My Studio..now indoors!

With.... PINK walls! hehe!

The Glass Wall

The Glass Stash

The Lil Dragon

The Oven

The Barren Jewelry Table

Still working on organizing a little bit more but the majority is done. Hope you enjoyed your peek into my workspace.

Free Shipping on all orders in my Etsy Store

Enjoy free shipping on all orders from now until Easter at midnight in my Etsy Shop. Enter coupon code EasterFreeShip11 upon checkout.

Pickling and Labeling Glass

I'm taking on a big venture and I'm not even halfway done. My studio is just about set up. The walls are painted (thanks to my mom). Everything is in it's place (thanks to my hubby and boys). I'm working on pickling (cleaning) and labeling EVERY glass rod I have. Yes, it's going to be a huge project but after trialing the pickling of the clear rods and seeing them sparkle, I just have to do them all. Not to mention, I get very frustrated that I have rods here and there that aren't labeled. It seems they never get used because I'm "afraid" of them. Also, it will make it easier to order glass when I know which ones I'm actually low on. I read about pickling glass on the Frantz newsletter and read more about it on LE (a lampworking forum) and I'm so glad I found out about it. Scummy clear is always a problem. Well, hopefully, not any more. I'll take pictures of some clear encased beads after I'm all done with this venture to show you the details of pickling. To read more about pickling, hop on over to the Frantz newsletter blog and it should be in the December 2010 archives if its not on the first page.
As for labeling my rods, I'm making excel spreadsheets with the color, maker or brand of the glass and the ID number and taping it on each glass rod. I may make a little tip section on how to do this in case other lampworkers are interested. I'm on a mac so this is the easiest way I have found to do this. There is another way using a program that another LE member came up with but it's only compatible with Windows. Also, if you want my spreadsheets that I've done so far, you an email me and I'll send them on over for you. My email is karen dot e dot colaneri at gmail dot com.

Beadmaking on Hold... Once Again.

I was all gun-ho with those colors and now everything is on hold for at least a week. My mother and father-in-law are moving back to their house with nursing help from the ALS clinic. We got my mother-in-law confident in caring for him and she's dieing to sleep in her own bed again. I don't blame her! My studio was set up over in her spare bedroom but now that they are moving back, they want to set up the spare bedroom for out of town family and I can have my den back for my bead studio. I'm very happy. We all are. The drag of moving stuff ensues...

I'm heading to the bookstore today to buy a few vampire hunter novels and maybe a ceramic beadmaking book. That's if I can find it. It's Jennifer Heynen's book, Ceramic Bead Jewelry. I won't be starting to make them until after the baby is born and I'm back to work but I need to study! :D I can never find beadmaking books when I want them. Here's to hoping.

Preparing to go to Town!

I'm getting ready to go to town making beads and discs tomorrow. I have been preparing by coordinating colors and making twisties and stringers. I'll be making them in shades of blue and a touch of green.

More Clearance Beads in my Etsy Shoppe!

More beads were added to my Etsy shoppe on Clearance! Woohoo! More sale! Don'cha love it??
Happy Birthday to my son, Trevor! He turned 14.

Animoto Collage

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

More Clearance Items in my Shoppe!

Go ahead and enjoy the sale while you can!

Beads Going on Clearance in Etsy.

I'll be uploading beads from last year to my etsy that will be going on clearance. You can stop by my shoppe page to see what's available or to hop on over to etsy.

True Blood Countdown: 5 more days

Continuing on with my True Blood and Vampire inspiration countdown, here are my vampire-inspired finds on etsy. Five more days until season 3 of True Blood begins on HBO. Hooray!

"Swarovski Ruby Crystal True Blood Lariat" by lilladyblue

"Who Killed Mr. Moonlight - Striped Velvet & Lace Cuffs" by ZenAndCoffee

"Dripping Scarlet" by BeadinBabe

"Red Droplet" by PurplePeony

"Look After My Heart" by VenBead

Sunsets at Pier 60

Well! I just have to tell you how my first night went. First, because I'm new, I watch how the lottery is done to determine where we set up our tables. When everyone is done picking their spots, they take me to END of the pier. For those of you who need a picture of the end of the pier, its not the very end where they do the fishing, but its about the middle of the actual pier, just the end of where the artists are set up. It's very windy so, so much for a nice display. Everything kept blowing. Took off my hairclip to clip the table cloth to the front of the table so it would stop blowing up the cloth and push everything to the middle of the table. Even though, they tell me when I jury in that jewelry category is closed, people were expecting jewelry. I had a few pieces of jewelry to show how to use the beads but really, people didn't want to buy beads. I felt I was there to sort of be a show, rather than sell anything. Everyone loved my beads, but then only 2 bought beads that fit their Pandoras. Thanks for that, because at least it wasn't a total failure and I made my booth fee back. A lot of people were looking to see if I had beads for Pandora, so maybe if I go out again, I'll make more beads for those. Even though the girl next to me, who made guitar pic jewelry, was very sweet and explained not to base my sales on the first night being all the way at the end, she still has had to lower her prices since she's been there and I don't wish to do that. I spend way too much time sweating in front of a torch to make my cute lil pieces of art to drop my prices to make a few bucks. Overall, I had lots of fun, teased my boys who came with me and helped me set up and spent some quality time with them and my mom. I'll probably just keep my clientele online. I'm happy with them. :)

Studio Cleaning & Organizing Spree!

I was out making beads when I kept getting all my blacks mixed up. I ended up having spiderwebs in my bead designs, which are a good thing when that is the design intended, or my spots that I wanted black were purple. I also have colors that my friend Linda would give me or colors that I bought at a local glass place that are all mislabeled or not labeled at all. That lead me into the biggest organizing spree ever. I decided I am going label each and every rod if it kills me. I mean, we are going to be moving in a few months so they would all end in a big jumbled mess anyways. This way, the virgo inside me will be happy. Nice, clean, organized work area with LABELED glass. What a shocker.

I got my shipment in the mail yesterday with blacks and a batch of Precision Diamond Clear, my new favorite clear. As long as it doesn't crack my beads like the last rod did. I'm still at a loss on where I got that rod from to determine if the rest I have here is from the bad batch as well. That was a total bummer that I made all those pretty encased beads, made them into earrings and crack, crack, crack. Wasted beads and wasted silver. Not a good mix at all. Oh well... onto more beadmaking. It's not like I ever tire of it.

Just a final note... I made over my etsy shop to match my blog and added google analytics. YAY me! I love when I get things accomplished!

The Little Things

Yesterday was a good day. It was a beautiful day out. Spring Break started for the grade schools and the beaches were packed. The time with kids was great. The simple things really make a difference. We had Good Humour Strawberry Shortcake and Chocolate Ice Cream bars and played with balloon punch balls. Ahhh the little things that make kids smile!

On another note, I passed my Community Health Nursing Theory and Practicum class with A's and my Health Assessment class with a B. I was floored. I've been busting my butt and would forget assignments and I was considering dropping at one point. I'm so glad I persevered. Now onto Nursing Research and Legal and Ethical Nursing.

And, of course, my little artistic touch to this blog post. I took my lampwork bracelet out of the tumbler yesterday. Inspired from Kerry Bogert and her Totally Twisted book.

Blue Twix

Some pictures of a new bracelet I made. Lampwork beads made by me as well. I call it Blue Twix. Sorry the pictures are a bit over exposed because of the sun is bright here in sunny Florida today.

Treasury Loved

This treasury totally caught my eye. And, of course, I added most of the artists to my favorites. The felted bear, the bunny, the chihuahua in the scarf, the spirit of woodlands, and of course the fonts are just totally unique and gorgeous. The vintage earrings and the wirewrapped earrings are, of course, some of my new favorites as well. This treasury is just that, a treasure. Found things that need to make their way into my home. Go visit and see what I'm talking about.

5 Things that Made Me Happy Today

1. The smiles on my kids' faces.
2. Chocolate all over Matthew's face as he sucks his finger to make sure he got every last drop.
3. Getting to the torch and making a bunny bead.
4. My husband telling me he has faith in my beads and jewelry when I wasn't asking for his opinion, he just gave it.
5. My 14-year-old son, Brandon, dressing NICE for school without being prompted! ... next for that hair...

Quickie Beads

I couldn't wait to post some beads I made after not being able to get out to the torch in awhile. One bead is still stuck on the mandrel, its the other aqua one. So, I took a quickie pic with my video recorder out the door. Kinda crappy for a picture but I sooo love these beads. I never make beads this small and I really like how they turned out.


Thanks for looking!