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.

Revamping the Blog

In case you see something out of place or misaligned, I just thought I'd share that I'm in the process of revamping the blog. I wanted something more springy and vibrant...like sunshine. :) I also wanted to get rid of a lot of nonsense things I have on here that probably isn't necessary and make it look more stream-lined. Ease of blog-a-bility.

I'm still working on pickling and organizing my glass as well as unpacking the studio. It's taking me a little bit longer than it should because of the pregnancy and not being able to move easily or stand for long periods. Chiropractor says my sacr0-iliacs are misaligned which is causing a lot of pelvic and groin pain. It's ok, though, just 13 more weeks to go!

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.

Heading back to the torch!

Today's gonna be a great day at the torch. I got a special package in the mail yesterday that arrived from Denmark. I was so excited, I squeeled in delight. I've been waiting a couple of weeks. It came much quicker than I thought. I'll share with you what it is when I have the pretty beads to go along with it. (Does that give you a hint?) I want to make more discs to make a necklace. I have a list or fun, whimsical beads I wanna make. I'm so inspired, I won't wanna leave the torch today. Ok, now to try and sneak out without the lil guy seeing me...

Disc Challenge

A friend of mine wanted to come up with a challenge to help us attain a goal and complete it since we both have motivation issues and get mind blocked. She wanted to challenge me to 15 discs. I completed mine yesterday. Here they are, all nice and cleaned. One picture is outside in the sun and the other on my table top studio. (Dont mind the dust on the black surface. I'm working on cleaning the studio.

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. :)

Getting Ready for Sunsets at Pier 60

Sunsets at Pier 60 is nightly event at Pier 60 in Clearwater where local artisans, crafters and performers gather as the sun sets. This fun family event is free and is held every evening. The next "jury" for new artisans is coming up on April 20, 2010 and I'm hoping to be there. I've been out making an abundance of beads at the torch and the creativity is just flowing. Every time I'm out there, more and more ideas are just coming to me and it seems I can't be out there enough. I would be out much longer than I have been if it wasn't for the little guy and school getting in the way. I'll post some pictures as soon as I get the time to take them. In the mean time, I have tons of beads to clean!

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.