Angelas Diner

my children have a sense of humor; look what they made for me today! Anybody know what the significance of a deer and my pickup is? I had a deer run into the side of my truck back a couple of years - he left an imprint of his head in the driver side front door!

the beads i really enjoy usually have “something going on” inside with a clear glass encasing…

i snapped these pics this morning (can you tell i really should have had more coffee first?)

Four beads - two have golden aventurine swimming around the colored cores… one is an earthy brown with green and blue enamels, and the third, the center bead, that one has pastels enamels layered over a grey core.  That bead has a funny story to go along with it!

It’s a BIG bead, it took a while to make over the torch.  As I’m working, I have the garage door open, and my neighbor across the street came over and watched me…. this was a couple years ago, and I was still a new lampworker.  Well, I got all nervous as I made it bigger and bigger and rounder and rounder.  I actually DROPPED it on the garage FLOOR as I was putting it in the kiln!! And she was watching the whole time, fascinated, as I quickly picked it up and popped it in the kiln…. man!

Later, when I took it out, after it finished annealing, I figured I’d have all kinds of garage yuck stuck to it.  But NO!  It only has a tiny little crease up near the hole.  Survivor, that’s what that bead is.  I should hang it from my rear view mirror, it has great depth, and the story always makes me laugh as I remember what a klutz I was.

yesterday i worked my normal shift at the gallery - and didn’t really expect to see anyone since the weather report predicted heavy rain and wind from the remnants of a hurricane that was passing to the east. it was funny how busy it was! karen maynard stopped by and we talked for a while about the work, her work, my work, and the gallery in general. her work is always some of my favorites - her palette reflects what i would choose if i worked in oils. here are a couple of pics of what she has in the show this month:

at our auction this summer, i grabbed a painting of pears by karen - it’s hanging in my cubicle at work…. funny to see “real art” in a cubicle farm!

my work this month includes the felted bowls - here’s a couple of pics of how they are displayed:

I love the complementary colors - the bowls are really fun to make, as I mentioned before.  Even in the rain and wind, we had some shoppers yesterday.  First, a woman bought a scarf that Karen made - and said she “loved shopping for gifts at the gallery” during our November and December shows especially.  THEN, I ended up making my first sale of my own art while I was there! Up until now, my stuff has sold when I haven’t been gallery sitting.  This time, I got to meet the person purchasing - FUN!  She bought one of my felted bowls from the left photograph above.  It’s a gift, so I won’t say anything here to identify her - but I was so happy to meet her.  She loved the bowl, and I had some of the yarn with me that I showed her as well as talking about the lampwork beads embellishing the front of the bowl…. absolutely a wonderful day, even in the wind and rain.

My 9th grader WON the costume contest at her high school today - she won a 4G iPod Nano ! unreal! and this is the costume she put together at the last minute:

Later that same night…..  BOO!

the whole family went up to Pawtucket last night for the Pumpkin Extravaganza…. here are three of the “pumpkin heads” we saw….

it is just so hard to get good photos of these things!  i love the one in the middle, leaf head man.  the detail up close was incredible!  i’d love to try and do something that fancy this year.  my oldest daughter also took pictures, I’ll see if she will share with me and I’ll post ‘em.  I think she made out better with less blurry photos…

Spent my day way the heck up in Massachusetts (a 2 hour drive - ugh) at a class that was just awesome - mySQL.  It’s rockin…

My boy was busy today too - makin’ little dudes like these:

They rock too - don’t they!?!?!

I ordered two books by Claudine Hellmuth recently and they came today. The first one I’ve already looked through quickly while eating dinner…and the beeswax technique looks interesting to try. The second one awaits…

I’ve been interested in making collages for a while now, in fact I have a pile (or two!) of old magazines and wooden boxes and “stuff” I’ve collected at flea markets and antique shops. It will be a new medium for me–collage. I’ve really enjoyed browsing the web and checking out folks like Michael deMeng, Nina Bagley, and Claudine Hellmuth, as well as others.

Look for some explorations in collage from me, probably over the winter.

Sunday

Fun day

(then comes

Monday)

I wish I could have spent the night there — but my company doesn’t include Columbus day in the yearly company holidays so it’s back to work for me tomorrow.

I did get a chance to make some beads before we hit the road and caught the ferry, so look for those pics really soon…. today was a “break day” for me. Much needed, much appreciated.

Here’s what made my day today

So I could do

I was only out there briefly - worked primarily in black grey and white today.  Here’s what I put together last night - it’s not fully done as I need to still put the clasp on it.

I just love the colors….. and making a three strand with complementary seed beads in different patterns.  That one will go down to the gallery when I do, later this month.

So, Liam, I am putting a picture of the really cool present right here so you can see it anytime…

Next to it is a really cool carved wooden cigarette box I got at a flea market. I love how the skelly in the present is so happy, dancing with his arms way up…

today we went to a corgi show in warwick - it was a blast just seeing the show field full of short little corgies