My favorite necklace – Ruffle – has made it into the Upstairs/Downstairs Show at the Pen and Brush Society in New York City – October 9 through November 2.  The Pen and Brush Society is in Greenwich Village and has been encouraging and supporting women in the arts for 113 years.  I’d love to know the names of the women artists whose work has traveled through these doors!   http://www.penandbrush.org

My glass table is messy on purpose (ok, well, partly on purpose because cleaning = boring…).  Some times I plan my color choices, but other days I just totaly follow my muse.  I pick up one color and an unexpected choice follows as a result of seeing the glass randomly scattered about the table.  

If you look closely you’ll see that I sometimes use fancy brass presses, but I also love my old steak knife and trusty Ace Hardware pliers. I watch television while beadmaking – thus the remote.  I switch between the History Channel and CMT.  Maybe that’s why some of my beads are rather tame while others have a stronger vibe to them.

Here’s a quick peek inside my glass studio. 

My pallet.  

Sometimes the colors mesmerize me, and I  just sit and gaze at my glass for inspiration.  

There  are so many choices. 

Do I want to:

work with opaque or transluscent glass? 

let the colors speak or the design?

work on meticulous detail?

layer colors?

add silver foul or dichroic glass?

Am I feeling light-hearted and whimsical or more dramatic?

The list goes on and on and keeps my glass life vibrant, everchanging and always exciting.

Here’s a bluer than blue bouquet.  I just couldn’t resist putting these beads into a vase.   I simply love this bold transparent colbolt glass.  I’ve made them into a Bluer Than Blue Bauble Necklace.  The shell bead is a bauble gone bad…smile.  There is one “Mary Englebright” bead in the bouquet – black and white with a big yellow flower.   I made that for a special friend.

I’m heading out to my glass studio for a fun-filled day of playing with glass.  There is nothing better!  My studio window boxes have pansies, and there is a large flower to cheer me on.  Here’s a look at the studio from the outside.  Notice that I have one window covered?  That is to keep the direct light out of my flame area.  My work is all about managing the glass in the flame, so I darn better be able to see where that flame is!  Not only for detailed textures and finely shaped beads, but also so that I don’t totally burn myself.