Studio Time: I've wandered over to the reactive side

And encasing side. Tonight's practice was on encasing and reactives. Sigh. I give up. Reactives just make the beads so stunning.

So, Smudgkat / MoonKatty (the only other person who reads my blog), is there a way to recover an encasing gone bad? I have a few encased beads that are pretty good. I'm getting a little better with the technique. But, I notice that sometimes if I don't keep the encasing close together, the base bead will bleed through and smudge the encasing attempt. Can you go back and add more glass? Or is it already ruined?

Artfully Meandering: 3 weeks? Seriously?

Ack! I can't believe it's been since 11/12 since I last posted! Well, that was the week I was preparing for a trip to France. Fun trip! I was quite inspired, but not from design motifs I expected. Just from the overall experience. I mean - how inspiring is this?

France is really into culture, art, creativity. And it preserves it history so well. Everything about France is so photographic. I couldn't stop! 853 pictures! I edited my Flickr gallery down to 432, but that's still pretty excessive. I love digital.

Beads. Two weeks since my last torch time. I'm missing my glass. This is my first time I've had the opportunity! I'm working on encasing. I like my beads, but I know they're not great encasing examples. I still think they're cute. And dots? Who would've thunk I might like dots so much? I think I need a lot more dot practice. I'd love to get one of those workstations that support your arms for greater accuracy. I tend to twitch just when I'm about to place a dot. It's a good thing I never became a surgeon.

Artfully Meandering: The Creative Storm

Okay all you people who have lived creative lives your whole life...how do you survive the creative storm? I've finally given myself permission to unleash my creative monster and it's going NUTS! I have all these ideas pouring out of my head and things I want to try and designs and mediums and, and, and...augh! I could explode with the creative storm!

So, to my artistic, creative friends - how do you handle this to accomplish the important things in your life? Does it ever settle into a dull roar of a creative windstorm instead of a full-on hurricane? Do you learn to work with it? Allowing it some freedom? Then reigning it in as necessary?

Studio Time: Color Reactions

I've been working on the flowers some more. I'm getting close, I think.
I have Peacock Green color. It's a transparent green and it's gorgeous. I've been working mostly on Turquoise base tonight. But, I did one on the Peacock green with Turquoise, Purple and Pink flowers and it reacted. So cool!

Studio Time: I was having a bad orange day

Lazy Hazy Summer

Sky Blue Confetti

Pineapple Punch

Okay. I bought a bunch of Vetrofond and bought a little of the odd lots Tangerine Sparkle and Pineapple Sparkle. LOVE THESE COLORS!!!
I made some great Twistie Scribblers. I used Sky Blue, Tangerine Sparkle, and Pineapple Sparkle and mixed these up. The color combo reminds of Lazy Hazy Summer days. I want to combine this with similar color beads in a mixed up asymmetrical necklace. I want to call the necklace Lazy Hazy Summer Confetti necklace.
I also made the Pineapple Sparkle combos and LOVE THESE as well. One has a fracture. I don't know what I'm going to do when my real beads have fractures. I think I'm going to make a Yellow necklace and call it Pineapple Punch.
I was working and working with the Tangerine color and couldn't get it right yesterday. I have a bunch of REALLY primitive beads. Sigh. But, I noodled over it over night and when I got to the torch today, I nailed it. I suddenly gained control over the stringers with trailing and dots. I have a new technique I'm going to call Bubble Ribbons. I trail the stringer on and put dots on top.
I also did a bunch of Sky Blue base beads. I think I'll call this necklace Sky Blue Confetti. I did one with scrolls coming up from the bottom. I think I'll call that one Blooming Scrolls.
All in all, a great day at the torch.
From a general style perspective, I'm noticing an emerging trend. I combine three high contrast colors together and do different things with them. I ended up with 14 beads in the colors combos. When I get a little more precise, the sets might go well together.