Alice in Wonderland Focal for Beads of Courage

One of my recent requests through Beads of Courage, was for an Alice in Wonderland Tim Burton-ish movie type bead.  We make these special requests for children with cancer and other life threatening illnesses. When I saw this one, I decided it was my turn to interpret it.  I wanted her hair to be a similar color and the dress blue like in the movie.  She is larger than the bead, to show when she grew tall from eating the pills. (ah, if life only worked that way, I'd be taller instead of rounder.)

And of course on the back side, I added the rabbit wearing his blue jacket and of course he's late.  An Alice bead needs at least one of the colorful inhabitants of Wonderland!

I hope the little girl and her family enjoyed receiving this bead.  So seldom do we hear about their reaction.  But next week, I'll do a blog post about my chance to work directly with one of the Beads of Courage kids and make her special Dream Bead while she watched and took photos.  I think that experience meant equally a lot to both of us.

See you tomorrow- yes, on a Saturday!- for the Big Bead Soup Blog Party reveal.  Wait til you see what I made!

Announcing "Creative Forces" Class in Deland, Florida

Creative Forces

November 12 - 13, 2011  

Glassic Arts Studio - Deland Florida

(this is a sample of a Beads of Courage young male patient request for a Razorback bead.  I took this picture from the internet...

...and made this bead for him.)  This is a sample of one of the techniques I will teach in the class, although we'll focus primarily on sculpture (and much "cuter" beads!)  Hope you'll join us.

This class will be dedicated to the Beads of Courage. A portion of the tuition & instructor fees as well as beads will be donated by both teacher- Marcy Lamberson and Glassic Arts, the host studio. Have you ever looked at a picture or an object and wanted to figure out how to interpret it in glass? Join instructor, Marcy Lamberson to discuss how to build what you're looking at and then create a sculptural bead in 104 glass using easy to understand methods.  These sculptural and viewing techniques will apply to so many facets of your personal beadmaking too.  We will also work on interpreting some pictures as raised sculptural detail on a base bead.  Sometimes the object (or the potential owner) needs a more solid background... legs on flamingos are a good example. Come join the fun!   This class is great for the Beads of Courage "Artist On Call" Beads.  We'll practice with one actual Artist on Call bead for a child, and if you choose, you can donate it to the program, or keep it for yourself.  For reservations: call  Kathi Truba,  386-738-1008 or email Kathi@glassicarts.com