollows of trees etc, thinking hey that's a great spot to hide a cache! lol

(Did You just hear that goose that flew by?)

A couple spots after we found the cache we took pictures of the veiw from the cache, you can post these too with your find to help others, but its considered a spoiler.lol

I do think we will have a lot of fun adventures with this before winter I will want to share with you, so I will make another blog page just for Geo caching?