Hollow Beads

I've been trying something new, blowing glass. These are large shell focals but are light because they are hollow. They make great simply wired pendants and I like wearing one just slipped onto a silver cable choker necklace.

This black shell is dusted with reactive raku frit and a gold powder which gives it a subtle metallic shimmer.

Signs of Summer

I know it's summer when my garden pathways get shouldered out. The warmer nights push everything into a growth spurt . Plants tumble into the walkways and slow our progress walking through the garden. The fragrant white nicotianas are over 7 feet tall, the old fashioned triple orange daylilies are everywhere, incredibly bright. From the shady spots spread plate sized clematis. And my most favorite flower for June - the gardenia! The large bush has hundreds of buds, every day I pick a dozen to bring into the house. The other plant that makes this a most fragrant month is the Easter lily. I always buy a potted plant at Easter and later tuck it into the garden and forget about it. They return every year and multiply happily. I just have to remember to cut off the pollen on the plants that lean out to greet us- what a stain it makes!

A Fun and Fragrant Day

Since I spin, I end up with lots of extra dyed carded fleece. I've seen a UTube video showing how to felt wool around a bar of soap. It looked fun and easy and hopefully would use up lots of wool. These are two batts I'd made as samples but didn't like well enough to continue carding more. I used a bowl of hot water, one of cold, and a bamboo sushi mat for a textured surface to rub it on. The bars turned out great though it hardly made a dent in the heap of fleece. I also made a ball cat toy. ( I used a ping pong ball with a slit cut in the side so I could insert a bell.)

My second fragrant fun today was weaving lavender wands. I have a plant that produces really long stems perfect for weaving a satin ribbon through the "cage" formed when the stems are bent back. When they dry they get put in my lingerie drawers or in with pajamas. Just a little squeeze refreshes the sweet smell. One picture shows a wand in the half finished stage.

Playtime

Most often when I sit down at the torch I have a plan in mind, sometimes even on paper. But the best things happen when I begin without a preconceived "to do" list. I've found this go-with-the-flow style works best when my work surface of gigantic clay tiles is covered in a drift of glass rods. I just start with a playful attitude of "what if" and the only rule is to try colors and styles together that I've never done before. The new beads I invent aren't always keepers but I have some favorites I love that I'll share a few pictures of. Click to enlarge.

Color Experiments

Dyeing always brings out the mad chef in me- a dab of this a bit more of that! No following recipes- it's way more fun and this time brought happy surprises. I had a gift of a sock blank to use as my canvas. If youhaven't tried one before,(I hadn't) they are ingenious. It's a machine stranded double knit long rectangle. There's enough yarn for a large pair of socks. So when it's unraveled it will make two perfectly matching socks. The smart thing to do is to get enormously long circular needles and knit the 2 socks at once. The directions boggled me, I'll have to get someone to actually show me how that's done, so my husband helped me unravel it into 2 balls. I am knitting one at a time and finding that it's creating a sort of blurred faux fair isle look. I used Jacquard acid dyes set with vinegar, rolled the blank in plastic and steamed it for 30 min. As I squirted on the dyes I had No Idea how it would turn out- just random fun! Can't wait to try this again. Because you're dyeing a knitted fabric it takes the color in soft uneven depths of shade- very pretty.

Garden Tour

I've gotten behind on beadmaking, spinning, knitting, and weaving. So, what have I been doing with my"spare" time? Our garden will be on the spring garden tour that benefits the local Children's Hospital. I go on this garden tour every spring and am inspired by the beautiful ,( and perfect) gardens. Now I'm having this feeling of panic about cleaning everything up, ( how to camoflage the compost pile?) trying to guess what will be in bloom in two weeks, (will those roses bloom? will the iris be all finished?) and the long to-do list to be crossed off before The Day. This garden walk has become more popular every year, last year 800 tickets were sold!! Here are some garden pictures if you can't come to visit!

So... what do you have on your loom now?

The question asked by a fellow weaver, " What do you have on your loom now?" is really a loaded question. There is a very guilty feeling I get looking at my empty loom. Beadmaking sucks up all my extra time now so it seems. But looking at my forlornly vacant loom yesterday the answer came to me, "My cat is on my loom right now." This is the time of year the warmth of a sunbeam moves over the loom and she slowly shifts with it. Whisper is a Ragdoll breed and is as much like a dog as I've ever met. She follows me from room to room, and chair to couch,napping on the bed with me, tucked against my spinning wheel, or under the loom. She can't follow me to the studio and sits curled up by the back door waiting until I come back in, hours later.