Studio News: Sprucing Up the New Place

I was just going to post a reminder that I will be migrating to my new Kanna Glass Studios site and how I'll be changing. After two years of trying out various online shops, some blogs, some business names, I have re-branded my blog, photo gallery, and main website as Kanna Glass Studios.



Mmmmhmmm. Yeah.

I had JUST (aka yesterday) created new domain names with Yahoo Web Hosting. I was trying out their design tools and very frustrated with both. There is a basic tool that has some nice clean templates, but limited functionality. There is a more advanced tool, but out of 380 templates, none was the nice clean one I liked.

[Brain wheels clanking.]

Then, I was reading Moon Katty Studios blog, poking around her links and came across a blog that lists valuable tools for start-ups.

Result: I'm in the process of evaluating a web host with a great content management tool (so far so good). I'll write about it later if I really end up using it.

In the meantime, I will tease you with my plans...

1. I was a smidgen (okay, a lot) wary of the Follower feature of Blogspot. Now that I have 29 followers, I am smitten with this feature. Why? I know my main audience!
2. Knowing my audience (the ones who openly follow me), has had my brain cogs churning for some time. If you click through to the followers blogs, they are all fellow lampworkers or jewelry designers/artists. This is really cool!
3. However, this presents a conundrum. IRL (In Real Life) business terms, these would be people who are considered my "competitors."
4. My assessment is that they are peers.
5. So, what do I do for my peers?
10. Yep. Still thinking.
13. Ah-ha!
14. Share my inspirations.
17. Eh?
19. Yes. You read correctly.
20. Share.
21. My inspirations.

It seems counterintuitive, but I have been reading stuff. And it flies in the face of conventional (i.e. "old") wisdom. I will be sharing my brain clanks on this subject in the future on my new blog: http://www.kannaglassstudios.blogspot.com/. It's not open to the public yet. But, it will be soon.

Anyway.

You read correctly. One of the new things I will be launching with my new sites will be a newsletter containing what is inspiring me this month. No strings attached. Print it. Forward it. Quote it.

Free.

For real.

No strings attached. Okay. Except for the part where you link or quote me. After that. It's all yours. And even if you don't credit me, I don't care. I'm not going to police it. I'm just excited to do something new and exciting.

I'm enthralled with my new environment in Hong Kong. I plan to share as much as possible with you.
Here are some snippets of flora...I plan to have poems and prose written for each photo.


If you want a sneak peak at what the newsletter will look like, it's here: at http://www.kanna-glass-studios.com/. This site is the beta. It will be undergoin many changes in the next month until it's where I want it to be.

The next few photos are what the fauna (i.e. wildlife aka me!) are doing on Lantau Island, Hong Kong...I finished the necklace using Laura Sparling's painterly Cogs. I'm so pleased with this necklace. Even though she was hesitant on the presentation (being more painterly than her usual) these beads really, really appealed to my sensibilities. I've finally figured out how to display them in the manner that they should be accustomed to. It's a gorgeous, fun, funky, entertaining piece. Here are a few pix using my new camera with a "Super Macro" feature. I loves the beauty shots it can get for me.


K, y'all. Toodles for now. Just remember: new blog, and new website coming soon! Don't bookmark anything but your brain! Ciao!

Artfully Meandering: Inspiration Typhoon

I have at least ten pages of ideas in my journal from living here in Hong Kong. And those are only from the last three days. The moods of the sky, mountains, and sea are making my creative storm tremble with electricity, waiting to break loose.

Colors.

Names.

Poetry.

Prose.

Just a little preview of the muse that is Hong Kong...

I'm usually all about color. Bright. Bold. Primary. In your face. Color. In photos, the colors look more monochromatic, but it's teaching me about the subtleties. Some of the ideas it's producing in my head are more elegant, refined.
Need. Studio. Soon.

Artfully Meandering: Thought-provoking

I just have to say, Moon Katty Studios is off to an auspicious start with a thought-provoking Mellifluous post on how to spark our creativity. Moon Katty is one of my good friends who took the original lampwork class that launched our activities in glass and she introduced me to jewelry. Her work is stunning. Her thoughts are stimulating. I love talking to her in person and reading her thoughts online. Stop over and take a look.

Studio Time: Hobbies are great when you're homebound

Moon Katty Studios has a new blog! I introduced her in a piece I created from her little cutie beads and Michael-S focal. I purchased Moon Katty's Foxfire set from her Artfire store and, once again, they serendipitously went with another Michael-S Focal! Here is the start of my Foxfire Fabulous necklace. I'll be finishing it off in figure 8 silver chain...but I ran out of wire.


I've also been sidelined due to a foot injury. Thanks to a fun hobby, I haven't gone stir-crazy. I'm so dependent on my feet for transportation, that I've forced myself to stay in for 5 days to keep off my feet. And below is another start of a creation I'm calling Cog-nitive Therapy since I finally figured out how to incorporate some fabulous Laura Sparling Rainbow Cogs into a necklace and show off the designs on the side of the beads. I'm planning to finish this off in leather.

And finally, a gift for a friend who has been incredibly helpful getting around and set up in Hong Kong. A simple leather necklace with dangles of one Citrine Briolette and faceted Amethyst in a mix of sterling silver and gold fill. Purple is this season's fashion color in Hong Kong.

One final announcement: I am working on re-branding myself as Kanna Glass Studios. When I started this whole journey, I struggled with going with a studio name or my personal name. I also have been working on finding my voice in glass and jewelry. I think I have found my unique voice and my studio name I have chosen (Kanna Glass Studios) has a lot of personal meaning to me. So, in keeping with new beginnings, I'm planning to re-launch my business as Kanna Glass Studios. I will be launching the new blog with the blog series, "A Jewelry Designer's Guide to Lampwork." I am not able to project a date for when I expect to launch...I'm still doing this as a hobby that fits in around the rest of my life. I'll keep you posted on the updates and post the link when it's ready. Thank you so much for following and the support as I've stumbled through finding my place in the art glass world.

Studio Time: The Kitchen Sink Necklace

Hey, y'all! I've had a few moments to play with some glass beads and turned them into this "Kitchen Sink" necklace...basically it's a whole bunch of glass beads I had laying around and I put them into one necklace. I bought one of Endangered Creations Green India beads last year. This year I bought the set she had and I put them all into this necklace. There are three focals in this necklace and it's deliberately unbalanced to cause you to wear it a little differently every time. I have also included a series of my own spacers and beads that were a result of my Sarah Hornik Think Pink lessons.

I'm experimenting with my photography and wanted to see what you thought about the direction I'm heading. I find I love to read blogs that have really gorgeous photography in addition to the jewelry. I was just playing with the backgrounds and lighting. These were photographed on my couch with natural light filtering in through the background. I have one of the focals in the foreground of each.

This photo was playing with props, backgrounds, and flash. I don't care for the flash, but I like the props and background. The background is a painting I haven't hung up yet...it might be a little too bold for a regular background, but I like the idea of it. I also like the props instead of bust. I will probably use a bust to give proportion and show how the jewelry lays, but for beauty shots, I like this. Thoughts? Suggestions? Feedback?

Cute Alert! And finally, Molly is settling into her Hong Kong routine. She always love to lay out in the grass in the back yard in Texas. Now we have a nice, long porch and she love to sit and watch the goings-on below.